MS Egyptian 6

Coptic homily on the Three Holy Children

Egypt, Wadi El Natrun, 10th century A.D. or perhaps no more than half a century either side of it.

Parchment. Rather dark, with a strong yellow tinge. The leaves are still attached together at their fold; the first surviving page is hair-side.; Material: other; Two conjugate leaves. The original fore-edge of the first leaf is entirely destroyed, and a width of up to 21.2 cm is preserved; of the second leaf the full width of 21.5 cm survives in part.; dimensions: diameter 215 mm, length 292 mm

(not before 1926, not after 1994): Acquired by the Wellcome Library or its predecessor the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum.

The hand might be said to exaggerate the typical features of hands from the Wadi al-Natrun monastery of Saint Macarius. It is very upright, and round letters are very rounded. has a substantial tail, almost square-cut at the right; has a short and strictly horizontal one. and are very distinctive, with their upper right-hand portions very cramped. Most noticeably of all, and form nearly a closed circle, the horizontal bar of (except in enlarged letters) being formed by merely a touch of the full width of the nib. Many parallels may be found among platess. 1-16 of Evelyn-White's volume, plates 6A, 8, and 10A being similar; only plate 12B, however, is likely to be from the same hand, although the piece is too fragmentary and indistinct for certainty.

(not before 1800): According to Evelyn-White the manuscript was in the possession of a Spanish Duke in 1908.

(not before 1865, not after 1926): According to Evelyn-White, Walter Ewing Crum saw the manuscript at the British Museum at some point during his lifetime. The identity of the leaves seen by Crum as Egyptian Manuscript 6 is set beyond doubt by the fact Evelyn-White quoted the first six lines, with the appropriate lacunae indicated.