Coptic Papyri

A. ARTHUR SCHILLER

(, 4    ^ OPTIC PAPYRI, nine packages' was the entry I ran
(I              upon in the card catalog in Low Library shortly after

^>,^,^ I arrived at the University many years ago. After
protracted search the 'packages' were located, and pored over in
the "Papyrus Gallery" high in the dome of the Rotunda. They
turned out to be some fifty Coptic texts—papyri, parchment and
paper—among a much larger group of Arabic manuscripts. There
were no records of accession, but it seems likely that the lot was
presented to Columbia by Professor Gottheil, either a purchase he
made in Egypt or a small part of the Genizeh finds. The Coptic
texts were framed and photostated; what has become of the Arabic
texts, I do not know.

In the decades which followed, the photostats and requested
photographs were submitted to Dr. Walter E. Crum in connec¬
tion with the preparation of his Coptic dictionary. As a result,
many of the terms in several of the texts are included in the ex¬
amples given in this standard dictionary. One of the paper docu¬
ments in the Fayyumic dialect afforded numerous instances of
unusual lexicographical interest. Another text, this time a parch¬
ment fragment, preserved variant readings of a well-known ser¬
mon of Shenute, a famed church father. In addition to the Diction¬
ary references, two of the parchment texts setting fotth an inter¬
esting amulet have been published. For the most part, though,
the texts are so fragmentary that they do not merit further
publication.

In 1932, however, opportunity was afforded to purchase a
unique Coptic papyrus from the late Sir E. A. AVallis Budge,
a former director of the British .Museum. This papyrus of 286
lines, practically complete, is perhaps the most important unpub-