2024-04-12 17:37:20
A book from Egypt, considered one of the oldest books in the world, will be put up for sale at an auction in London next June.
According to the Egyptian Al-Ghad channel, “The “Crosby-Schoen” manuscript, written in the Coptic language on papyrus, dates back approximately to the period between 250 and 350 AD and was written in one of the oldest Christian monasteries. According to Christie’s, the value of its sale will range between 2.6 and 3.8 million dollars. .
Eugenio Donadoni, Christie’s chief specialist in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, said: “It is true that in that transitional period, papyrus began to take the form of manuscripts, and then the books that we know today, and what we have are the oldest known texts of the two holy books.”
He added: “This book, which includes 104 pages (52 pages), was copied by one writer over a period of 40 years in a monastery in Upper Egypt and kept behind plexiglass. The manuscript contains the First Epistle of Peter and the Book of Jonah.”
Donadoni attributed the reason for preserving the manuscript to “the dry climate in Egypt,” adding that “only a few books dating back to the third and fourth centuries have survived to this day.”
He said: “All the Christian manuscripts that were available to us in the twentieth century and at the end of the nineteenth century are concentrated in Egypt because of those very delicate climatic conditions.”
It is noteworthy that the manuscript was discovered in Egypt in the 1950s and was acquired by the University of Mississippi, where it was kept until a year ago. The Norwegian manuscript collector Martin Schoen acquired it in 1988 and is now selling it at public auction along with some other highlights of his Schoen Collection, which is one of the largest collections. Private manuscripts in the world. The manuscript is on display at Christie’s New York from April 2nd to 9th, and will be sold at auction in London on June 11th.
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2024-04-12 17:37:20