Manichaean Codices of Medinet Madi

"In 1929, seven Manichaean papyrus codices of the fourth or fifth century were discovered during an illicit excavation in the Egyptian desert. Half were acquired by A. Chester Beatty, for his library, and the other half by Carl Schmidt, for the papyrus collection of the Staatliche Museen of Berlin. With special access to the copious files, inventories and correspondence in Berlin, Robinson provides translations of German and French documents to increase access to information previously unavailable to the scholarly community. He narrates the slow and problem-ridden path of the acquisition, conservation and editing of these important works, including their movements between dealers, collectors, scholars and the military in Egypt, London, Dublin, Berlin, Schondorf, Göttingen, Warsaw, Leningrad, Los Angeles, Claremont and Copenhagen. James M. Robinson is Emeritus Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University in California, where he was founder and director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. As permanent secretary of UNESCO's International Committee for the Nag Hammadi Codices, he edited "The Coptic Gnostic Library", reprinted in five volumes 2000. Among his many publications is "The Story of the Bodmer Papyri: From the First Monastery's Library in Upper Egypt to Geneva and Dublin" James Clarke & Co, 2013. "The Manichaean Codices of Medinet Madi" is about one of the most sensational discoveries of ancient manuscripts made in the twentieth century, and the manifold obstacles their conservation and reading ran into. It contains the results of Robinson's meticulous research in the fate and inventories of the various parts of this collection, which even historians of religion are often not familiar with. This thoroughly researched survey is a welcome source of information for scholars, not only for those working on the manuscripts but also for the broader range of historically interested people who are going to use these sources." Wolf-Peter Funk, Editor of the Berlin Coptic Manichaean manuscripts."

Publisher -

Language - English

Paperback

Contributors

Author

James M. Robinson

James M. Robinson

Published Date -

ISBN - 9780227175040

Dimensions - 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm

Page Count - 342