Michaelides Fragments: Coptic
...often the importance of a manuscript is not realised until later, or when it becomes important in association with other similar manuscripts in a great library." B. C. Bloomfield, Preface to Bentley Layton, Catalogue of Coptic Literary Manuscripts in the British Library , 1987
Cambridge University Library purchased the Michaelides Collection in 1977 from the family of the antiquities collector Georges Anastase Michaelides (1900–1973). Michaelides’ collection was listed for sale at the end of 1976 by a London dealer and, after it had been evaluated by specialists in the Library as being of outstanding value and importance, the majority of the collection was purchased in two instalments (other parts of Michaelides’ original collection were purchased by the British Library in 1976 and 1979). Work was begun on accessioning and conservation between 1977 and 2012 but this was never completed. Approximately 170 papyri were conserved and framed in the early 1990s–2000s, and a small number are loose in paper folders, but the great majority are housed between sheets of polyester film.
Michaelides was born in Cairo and later educated in Egypt and France. He developed a profound interest in the history of Egypt from its early civilisations to far beyond the Islamic conquest. At the time of his death, he possessed over 1,700 manuscript fragments, on papyrus, parchment, paper and other materials. They are written in several languages and scripts, predominantly Arabic, but also Greek, Turkish, Persian, Latin and the Ancient Egyptian languages, including Hieratic, Demotic and Coptic.
This selection from the Michaelides Collection provides digital access to the Coptic manuscripts, comprising legal texts, accounts, literary, magical and medical texts, recipes, amulets and other documents including “protocols”. Some fragments contain drawings or carry bullae. The material includes texts in several dialects, and is of considerable interest for palaeography, including a very wide range of types of hand, ranging from formal book-hands to the most rapid documentary cursive. There are examples of the work of well-practiced professionals, but also of those who clearly had difficulty in forming and spacing their letters.
There are numerous letters, both of a personal nature, and dealing with administration, especially that of monasteries, and business documents cast in letter-form. As often in Coptic material, there are numerous records of deliveries and accounts of wine. Michaelides had acquired his fragments from dealers, often in large miscellaneous lots. Therefore the Coptic material is very varied, although some groups of clearly similar or related texts can be identified. Also, there is no record of the original find-spots, and where the texts were written is generally uncertain or disputable.
Only a small proportion of these manuscript fragments have been the subject of academic study. A few have been published: notably, the late Sarah Clackson (1965–2003) edited a number of documents stemming from a monastery of Apa Apollo. The descriptions used for this part of the Michaelides collection have been compiled by Catherine Ansorge, Anna Johnson and John Tait.
