Encomium on St. Theodore Stratelates

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Accession number: 
MS M.608
Title: 
Encomium on St. Theodore Stratelates
Created: 
Egypt, between Feb. 5, 995 and Jan. 2, 996.
Binding: 
Ancient binding According to Petersen: Upper and lower covers of leather, over papyrus boards (Bybliothecae Pierpont Morgan codices Coptici photographice expressi, v.50, pls. 1, 2, 73 and 74). (Binding catalogued separately as MS M.608A.)
Credit: 
Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) in 1916.
Description: 
36 leaves (2 columns, 26-28 and 31-34 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 336 x 255 mm
Provenance: 
Part of a lot purchased in 1916 by Francis Willey Kelsey (1858-1927) on behalf of J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) through the agency of Dr. David L. Askren, an American missionary and physician residing in the Fayyūm.
Notes: 

Manuscript encomium on St. Theodore Stratelates written and illuminated in Egypt, before January 2, 996.
4 sewing repairs.
Colophons: 1) fol. 33v: Memorial in Coptic: For Deacon Paulōs; 2) fol. 33v: Memorial in Coptic: For [...] (name erased); 3) fol. 33v: Memorial, date in Arabic: For and by S̆anūdah ibn Mīnā (i.e. Shenute son of Menas); AH 385 (Feb. 5,995-Jan. 1, 996).
Script: Upright (titles and colophons right-sloping). 10 lines = ca. 83 mm
Written area ca. 265 x 187 mm. Divisions: Title with 2 or more dividers above and 2, 3, or 5 dividers below, with small reddened dotted diples in margin of each line, major initial, and paragrapus sign (vine-scroll coronis) setting off major textual units; Ekthesis, reddened enlarged or greatly enlarged initial, and paragraphus sign (Touton style with reddened budded or sometimes dotted diple [bud never reddened, but green at fol. 14v] in column a and reddened obelus in column b setting off paragraphs; some passages, typically quotations, marked by a reddened dotted diple in margin of each line. Exceeding letters of last line of page written below end of the line at fol. 13v (end of a quire).
Superlineation: Non-standard (very short strokes or dots). Punctuation: Raised reddened dot in conjunction with a space; cluster of dots followed by a stroke, both reddened, as space fillers at end of paragraphs. Tremas (fols. 1-31, short single strokes).
Collation: Signed on first and last page of the quire, top inner margin. No quire ornaments, monograms, headlines or catchwords.
Decoration: Frontispiece of a large decorative cross, headpiece, initials, signatures and page nubmers, initials infilled with red dots, extended letters. Colors: Strong reddish orange (Centroid 35), moderate yellow (87), green (corroded); colors often faded or chemically altered.

Language: 
Coptic, the Sahidic dialect, and with a colophon in Arabic