SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

COPTIC MICROFILM LIBRARY (CML) (by John Rizk)

This is a collective effort to gather and preserve on microfilm the written sources of our heritage for the purpose of promoting its study as well as those works that have dealt with it. So far the collection generated by the project includes over 182,000 microfilm frames of Coptic, Coptic- Arabic, and Arabic manuscripts. Its contents came from the libraries and museums of Egypt, Europe, and the U.S., such as the Cairo Coptic Museum, the Vatican Apostolic

Library, the Austrian National Library, the National Library of Paris, the British Library, the Oxford Bodleian Library, the John Rylands Library of Manchester, the Pierpoint Morgan Library of New York, and the Michigan University Library. The manuscripts include: Biblical (Old & New Testament), Liturgical, Hagiographical (Lives of the Saints), Literary (Writings of the Fathers), Canon Law, History, and Coptic legal texts.

COPTIC LIBRARY (by John Rizk)

The Society since its inception has worked on gathering a library of all books and scholarly articles that deal with the various aspects of Coptic Studies; such as, Bible, Language, Patristics, History, Liturgy, Hagiography (Life of the Saints), and Art & Architecture. Included in the Library are most of the published catalogs of Coptic & Christian Arabic Manuscripts, as well as

many doctoral dissertations done in the field of Coptic Studies. The Library holdings are currently over 1,200 volumes plus periodicals, and articles. The oldest book in the possession of the Library is the 1828 edition of the Psalms in Boharic Coptic and Arabic printed in London for the purpose of helping the Coptic Church, which was still using manuscripts at the time.

COMPUTERIZATION OF PRIMARY SOURCES (by John Rizk)

For more than 10 years, the Society has sought the aid of computers in preserving Coptic texts as well as translation of primary text sources dealing with our heritage. Our current Database includes the majority of Coptic Biblical texts in existence, as well as many hagiographic, patristic, and liturgical texts. The assistance of many members of our community is sought in order that we reach our objective of making every text that is part of the Coptic heritage

available in such form to those who need it. The Society inputs all the text on IBM-based systems. Currently, the Center is digitizing architectural designs from the Monastery of St. Shenouda, and inputting Biblical and other texts into the computer as well.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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