Photo feature: Ancient sacred texts
Venerable Bibles and religious manuscripts came up for sale at Christie’s this week. Helen Saxbee chose a few examples (scroll through the gallery to view)
The Crosby-Shøyen Codex: in Coptic, manuscript on papyrus (Upper Egypt, mid-third century into fourth century). This is the oldest known book in private hands and one of the earliest books in existence. Christie’s lists it as also the earliest Christian liturgical book; the texts in the Codex are Paschal in nature and many scholars consider that it served as an Easter lectionary. It sold for £3,065,000, just over its top estimate
The Crosby-Shøyen Codex: in Coptic, manuscript on papyrus (Upper Egypt, mid-third century into fourth century). This is the oldest known book in priva...