The event will be streamed
Trial lecture - time and place
The trial lecture titled Comparing Cultural Contexts: Functions and Significance of Coptic Literary Codices in the 10th and 11th Century and the 20th Century will take place on April 24 from 10:15 - 11:00 in auditorium U40.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Jacques van der Vliet, Universiteit Leiden
- Professor Brent Nongbri, MF
- Associate Professor Nora Sunniva Eggen, Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo
Chair of Defence
- Pro Dean Anne Hege Grung, Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo
Supervisor
- Professor Hugo Lundhaug, Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo
Abstract
This is a study of the Esna-Edfu manuscripts, one of the most significant collections of Coptic codices. I focus on two time periods: their discovery in the early twentieth century, and their context of production and early use in the tenth and eleventh centuries. My theoretical framework is material philology; I study the Esna-Edfu manuscripts not solely as incidental bearers of literary texts, but as physical artifacts. I begin by addressing a fundamental question: do these manuscripts form a bibliological unit, i.e., the contents of an ancient library? To answer this, I analyze the story of discovery in Edfu in 1907, how an increasing number of manuscripts came to be associated with that discovery, objections to the unity of the corpus, and alternative hypotheses. I then turn my attention to the society and individuals that created the manuscripts.Using secondary literature, I sketch the relevant social and political history of Upper Egypt, particularly Esna and Edfu. I suggest how this knowledge can help us interpret the texts in the manuscripts, particularly in terms of why they were chosen for copying. I then turn to the colophons to glean insight into the people involved in the creation of these artifacts.
I have found that, with the possible exceptions of BL Or. 6782 and 7597, the Esna-Edfu corpus forms a bibliological unit. These manuscripts were most probably discovered in Edfu in 1907, as reported by Robert de Rustafjaell. It seems likely that they passed through the hands of Abd en-Nur Gabriel in the early, modern history of transmission. The presence of other toponyms in the colophons, rather than indicating multiple sites of discovery, are evidence of manuscript relocation to Edfu in the Midde Ages. The presence of a Nubian subset within the corpus is explicable in terms of Nubian cultural presence in the area, even if claims of lengthy, Nubian political dominance in Upper Egypt are not supported by the evidence. Concerning production and early use, it is clear that the Monastery of St. Mercurius was regionally important and that it had a relationship with a scribal operation in Esna in which deacons played a central role. The manuscripts were viewed as important sacred objects, the donation of which was a means of obtaining blessings in this world and the next, and a means of conveying blessings to others who would interact with them and their texts.
This study is, to date, the most thorough examination of the Esna-Edfu corpus’s origins. It documents in unprecedented detail the story of discovery and early history of the transmission of the manuscripts in the modern period. It not only establishes the limits and origins of the Esna-Edfu corpus, but also lays the groundwork for future material-philological studies of the texts it contains. Along the way, it includes a critique of modern historiography concerning Nubian political and military dominance in Upper Egypt in the tenth and eleventh centuries.