Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

SHEIKH ABD EL-GURNA

EGYPT

page containing from 21 to 25 lines (al-
though in one case 30 lines could be read).
On the second page of the codex [Fig. 8],
which fell open naturally, the name of the
saintly bishop Apa Pisenthios4 can be read,
permitting the manuscript to be identified
very likely as The Enkomion of St. Pisenthios,
an eulogy to a Theban saint who lived in AD
568-632 and was bishop of the town of
Koptos.5
The two codices have rather thick covers
reinforced with waste papyrus in blocks.
What these reused fragments of papyrus
sheets contain will become apparent only
after conservation of the books is completed
and the particular layers of these covers
separated.
The third book [Fig. 4] is a set of
parchment cards, written in Coptic with the

exception of one which is in Greek. These
cards were placed between two wooden
covers (23 by 18 cm; 1 cm thick) faced with
thin leather on the outside surface. Prior to
conservation procedures, it is difficult to
ascertain whether the cards formed a homo-
geneous text or were a collection of texts of
various kinds. The texts that can be seen
where the book falls open indicate two
different writers. Ornaments painted in red
and green and with black contour lines can
be seen on the margins of some of the pages
[Fig. 9}. There is a distinct guilloche pattern
in one place and floral and figural (image of
a bird?) ornaments elsewhere.
The codices were protected provisionally
and examined by conservators to assess the
extent of conservation work to be carried out
in the future.

4 Not to risk damaging the codex, it was opened only where the cards fell open in a natural way; this turned out on pages
42, 43, 74, 75 and 138. A quick translation ■ f pages 42 and 43 immediately after the discovery (accomplished by
Father Prof. Wincenty Myszor from the Silesian University in Katowice) permitted Prof Ewa Wipszycka from Warsaw
University to identify the text. The said two pages contain a complete admonition about fasting. Preceding this was an
admonition on hours of prayer and following it the beginning of an admonition concerning fasting on the day of the
martyrs. In the German translation (cf. note 3 above) of a medieval Arabic manuscript, these canons appeared as
numbers 28, 29 (on fasting) and 30.
5 So independently of one another: Father Wincenty Myszor (Silesian University) and Prof. Jacques van der Vliet
(University of Leiden). Another enkomion on Bishop Pisenthios (Apa Pisenthios Pepiskopos in our text) was published
by E.A. Wallis Budge, Coptic Apocrypha in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (London 1913), 75-127 (Coptic text). The
translation gives the title as "The Life of Bishop Pisentius, by John the Elder" (British Museum MS, Oriental, no 7026).
The name of the bishop was written down as Pesenthios (fol.20a , p. 39 copt.) or Pisenthios (fol. 20b, p. 40 copt., cf.
also ibid., PI. LIII). A translation of the first page of this codex done by Father Wincenty Myszor is presented below,
in an appendix to this report.

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