The 'Emergency Olaph': How Big Data About Really Little Things Changes Our View of Ancient Scribes

This collaborative study focuses on a seemingly minute detail of Syriac manuscript production: the occasional alternation between two distinctly styled olaphs. When examining thousands of examples of the Syriac letter olaph, we found statistically significant correlations between chronology, genre, and manuscript aesthetics. Our combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis helps nuance the historical development of Syriac script. More importantly, it illustrates how not just qualitative but also quantitative approaches to ancient manuscripts have the potential to humanize medieval scribes and to better understand their agency.