The codex Crosby-Schøyen, a papyrus book produced at the dawn of Christianity in one of Egypt’s first monasteries, is about to find a new owner. The work, which covers a mix of early Christian texts, was written in the Coptic language between 250 and 350, making it one of the oldest in Christianity, and is scheduled to go on sale in June in the London auction house Christie’s.
The volume consists of 52 sheets and 104 pages, although it is known that originally it was somewhat longer and its papyrus folios were grouped in a single notebook tied by its central fold, in one of the first surviving copies of such a book. as we know them today. Its text is written in the Sahidic Coptic dialect and contains, among others, two complete biblical books: that of Jonah, Old Testamentand the first epistle of Peter, New Testament. Its starting price is between 2.3 and 3.5 million.
Eugenio Donadoni, the senior specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie’s London, explains that the codex has “monumental importance as a testimony to the earliest spread of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean.” And he assures that, according to one of the most convincing theories about the work, it includes multiple themes related to Easter: “it was a liturgical book used by the first monks of southern Egypt,” he points out. “[Habían pasado] “only a few hundred years after Christ and only about 100 since the last Gospel would have been written,” he highlights, and speculates that both the book of Jonah and the first epistle of Peter, contained in the codex, were “probably used in the Easter services.
The origin of the codex dates back to the early years of a monastery founded in southern Egypt by a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and is recognized as the founder of the monastic movement: Pachomius. In the 7th century, during the Arab-Muslim conquest of Egypt, the codices and scrolls from the monastery library were hidden in a jar that was in turn buried in the sand, and which was not discovered until 1952. “Their Conservation is largely due to the favorable climatic conditions of Egypt, the reason why the vast majority of such vestiges come from there,” says Donadoni. “Although we know, for example, that parchment codices were used in Rome as early as the end of the second century, none are preserved,” he adds.
The treasure found in southern Egypt was named the Dishna papers, after a nearby town, although today they are known as the Bodmer papyri, after the Swiss bibliologist Martin Bodmer, who later acquired them. He Crosby-Schøyen It followed, however, a different path, and ended up in the hands of an Egyptian merchant named Maguid Sameda, who sold it to the University of Mississippi, in the United States, where it remained until 1981. In its case, the name comes from the collector Norwegian manuscript collector Martin Schøyen, who bought it in 1988.
Unknown
It remains an enigma whether the book of Jonah and the first epistle of Peter are the oldest in the world. Brent Nongbri, an expert in the study of ancient Christianity, assures that the Crosby-Schøyen It is one of the few papyrus codices that have been subjected to radiocarbon dating, which allowed us to determine that it was written between 250 and 350. But since it was produced in one of the first monasteries in history, and these arose in Egypt from the second quarter of the 4th century, maintains that it is most likely that the codex was written towards the end of that time: between the years 330 and 350. Therefore, Nongbri defends that it cannot be resolved exactly if the previous two biblical books that the volume contained are actually the oldest, since there are other counted copies of both texts that could be equally old.
For Donadoni, the codex represents, in any case, a crucial piece in the history of the book: “It is one of the first testimonies of an evolution in cultural and textual transmission and in the history of the book that had no rival in importance until the printing press. Gutenberg and the 20th-century revolution in electronic publishing and communication. “It occurred at that crucial moment when the book was beginning to replace the parchment,” he slips.
ethical dilemma
As with many ancient Egyptian objects, Nongbri notes that around the Crosby-Schøyen There is also a legal and ethical dilemma. In its case, the codex left Egypt before UNESCO adopted its 1970 convention to fight against the plundering and illicit trafficking of cultural property. But it did so after Egypt passed a law in 1951 that allowed the sale of antiquities only with state approval. Whether this codex was obtained legally remains, however, not entirely clear.
Daniel Sharp, a specialist in Coptic manuscripts who has studied the Crosby-Schøyenexplains that the University of Mississippi bought several items, including the codex in question, from an art collector and dealer in Switzerland, and not directly from Sameda in Cairo, as evidenced by a check for $5,000 that EL PAÍS has been able to see. , so the university did not legally purchase any documents in Egypt, but in Switzerland.
“The real question is how did he get [el comerciante suizo] the object in Switzerland,” says Sharp. “I assume it came from Sameda, but did I have the legal right to export it there? I don’t know,” he states. “We know that Sameda sometimes exported objects legally and we know that the University of Mississippi did not obtain this object in Egypt, but [en Suiza]. “How did he get from Cairo to Lucerne?” she asks. “Sincerely I dont know”.
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