The Medinet Madi library is a collection of
Manichaean texts discovered at
Medinet Madi in the
Faiyum region of Egypt in 1929. There is a total of seven codices, some of which have been split up and held in different collections across Europe. The texts, many of which remain unpublished and untranslated today, were composed in the
Lycopolis dialect of
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
during the 5th century A.D.
Manuscripts
In 1930 and 1931,
Alfred Chester Beatty and
Carl Schmidt purchased the codices from antiquities dealers in Faiyum. The manuscripts were subsequently conserved by and his son in Berlin.
Berlin holdings
Carl Schmidt collected the following texts for the (papyrus collection) of the
Staatliche Museen of Berlin in Germany.
The collection is currently held at the
Neues Museum
The Neues Museum (English: ''New Museum'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. Built from 1843 to 1855 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles, it ...
in Berlin.
*P
15995 ''Synaxeis''
*P
15996 ''
Kephalaia
Kephalaia (Greek for "chapters" or "headings") are a genre of Manichaean literature represented mainly by two large papyrus codices containing Coptic translations from 5th-century Roman Egypt. The ''kephalaia'' are sometimes seen as the actual wor ...
'' (volume 1)
*P
15997 ''Acts''
*P
15998 ''
Letters
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
''
*P
15999 ''Homilies'' (Berlin part)
Dublin holdings
A. Chester Beatty collected the following codices for his library in London, now the
Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland.
*Codex A: ''
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
''
*Codex B: ''Synaxeis''
*Codex C: ''
Kephalaia
Kephalaia (Greek for "chapters" or "headings") are a genre of Manichaean literature represented mainly by two large papyrus codices containing Coptic translations from 5th-century Roman Egypt. The ''kephalaia'' are sometimes seen as the actual wor ...
'' (volume 2)
*Codex D: ''Homilies'' (Dublin part)
See also
*
Manichaean scripture
Manichaean scripture includes nine main books: the Seven Treatises of Manichaeism, all personally written by Mani (prophet), Mani in Syriac language, Syriac, the Shabuhragan written by Mani in Middle Persian, and the Arzhang, a series of illustrati ...
*
Cologne Mani-Codex
The Cologne Mani-Codex (Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis) is a minute parchment codex, dated on paleographical evidence to the fifth century CE, found near Asyut (the ancient Lycopolis), Egypt; it contains a Greek text describing the life of Mani ...
*''
Psalms of Thomas''
*
Nag Hammadi library
*
List of Gnostic texts
Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts, or lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings.
Gnostic texts
Gnostic texts preserved before 1945
Prior to the discovery at Nag H ...
*
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (NHMS; ) is an academic book series on Gnosticism, the Nag Hammadi library, Manichaeism, and related subjects. The series was founded as Nag Hammadi Studies (NHS; ) in 1971 and is published by Brill. The series ...
References
1929 archaeological discoveries
Archaeological corpora
Coptic literature
Manichaean texts
Lists of manuscripts
Religion in Egypt
Papyrus
5th-century manuscripts
{{Manichaeism-stub