ALLBERRY, C.R.C.

A Manichaean Psalm-book, Part II [Manichaean Manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Collection, Volume II]

Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer, 1938.

Quarto, xiv, [470] (the openings numbered 1-234), [2], 48* pages plus 2 pages of plates.

Cloth beginning to split at the front joint and very slightly foxed and rubbed; paper a little tanned; a few other minor signs of age and handling; a very good copy.

A presentation copy, inscribed by the author 'To A. Persis Burkitt, the gift of Charles Allberry, in memory of one who cared for the Manichees. 11.2.40'. Amy Persis Burkitt was wife of Francis Crawford Burkitt (1864-1935), Cambridge theologian and scholar of Syriac, and the dedicatee of this volume.

The papyrus codices containing this collection of Manichaean psalms were discovered at Medinet Madi, Egypt, and divided between the Chester Beatty collection and the Berlin Academy. The text is given here the original Coptic with parallel English translation on the facing page. Manichaeism, the dualist religion founded by the Persian prophet Mani in the 3rd century AD, flourished in late antiquity before being suppressed. The fragments here include some of its earliest text, including the Psalms of the Bema, the Psalms of Jesus, the Psalms of Thomas, and the Psalms of Herakleides. The twelve-page 'Introduction I' by Hugo Ibscher in this second volume is in German. Charles Robert Cecil Augustine Allberry (1911-1943) never completed his work on the damaged first part of the psalm book, nor on his Coptic dictionary. After serving at Bletchley Park he joined the Royal Air Force and was killed during a bombing raid over Germany in 1943.

Volume I of the Manichaean Manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Collection series, covering other Manichaean religious texts, was published in 1934 in German with the title 'Manichäische Homilien'.