yrieithydd

There is something confusing about amusing about receiving two emails simultaneaous both of them from Richard Smith but them being from different people! I'd not even consciously realised that I knew two people of that name (although I know them both separately!)

On a slightly different note, any ideas where an 11 digit phone number starting 04658... is likely to be from? Is it a very old mobile or something?

As I was leaving the Faculty this evening (having spent nearly 15 mins escaping from the library 'cos of trying to organise myself better) and walking to my bike, there was someone talking on her mobile phone. The snippet of conversation I overheard was, `I'm disappointed all that snow they forecast hasn't materialised'. This caused me to snort as there was snow on the ground as I cycled to Peterhouse this morning, it snowed on me as I was getting to the library and I got soaked by sleet which turned into snow as I went to LSM for the discussion group at lunchtime. Ok, so it had all disappeared by the time she was talking but, how could she not have noticed?

There is something amusing about a sentence in an academic text which begins `"Thing" is a technical term' (especially when the previous 2 pages have gone some distance above one's head!)

I've just discovered that my supervisor wrote a book 22 years before he was born!

I just decided to check the catalogue system to see if they had finally managed to Yr Hen Iaith* as something reminded me of it. For some reason I decided to search on author. I thus found that on Newton (for the Faculties and Departments A-E) there are three entries for Paul Russell:
Russell, Paul
Russell, Paul 1956-
Russell, Paul 1956 Feb. 23-.

the first two with three entries each and the second with two. Looking at them each in turn, I discovered that one of the entries for Russell, Paul was `Oriental Flowering Cherries' published in 1934! This amused me greatly. I knew that there were inconsistencies in the author records on Newton, but ... .

(and as for the book classification that the Fac Library uses: I've been trying to puzzle out what some of the distinctions are, particular between E156 and E157 both of which are Welsh literature, but it's not that one's poetry and the other prose or one is earlier than the other. This has been bugging me for a while and so I've noticed that it isn't consistent; there is one volume in a series which is E156 when all the others are E157. There are also duplicate copies of the same book under different class marks (Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch has recently appeared under E153 (manuscripts basically) but has for a long time had two copies in E157Mab (i.e. one of the Welsh lit marks, classified under `Mabinogion' -- the collection of tales which it contains). I suspect some of this is caused by not having an ASNC librarian as such!)

*A book edited by my supervisor which contains an article relevant to one part of my work; Paul had given my a photocopy of the relevant parts of the article, but I'd had to extrapolate approximate page numbers.

I headed to London town this morrow, there to meet angelofthenorth at the BL to view their exhibitions. We found each other eventually and proceeded into the display of the Treasures of the BL. These include early Biblical fragments and codices, a Göthenberg and a Wycliff Bible (one of two in existence). There was a Bible Tour in. The guide asked what Septuagint meant and whilst I muttered `seventy' under my breath, angelofthenorth said it aloud. This was the start of us being drawn into the tour. We were a useful source of information (even if we were slow in remembering what Wycliff's followers were called, angelofthenorth got to Lollards eventually). Some of the stuff was interested, although he didn't mention the Vetus Latina (going straight to the Vulgate for Latin translations) and then he went straight onto Pierre Valdes (or Peter Waldo) for the next translation. This disappointed me, because I'd love to hear the talk of the Anglo-Saxon translations in this context. There was then a tangent into the Magna Carta to demonstrate the Pope's temporal power at the time. Then it was onto Wycliff and his Bible. It was at this point a letter `from the Cardinals to the new Pope Julius III in 1550' was read out which claimed that the Pope should discourage the reading of scripture (beyond the portion of the Gospels read at the Mass) lest the people realise that the Bible goes against much of what the Church teaches. Then onto the Göthenburg Bible (of which the Church approved as being in Latin it wasn't a threat). Then, the use to which the Church put the printing press -- Indulgences. The guide massively over-simplified what was going on with these. By now, I'd got to `extreme protestent sect'. Then to Tyndale's Bible. After a mention of authorisation of Matthew's Bible, it was back to early manuscripts and how these can act of a sieve on the corruption of scripture. 1 Tim 3:16 was used as an example where the Alexandrine (I think) Codex has θς with a bar over the top (i.e. an abbreviation for θεoς, although the guide said `word') but analysis shows that the bar over the top and the line in the middle of the Θ are later additions which left oς (or the relative pronoun). This he was arguing the was key because God would give evidence for the Trinity, which he said in such a way as to show himself a heretic.

Afterwards, we managed to have a word and it turned out the tours were organised by Meander Tours a JW organisation.

Back at Angel's, after lunch, Google was my friend and searching for "Julius III Pope Cardinals Bible" gave me The Fake Cardinals' Letter to Pope Julius III (1550) as the first hit. Says it all really! I don't know anything about the author of the website, but ... .

I'd forgotten how funny Ros and Guil was. It was good to see it finally having done it for my A levels. Scarily that's 7 1/2 years ago!