Epistles and Acts

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 8786
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1797
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Coptic
  • Physical Description
    • Codex 440 ff Material: European paper. Dimensions: 320 x 220 mm [240-250 x 116 mm written; Arabic 40 mm]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Coptic numerals. Lines per page: 22-24 lines/page. Script: Naskh. Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings in red, in Coptic also in yellow. Decoration: Illumination of a cross made up by ribbons and geometrical shapes on fol. 2v and on fol. 255v in yellow, red, green, black, and white taking up the entire page. The first work in one of the three larger units (Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles, and Acts) is introduced by a headpiece in a bāb-like shape in geographical patterns and ribbons in the same colours as above. Other epistles are introduced in a more simple way, with a different script and size marking units as rubrics. First letter in Coptic is in red and yellow colour. Binding: British Museum binding. Condition: Good. Marginalia: Some notes (mostly Coptic numerals). Quire marks: Quinions; on the spread where a quire ends and a new one begins, there are two geometrical figures in different shapes in red, yellow, and black in the middle of the upper margin on each page together with Coptic numbers on each side of the sign. Catch words: In the Coptic text, in the lower margin at the right corner of the verso.

Scope and Content

This volume contains bilingual Coptic-Arabic versions of the Pauline Epistles (ArabSyr 3), Catholic Epistles, and Acts, arranged into two columns. Contents :. Illumination, cross, fol. 2v. Romans, fols. 3r-44v. 1 Corinthians, fols. 45r-86r. 2 Corinthians, fols. 86v-115r. Galatians, fols. 115v-130r. Ephesians, fols. 130v-146v. Phillipians, fols. 147r-158r. Colossians, fols. 158v-170r. 1 Thessalonians, fols. 171v-180v. 2 Thessalonians, fols. 181r-186v. Hebrews, fols. 187r-223r. 1 Timothy, fols. 223v- 235v. 2 Timothy, fols. 236r-244v. Titus, fols. 245r-249v. Philemon, fols. 250r-252r. Colophon, fol. 252r. (9 blank unfoliated pages; notes glued onto some of these pages and foliated 253-254). Illumination, cross, fol. 255v. James, fols. 256r-268v. 1 Peter, fols. 269r-282r. 2 Peter, fols. 282v-291r. 1 John, fols. 291v-304v. 2 John, fols. 305r-306v. 3 John, fols. 307r-308v. Jude, fols. 309r-312v. Acts, fols. 313r-440r. Colophon, fol. 440v. The colophon on fol. 252r mentions that the first part was completed on Thursday 13 Tūt, 1514 Anno Martyrum (21 September 1797 CE) and the later colophon on fol. 440v states that the Acts were finished on Friday 14 Tūt 1514 Anno Martyrum (22 September 1797 CE). For more details, see Horner, The Coptic Version, vol. 3, pp. l-liii.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Bequeathed by Darea Curzon, Baroness Zouche to the British Museum on 13 Oct 1917.

Related Material

For more information, please see:Horner, George. The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect Otherwise Called Memphitic and Bohairic with Introd., Critical Apparatus, and Literal English Transl.: The Epistles of S. Paul Edited from Ms. Oriental 424 in the British Museum. Vol. 3. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1905), pp. l-liii. Zaki, Vevian. The Pauline Epistles in Arabic: Manuscripts, Versions, and Transmissions (Leiden: Brill, 2021).