Beschreibung:

A collection of fragments of approximately 40 Early Christian documents and letters in Sahidic and other Coptic dialects, manuscripts on papyrus approximately 40 packages of fragments, some with several pieces from the same or different items, including (i) 93mm. by 150mm., part of 8 lines, large script, including the phrase ‘Before everything, I greet …’; (ii) 105mm. by 90mm., part of 10 lines, good condition, perhaps Middle Egyptian; (iii) 56mm. by 65mm., part of 5 lines, including the words ‘of your house’, verso with part of a painting in yellow and red; (iv) two pieces of a single document, 100mm. by 75mm. and 118mm. by 80mm., including the opening phrase ‘We have received your letter’ and references to ‘explain’ and ‘consubstantial’, which seems to relate to the Nicaean Creed, and with slightly later script mentioning seraphim and ‘thousands of angels’ and the angelic names Phanael, Gabriel, Raphael, etc.; (v) 77mm. by 60mm., part of 5 lines, including the phrase ‘I request your’ [‘holiness’ or something similar], good condition; (vi) 55mm. by 153mm., part of 4 lines of a list, cursive hand, with quantities at the end of each line, in Sahidic, part of 3 lines on verso mentioning the monastery of Saint Kais; (vii) 73mm. by 135mm., part of 6 lines, including the phrases ‘and, look, concerning the mother of Isi’ and ‘the first fruits’, browned but well preserved; (viii) 170mm. by 60mm. (with gaps), part of 16 lines, including the phrase ‘who writes’, indicating this to be a letter, and the name Victor; (ix) 60mm. by 53mm., part of 5 lines, good script, including the Greek word “[ep]istolo”, ‘letter’’; (x) 90mm. by 60mm., part of 7 lines, a contract mentioning “Aurelius Jo[hannes” (the name ‘Aurelius’ was used after 212, when free inhabitants of the empire became citizens, to describe a free tradesman, cf. J.G. Keenan, ‘The Names Flavius and Aurelius as Status Designations’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, XII, pp.333-63, and XIII, pp.283-304); (xi) 63mm. by 100mm., part of 6 lines in Sahidic, including the words ‘of your name, I was afraid that… misleading for’; (xii) 100mm. by 50mm., part of 8 lines in Sahidic, including the word “holokott[os]”, a gold coin; (xiii) 100mm. by 46mm., including lines which seem to mention a dog and ‘the fat of a cat’, with, on the verso, the opening of a letter in Sahidic, in semi-uncials; and approximately 37 other similar fragments, or envelopes with several smaller fragments, some very small, some large, some fragile, almost all with descriptive notes