Abstract
AbstractThis is the first part of a two-part article focused on a fragmentary parchment codex, whose three extant leaves, designated in Leo Depuydt's catalogue as P.MorganLib. 265, are housed at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. These fragments bear witness to 1 Cor 2.12–3.18; 7.16–30; 15.3–30 in the ‘classical’ variety of Fayyūmic Coptic (dialect F5). Most of these verses have been hitherto unattested in Fayyūmic and thus allow us to attain better insight into the history and text of the Coptic Bible. In the first part of this article, I discuss the codicology of P.MorganLib. 265, its linguistic features, provenance and date.
Highlights
Fate of a Manuscript: Discarded, Recycled, Rediscovered The manuscript under discussion here, edited for the first time in this article, is part of the Phantoou find, a group of parchment codices that once belonged to the library of the Monastery of the Archangel Michael at Phantoou, an ancient site in the western part of the Fayyūm
After having changed hands several times, most of the codices – forty-seven in total – were purchased by the famous American financier John Pierpont Morgan. These manuscripts are housed at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.[1]
Like most of the Phantoou codices, MICH.BM was found in its original binding, made from papyrus boards and leather coverings.[6]
Summary
Discarded, Recycled, Rediscovered The manuscript under discussion here, edited for the first time in this article, is part of the Phantoou find, a group of parchment codices that once belonged to the library of the Monastery of the Archangel Michael at Phantoou, an ancient site in the western part of the Fayyūm. One such codex – housed at the Morgan Library & Museum under inventory number M.585 and designated in Leo Depuydt’s catalogue as P.MorganLib. 1663 – is MICH.BM,[4] which contains three texts in Sahidic: the Martyrdom of Leontius and Publius (cc 0519), Encomium on Leontius, attributed to Severus of Antioch (cc 0344) and Miracles of Menas (cc 0231).[5] Like most of the Phantoou codices, MICH.BM was found in its original binding, made from papyrus boards and leather coverings.[6] Leaves extracted from an older parchment codex were pasted down to the inside of the covers of the codex and are the sole remnants of the Fayyūmic manuscript designated in Depuydt’s catalogue as P.MorganLib. 265.7 Both paste-downs were made up of several parchment fragments, designated by Depuydt as frs. At the Vatican, the restorers removed the paste-downs from MICH.BM, separated the fragments of P.MorganLib. 265 from each other and rebound them with the rest of MICH.BM It is in this state that the fragments are available to researchers visiting the Morgan Library & Museum in New York
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