Rahlfs sigla
For working with the Septuagint manuscript evidence, the Septuaginta-Unternehmen of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities of Göttingen designed an official system of sigla, which it keeps on expanding whenever it is necessary (e.g. when new manuscripts are discovered). This system is built on the following tradition and principles (cf. A. Rahlfs, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, Bd. I,1 Die Überlieferung bis zum VIII. Jahrhundert bearbeitet von Detlef Fraenkel, Göttingen 2004, p. XXII–XXIV):
“In developing his system of siglum assignments (1914), A. Rahlfs exhibited how practical a mind he disposed of and how workable his design of the Göttingen project was.
As the ground rule he determined that each manuscript is given an individual and unchangeable siglum, which is kept as simple as possible. In view of the large amount of Septuagint manuscripts, only numbers (and not letters) a priori qualify to be used as sigla. Then again, Rahlfs did take the existing tradition into account, which had already started to identify a handful of famous codices with letters (such as A for codex Alexandrinus). Therefore he selected a small group of manuscripts for which he used letters as sigla, instead of numbers.
As a second cardinal rule he laid down that sigla must not be expanded upon: no exponents or letters should be added. Also to this second rule a legitimate exception was allowed: earlier, E. Tisserant had observed that the palimpsest codex Zuqninensis had been assembled on the basis of six already existing manuscripts. In order to distinguish them, he used the sigla Zi–vi: these where copied by Rahlfs. A second exception resulted from a misunderstanding: after Rahlfs had assigned the siglum W to manuscript Washington (SIL) Ms. I (containing large parts of Deuteronomy and Joshua), J. Ziegler used to same siglum in his edition of the Minor Prophets (Göttingen 1943) to refer to Washington (SIL), Ms. V. Today the siglum WI is used to denote the original codex W.
On the basis of both these ground rules, Rahlfs divided the manuscript evidence into different groups, for each of which he reserved a specific range of sigla.”
Survey of the main groups of Rahlfs sigla
group I: sigla A–Z
(a selection of uncial codices)
group II: sigla 13–311
(sigla assigned by Holmes & Parsons)
group III: sigla 312–800
(manuscripts of Septuagint books with the exception of the Psalter)
group IV: sigla 801–1000
(smaller fragments of Septuagint books with the exception of the Psalter)
group V: sigla 1001–‹1400›
(Psalter manuscripts up to the 12th century)
group VI: sigla 1401–‹2000›
(younger Psalter manuscripts, including a few of uncertain dating)
group VII: sigla 2001–‹3000›
(smaller fragments of the Psalms up to the 8th century)
group VIII: sigla 3001–‹5000›
(manuscripts of Septuagint books with the exception of the Psalter)
group IX: sigla 5001–‹7000›
(smaller fragments of Septuagint books with the exception of the Psalter)
group X: sigla 7001ff.
(Psalter manuscripts)