The Crosby-Schøyen codex, one of the books oldest in the world, will come out auction in London in June for a price of between 2 and 3 million pounds (between 2.4 and 3.5 million euros), Christie’s informed EFE.
The London bidding giant will be in charge of offering to the public the oldest complete text of the biblical books of Jonah and the First Epistle of Peter, written in Alexandria between the years 250 and 350 AD. c.
The codex consists of 52 papyrus leaves of the 68 that originally composed it, all of them written in Coptic Egyptian by a single scribe, as the senior specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie’s in London, Eugenio Donadoni, explained to EFE.
The expert classified this book, part of the so-called Bodmer papyri, among the manuscripts that transformed the way of studying the Bible and the beginnings of the Christian religion in the 20th century.
“It is both a testimony to the first transition from papyrus to book and to the early spread of Christianity through the Mediterranean”said Donadoni, who considered that the codex was used to celebrate Easter in one of the first Christian monasteries in Upper Egypt.
On June 11, Christie’s will put this manuscript from the Schøyen collection on sale along with others of equally high historical value, covering around 1,300 years of history.
Among them, the Holkham Hebrew Bible also stands out, with an estimated value of between 1.5 and 3 million pounds (between 1.75 and 3.5 million euros), and the Geraardsbergen Bible, with a starting price of 700,000 pounds. (815,000 euros).
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Source: Gestion
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