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Or 5000
- Record Id:
- 032-004396080
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-004396080
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100172515172.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100172852099.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Or 5000
- Title:
- The Book of Psalms
- Scope & Content:
- The Church Fathers and the Egyptian monastic typica stress the importance of Psalms in the life of both laymen and especially monastics. The numerous surviving Sahidic manuscripts of the Psalms of different lengths and dates underscore the relevance of the Psalms in the ascetic development of monks and nuns in late antique and medieval Egypt. Or 5000 is one of the earliest Coptic manuscripts of the Psalms and more importantly, it is the earliest Coptic manuscripts that contains the complete text of the Psalms in Sahidic. It was discovered together with Or 5001 around 1895 in a cache below the walls of the monastery of St. Simeon near Aswan. The size of this manuscript, its professional execution, and elaborate bookbinding indicate that this codex was meant for public use at the church of the monastery.
Or 5000 includes Psalms 1 to 151. There is the title ‘The Book of The Psalms’ at the end of Psalm 151. The codex was found still bound in its original binding. For conservation purposes, at the beginning of the 20th century Or 5000 was disbound in the British Museum and currently all folia are kept in glass frames. The codex is written by two different scribes. Already in antiquity, the codex lost 9 folia in the beginning and 2 folia at the end. They were copied by a different scribe and added to the manuscript. The strong similarity of the two hands shows that this addition occurred close to the original composition of the book. Notably, these re-written folia do not include any of the ancient pagination and quire numbering that the rest of the manuscript does.
The codex does not contain a colophon.
- Collection Area:
- Oriental Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-004396080", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Or 5000: The Book of Psalms" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-004396080
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-004396080
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- Codex, 156 ff
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Coptic
- Scripts:
- Coptic
- Start Date:
- 1898
- End Date:
- 1898
- Date Range:
- 1898
- Calendar:
- Gregorian
- Era:
- CE
- Place of Origin:
- Monastery of St. Simeon, Upper Egypt.
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Papyrus.
Dimensions: 200 x 295 mm; written area: 150 x 135 mm.
Pagination and Foliation: ancient pagination in black ink on the upper margin by the hand of the first scribe: From folia 10r to 16v
every page. Folio 16 is left unnumbered and from folio 18r onwards every page on the recto is marked unless a quire ends then the page on the verso is also marked. The ancient pagination stops at folio 150v.
There is modern foliation in pencil on the upper corner of the recto pages.
Page layout and number of lines: 1 col.; ca. 32 lines
Script: unimodular style.
Ink: black.
Decoration: Enlarged letters; elaborate paragraphoi; title of each Psalm placed in a frame.
Binding: Yes. The original binding of the codex survives; it dates to the 7th c. CE and is kept separately from the manuscript.
Condition: Due to the heavy use of this manuscript and possible bad quality of papyrus, almost half of the pages bear patches, both in the margins and in the written area. As with the manuscript itself, the patches were created by the two scribes who composed it. Several pages contain patches both from the earlier and later scribe. Folio 78 is a striking example.
Marginalia: None.
Quires: 20.
Quire marks: The surviving quire marks are as follows: ⲃ̄ at 16v marks the end of the second quire; ⲇ̄ at 25r and 32v mark the beginning and end of quire 4; and accordingly, ⲉ̄ at 33r, 40v; ⲋ̄ at 41r, 48v; ⲍ̄ at 49r, 56v; ⲏ̄ at 57r, 64v; ⲑ̄ at 65r, 73v; ⲓ̄ at 73r, 80v; ⲓ︤ⲁ︥ at 81r, 88v; ⲓ︤ⲃ︥ at 89r, 96v; ⲓ︤ⲅ︥ at 97r, 104v; ⲓ︤ⲇ︥ at 105r, 112v; ⲓ︤ⲉ.︥ at 113r. 120v; ⲓ︤ⲋ︥ at 121r; ⲓ︤ⲍ︥ at 129r, 136v; ⲓ︤ⲏ︥ at 137r, 144v; ⲓ︤ⲑ︥ at 145r, 150v.
- Source of Acquisition:
- Purchased by the British Museum from Rev Chauncey March on 11 November 1895.
- Finding Aids:
-
Crum no. 940; Schüssler, sa 31; and PAThs
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Related Material:
- For more information, see:
Editions:
E. A. Wallis Budge, The Earliest Known Coptic Psalter. The Text, In The Dialect Of Upper Egypt, Edited From The Unique Papyrus Codex Oriental 5000 In the British Museum, London, 1898.
Digital Edition of the Coptic Old Testament