We’re pleased to announce that we have just updated the Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects. This is the largest we have done since the database first launched, and introduces a major change – for the first time, we are publishing online a number of previously unpublished texts in advance of the second volume of the Papyri Copticae Magicae (PCM). We have also been updating the texts published in the first volume, so that PCM I nos. I 1–11 now contain the same texts and notes as the published versions, with the exception of a few more recent corrections.
As well as the usual corrections and updates, the contents of this update include:
- 26 new manuscript entries, bringing the total to 1172.
- 99 new text entries, bringing the total to 355. These consist of:
- BnF Copte 129.20 fol. 178, a fragmentary codex sheet containing recipes for healing problems including difficult childbirth and deafness, published in 2022 by Markéta Preininger, and discussed by her in a series of blogposts on this site.
- British Library Ms. Or. 6794, a spell intended to help a man named Seuēros (“Severos”) to acquire a beautiful singing voice.
- British Library MS Or. 6796 (4) + MS Or. 6796, a prayer which claims to have been spoken by Jesus Christ himself, and which promises protection from demonic forces.
- We are very grateful to Joseph E. Sanzo for his collaboration on the edition of the two British Library manuscripts, which he examined himself in a visit to London.
- P. Mich. Inv. 593, a 16-page codex copied by three different scribes, containing a prayer said to have been granted to Seth, son of Adam, together with 32 procedures using it for various forms of protection and good fortune.
- P. Mich. Inv. 1294 is a papyrus sheet, published online here for the first time, which contains a love spell which invokes the sun and the moon to make a woman fall in love with the user.
- P. Mich. Inv. 602 is another manuscript published online here for the first time. It contains a copy of a prayer attributed to the legendary Judas Cyriacus, followed by the same love spell found in P. Mich. Inv. 1294, an unexpected wine account, and then a series of spells for love and healing, one of which mentions the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris.
- P. Mich. Inv. 599 + 594 + 603 + 596 + 598 + 597 + 595 is, as the name implies, a strange manuscript consisting of a series of seven sheets which collectively function as a kind of unbound book. The user copied the texts of P. Mich. Inv. 593, and then those from a number of other manuscripts, including P. Mich. Inv. 602 and 1294, along with a few notes on the texts being copied. While the parts of the manuscript also found in P. Mich. Inv. 593 have previously been published and translated, the rest has remained unpublished until now.
For anyone who would like to access the raw data, remember that the Manuscripts and Texts tables may be downloaded from the Database Help page (“About the Kyprianos Database”) in the form of CSV files.