Magic matters: The Hay Archive of Coptic Spells on Leather
Dr. Elisabeth R. O’Connell (Byzantine World Curator, The British Museum, London)
The Hay archive of Coptic manuscripts consists of seven fragmentary sheets of leather bearing spells for divination, protection, healing, personal advancement, cursing and the satisfaction of sexual desire. Purchased from the heir of the famous early Egyptologist and draftsman, Robert Hay (1799–1863), the manuscripts arrived at the British Museum in 1869. A new study prompted by the urgent conservation needs of the corpus has sought to provide a model integrated approach to the publication of ancient texts as archaeological objects by providing a full record of provenance and collection history; scientific analysis; conservation approach and treatment; a new complete edition and translation of the Coptic texts; and an extended discussion of the cultural context of production. Written on poorly processed leather, the manuscripts were copied by more than one non-professional writer in the eighth-ninth centuries, much later than previous scholars had allowed. Employing a striking combination of ancient Egyptian, Graeco-Roman, biblical and extra-biblical motifs, their contents represent a Christian milieu making use of the mechanics of earlier ‘magical’ practice in a period in Egypt well after the arrival of Islam.
Co-organised by Prof. Dr. Claudia Sode, Byzantine Studies, and Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann within the GSSC Thematic Area "Transregional Museum and Heritge Studies".
Date:
12 November 2025
18:00
Venue:
Room S 15
Seminargebäude,
Universitätsstraße 37, 50931 Köln