A Coptic Epistolary Exercise from Wadi Sarga [2013]

Journal of Coptic Studies

Journal of Coptic Studies, 2019

Summary, with editions of some key texts, of the findings of my dissertation based on the edition of ca. 600 Coptic ostraca at the Leipzig University Library (O.Lips.Copt. II). The article explains the twofold rediscovery of a) the Topos of Apa Ezekiel, one of the major monasteries on the mountain of Hermonthis and b) of Andrew of Hermonthis, the abbot of this monastery and the predecessor of the famous bishop Abraham of Hermonthis. Both this place and this bishop used to be obscure names known but from a few references. They now emerge as key constituents in the Upper Egyptian monastic landscape and the new Miaphysite church during the later 6th century.

This article presents a single fragmentary folio that was recently uncovered in excavations at the Monastery of St Antony (Egypt). This folio was discovered in a secondary deposit below the foundations of a church which was in all likelihood constructed in the 1230s. A radiocarbon dating of the folio has returned a date of 1160-1265. Together, these two data make this fragmentary folio the earliest securely datable specimen of an Ethiopic manuscript. This find, thus, provides a new foundation for the analysis of the paleography of the earliest Ethiopic manuscripts, including the gospel manuscripts from Ǝnda Abba Gärima, which contain paleographic features that seem to predate this fragmentary folio. In addition, this find has implications for the regnant periodization of Ethiopic literature and more specifically the history of Ethiopic monastic literature, especially the Zena Abäw. Finally, this folio is among the earliest surviving Aethiopica for the entirety of Egypt and thus provides new information on the relationship between Ethiopic and Coptic Christianity.

BIFAO 119 , 2019

It is a collective article under the supervision and with the introduction of Prof. Anne Boud'hors and Esther Garel, with nine other colleagues, to edit ten Coptic ostraca from the collection preserved at the IFAO. These ostraca bear different kinds of texts (three devotional exercises; four letters; two legal texts; and an accounting document). Most of them are most probably from the Theban Region, which can give us a glance at the daily life, in that region, in the 7-8th centuries AD.

in E. Juhász et al. (eds.) Byzanz und das Abendland III, 2015

T. Derda et al., Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Papyrology, Warsaw July 29th-August 3rd 2013, 2016

Enclosed within the treasure-trove of Sahidic Coptic literary fragments known collectively as Cambridge University Oriental MS 1699 is a single parchment leaf numbered 1699W that contains part of a martyrdom of Apa Ptolemy of Dendera. Like the other fragments carrying the inventory number 1699, this page derives from the White Monastery. It was originally purchased by Hyvernat in 1914, 1 but later came into possession of Sir Herbert Thompson, who in 1939 bequeathed them to the University Library. 2 The leaf is part of a codex of which several other pages are housed in a number of different collections. John Rylands Library in Manchester has four complete leaves carrying the ancient pagination 83-90. 3 These were published originally by Rossi on basis of Schwartze's hand-copy and later, in a more pleasant format, by Till. 4 Till also edited a page from the same codex now in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna and carrying the pagination 65-66 along with a set of four leaves in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris carrying the original page numbers 81-82, 91-92, 111-12, and 119-20. 5 The Cambridge leaf is the last-but-two (known) unpublished part of this codex; besides it there are two further fragments in Paris that clearly belong to this same MS. 6 However, there were also in origin at least three further Sahidic codices containing versions of the story. One of the latter, in the Pierpont Morgan Library, is intact, but unfortunately still unedited. 7 A similarly unedited set of four leaves and fragments from another codex are currently in Paris and in the IFAO at Cairo. 8 Fragments of a fourth, papyrus codex in Turin were published by Rossi. 9 The Cambridge leaf of Ptolemy is numbered oq-p (79-80) and thus precedes the fi rst Paris page mentioned above. It also had a quire-signature e (5) on the left upper corner of recto, but this has almost wholly rubbed off. The page is nearly complete; only a small piece is missing from the bottom of the inner margin, but apart from a part of a large capital a, no text is lost. It is also free from stains, rubbing, and other damage. The dimensions of the leaf are 33.5 h × 25.5 w cm. Flesh and hair sides can be told apart through colour and visible follicles. The text is in two columns, with 30 lines each. The written area is 25.5 h × 17 w cm, and the height of ten lines 9.5 cm. The apparently 10 th or 11 th century writing is in a very broad upright majuscule hand. It displays narrow es but often a relatively generous o, a very fl at three-stroke m, and short and broad uvFH. i shows a two-dot trema. Punctuation is logical and takes the form of a raised point (occasionally doubled) within paragraphs and ˘: -(or some variant thereof) at the end of paragraphs. Supralineation consists of mere dots used alongside accent-marking jinkins of similar appearance. These diacritics, typical to manuscripts copied in the Fayyum area, occur above stressed vowels (particularly e) * My thanks are due to Alin Suciu for his assistance. The photograph of the ms. reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library. 1 A handwritten note by Thompson accompanying the material. 2 The folder carries on its cover the date "29. April 1939"; so too the library stamp on the leaf. The acquisition of the material was announced in