A collection of Christian liturgical texts written in Coptic, presented by Christie’s as “one of the oldest books in existence”, was sold by 3.06 million pounds ($3.9 million) this Tuesday in Londonthe auction house has announced.
This manuscript written in Coptic, an ancient Egyptian language, on papyrus, between the 3rd and 4th centuries, according to experts, is “the oldest book of Christian liturgical texts“Christie’s highlighted.
This manuscript auctioned in London, under the name of Crosby-Schøyen Codexis also the oldest book belonging to a private collection.
Composed of 51 sheets, of the 68 that made up the original book, each page contains between 11 and 18 lines written in two columnsby a single copyist.
The manuscript was discovered and acquired in the early 1950s in Egypt by a Swiss collector, Martin Bodmerbefore changing hands several times over the following decades.
These writings also constitute “one of the rare well-preserved examples” of the appearance of the book as a means of transmitting texts, with a technique that would evolve until the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, as reported by the London auction house.
The writing owes its name to an American patron named Margaret Reed Crosbywhich financially helped the University of Mississippi acquire it, and the Norwegian collector Martin Schoyenits last owner.
The price reached for the text in the bidding is far from the records paid for other ancient manuscripts, such as the Sassoon Codex, the oldest Hebrew Bible, sold in 2023 for more than $38 million by the Sotheby’s auction house. NY.
The sum paid for the Crosby-Schøyen Codex is also far from the approximately $32 million paid by the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gatesin 1994, to acquire Leonardo da Vinci’s Leicester Codex.
