SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

the rebuilding of the monastery library that occurred after the last sack by the Berbers. Assemani of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, in his quest to collect manuscripts from the east for the library, he found this codex among others in the monastery. He subsequently moved them from there to the neighboring monastery known as Deir al-Surian. For some unknown reasons, this manuscript was left behind and did not make the journey to the Vatican Library. Robert Curzon in his visit to Egypt and the Holy Land, found the volume in Deir al-Surian, and bought it in 1838 along with many more Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic manuscripts. Henry Tattam also stated in a note on the manuscript that it was bought by Curzon from Deir al-Surian in March 1838. It was known as Codex Parham 102. It was erroneously listed as the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark with commentaries by St. Cyril (et. al.). Bishop Lightfoot in 1874 in his introduction to Scrivner's Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament , alluded to the fact that it is not a Gospel manuscript but rather, '…is really a selection of passages taken in order from the four Gospels with a patristic Catena attached to each. The leaves however are much displaced in the binding, and many are wanting.' In 1874, the Codex was sent to Lagarde in Göttingen in 1874 for collation which eventually led to his 1886 publication of the text. The manuscript was eventually deposited in the British Museum as a result of being bequeathed on October 10, 1917 by Darea Baroness Zouche, of Haryngworth. Description of the Manuscript: BL.OR.8812 (CML 858), Parchment Codex in single volume, 360x275 mm in single column measuring c.285x185 mm with 35-36 lines each. It contains 265 ff, bound out of order. The language is Bohairic Coptic. The script is black, upright, usually thick style, except for thin reddish brown script in the headings for the excerpts and commentaries. It has the old style jinkim

superlineation with strokes, points, and apostrophes. Punctuation is provided with colons and decorative marks. The date is included in a colophon as AM 605 (AD 888-9). The scribe is a monk of St. Macarius monastery by the name of Theodoros from Abu Sir. The proper order of the pages of the manuscript, as published by Layton pp. 389-390, is as follows, Quire No. Orig. Page No Ms Folio No Matthew a Frontpiece wanting 1-2 BMC740 3-4 wanting 5-14 2-6 b 15-30 wanting g 31-32 wanting 33-44 208-213 45-46 wanting d 47-62 215-222 e 63-64 wanting 65-76 230-235 77-78 wanting 6 79-94 236-243 z 95-110 244-251 / 111-112 wanting 113-126 252-258 y 127-142 199-206 i 143-158 191-198 ia 159-160 229 161-172 20-25 173-174 wanting ib 175-190 100-107 ig 191-206 108-115 id 207-208 116 Mark (id) 1-2 119 3-14 121-126 ie 15-30 127-134 i6 31-46 135-142 iz 47-62 143-150 i/ 63-72 223-227

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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