An Egyptian manuscript, written in both Palestinian Aramaic and Georgian dating back to the late fifth to seventh centuries has been sold at the Christie’s auction in London for £1.25 million.
The manuscript was estimated to sell for between £1 million and £1.5 million.
This manuscript is considered one of the most important pieces offered for sale in the auction of Palestinian Christian artifacts, as it features an Aramaic dialect that from the Christian royal society in Palestine and East Jordan between the fifth and 13th centuries.
It was only used in a few inscriptions and scrolls, according to the Arab News website.
This Egyptian manuscript contains the oldest surviving evidence of the Gospel in the Aramaic dialect, the closest language spoken by Christ.
It was composed within a living tradition in the Holy Land and the scroll was written in Georgian script by the scholar John Zosimos.
The bindings of these volumes by Zosimos, which date back to the 10th century, are found in the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai.
They are the oldest known bindings that are signed and dated.
The auction revealed the dimensions of the bound manuscript at approximately 200 x 150 mm, with the pages of the main texts rotated to be at right angles, cut and folded to create 70 pages of the upper text, consisting of the main scroll made up of parts of six different manuscripts from two columns written in Palestinian Christian Aramaic.
The Georgian texts, dated to AD979, are 22-26 lines written in one column.
The name of the manuscript’s scribe was found in the liturgical book Khutsuri, written by Zosimos in red, with the edges frayed, leaves flat and cleaned with modern repair, yellowed, and some of the ink not clearly visible in the manuscript.
