About the Exhibit

This online version is a virtual record of an actual physical display that took place at the Audubon Room of the University of Michigan Library between November 12 2018 and February 17 2019: Written Culture of Christian Egypt: Coptic Manuscripts from the University of Michigan Collection. Curated by Alin Suciu and Frank Feder (Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities), and with the collaboration of Pablo Alvarez (Special Collections Research Center), the display includes highlights from our collections of Coptic fragments and codices held at the Papyrology Collection and the Special Collections Research Center. Additionally, we have also included the facsimile models of the bindings of Mich. Ms. 166 and 167 from the Julia Miller Collection of Bookbinding Models. We are extremely grateful to Julia Miller for providing us with detailed descriptions of these two models. Finally, this online exhibit ends with a video recording of the curators' lectures marking the opening of the exhibition on 12 November 2017.

We also want to express our most sincere gratidute to a large group of individuals that helped to make this exhibit possible. They belong to different units within the Library and academic departments across the University of Michigan, a substantial evidence of the collaborative nature of all exhibits:

Evyn Kropf, Kristine Greive, Marieka Kaye, Brooke Adams, Randal Stegmeyer, Carrie Schroeder, Ellen Muelhlberger, Terry Wilfong, Matthew De Genaro, Caitlin Pollock, and Heymo Vehse.   

The University of Michigan Library has placed copies of these works online for educational and research purposes. These works are believed to be in the public domain in the United States; however, if you decide to use any of these works, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission. If you have questions about this exhibit, please contact special.collections@umich.edu. If you have concerns about the inclusion of an item in this exhibit, please contact ask-omeka@umich.edu.

The Coptic Encyclopedia. Ed. Atiya, Aziz S. New York, NY,: Macmillan, 1991.

Coptic Culture: Past, Present and Future. Ed. Ayad, Mariam. Stevenage, U.K.: Coptic Orthodox Church Centre; Oakville, CT., 2012.

Egypt: From Alexander to the Copts: An Archaelogical and Historical Guide. Ed. Bagnall, Roger S. & Dominic W. Rathbone. London: The British Museum Press, 2004. 

Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great : Community, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt. Trans. Ed. Brakke, David & Andrew Crislip. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

From Gnostics to Monastics: Studies in Coptic and Early Christianity in honor of Bentley Layton. Ed. Brakke, David, Stephen J. Davis & Stephen Emmel. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 263. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.

Coptic Society, Literature and Religion from Late Antiquity to Modern Times. Proceedings of the tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Rome, September 17th-22th, 2012 and Plenary Reports of the ninth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Cairo, September 15th-19th, 2008. Ed. Buzi, Paola, Alberto Camplani & Federico Contardi. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 247. Leuven: Peeters, 2016.

Elsässer, Sebastian. The Coptic Question in the Mubarak Era. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Biblia Sahidica: Ieremias, Lamentationes (Threni), Epistula Ieremiae et Baruch. Ed. Frank Feder. Berlin; New York: W. de Gruyter, 2002.

Gabra, Gawdat. Coptic Monasteries: Egypt’s Monastic Art and Architecture. Cairo; New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2002.  

Historical Dictionary of the Coptic Church. Ed. Gabra, Gawdat. With contributions by Birger A. Pearson, Mark N. Swanson, & Youhanna Nessim Youssef. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2008.

Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt. Ed. Gabra, Gawdat & Hany N. Takla. Cairo, Egypt; New York, NY: American University in Cairo Press, 2008.

Coptic Civilization: Two Thousand Years of Christianity in Egypt. Ed. Gabra, Gawdat. Cairo; New York: A Saint Mark Foundation Book: The American University in Cairo Press, 2014.

Christianity and Monasticism in Middle Egypt: al-Minya and Asyut. Ed. Gabra, Gawdat & Hany N. Takla. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2015.

Coptology: Past, Present, and Future. Studies in Honour of Rodolphe Kasser. Giversen, S., M. Krause & P. Nagel. Orientalia Lovaniense Analecta 61. Leuven: Peeters, 1994. 

Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic: Contact-Induced Change in an Ancient African language. Ed. Grossman, Eitan,  Peter Dils, Tonio Sebastian Richter & Wolfgang Schenkel. Hamburg:Widmaier Verlag, 2017. 

Gruber, Mark. Sacrifice in the Desert : A Study of an Egyptian Minority through the Prism of Coptic Monasticism. Ed. M. Michele Ransil. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2003. 

Hasznos, Andrea. Graeco-Coptic: Greek and Coptic Clause Patterns. Göttinger Orientforschungen. IV. Reihe, Ägypten; 52. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012.

Hedstrom, Darlene L. Brooks. The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt: an Archaeological Reconstruction. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Kamil, Jill. Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs: The Coptic Orthodox Church. London; New York: Routledge, 2002.

Layton, Bentley. Coptic in 20 lessons : Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises & Vocabularies. Leuven, Belgium; Dudley Mass.: Peeters, 2007.

Layton, Bentley. The Canons of Our Fathers: Monastic Rules of Shenoute. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2014.

López, Ariel G. Shenoute of Atripe and the Uses of Poverty: Rural Patronage, Religious Conflict, and Monasticism in Late Antique Egypt. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2013.

Meinardus, Otto F. A. Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1999. 

Meinardus, Otto F. A. Coptic Saints and Pilgrimages. Cairo; New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2002. 

McClellan, Michael. Monasticism in Egypt : Images and Words of the Desert Fathers. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 1998.   

Christianity and Monasticism in Wadi al-Natrun: Essays from the 2002 International Symposium of the Saint Mark Foundation and the Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society. Mikhail, Maged S.A.  Mark Moussa. Cairo; New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2009. 

Naiem, Girgis. Egypt’s Identities in Conflict: The Political and Religious Landscape of Copts and Muslims. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2018. 

Schneider, Carolyn M. The Text of a Coptic Monastic Discourse, on Love and Self-Control: its Story from the Fourth Century to the Twenty-First. Collegeville, Minnesota: Cistercian Publications/Liturgical Press, 2017.

Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon : A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.

Younan, Sameh. So, You Want to Learn Coptic? A Guide to Bohairic Grammar. St. Mary, St. Bakhomious and St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church: Kirrawee, N.S.W. Australia,  2005.

Watson, John H. Among the Copts. Brighton England; Portland, Or.: Sussex Academic Press, 2000.

Worrell, W. H. Fayumic Fragments of the Epistles. Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1940.

Wiens, Claudia Yvonne. Coptic Life in Egypt. Cairo; New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2003.