Kyprianos Update (16 February 2022)

Kyprianos Update (16 February 2022)

We’ve just posted our first update of the year to the Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects.

The update includes:

A series of kharaktēres and diagrams from Vienna Nationalbibliothek K 7091

• 12 new manuscript entries, bringing the total to 1023.
  • These contain Greek and/or Coptic magical and liturgical texts from Egypt and other parts of the Roman Empire, including four new Coptic copies of the Jesus-Abgar correspondence (information kindly provided by Roxanne Bélanger-Sarrazin), and seven new Greek texts edited by Michael Zellmann-Rohrer, six of which are from the new volume of the Oxyrhynchus papyri.
• 9 new text entries, bringing the total to 178.
  • Two texts from the codex P. Heid. Inv. 685, an exorcism of a female demon and a pair of amulets for healing or protection using the Sator-formula; our new reading reveals that the first of these describes the Sator-formula as the names of the nails which bound Jesus to the cross, a tradition attested in other Coptic magical texts which survives in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition.
  • P. Berlin 10587, a curse against a perjurer. Our work on this papyrus has included its redating, pushing the tenth century date proposed by its original editor – almost impossible for a papyrus manuscript – to a more realistic fifth- or sixth-century date, making it now one of the earliest Coptic magical texts.
  • The long protective prayer attributed to Saint Gregory found in the famous codex Anastasy 9. Our translation is the first to make use of the Greek parallel versions, allowing us to correct several of the mistakes of previous editors.
  • Vienna Nationalbibliothek K 7091, an amulet to protect Iaohēu, son of Mikahēu, from various diseases; our readings allow this difficult text to be read in full for the first time.
  • P. Mich. Inv. 1190, a fascinating formulary written in a difficult, non-standard form of Sahidic. Our re-reading reveals that it consist of two recipes (rather than one as was previously assumed) – a cruel curse to make a woman suffer from violent uterine bleeding (previously misunderstood as a ritual to carry out a caesarian section or abortion), and an almost equally violent love spell to fill a woman with fire.
• 2 new image tracings, bringing the total to 43.