The Crosby-Schoyen Codex, one of the oldest books containing early Christian texts, has sold at Christie's for £3,065,000. Interest in this ancient publication was sparked after its discovery in 1952 in a jar buried at the foot of a cliff in the Egyptian desert.
The book, dated to the middle of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century, contains the two earliest complete texts of the Bible: the Book of Jonah and the first epistle of Peter. It is believed that the texts written in it on papyrus paper became evidence of a transitional period on the way to Christianity.
104 pages (52 letters) were written by one scribe over 40 years in a monastery in Upper Egypt. They are currently unfastened, placed in glass frames stored in small wooden chests.
"This is a unique object of the history of Christianity and information technology. We know of other codices, but none of them have survived," said Eugenio Donadoni, Christie's leading specialist in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts.
The codex was discovered in Egypt and transferred to the University of Mississippi, where it remained until 1981. Norwegian manuscript collector Dr. Martin Schoen purchased it in 1988, where it remained until the recent auction.
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Source: dailymail.co.uk
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