Miscellany

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Accession number:

MS M.591

Title:

Miscellany

Created:

Egypt, Feb. 14, 861.

Binding:

Rebound by Marguerite Duprez Lahey; on either side of the text-block are two parchment flyleaves conjugate with the current pastedowns.

Credit:

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1911.

Description:

137 leaves (2 columns, 32-33 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 326 x 254 mm

Provenance:

Donated to the Monastery of Saint Michael (Dayr al-Malāk Mīkhāʾil), perhaps on Amšīr 20, AM 577 (Friday, Feb. 14, 861); found in 1910 near the village of Hamuli, Fayyūm Province, Egypt, at the site of the Monastery of Saint Michael; purchased in Paris in 1911 for J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Arthur Sambon, a dealer acting in behalf of a consortium of owners including a certain J. Kalebdian; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).

Notes:

Ms. hagiographic and homiletic miscellany; written and illuminated in Egypt before Amšir 20, AM 577 (i.e., Friday, Feb. 14, 861).
Texts; Encomium on the Twenty-four Elders, attributed to Proclus of Constantinople (of Cyzicus) (fol. 1r-12v); Encomium on Revelation 7-12, attributed to Cyril of Alexandria (fol. 12v-34r); Encomium on St. Victor, attributed to Theopempus of Antioch (fol. 34v-49v); Martyrdom of SS. Paese and Thecla (fol. 50r-89r); Martyrdom of St. Coluthus (fol. 89v-93v); Encomium on St. Coluthus, attributed to Isaac of Antinoe (fol. 94r-121v); Encomium on St. Theodore Stratelates (the General), attributed to Anastasius of Euchaita, a ficticious author (fol. 122r-137r); colophon (fol. 137r).
The colophon, which records the original donation of the manuscript, contains a riddle.
This manuscript was acquired by the Pierpont Morgan Library as two separate lots, which received different call numbers, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.591 and Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.608; they are presented as such in Hyvernat's Check list of Coptic Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library (1919); in v. 28 of the Bybliothecae Pierpont Morgan Codices Coptici Photgraphice Expressi (1922) the two entries are united as M.591; M.608 has been reassigned (see the Depuydt catalogue, no. 142).
Decoration: frontispiece, headpieces, tailpiece ornaments, initials, paragraphus signs, signatures and page numbers, extended letters; colors: strong reddish orange, moderate yellow.

Language:

Coptic, the Sahidic dialect

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Genres:

Hagiographies

Martyrologies

Sermons

Illuminated manuscripts

Miniatures (Illuminations)

Catalog Link:

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Classification:

Manuscript

Department:

Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts