Mudil Psalter
The Mudil Psalter is a manuscript from the late 4th or early 5th century from Middle Egypt. It was discovered in 1984 in the Coptic cemetery of al-Muḍil, a deserted place some 5 km northeast of the city of al-Fashn. It contains the complete text of the Psalms in the Sahidic dialect of the Coptic language and is the oldest complete Coptic psalter.
The manuscript is written on parchment and bound in wooden boards. It consists of 498 leaves measuring 12.2 × 16.7 cm. The text is written in 21 lines per page.
The Mudil Psalter lay open in a grave beneath the head of a young girl. This burial method may have been based on ancient Egyptian traditions of placing the Egyptian Book of the Dead in a grave. The manuscript is now housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo under the inventory number 12488.
Literature
- Gregor Emmenegger: Der Text des koptischen Psalters aus al-Mudil. Ein Beitrag zur Textgeschichte der Septuaginta und zur Textkritik koptischer Bibelhandschriften, mit der kritischen Neuausgabe des Papyrus 37 der British Library London und des Papyrus 39 der Leipziger Universitätsbibliothek . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019948-2. and Papyrus 39 of the Leipzig University Library
- Gawdat Gabra: Zur Bedeutung des koptischen Psalmenbuches im oxyrhynchitischen Dialekt'' Göttinger Miszellen 93 : 37–42.