A bilingual Coptic-Arabic Psalter,
Coptic Egypt, Eastern Desert Monastery of St. Anthony, dated...

A bilingual Coptic-Arabic Psalter,

Coptic Egypt, Eastern Desert Monastery of St. Anthony, dated 26th day of Bashans (the ninth month of the Coptic Calendar) in 1546/1830AD

Coptic-Arabic manuscript on paper, 264ff. (plus one paper endleaf at front, and 2 at back), apparently complete, single column of 19 lines per page in a late medieval Coptic bookhand with Arabic in Naskh script (the Arabic sometimes in column-wide blocks, but most often in thin columns parallel to the Coptic text), red rubrics, capitals in red or red edged with black pen, a few large initials in iridescent yellow, major texts opening with headbands of geometric penwork touched in dark faded red, numerous stylised yellow birds opening significant text sections, some water damage, spots and stains, with later paper repairs to edge of first leaf, binding of red pasteboards with leather spine and corners, with scuffs and lower board water damaged at edge with one corner warped This volume bears witness to the state of the Copts in the sixteenth century, when like the Samaritans and Christian minorities in the East they become integrated with and greatly reliant on Arabic book culture. Thus, in this book, with its distinctively Coptic decoration, the scribe has furnished the reader with a parallel translation into Arabic, and given an Arabic colophon on the last leaf noting that the work was finished on the 26th day of Bashans (the ninth month of the Coptic Calendar) in 1546, ff. 21.1 by 15cm

Provenance: Bloomsbury Book Auctions, December 6, 2017, lot 98