Psalms of Heracleides from the Manichaean Psalms
Object Information
Object Information
Description
- Object no.:
- Pma 4.189-190
- Object name:
- Folio / Bi-Folio (Codex)
- Title:
- Psalms of Heracleides from the Manichaean Psalms
- Scribe and production place:
- Unknown
Medinet Madi
- Object category:
- Manuscript
- Collection:
- Manichaean Papyri collection
- Production date:
- c. 400 AD
- Dimensions:
- 320 mm x 210 mm (height x width)
- Material:
- Papyrus (material) Ink (material)
- Language:
- Subachmimic (Coptic dialect)
- Description:
- Papyrus folio with Psalms of Heracleides from the Manichaean Psalms, written in Coptic c. 400 AD in Egypt. The Manichaean Psalm book contains 289 numbered psalms (according to the surviving index) and groups of unnumbered psalms. This manuscript is important both for the large number of surviving texts and for their individual literary quality. The original codex was divided into two parts following its discovery. Beatty purchased part two (then known as Codex A) from Maurice Nahman in 1930 and part one from the same dealer the following year. The two parts are now housed under the collection numbers CBL Pma 3 (part one) and CBL Pma 4 (part two). The Psalm book 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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