collID: 79

Cambridge, University Library

Name: Cambridge, University Library
Location: Cambridge
Country: United Kingdom
Address: Cambridge University Library
West Road
Cambridge CB3 9DR
UK - England
Homepage: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/
For the Genizah collection see :
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/
Contact: Department of Manuscripts
E-mail: mss@ula.cam.ac.uk
Conservation:
Inventarisation:
Publications: 1. P. Bellet, Studia monastica 31 (1989), 251-7. Some later items have also been published.
2. O. Camb. 136-41.
4. S. C. Reif, Hebrew manuscripts at Cambridge University Library: a description and introduction. University of Cambridge oriental publications; 52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 65 Or. 233
5. 5. R. A. Coles, Location list of the Oxyrhynchus papyri, London, 1974 gives details of all published papyri from this deposit.
. 7. O. Camb. 1-135 gives transcriptions of many of the ostraca. Aramaic ostracon, O. Camb. 131-3, published by A. Cowley (JRAS, Jan. 1929, 107-11); re-edited in Textbook of Aramaic documents from ancient Egypt/ newly copied, edited, and translated into Hebrew and English by Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni. Vol. 4. Texts and studies for students. [Jerusalem]: Hebrew University, Dept. of the History of the Jewish People; Winona Lake, IN, U.S.A. 1999
Some Coptic parchment MSS have been published in MPER N.S. XX 15, and scientific journals.
8. A. J. Arberry, A second supplementary hand-list of the Muhammadan manuscripts in the University & Colleges of Cambridge. Cambridge: University Press, 1952. Or. 1367 (13)
9. S. J. Clackson, ZPE 100 (1994), 223-6: p. 225 for Greek P. Michael. publications.
Coptic and Greek texts published by Clackson, Coptic and Greek texts relating to the Hermopolite Monastery of Apa Apollo. Oxford (in press) nos. 4, 30, 43, 48, 52; and in Proceedings of the Twenty-second International Congress of Papyrology, Florence, Italy, 23-29th August 1998. In press.
See also Clackson, Acts of the fifth International Congress of Coptic Studies, v. 2, pp. 123-128, Roma, 1993.
demotic: U. Kaplony-Heckel, FuB 14 (1972), 85 ff.; K.-T. Zauzich, Enchoria 4 (1974), 163; J. Quaegebeur, Enchoria 5 (1975), 19; M. Malinine, RdE 14 (1962), 37-43.
Arabic (earlier MSS): G. Khan, JRAS 4 (1994), 357-68.
11. S. Clackson, Coptic and Greek texts relating to the Hermopolite Monastery of Apa Apollo. Oxford. In press. nos. 42, 56, 60.
Work: Geoffrey Khan is working on a catalogue of the Arabic MSS.
John Tait and Sarah Clackson are cataloguing the demotic, Greek and Coptic ostraca.
Sarah Clackson has catalogued the Coptic MSS from the Michaelides collection and is preparing an edition of selected Coptic documents; cf. S. Clackson, Acts of the 5th International Congress of Coptic Studies, Washington 1992, (Rome 1993), pp.123-138.
Coptic Biblical texts from the Michaelides collection are to be published by Hans-Gebhard Bethge and Sarah Clackson.
Highlights: Coptic MS from Shenute’s White Monastery, Or. 1699B: the sole attestation for correspondence between Shenoute and Archbishop Dioscorus
Michaelides Arabic P. 744 B: one of the earliest (707 CE) Arabic legal documents (Khan, JRAS 4 (1994) 357-68)
Greek papyri from EES deposit listed by Coles
Michaelides 807: trilingual Arabic, Coptic and Greek papyrus (to be published by Clackson)
Nash papyrus: 2nd c. BCE. Hebrew MS of the Ten Commandments shema (Deut. 6.4-5) ; the Genizah collection
History: 1. 1876?: Revd Greville Chester donated Coptic parchment MSS acquired by him in Upper Egypt, 28 Oct. 1874.
2. 1890: Revd Greville Chester donated (at least?) 3 Greek ostraca, 1 demotic, and 1 Coptic; and one wooden mummy label from Achmim.
3. 1894: Add. 3199 Greek and Arabic papyrus fragments bequeathed by William Robertson Smith (Professor of Arabic, University of Cambridge)
(1898: Taylor-Schechter collection acquired)
4. 1903: Walter Llewellyn Nash donated a Hebrew papyrus acquired from an Egyptian antiquities dealer.
5. 19??: The Egyptian Exploration Society deposited about 100 Greek papyri (from excavations at Oxyrhynchus, Karqnis, Bacchias, and el-Hibeh).
6. 19?? Alan Gardiner presented 6 ostraca.
7. 1939: Herbert Thompson bequeathed Or. 1699 and 1700, an assortment of literary fragments (mainly Coptic but also some Greek) on parchment, many of which are recorded as having been brought by H. Hyvernat in 1914, and are from Shenute's White Monastery. Several appear to date to between the 6th-8th centuries but most are later.
Thompson also presented a large number of ostraca, mostly demotic and Greek, but also some Coptic. O. Camb. p. 153 records that the 130 ostraca published there were originally presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum but removed to the University Library.
Thompson may also have been the donor of 2 Coptic ostraca (O. Camb. 134-5); and an Aramaic ostracon (in 3 pieces: O. Camb. 133-5; according to Cowley (JRAS, Jan. 1929, 107) he bought it from a dealer in London); another possible donor is Stephen Gaselee.
8. 1943?: 24 Arabic papyri, no provenance.
9. 1977: the Michaelides collection, a substantial number of the MSS collected by the late George Michaelides (1900-73), was acquired by purchase.
10. 1980s: a papyrus was received from the British and Foreign Bible Society Collection.
11. 2000: a collection of around 150 papyrus and parchment manuscripts was given by Ursula Plumley, widow of the Egyptologist Prof. J. M. Plumley, who previously acquired the MSS from the Egyptologist F. W. Green (1869-1949).