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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID1738
TM IDTM 59114
Findspot (DEChriM ID)29   (al-Mudil)
ClassTextual
MaterialParchment
Writing mediumCodex, Sheet/roll
Text contentLiterary
LanguageGreek, Coptic
Description

Schmitz-Mink mae 3: This vellum sheet (12.1 x 10.7 cm) is the pastedown (p. B) glued inside the front cover of the Codex Glazier, a 112-folio Coptic miniature codex containing Acts of the Apostles. It contains three distinct text sections, all written by the same hand as the Codex, and is inscribed with the page number 2 (ⲃ). The verso of the sheet was blank; despite being glued to the codex binding, the vellum is thin enough to see through. The ed.pr. proposes the sheet had originally been intended for use in a codex containing Kings, but discarded due to the error on line 6.
Section A: 10 lines of 2 Kings 1:2–3 (in the same Coptic dialect as the codex). It is missing the word “of the king” on line 6.
Section B: Line 11 reads only ἐν πολλοῖς μὲν, of unclear origin. The ed.pr. proposed sections of Xenophon or Plato, but Fournet 2001 points to the incipit of Ad Demonicum by Pseudo-Isocrates: “ἐν πολλοῖς μέν, ὦ Δημόνικε”.
Section C: 3 lines from Anthologia Graeca IX 538: Ἀβροχίτων δ’ὁ φύλαξ θηροζυγοκαμψιμέτωπος. Originally a pangram containing all letters of the Greek alphabet, the scribe left out letters (the delta) and shortened the phrase. Fournet 2001 believes it to be a calligraphic exercise.

Selection criteriaLiterary genre (Biblical)
Date from300
Date to499
Dating criteria

Palaeography; the Codex Glazier has generally been dated to the 5th c., but is increasingly assigned to the late 4th/early 5th c.

Absolute/relative dateRelative date
Archaeological context

Unclear provenance; it has been discussed whether the Codex Glazier and the Codex Scheide (236-folio Coptic miniature codex containing Gospel Matthew) had been found together and were part of the Dišna Papers (including several Bodmer Papyri), reportedly found at Ǧabal Abū Mannāʿ near Dishna (Upper Egypt) in 1952. al-Mudil, a Coptic graveyard in the Oxyrhynchite several km north of Al-Bahnasā, is discussed in Schenke 1991.
The codex was purchased from manuscript dealer Hans P. Kraus (also in possession of the Codex Scheide) in New York in December 1961, becoming part of the 75-piece manuscript collection of banker William S. Glazier. After Glazier’s death in 1962, the codex was deposited at the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1963. On 09.05.1984, ownership was transferred from the Trustees of the Glazier Collection to the Morgan Library.

Accession number

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library Wm. Glazier Collection G. 67

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps
• Schenke, Hans-Martin. 1991. Apostelgeschichte 1,1-15,3 im Mittelägyptischen Dialekt des Koptischen (Codex Glazier). Texte und Untersuchungen 137. 18-23, 202-203.

Additional bibliography
• Bellet, Paulinus. 1982. “Anthologia Palatina 9.538, the Alphabet and the Calligraphic Examination in the Coptic Scriptorium.” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (BASP) 19. 1-7: 4-5.
• Depuydt, Leo. 1993. Catalogue of Coptic Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library. Leuven: Peeters. 480-483, No. 278.
• Fournet, Jean-Luc. 2001. “Un témoin passé inaperçu de ‘L'Ad Demonicum’ du Pseudo-Isocrate dans le Codex Glazier.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (ZPE) 135: 150-152.
• Fournet, Jean-Luc. 2015. “Anatomie d'une bibliothèque de l'Antiquité tardive: l'inventaire, la faciès et la provenance de la 'Bibliothèque Bodmer'.” Adamantius 21. 8-40: 23.
• Kebabian John S. 1967. “The Binding of the Glazier Manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles (IVth or IV/Vth century).” In Homage to a bookman: Essays on Manuscripts, Books and Printing written for Hans P. Kraus on his 60th Birthday, Oct. 12 1967, edited by Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag: 25-29. [On the Codex Glazier]
• Krause, Gerhard and Gerhard Müller. 1978. s.v. Apostelgeschichte. Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Band III. Anselm von Laon – Aristoteles / Aristotelismus. 483-528: 487.
• Lenaerts, Jean. 2000. “19. Exercise de Calligraphie: ‘Anthologie Palatine’, IX, 538 et Amulette (P.Vindob. G 32004).” In Papyri in Honorem Johannis Bingen Octogenarii (P. Bingen), edited by Henri Melaerts. Leuven: Peeters. 105-110: 106, No. 5.
• Mandilaras, Basil G. 2003. Isocrates. Opera Omnia. Vol. I. Bibliotheca Teubneriana. Munich/Leipzig: K. G. Saur. 177, π7 [Recensio Papyrorum].
• Petersen, Theodore C. 1964. “An Early Coptic Manuscript of Acts: An Unrevised Version of the Ancient So-Called Western Text.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly (CBQ) 26. 225-241: 229n14.
• Pruneti, Paola and Mariella Menchelli. 2008. Corpus Dei Papiri Filosofici (CPF). Testi e Lessico nei papiri di cultura greca e latina. Parte I.2: Cultura e Filosofia. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki. 913-914, No. 105T.

Authors
Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023
Suggested citation
Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023, "Artefact ID 1738", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/1738