This volume contains a bilingual Coptic-Arabic version of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and the end of John with liturgical calendars in Coptic Epact numerals, as well as readings according to the Church Year. The text is that of the Alexandrian Vulgate.Contents :. Liturgical calendar and Eusebian tables, fols. 2r-6v. (Fol. 7r blank). Yellow coloured page fol. 7v. Matthew, fols. 8r-71r. Note on the book's assumed original composition, fol. 71v. (Fol. 72r-73r blank). Yellow coloured page fol. 73v. Mark, fols. 74r-112v. John, fols. 113r-117r (from 19:6-end). Note on the book's assumed original composition, fol. 117v. Lists of liturgical NT readings, fols. 118r-124v. Readings according to month, starting with Tūth, and for certain services, fols. 125r-163r. Colophon, fol. 163v. Prayer, fol. 164r-v. A note on fol. 163v informs us that the final part of the codex was finished on Wednesday 19 of Amshīr 1014 Anno Martyrum, which the scribe claims equals 19 Shaʿbān 707 Hijra. None of these dates corresponds to a Wednesday but the first to Thursday 20 February 1298 CE and the second to Monday February 20, 1308 CE. The scribe's name is mentioned as Yūnus who is called Abū Saʿīd al-Dar b. Abū al-Faḍl, the Christian. The place of production is mentioned as the Muʿallaqa church in Cairo and that it was copied from what a certain deacon Isaac found in a copy from 1223/4 CE. A note on fol. 116v gives an account of the collation process that took place in the production of the manuscript where the scribe claims superiority of the copied text. The note is transcribed and translated in Horner, The Coptic Version, xcix. See also ibid, ci.
Four Gospels and Lectionaries
This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections
- Reference
- GB 59 Or 425
- Dates of Creation
- 1308
- Language of Material
- Arabic Coptic
- Physical Description
- 1 item 166 fols. Material: Oriental paper. Dimensions: 250 x 190 mm [210 x 145 mm written; Arabic text ca. 35 mm]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Coptic numerals in the upper left corner of the verso. Lines per page: Ca 30 lines/page. Script: Naskh. Scribe: Yūnus who is called Abū Saʿīd al-Dar b. Abū al-Faḍl, the Christian. Ink: Brown-black ink, with rubricated headings in red. Decoration: It appears that planned illuminations were never executed (cf Crum, Catalogue, 323-324, who suggest that Bibliothèque de Fels, Ms copte-arabe 1 was used as a model also for the decorations; see also Or. 424 below). A yellow area takes up the entire page on fol. 7v and a similar coloured field serves as the headpiece on fol. 8r introducing Matthew; the same on fol. 73v-74r introducing Mark. The first letter in the Coptic text is set in yellow, black, and red colours, a practice used throughout the text. Fols. 10v-11r consist of six large squares coloured in yellow/page. Sometimes birds in yellow, red, green, and black in the margins appear. Binding: British Museum binding. Condition: Good, though tissue paper glued onto the text, seemingly to stop acid burning, sometimes take up large part of the page. Fol. 157 is damaged and partly lost. Quire marks: Normally quinions; an ending and beginning quire spread is marked with geometrical figures in yellow, black, and red in the middle of the upper margins.
Scope and Content
Access Information
Not Public Record(s)
Unrestricted
Acquisition Information
Bought by the British Museum at Dean H. Tattam's sale, 16 June 1868.
Other Finding Aids
Crum, Walter Erwing. Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1905), vol. 2, Item 736, pp. 323-324; item 786, pp. 338-339.