Coptic codex with magic spells - 5-6th century AD - Museo Archeologico - Milan 2014

Coptic magical papyri are magical texts in the

Coptic language Coptic () is a dormant language, dormant Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language. It is a group of closely related Egyptian dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Ancient Egyptian language, Egyptian language, and histori ...

. There are approximately 600 such texts. The majority date to between the 4th and 12th centuries AD, although there are some

Old Coptic Old Coptic is the earliest stage of Coptic writing, a form of late Egyptian written in the Coptic script, a variant of the Greek alphabet. It "is an analytical category … utilised by scholars to refer to a particular group of sources" and not a ...

texts from the 1st through 4th centuries. There are also bilingual texts in Coptic and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. Although the texts are collectively known as papyri and the majority are written on

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

, the corpus as studied and published includes texts on

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

rag paper Rag, rags, RAG or The Rag may refer to: Common uses * Rag, a piece of old cloth * Rags, tattered clothes * Wash rag, a small cloth used for bathing * Rag (newspaper), a publication engaging in tabloid journalism * Rag paper, or cotton paper Ar ...

, wooden tablets,

ostraca An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...

and limestone flakes. Generally, older texts are on papyrus and younger ones on paper. Parchment texts are more evenly distributed. The Coptic magical tradition originates from the Greek magical tradition in Egypt. "Virtually all" its texts were produced by

Coptic Christians Copts (; ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptian population, descended from the ancient Egyptians. Copts p ...

in Egypt. This took place in spite of clerical opposition to magic. Besides texts from a Christian milieu, there are also

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...

and

Gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

texts. The Coptic magical papyri have been the subject of two research projects at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...

: ''Vernacular Religion in Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt'' (2018–2023) and the ongoing ''Corpus of Coptic Magical Formularies'' (2024–2027). All known Coptic magical texts may be found in the projects' online ''Kyprianos'' database. database contains 499 texts For the searchable database, which is not limited to Coptic
Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts
(JMU Würzburg) __NOTOC__

Notes

Bibliography

* * *

External link

*{{cite web, url=https://echoesofegypt.peabody.yale.edu/overview/coptic-magical-papyrus, website=Echoes of Egypt, title=Coptic Magical Papyrus, date=, publisher=

Peabody Museum of Natural History The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University (also known as the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History or the Yale Peabody Museum) is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, access-date=, url-status=, archive-url=, archive-date= Texts in Coptic Papyri from ancient Egypt Books about magic

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External link