Folio from the Manichaean Kephalaia

Object Information

Description:: Papyrus folio from the Manichaean Kephalaia, written in Coptic c. 400 AD in Egypt. Kephalaia (‘chapters’) is a genre of literature believed to have been developed by the Manichaeans. It is organised into numbered sections, or chapters, with each generally responding to a doctrinal question. The Dublin volume of Kephalaia (also known as Codex C) was acquired from an unnamed Fayyumic dealer in 1930. It retains the title The Kephalaia of the Wisdom of My Lord Mani. The Kephalaia is one of seven Manichaean manuscripts uncovered at Medinet Madi and acquired by Chester Beatty and Carl Smith (for the Berlin Museums) between 1930 and 1931. Chester Beatty’s acquisition includes the second volume of the Kephalaia, the larger portion of the Synaxeis, a smaller portion of the Homilies, and the Psalms in two parts. The Manichaean faith was so successfully suppressed that until the discovery of these books, it was only known through the writings of its oppressors. This collection (divided between Dublin and Berlin) is one of the earliest and most important of this now extinct religion, and its discovery has been likened to the cultural and historical significance of the Nag Hammadi codices and Dead Sea scrolls. Many of the folios were painstakingly and expertly conserved and glazed by the foremost papyrus conservator of his day, Hugo Ibscher.

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