[PSALTER].
Bilingual Coptic-Arabic Psalter,
Bilingual Coptic-Arabic Psalter,
Stock Code 112450
Eastern Desert Monastery of St. Anthony, Coptic Egypt, 26th day of Bashans 1546 (June 1830 AD).
This Psalter, with its distinctively Coptic decoration, has been inscribed in Coptic with a parallel translation into Arabic throughout,. There is also a full colophon in Arabic at the end of the volume naming the Monastery of Saint Anthony and noting that the work was finished on the 26th day of Bashans (the ninth month of the Coptic Calendar) in 1546, which would be the equivalent of the 2nd June 1830 in the Gregorian calendar.
Manuscripts of this nature in dual coptic and Arabic are rare, only one comparable has been traced institutionally in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Acc. No: 2019.297.3).
Single volume, decorated manuscript on paper, in both Coptic and Arabic throughout, 264 leaves (plus one paper endleaf at front, and 2 at back), apparently complete, single column of 19 lines 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; housed in red pasteboards with leather spine and corners, with scuffs and lower board water damaged at edge with lower board a little warped. Dimensions; 211 x 150mm (8¼ x 6 inches).
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