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Posted on by Roger Pearse

A book arrived through the post yesterday: E.A.E. Reymond & J.W.B. Barns, Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices, Oxford (1973). This contains the martyrdom of St Colluthus, plus an English translation.  I did try to order it by ILL, but something went wrong, and I gave up.  Needless to say they have now actioned it, just as the book from Amazon arrived.

Looking at it made me realise that I just do not read many – or any – physical paper books any more.  It’s all electronic.  My novels are on kindle, and my reference texts in PDF.  Anyway today I settled down to get to grips with it.

But it’s a funny old thing.  There’s a long and rambling introduction, which needed the attention of an editor badly.  It’s as if the authors just decided to talk around the subject, darting off here and there.  It’s full of interest, but compared to modern introductions, organised by topic with headings, it is very frustrating.  It really resists the reader.  This is a black mark on Oxford University Press, who should have demanded better.

This is followed by the Coptic text for all four martyrdoms – which has NOT been typeset!  Instead the pages are reproductions of hand-written sheets.  It’s incredible that in 1973 the press issued a volume without typesetting.  Oxford has been typesetting Coptic since the 18th century.  So what on earth happened here?

This is followed by translations of the four texts.  These are plainly designed as cribs.  Mysteriously various parts of the translation are in italics.  The introduction offers no clue.  Fortunately a couple of these were in the first line.  I wondered if these were words not in the original, as in the old KJV bible translation.  But this was impossible.  I looked at the tiny, handwritten Coptic, and then at the indexes – also handwritten! – and realised that these words in Italics were the Greek words like “martyrologion” embedded in the Coptic.  A footnote would have helped.

I think a bit of user-friendly formatting may help with the readability of the translation, so I will try this.

The introduction does contain interesting material.  For one thing, I learned that even Hippolyte Delahaye, the great Bollandist hagiographer of the early 20th century, thought that Coptic martyrdoms were pretty bad.  I feel better now, after concluding the same about yesterday’s texts.

For another, I learn that the martyrdom of St Colluthus reads a lot like a Roman trial record, rather than a made-up hagiography.  The prosecutor Arianus is a historical figure, attested elsewhere, with his genial, polished routine of getting prisoners to sacrifice to the gods.  Arianus refers to one bishop who has done so, as a way to pressure the victim; and apparently a letter from a patriarch to that bishop exists, unpublished in 1973, bollocking him for doing so.  This deserves investigation.

I wondered about the editor, E.A.E. Reymond (1923-1986).  Apparently there is an entry for her in M. L. Bierbrier, “Who was who in Egyptology”, 5th edition (2019), p.391; but this is not accessible to me.  A google search tells me that her name was Eva Anne Elisabeth Jelínková-Reymond, known as Eve, and professionally as E. A. E. Reymond.  She was a Czech scholar of Demotic, and worked as a research assistant at CNRS up to 1957, then at Cambridge (1955-1960), then as a lecturer, then reader in Coptic at the University of Manchester from 1960 onwards, although curiously she published nothing on Coptic until 1973.  Her publications are all technical.  She must have had an interesting life somewhere.  I had thought about creating a Wikipedia page for her – if the people who control the site would allow it – but I really do not have enough information.

Two miracle stories of St Colluthus from the White Monastery

Posted on by Roger Pearse

As I wrote earlier, the first pages – parchment – to arrive in Europe from the library White Monastery at Sohag in Egypt were leaves of a life of the incredibly obscure St Colluthus (or Coluthus), containing two stories of miracles that took place at his shrine.  These were published by Francesco Borgia in 1781; the Coptic text and a Latin translation.

I thought that it might be interesting to translate these into English; as far as I know, no modern language version exists.  Unfortunately I was unable to work with the printed Coptic, so I had to use the Latin.

The stories are mutilated, unfortunately, and neither is very interesting nor – to me at least – edifying.  Rather they document the kinds of superstition circulating in Egypt in the Dark Ages.

Let me give the English first, and then the modern Latin translation from which I made it.

MIRACLE 1

“…I will give you the healing of your eyes, and difficulty will not cause it to fail you, in the course [of events].” The man said, “I wish to find a woman who has recently given birth, so that I may complete the work which has been commanded to me by Saint Colluthus.”  The woman said, “I will fill your eyes with milk from my breasts.” Then that man, whose eyes were diseased, said to her, “Show kindness to me: behold, you see my torment and my affliction.”

Her husband said to her, because he remained unbelieving, “Do not do this, lest perhaps those who slander you should mock you.”  She said, “Mock me? Why? For I believe, through the faith of my noble lineage and the teaching of my Fathers, that if I fill his eyes with milk from my breasts, he will see through the power of Saint Colluthus.”  Then she said to him, “Have people ever seen me as someone worthy of ridicule? Was I ever a wanton woman? Or have they said in their hearts that a man has had relations with me other than intercourse with you, my husband?  Behold, I call you all as witnesses today, all who hear me. I swear to you by Saint Colluthus, and by the oblation of the Christians,** [i.e. the mass] and by the sufferings which Christ endured on the cross, that I have had no relations with any man since I was given in marriage. From my mother’s womb I came to my husband only. And when has my flesh been touched by a strange man? Has not the Lord heard me, seeing my need?”

And so, taking her milk, she filled the man’s eyes. And she said, “In the name of the power of Saint Colluthus the true doctor” and then his eyes poured out waters, and these flowed out abundantly.

Immediately after this, he opened them, saying, “I believe in you, Saint Colluthus!” and at the same time he cried out to his people, “Behold, I have received my sight, so that I can distinguish a little.”

The woman said to him, “Allow me to fill them again another time.” And the man blessed her, saying, “May the Lord preserve you until His hands reach you.”** [i.e. his purpose is complete] When she filled his eyes a second time, these [waters] flowed out more abundantly.

A little later he opened them again. He looked here and there and said, “Truly, this time I see well.”

Again, after a short while, the woman said to that man, “Allow me to fill them once more also; for I believe that you will have health.”  Then she signed her whole body and her breasts with the sign of the cross, in the name of Christ. She filled his eyes with milk a third time, saying, “In the name of God and of Saint Colluthus.” Then the woman said to him, “Close your eyes for a little while, and may the grace of God and of Saint Colluthus be with you.”

And this noble woman, confirmed greatly in faith, was strengthened because she saw the healing which had gradually been accomplished for him. After a little while he opened his eyes again. The household servants were present at night, and at that time he saw the light truly and perfectly.

Then that man rose up in great joy. He walked, washed his face in a basin, and cried out, saying, “You are great, to you I give glory, O God of Saint Coluthus, because I have been made worthy that you should grant me the grace of light, just as it was for me at the beginning.”  And all the people who had entered the martyr’s shrine, together with those who had gone out, came together. They looked upon him rejoicing greatly because he was seeing this light.

Indeed, that man also, who considered the wrong which he had done to his wife, praised her and confessed before Saint Colluthus, saying, “Behold, I have been healed in body and in my soul, because I have been made worthy to come to this place of yours.”  The woman’s parents also came with her brothers and her people, rejoicing, blessing and glorifying [God], saying, “Blessed are you among women, O our sister and our daughter, because today you have received glory in the midst of many, since you have put to shame the multitude of men and women through your nobility. For the multitude thought, O our daughter, that they would find fault with you because of your noble birth, your kindness, and your sweet speech.” At this time Saint Colluthus revealed the glory of his greatness and his nobility through the greatness of the healings which he performed for those who were sick and who believed in him.

After these things, each person went away with him to his own house.  They honoured the martyr’s shrine of Saint Coluthus: they ate and drank in his place, and they returned home giving glory to God and to Saint Coluthus.

MIRACLE 2

Hear also another great miracle which was performed through Saint Colluthus.

Again a mutilated man was brought forward who had absolutely no power to walk on his feet: likewise his hands were withered. He did not lift up his step, but moved along by dragging his body over the ground, just as little children go, crawling upon the earth, and he was brought into that holy place.  Then he lay in the martyr’s shrine, praying to God and calling upon Saint Colluthus for the healing of his body, that healing might be given to him.  And he groaned day and night, weeping many times, crying out in great anguish of spirit, he said, “Help me, physician and healer! For this reason I flee to you, my lord, and to this your holy martyr’s shrine, that you may have mercy upon my lowliness.” All the people were greatly distressed because of him, crying out, “Truly he suffers.”

After all these things, Saint Colluthus, the physician and accomplisher of healings, had mercy on him. He came to him in a vision at night. He stood over him and said to him, “Do you know me?” He answered, “No, my lord. Who are you, who appear surrounded by the greatness of glory?” He said to him in the vision, “I am Coluthus the physician. I heal all people who have faith, freely, and I desire to receive no payment from anyone whatsoever.” The man said to him, “My lord, may your mercy embrace me, for I am in very great anguish.”

Saint Colluthus said to him in the vision, “Rise at dawn. Walk using your hands and your feet, and enter the city. To any man or woman who meets you in the city say, ‘Where is the house of Mary the prostitute?’ They will show it to you. And if they ask you, ‘Why?’ say to them, ‘I wish to spend the night with her; I will give her her payment.’  Do not fear, and do not be ashamed. For a great gift and a great grace will come to that woman through you. She will abandon the shamefulness of her error; she will become honoured through this business of yours, when she hears of the mercy of your healing…”

Latin, somewhat normalised with quotation marks added:

MIRACULUM I. VERSIO.

“…Tibi dabo sanitatem oculorum tuorum: et difficultas non faciet eam tibi deficere, in directione.”  Dixit homo: “Volo invenire mulierem puerperam, ut perficiam opus, quod a Sancto Colutho iussum est mihi.”  Dixit mulier: “Ego implebo oculos tuos lacte ex uberibus meis.” Dixit autem ad eam vir ille, cuius oculi erant infirmi: “Fac caritatem mecum: ecce vides cruciatum meum, et afflictionem meam.”

Dixit illius maritus ad ipsam: in incredulitate quia manens erat, “Ne hoc facito, ne forte detrectatores deriserint te .” Dixit illa: “Deriserint me? Quare? Ego enim per fidem nobilitatis meae, et doctrinam Patrum meorum credo, quod si implevero illius oculos lacte ex uberibus meis, ille videbit per virtutem Sancti Coluthi: dicens ei: “An aliquando viderunt me homines deridendam?” aut fui voluptuosa, aut dixerunt in corde suo, quod homo communionem habuit mecum praeter tui, mariti mei, consuetudinem? Ecce testor vobis hodie, quotquot estis qui me auditis : iuro vobis per Sanctum Coluthum, et per oblationem Christianorum, et per cruciatus , quos Christus passus est in cruce, quod communionem non habui cum homine ex quo fui nuptui tradita. Veni ab utero matris meae ad maritum meum solum. Et quando caro mea tacta est a viro alieno? Nonne Dominus exaudivit me videns necessitatem meam?

Et sic accepto lacte suo implevit oculos hominis: et sic dicebat: “In nomine virtutis Sancti Coluthi modici veri:” et sic oculi eius effuderunt aquas, et hae defluxerunt multum.

Inter haec autem statim eos aperuit dicens: “Credo tibi sancte Coluthe:” et eodem tempore exclamavit ad homines suos dicens: “Ecce visum recepi, ita ut parumper discernam.”

Dixit mulier ad eum: “Sine ut eos impleam alia vice.”  At homo benedixit ei dicens: “Dominus conservabit te quousque pertigerint manus eius.”  Illa vero ut implevit oculos eius secundo, aquam hi emiserunt copiosius.

Paullo post iterum eos aperuit: respexit huc et illuc dicens: “Vere video hac vice bene.”

Rursus post paullulum dixit mulier ad hominem illum: “Sine ut eos impleam alia etiam vice; etenim credo, quod sanitas erit tibi.”  Ipsa porro signavit corpus suum omne, et ubera sua in nomine Christi, signaculo crucis: implevit oculos eius lacte tertia vice dicens: “In nomine Dei, et Sancti Coluthi.” Dixitque illi deinde mulier: “Claude oculos tuos parumper et gratia Dei, et S. Coluthi sit tibi.”  Eadem autem ingenua femina in fide, summopere confirmata est, quoniam vidit sanitatem, quae facta fuerat illi (homini) sensim.  Post paullulum eos aperuit : adfuerunt nocte domestici: eoque tempore vidit lucem vere, atque perfecte.

Homo vero ille surgens in magno gaudio, ambulavit, lavit faciem suam in pelvi, et exclamabat dicens: “Tu magnus es, tibi gloriam defero, O Deus Sancti Coluthi, quia factus sum dignus ut gratiam mihi concederes luminis, quemadmodum mihi erat in initio.” Et omnes homines, qui in martyrium ingressi erant cum iis qui exiverant, venerunt universi: eumque contemplati sunt gaudentem vehementer, quod hoc lumen aspiceret.

Verum et homo ille, qui consideravit malum, quod fecit mulieri suae, magnificans (eam) confessus est S. Colutho dicens: “Ecce sanatus sum in corpore, et in anima mea; quia factus sum dignus venire ad locum hunc tuum.” Parentes quoque mulieris cum eius fratribus eiusque hominibus venerunt gaudentes, benedicentes et glorificantes dicebant: “Benedicta tu inter mulieres, O soror nostra, et filia nostra, quia gloriam hodie accepisti in medio multorum, ex quo confudisti multitudinem hominum, atque mulierum per nobilitatem tuam. Multitudo enim putavit te, O filia nostra, deprehendere in nato propter nobilitatem generis, et comitatem, atque suavi loquentiam.” Hoc tempore Sanctus Coluthus manifestavit gloriam magnitudinis, et nobilitatis suae per magnitudinem sanationum, quas fecit illis, qui infirmi erant, et qui crediderunt ei.

Post haec unusquisque abiit cum eo in domum suam. Honorarunt martyrium Sancti Coluthi: manducarunt, biberunt in ipsius loco, et rediere domum dantes gloriam Deo, et Sancto Colutho.

MIRACULUM II. VERSIO.

Audite quoque magnum aliud miraculum, quod factum est per S. Coluthum. Adductus porro est et homo mutilus non habens vim ambulandi super pedibus suis omnino: erantque manus eius aridae simul : non equidem gressum extulit, sed incedebat trahendo corpus per humum, quemadmodum eunt filii parvuli raptantes se super terram: dimissusque est in illius loco sancto.  Erat autem iacens in martyrio deprecans Deum, interpellans S. Coluthum propter sanitatem corporis sui, ut ei fieret sanatio.  Et ingemiscebat die ac nocte plorans etiam multoties: vociferans in magnis angoribus animi dicebat: “Adiuva me medice, sanator; ob id enim confugio ad te, domine mi, et ad tuum hocce martyrium sanctum, ut misereatis vilitatis meae.”   Homines vero omnes affligebantur vehementer propter eum clamantes: “Vere cruciatur.”

Post haec autem omnia misertus est illius S. Coluthus medicus sanationum effector.  Venit ad eum in visione noctis: stetit super eum, dixitque illi: “Nostine me?” Respondit ei: “Non, domine mi: tu quis es, qui inveniris magnitudine gloriae circumdatus.” Dixit ei in visione; “Ego sum Coluthus medicus, et homines quosque habentes fidem sano omnes gratis, et nullius omnino mercedem accipere cupio.” Dixit illi: “Domine mi, misericordia tua complectatur me, quoniam ego in angoribus sum nimis.” Dixit ei S. Coluthus in visione: “Surge tu diluculo ambula manibus, pedibusque tuis, et ingredere civitatem: et homini, aut mulieri occurrentibus tibi in civitate dic eis: ‘Quaenam est domus Mariae fornicariae?’ Illi eam tibi indicent. Et si te interrogaverint: ‘quare?’ dic illis: ‘Volo noctem cum ea transigere : dabo ei mercedem suam.’ Ne timeas, et ne verecunderis; magnum enim donum, et magna gratia fiet mulieri illi per te. Deseret turpitudinem erroris sui: fiet illustris tua hac occasione, quum audiverit misericordiam sanationis tuae….”

I hope this will prove useful.

A 3rd century papyrus conjugating γράφω in the indicative

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Here is a truly fascinating item.  It’s a leaf of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus.  On it, someone has drawn out a table of the forms of the Greek verb γράφω (“I write”)!

Here’s a splendid image of the verso:

What is displayed here is the forms of the verb, and these are labelled, much as they would be in a modern text.  How fascinating to see this!

The first side of the papyrus, the recto, shows the perfect and pluperfect indicative active forms.

This side of the papyrus, the verso, shows the middle/passive forms.  Indeed at the top of the page it states “τούτων παθητικὰ ἐνεστῶτος” = “The present passive forms of these”.  Then there is a line of dashes below.  In the margins, letters indicating whether each block is singular, dual, or plural.

The first blocks on the left are the present indicative middle/passive.  These start with “alpha” – the singular, given as today in order, 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person:

Γραφομαι
Γραφη
Γραφεται

Then a delta – “dual” and then these forms:

γραφόμεθον
γράφεσθον
γράφεσθον

Then a pi – “plural” against these forms:

γραφόμεθα
γράφεσθε
γράφοντο

Then a line and a fresh heading, “παρατατικού“, above the “imperfect” forms, this time with a leading epsilon.

In the right hand column are more forms.  The heading παρακειμένου precedes the perfect forms.  Then below the υπερσυντελισκοῦ, pluperfect.

Here is the published transcription (and reconstruction):

Somehow this is just wonderful to see, for anyone who has laboured over a grammar, memorising forms.

The papyrus and its transcription were published in 1940, in G. Zalateo, “Papiri Fiorentini inediti”, Aegyptus 20 (1940), pp.3-30, esp.8-11 (II.2); JSTOR.  The whole item is online here at PSI – Papiri della Società Italiana.  The papyrus itself is held at the “Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli»” – Vitelli Papyrological Institute, and has the shelfmark PSI inv. 204.

Here’s Zalateo’s 1940 introduction, passed through ChatGPT:

The papyrus comes from the excavation at Kôm Abu Teir (Oxyrhynchus), carried out by the Florentine Institute of Papyrology during the 1933 excavation campaign. Its quality is poor; it is light yellow in color; the handwriting is uncial, with numerous ligatures, yet clear and confident.

The sheet contains part of the conjugation of the verb γράφω (“I write”). Judging by the handwriting, one might think it was part of a school manual, albeit an inexpensive one. However, the numerous errors found in the conjugation suggest instead that it is a schoolboy’s exercise. Although the student evidently had very fine handwriting, he had not yet fully mastered the endings and characteristics of verbal conjugation.

Supporting this second hypothesis is a certain irregularity in the layout, both vertically—where the marginal abbreviations sometimes project farther out and sometimes are more indented—and horizontally. Moreover, the lines separating the different grammatical persons and moods vary considerably in shape and length, appearing to be the decorative flourishes of a young student. The erasure (line 20) seems to have been made with a wet finger, more discipulorum (“as schoolboys do”).

The papyrus, written on both sides in two columns, may have belonged to a student’s notebook, or it may have been a single sheet on which the student wrote an exercise consisting of the active and passive indicative conjugation of the verb γράφω.

The marginal abbreviations ᾱ, δ, π̄ refer to the grammatical numbers:

ᾱ = singular (ἐνικὸς ἀριθμός)
δ = dual (δυϊκὸς ἀριθμός)
π̄ = plural (πληθυντικὸς ἀριθμός)

In the footnotes, he notes various irregularities or mistakes in the forms given, and indeed a correction at one point.

But what a wonderful thing!  We may think of papyri as dull, but this is just marvellous to see.

H/t: I owe my knowledge of this papyrus to a post by Seth M. Ehorn of HCU on Twitter here, with interesting comments from Paul McKenna – thank you!

St Colluthus again, from a different Synaxarion

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I read that the first proper analysis of the Constantinople synaxarion – list of saints, quick details, and their saints’ day – is that in the Acta Sanctorum by H. Delahaye: Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanum e codice Sirmondiano nunc Berolinensi.  This is online here.  He’s printing a Berlin manuscript, but giving material from other manuscripts.

Here’s the entry he gives for May 19th, column 695, line 35, with a ChatGPT output for it:

2. Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἄθλησις τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Κολούθου.e Οὗτος ἦν ἐπὶ Μαξιμιανοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐκ Θηβαΐδος τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἐν Ἑρμουπόλει· καὶ διὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν Ἀρριανῷ τῷ ἡγεμόνι προσηχθῇ καὶ μήτε κολακείας δελεασθεὶς μήτε τὰς ἀπειλὰς αὐτοῦ καταπτήξας, πρῶτον μὲν μεγέθει λίθου τὸν αὐχένα βαρύνεται, εἶτα τὴν διὰ πυρὸς λαμβάνει ἀπόφασιν· καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ βληθεὶς τελειοῦται.

On the same day, the contest of the holy martyr Coluthus. This man lived under the emperor Maximian, from the Thebaid of Egypt, in Hermopolis. And because of his confession of Christ, he was brought before the governor Arianus; and, having been neither enticed by flattery nor terrified by his threats, first his neck is weighed down by the weight of a stone; then he receives the sentence by fire; and, having been cast into it, he is perfected (i.e., brought to martyrdom).

I was hoping to give you a proper “Life” of St Colluthus by now, but my local library have let me down.  I placed an ILL for a volume before I went away, two weeks ago.  This they never acknowledged.  I wrote again today, and was ignored.  Possibly the staff member is on holiday. Tomorrow I will write to a more general email address and we will see.

The Menologium Graecorum of Basil II and the “Life” of St Colluthus

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In the 1781 publication of two Coptic fragments of the “Life” of St Colluthus, the preface begins by describing how the pages reached the hands of the owner, Francisco Borgia.  It then continues by printing the entry for St Colluthus from volume 3, pages 105-6, of the “Menologium Graecorum”.  Borgia prints only the Greek text and that full of ligatures.  I was, indeed, unable to read it.

“Menologium Graecorum” was the title of the first printed edition of the Synaxarion of the Greek church.  (A synaxarion is a liturgical book containing a list of the saints and their feast days with a short description). The editor was A. Albani:

ALBANI, Annibale (1682-1751). Menologium Graecorum. Urbino: Antonio Fantauzzi (17270,  3 vols.

At more length, the title is:

Menologium Graecorum jussu Basilii imperatoris Graece olim editum, munificentia et liberalitate … Benedicti XIII. In tres partes divisum nunc primum Graece, et Latine prodit, studio et opera Annibalis … card. Albani

The volumes are online:

Vol. 1 – https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_layxa_CFQpEC/page/n4/mode/1up

Vol. 2 – https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_nOmkHy194oUC/page/n3/mode/1up

Vol. 3 –  https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_4Bol8GjwYB0C/page/n5/mode/2up

While the text was edited by Cardinal Annibale Albani, it was compiled by Giuseppe Simonio Assemani, and came with a Latin parallel translation. This Borgia helpfully omitted.

Albani’s work is reprinted in the Patrologia Graeca vol. 117.  The Colluthus section is on col. 465-6.

Now the first two volumes were printed from a single deluxe physical manuscript – 430 miniatures! – of one of the recensions of the Synaxarion.  This manuscript is known as the Menologium of Basil II, dates to the late 10th century, and today is held in the Vatican, where the shelfmark is MS. Vat. gr. 1613.  It is also online here.  But it only includes the contents for the months of September to February.  Probably a second volume once existed, with the summer months.

So where did Albani find the text of his summer section, which he printed as volume 3?  In Albini’s preface, unnumbered page, we learn:

Secundo, semestrem alteram Partem, cujus initium à mense Martio ducitur, quamque Bollandiani Socii in monasterio Cryptae Ferratae repertam dicunt, à Joanne Francisco Albano iis Graecè Latinèque transmissam fuisse ante annum Christi 1668. quo mensem Martium ex Basiliano Menologio edidere, quemadmodum Joannes Ciampinus in Diario anni 1676. testatur.

Secondly, the other six-month portion, beginning with the month of March, which the Bollandists report having found at the monastery of Grottaferrata, had already been sent to them by Giovanni Francesco Albani in both Greek and Latin before 1668. In that year they published the March section of the Basilian Menologion, as Giovanni Ciampini records in his diary under the year 1676.”

As I learn from the Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography vol. 2, p.205, the manuscript used for the summer section, which is still at Grottaferrata, has the shelfmark MS Cryptensis Β.γ.III.  So that was used for our section of the book.

Colluthus’ saints’ day is 19 May.  So what does the work say about St. Colluthus?  Well, I was not going to fight with the Greek ligatures, so I used AI to transcribe and translate the Latin.

Ex certamen sancti Martyris Colluthi.

Martyr Christi Colluthus fuit, Imperatore Maximiano, ex Thebaide Aegypti urbe. Ob Christi autem confessionem ab idololatris comprehensus, praesidi regionis traditus est: a quo neque blanditiis illectus, neque minis perterritus, Christum libere profitebatur. Idcirco primum quidem ingenti saxo ad ejus collum alligato, inverso capite suspensus fuit. Cumque a lictoribus flagellaretur, dicebat: “Non sunt condignae passiones hujus temporis ad futuram gloriam, quae revelabitur in nobis.” Postea e ligno, in quo suspensus fuerat, depositus, fanum idolorum ingredi, et sacrificare compellitur. Quod cum facere recusaret, ut flammis addiceretur, sententiam accepit. In fornacem itaque valde accensam injectus, hujusce temporariae vitae finem habuit.

English:

From the Contest (martyrdom) of Saint Martyr Colluthus.

Colluthus was a martyr of Christ, when Maximian was emperor, from a city of the Thebaid in Egypt. Because of his confession of Christ, he was seized by the idolaters, and handed over to the governor of the province. Neither enticed by his flattery nor frightened by his threats, he continued to profess Christ openly.  Therefore firstly he was suspended upside down with a great stone tied to his neck. And while he was being flogged by the executioners, he said, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18)

Then he was taken down from the wooden frame on which he had been suspended, and he was forced to go into the temple of the idols and offer sacrifice. But when he refused to do so he was sentenced to be burned alive.  And so he was thrown into an intensely heated furnace, and there was the end of his earthly life.

But then it occurred to me that the Patrologia Graeca text must – unusually – be easier to read than the original edition, because the ligatures would be expanded.  And so they were.  ChatGPT scanned the PG text as follows:

Καὶ ἄθλησις τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Κολλούθου.

Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Κολλοῦθος ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Μαξιμιανοῦ, ἐκ Θηβαΐδος πόλεως τῆς Αἰγύπτου· διὰ δὲ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν κρατηθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν προσκυνούντων τὰ εἴδωλα, παρεδόθη τῷ τῆς χώρας ἡγεμόνι· καὶ μήτε κολακείαις δελεασθεὶς, μήτε ἀπειλαῖς πτοηθεὶς, ὡμολόγει τὸν Χριστὸν παῤῥησίᾳ. Διὰ τοῦτο πρῶτον μὲν λίθῳ μεγάλῳ τὸν τράχηλον προσεδεθεὶς, ἐκρεμάσθη κατὰ κεφαλῆς. Καὶ τυπτόμενος ὑπὸ τῶν δημίων, ἔλεγεν· Οὐκ ἄξια τὰ παθήματα τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι εἰς ἡμᾶς. Ἔπειτα τοῦ ξύλου, ἐν ᾧ ἐκρέματο, καταβιβασθεὶς, ἠναγκάζετο ἀπελθεῖν εἰς τὸν ναὸν τῶν εἰδώλων, καὶ θῦσαι. Καὶ μὴ πεισθεὶς, τὴν διὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἀπόφασιν ἐδέξατο· καὶ ἐμβληθεὶς εἰς κάμινον ἰσχυρῶς ἐκκαεισαν, τέλος ἔσχε τοῦ προσκαίρου βίου.

One word (παῤῥησίᾳ) was definitely read incorrectly, from an awful blur, but luckily it was not abbreviated in the original.  AI then translated this as follows, which I have slightly amended.  Someone with real knowledge of Greek will doubtless find errors, but this is enough for our purpose.

The Contest of the Holy Martyr Colluthus

The martyr of Christ, Colluthus, lived during the reign of Maximian. He was from a city of the Thebaid in Egypt. Because of his confession of Christ, he was seized by those who worshipped idols and handed over to the governor of the province. Neither enticed by flatteries nor intimidated by threats, he confessed Christ with boldness.

Therefore, they first fastened a great stone to his neck and suspended him head downwards. While he was being beaten by the executioners, he was saying, “The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us.”

Afterward, they took him down from the wooden beam on which he had been hanging, and they compelled him to go to the temple of the idols and to offer sacrifice. But he refused to comply and he received the sentence of death by fire. He was thrown into a fiercely burning furnace, and he had the end of his temporary life.

Nothing about this tells us much, unfortunately.  Whatever the original work said, this is abbreviated to the point of non-existence.  Oh well.

I thought that I would finish this post by posting the Albani text, from p.105-106.

Lovely.

Update (20 July 2026): I have revised the text of this post in several places where it relates to the Synaxarion, because I have learned a bit more.  There are more than 50 manuscripts containing various versions of the Synaxarion of Constantinople.  Most of these belong to seven main recensions.1

The following useful summary is from D. Thomas and A. Mallett, “Synaxarion Of The Great Church” In: Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 3 (1050-1200) (2011) pp. 574–585  DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004195158.i-804.343:

The Synaxarion owes its origin to the deacon Euaristus who, during the personal reign of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (944-59), wrote the first book of this kind, which he dedicated to the emperor, and this is when the Synaxarion took the form in which we now find it: mostly a collection of notices. In his preface, preserved anonymously in a Greek manuscript (in the Arabic translation, the Melkite Synaxarion [q.v.], the name of the author is given as h.w.r.s.t.s; see Sauget, 1969), Euaristus briefly outlines the principles that guided him in making abstracts of long hagiographical texts, especially the passions of the martyrs. This first stage of the text (recension H*, separated by Noret) is preserved in whole or in part in three manuscripts.

The collection then evolved over the centuries. The fundamental work of the editor of the Synaxarion, H. Delehaye, taken further in the century that followed by others (Noret, Luzzi), makes it possible to distinguish seven recensions: H* (the primitive form), S* (later, to which belongs the Synaxarion of Sirmond, S, the base witness of Delehaye’s edition), B* (the archetype of which is the famous Menologion of Basil II, Vat. gr. 1613, a manuscript illustrated with 430 miniatures presented to the Emperor Basil II in the late 10th century), C* (probably an exclusively Italo-Greek recension, secondary to B*) D*, F* and finally M*, the most recent recension, which became prevalent in the 12th century. The Melkite Synaxarion (Sauget, 1969) is an 11th-century Arabic translation of a text close to that in MS G (see list of manuscripts below), which is an abbreviation of form F*. This classification omits a few individual manuscripts, since the history of the text of the Synaxarion, which was adapted and evolved with time and place, is still only imperfectly known.

  1. Andrea Luzzi, “Synaxaria and the Synaxarion of Constantinople,” in: S. Efthymiadis (ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography, vol. 2 (2014), p.197-208.  Online here.[↩]

How the first pages from the White Monastery were discovered

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In the 18th century, a chamber in the ruins of the White Monastery at Sohag in Egypt contained piles of loose leaves of a vast and ancient Coptic library.   In previous posts I have noted how the first to learn of the existence of this material was Cardinal Stefano Borgia, secretary  of the Papal missionary organisation, the Propaganda Fidei.  In 1781 he published a Coptic text containing two miracles of the obscure Coptic saint Colluthus from some pages sent to him by a Franciscan missionary in Egypt.1  The actual transcriber and translator was, of course, not the mighty cardinal but A. Giorgi.

I thought that it would be interesting to see exactly what Borgia said about the find, in his preface.  An English translation is below.

Latin:

ERUDITO LECTORI STEPHANUS BORGIA

Fragmentum sane pretiosum, ac insigne prorsus Actorum S. Coluthi Martyris, quod nunc publici iuris facimus, detectum fuit anno circiter MDCCLXXVIII inter rudera veteris monasterii, quod situm erat prope Thebas in superiore Aegypto, quae urbs caput, & metropolis Thebaidis quondam erat.  Aliter etiam audiebat haec ipsa urbs, quae nimirum dicta quaque est “Diapolis”, vel “Diospolis” (a), & “Hecatompylos”, mutuato posteriori hoc nomine a centum portis, quibus eadem donabatur (b), & ob quas apud Iuvenalem (c) legitur: “Atque vetus Thebe centum iacet obruta portis.”

Thebarum itaque civitas, de qua nunc loquimur, haud permiscenda est cum ceteris eidem homonymis, quas & in Boeotia (quae quidem ob Amphionis fabulam, per quam ab eo condita eiusdem moenia circumferuntur, celebris evasit, quaeque & Heptapylos dicta est ob septem eidem tributas portas, quas respexit Iuvenalis (d), dum ait: “Rari quippe boni: numero vix sunt totidem, quot Thebarum portae, vel divitis ostia Nili” & in Cilicia, & in Corsica, & in Italia tandem, in Lucania nempe, olim exstitisse cognovimus. Hinc factum est, ut Ptolemaeus (a), quo nostras Thebas ab aliis distingueret, civitatem hanc ipsam “μεγάλην” “magnam” scilicet appellaverit.

De loco, in quo huiusmodi fragmentum prostabat, fidem nobis facit Angelus Antonius Bergomas Alumnus Fratrum Minor, Reformator, Nagadae degens, quod oppidum est Aegypti superioris, qui huiusmodi fragmentum ad nos dono misit cum nonnullis aliis, ac singulis quidem membranaceis, atque eodem loco existentibus, tum & Copticis litteris exaratis; inter quae est, quod ceteris praestet, illud, quod Coptice, & Graece uno tempore loquitur, quodque capitula aliquot adhuc integra Evangelii S. Ioannis comprehendit, quae insuper edenda in sacrorum studiorum utilitatem mature curabimus (b). Interim praeclare actum censeri debet cum fragmento, de quo agimus, quod nempe strenuum illustratorem, & interpretem magnum natum fuerit, virum scilicet cl. Augustinum Antonium Georgium Eremitarum Augustinensium Procuratorem generalem, cui commode illud extricandum pro summa sua orientalium fere omnium linguarum peritia, & pro insigni ad ardua quaeque  expedienda alacritate commisimus. Quare cum duo tantum, eaque mutila prodigia contineat fragmentum Actorum S. Coluthi, quae ad eius martyrium patrata perhibentur, ita ad ea supplenda ipse industriam, & animum suum comparavit, ut nil sive verosimilius, sive felicius excogitari posse videatur iis, quae ab eo nunc proponuntur.

Nos vero, ut quoquo modo huic rerum apparatui sane egregio respondeamus, & orientalis litteraturae studiosis morem geramus, characteris specimen aere insculptum exhibemus, quod nempe ex prioribus fragmenti lineis petitum est, ut proinde ex eo iudicium ferri possit de universa Copticarum litterarum forma, qua quinque omnino membranae, binis in unaquaque scripturae columnis appositis, exaratae sunt, quot nempe a pag. 221. ad pag. 230., quemadmodum recensentur, existunt. Hinc sane colligere est, fragmentum hoc pertinuisse olim ad codicem, in quo forsan alia Sanctorum Martyrum acta continebantur, quodque vulgo “Passionarium” appellari consuevit. Profecto scribendi forma magnam redolet vetustatem, quae ex sententia laudati Georgii nostri, & Raphaelis Tukii natione Aegyptii, & Episcopi Arsenovensis, cui acceptae referri debent editiones peractae Liturgicorum librorum, & Psalmorum Coptice loquentium typis Propagandae Fidei, viri sane utriusque ad iudicium de huiusmodi re recte ferendum perquam idonei, saeculi quinti aetatem citra dubium omne attingat. Nulla in hisce membranis capitulorum vestigia, sive sectionum indicia, neque eo loci, quo ad rem aliam fiat orationis conversio; ut idcirco ubi explicit prioris miraculi narratio per haec verba: “Dantes gloriam Deo, & Sancto Colutho,” continenter, citra ulterioris capituli auspicationem, alterius prodigii descriptio subsequatur per haec verba: “Audite quoque magnum aliud miraculum”. Acta haec Thebanensi, seu Sahidica dialecto, quae in superiore Aegypto obtinebat, non autem Memphitica, seu Alexandrina, quae communiter adhibebatur, concinnata sunt. At non haec nos nunc agimus.

(a) Hinc Manethoni, Africano, & Eusebio Reges Thebani “Diopolitani” nuncupantur.

(b) “Hecatompylos” eadem de causa vocabatur urbs Parthiae maxima, & regia, inter Ecbatana, & Alexandriam Ariae.

(c) Sat. xv. v. 6.

(d) Sat. xiii. v. 26.

(a) Lib. iv. cap. 5.

(b) Vide quae de hoc fragmento adnotavit eruditiss. Andreas Christianus Hwiidius Hauniensis in Specim. ined. versionis Arabico-Samarit. Pentateuchi Romae 1680. pag. 14.

English:

TO THE LEARNED READER, STEPHANUS BORGIA.

This truly precious and altogether remarkable fragment of the Acts of Saint Coluthus the Martyr, which we are now publishing, was discovered (detectum) around the year 1778 among the ruins of an old monastery situated near Thebes in Upper Egypt, a city that was once the capital and metropolis of the Thebaid. This same city was also known by other names: it was called “Diapolis” or “Diospolis” (a), and “Hecatompylos,” the latter name being derived from the hundred gates with which it was endowed (b), and on account of which we read in Juvenal (c): “And ancient Thebes lies buried beneath its hundred gates.”

The city of Thebes of which we now speak, therefore, must not be confused with other cities bearing the same name, which we know to have existed in Boeotia (which indeed became famous because of the legend of Amphion, by whom its walls are said to have been built, and which was also called Heptapylos because of the seven gates attributed to it, as Juvenal (d) had in mind when he said: “for truly the good are rare: they are scarcely as many in number as the gates of Thebes or the mouths of the wealthy Nile)” — and also in Cilicia, in Corsica, and finally in Italy, namely in Lucania. Hence it came about that Ptolemy (a), in order to distinguish our Thebes from the others, called this very city “μεγάλην”—that is, “the Great.”

Concerning the place where this fragment was offered for sale (prostabat), we have the testimony of Angelo Antonio Bergamo, a member of the Order of the Reformed Friars Minor, residing at Nagada, a town in Upper Egypt. He sent this fragment to us as a gift, along with several others, each of them on parchment and found (existentibus) in the same place, and all written in Coptic letters. Among them, the one that stands out above the rest is that which speaks (loquitur) both in Coptic and Greek at the same time, and which contains several chapters—still complete—of the Gospel of Saint John, which we shall take care to publish in due course for the benefit of sacred studies (b). In the meantime, the fragment with which we are now concerned should be considered particularly fortunate, in that it has found a vigorous editor and great interpreter, namely the renowned Father Agostino Antonio Giorgio, Procurator General of the Augustinian Hermits, to whom we conveniently entrusted the task of unraveling it, on account of his supreme expertise in almost all Oriental languages and his notable eagerness to undertake difficult tasks. Therefore, since the fragment of the Acts of Saint Coluthus contains only two miracles—and those mutilated—which are reported to have been performed at the time of his martyrdom, he so applied his industry and mind to supplementing them that it seems impossible for anything to be more plausibly or more successfully devised than what he now proposes.

For our part, in order to respond in some measure to this truly excellent scholarly undertaking and to gratify students of Oriental literature, we present a specimen of the script engraved on copper, taken from the first lines of the fragment, so that from it a judgment may be formed concerning the whole form of Coptic letters in which all five parchment leaves are written—with two columns of writing on each—namely those which exist from page 221 to page 230, as they are numbered. From this it may be gathered that this fragment once belonged to a codex that perhaps contained other Acts of the Holy Martyrs, and which was commonly called a “Passionarium.” Indeed, the style of writing smacks greatly of antiquity, which, in the opinion of our aforementioned Giorgio and of Raphael Tukius, an Egyptian by birth and Bishop of Arsenopolis—to whom are owed the editions already completed of the Liturgical books and the Psalms in Coptic printed by the Propaganda Fide press, both men highly qualified to make a correct judgment on this matter—unquestionably reaches back to the fifth century. In these leaves there are no traces of chapters or indications of sections, nor any place where the discourse turns to another subject; so that where the account of the first miracle ends with these words: “Giving glory to God and to Saint Coluthus,” the description of the second miracle immediately follows, without any heading of another chapter, with these words: “Hear also another great miracle.” These acts are composed in the Theban, or Sahidic, dialect, which prevailed in Upper Egypt, and not in the Memphitic, or Alexandrian, dialect, which was more commonly used. But we are not concerned with these matters now.

(a) Hence Manetho, Africanus, and Eusebius call the Theban kings “Diopolitans.”

(b) For the same reason, “Hecatompylos” was also the name of the greatest royal city of Parthia, situated between Ecbatana and Alexandria in Aria.

(c) Satires, Book XV, verse 6.

(d) Satires, Book XIII, verse 26.

(a) [second occurrence] Book IV, chapter 5.

(b) [second occurrence] See what the most learned Andreas Christianus Hwiidius of Copenhagen noted about this fragment in his unpublished Specimen of the Arabic-Samaritan Version of the Pentateuch, Rome 1680, page 14.

He then goes on to give the Greek text of a Greek menologium about the saint, and then other bits and pieces, of no importance here.

Borgia is clearly suspicious of the supposed location of the find, in a monastery near Thebes.  It may be that he has enough knowledge of the area, from missionary reports, to realise that this cannot be true.  He repeats the information that he has – plainly from Bergamo – that it was “discovered (detectum) around the year 1778 among the ruins of an old monastery situated near Thebes.”  Then in the next paragraph he refers instead to “the place where it was offered for sale (prostabat)”. No doubt the pages were indeed brought to Luxor – was the antiquity trade already beginning at that date? -, and so were offered to Bergamo at Naqada, just 15 miles away to the north.

Stephen Emmel in his massively scholarly Shenoute’s Literary Corpus vol. 1 (2004), p.20 rightly suggests:

Both the vagueness of the reported provenance and its basic inaccuracy are symptoms of what was no doubt a conscious effort on the part of those in charge of the monastery to keep their treasure secret. Even when subsequent visitors to the monastery asked explicitly about old books, with a view to studying or buying them, the horde of precious parchment fragments was not revealed.(56)

On the other hand, it is reasonable to suppose that it was precisely the steadily growing stream of European visitors interested in antiquity that led to a new regard for the heap of ruined old books in the trash room, which could now be perceived as a valuable commodity. Furthermore, in 1718 a Jesuit mission had been established in Akhmim, across the river from the monastery …

In all this, it is important to remember that archaeology had yet to be invented, and would not be invented until the 20th century.  Indeed the creation of a scientific discipline to uncover the past was prompted precisely by observing the rate at which “everything was being destroyed.”

In this period those in charge at the White Monastery no doubt felt that they were acting very much for the best, turning worthless unreadable rubbish into good solid current coinage – always a pleasant thing – at the expense of rich but daft foreigners.  The same predatory feeling still motivates a very large number of people in Egypt today, of course.

  1. Fragmentum Copticum ex Actis S. Coluthi Martyris Erutum ex Membranis Vetustissimis Saeculi V ac. Latine Redditum:  online here.[↩]

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Some much-needed and long-delayed holiday time with my girlfriend this week!  I had booked two rooms in the Holiday Inn Express in Shrewsbury, England, mainly because it had air-conditioning.  As is often the case with this chain, the air-conditioning proved to be excellent in the rooms, and it nicely tempered the searing heat.  I was truly grateful that I had not booked a cottage!

From the car park at the front of the hotel, the view was dominated by the mass of the Wrekin hill, which loomed over the landscape.  The mornings were spent in visits to friends who had moved to the area – house-prices are relatively low – and the afternoons were spent flat on our beds, recovering.

I had noted that the Roman city of Wroxeter, ancient Viriconium, was about 5 miles away from the hotel, down a lane, and to it I duly went one afternoon.  The massive wall of the bath-house is the dominating feature of the site.

The opening in the middle originally featured a pair of massive doors, which led into the frigidarium.  This wall was the main entrance to the baths, and was constructed more substantially, which is perhaps why it has survived.  The hypocausts for the hot room are well-preserved also.

Almost as interesting on that afternoon was the discovery that the site shop had a freezer.  In this resided a number of flavours of ice-cream, including a “magnum”.  This ice-cream accompanied me as I walked around the site.

The weather was too hot to do much with Shrewsbury itself, and the lack of air-conditioning in shops was remarkable.  The result was that my visit  to the town was quickly cut short.  But I think that I will return, and explore further.

More digitizations at Google Books?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An interesting email has reached me, noticing that work seems to have resumed at Google Books:

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Google Books has been adding new material this year from a number of university libraries that have entered their partnership program. As could be expected, the [most likely] reason is that they are desperate to get more printed material to train their LLMs, and libraries are happy if big corporations put up the money and resources to scan their collections. Here’s a very recent article about digitization at Delaware University.

Lately I have seen many books I couldn’t find before with digitization date from around [last April], from Oxford and other places….

This seems entirely plausible, and also good news in a way.

It’s been known for a while that some AI companies are scanning books.  An “AI” system seems to be basically a search engine with a chatbot on the front, which is why Google panicked when AI came along.  It’s the same market.  Naturally the search engine has to be populated somehow.  They call it “training an LLM”, in order to obfusticate the violations of copyright, but in truth it seems to be something as simple as populating the database or “model” with the data to be searched.  In this case, all the books in the world.

I’d rather have access to the books than whatever an AI engine spits out of them, tho.

A curious story: the 1972 sales of the library of the King’s Inns, Dublin.

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The 1597 edition of the Opera Omnia of Tertullian, edited by Franciscus Junius, is one of the rarer early editions.  A few days ago, I learned that there was a copy at the Tresoar library in Frisia, in the Netherlands, shelf-mark “F 1532”.  The volume has a clear stamp showing that at one point it belonged the library of the King’s Inns, in Dublin.

The four Inns of Court in London are professional associations, which every barrister must join in order to practice, and which provide various facilities for the legal profession.  But Dublin did and does possess its own inn of court, the King’s Inns, which fulfils a similar role in the Irish legal system.  This was established in 1541, and is an important part of the cultural heritage of Ireland.  In particular it built up a valuable general library of antiquarian books and maps, including incunables, only a portion of which were related to the law.  But much of it was of crucial importance for Irish heritage and cultural identity.  Often the book was the only copy in the country, in some cases almost the only copy known to exist.

In 1971, however, something strange happened.  The King’s Inns was in serious financial difficulty.  This had been made worse by spending significant sums on its catering arrangements.  The ruling council of King’s Inns, the “benchers”, had to do something.  So what they decided to do was to sell those books in the library which were not related to the law, books “under the classification of scientific, religious and geographical.”

As news of the proposed sale drifted out into the library community in Ireland, concerns began to appear, and increasing numbers of questions were asked.  Scenting trouble, the then Irish Prime Minister obtained a promise from the benchers not to sell books which contained “any reference to Ireland.” 1  The barristers themselves began to ask questions about what was happening.  But Sotheby’s were instructed, and duly proceeded to remove all the books.  Shockingly it seems that the benchers did not even pay very much attention to just which books were removed.  A short hand list existed of a few hundred volumes, but this was only a fraction of what was removed:

It is clear that, as the van from Sotheby’s drove down Henrietta Street laden with some 7,000 volumes comprising almost three thousand titles, nobody at King’s Inns knew exactly which books had gone from the society’s library. Not even Sotheby’s had a list.2

Inevitably this meant that a number of valuable legal books were also taken, as well as books clearly of cultural importance.  Around 90,000 volumes were left, about 50% of which are non-legal.

Despite frantic attempts by Irish libraries to rescue at least some of the books, this collection was disposed of in 1972 in three sales, raising a total of £138,975 for the King’s Inns, plus a commission of approximately £24,000 going to Sothebys. 3  In modern money this would be approximately £2.38m and £411k.  In these days, when the expenditure of a few million pounds is almost petty cash, the income from the sale seems very paltry compared to the damage that it did to Ireland. 4

Title page of the Sothebys catalogue of the King’s Inns sale, 20 November 1972.
  1. Kenny, p.54.[↩]
  2. Kenny, p.62.[↩]
  3. Kenny, p.137.[↩]
  4. For many more details, see Colum Kenny, King’s Inns and the Battle of the Books, 1972: Cultural Controversy at a Dublin Library (2002).[↩]

Mithras for sale! – A Cautes figure at auction in Monte Carlo (CIMRM 645 / 646)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Exciting news for those with rather more money than myself – a two foot (67 cms) tall statue of Cautes, one of the torch-bearers (“dadophores”), the attendants of Mithras, is up for sale at the Interencheres sale “From Caesar to Caesar” in Monte Carlo on the 8th August 2026.  The lot is here on the auction house website.  Here’s one of the images:

The inscription is “Hymnus inbicto” (for “invicto”), “Hymnus (gives this) to the unconquered (god)”.

The estimate is 30,000 euros – about $34,000 – although of course it will undoubtedly go for more, and the auction house commission and the tax add 30%.

The item must have come originally from a Mithraeum somewhere.  It’s immediate origin is from a “French private collection”.  Earlier restorations indicate 18-19th century work.

The website tells us that it was published in F. Cumont, Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra, vol. 2 (1898).  The inscription is no 162 (on p.122), who gave its origin as from Capena.  It’s in CIL XI, 3865.  In Cumont the monument is no. 105 (on p.260):

*105. CAPENA. Statue de marbre blanc [H. Om,65] trouvée au commencement de ce siècle à Turrita. Aujourd’hui au même lieu dans la maison de M. Trasi.
Décrite: Tomasetti, Archivio della società Romana di storia patria, VII(1894), p. 420, n° 1, cf. CIL. XI,3865.

The CIMRM reference is 645 and 646, in Etruria, with location instead as “Torrita”:

645
Marble statue (H. 0.65), found at Torrita near Nazzano in the beginning of the 19th century. Formerly in Trasi’s house at Torrita, now at Rome (Tomasetti) but I do not know where.

Tomasetti in Arch. Storia Patria VII, 1884, 420 n. 1; Campagna Romana, III, 328f; MMM II 260 No. 105; Taylor, Cults Etr., 58.

Standing torchbearer in Phrygian cap, tunica, cloak and anaxyrides. In the l.h. (broken off) a torch; the rh. is missing. On the base beside the r. foot an inscription:

646

ClL XI 3865; MMM II No. 162.
Hymnu/s inbic/to.

I hope whoever buys this item enjoys it!