REVIEW ARTICLE PURPOSES AND METHODS OF A MODERN CATALOGUE OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS: OBSERVATIONS ON THE RECENT CATALOGUE OF GREEK MANUSCRIPTS AT ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, OXFORD Mark L. Sosower, A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at St John’s College, Oxford, with descriptions of bindings by Jane Eagan (Oxford: St John’s College Research Centre, ).  pp. ISBN ––––. £. (p/b). What is the goal of a modern catalogue of ancient manuscripts? Is it just to gather as much ‘objective’ data about the described objects as possible, or is there more to it? What are the most desirable qualities for such a catalogue? The recent publication of a descriptive catalogue of the Greek manuscripts in the library of St John’s College, Oxford, provides the occasion to offer a brief discussion of these questions. A historical diagnosis In the scholarly world most users of a manuscript catalogue are primarily interested in the texts or the illustrations of the manuscripts described. A handful of others will be interested in the paper, the bindings, the names of the scribes, the previous owners, or more technical features like page layout. The catalogue may offer them a means to obtain specific information relating to one or more items in the collection, but the individual manuscripts are unlikely to be at the centre of their studies. For that reason, when these scholars refer to the manuscripts in their published work, they rely most of the time on the catalogue for details of the date and sometimes also the place of origin and the scribes. The date and place of origin of a codex are vital data for most such studies. For example, the editor of a text needs this information to assess the position of the manuscript in the stemma codicum and the role this ‘witness’ must play in his tentative reconstruction of the original text. Similarly, knowing the date and production milieu of a manuscript is of great assistance to the art historian in determining whether a miniature is innovative or conservative. Thanks to recent progress in the methods of reproduction and the advent of internet facsimiles, valuable work can be done with manuscripts without always consulting them in situ, especially when additional information can be supplied by a reliable catalogue. By contrast with these scholars, the cataloguer works directly with the (Medium Aevum 77, 2008, p. 293-305)