As I compiled stories of discoveries of early Christian manuscripts for my book, God’s Library, one of the recurring tropes I encountered was the claim (usually by European and American scholars and collectors) that native Egyptians burned manuscripts. Such stories circulated about the Beatty Biblical Papyri, the Bodmer Papyri, the Nag Hammadi Codices, Codex Sinaiticus, and the Tura Papyri (for further details and references, see the entry for “burning of manuscripts” in the index of God’s Library).
The idea that “the natives burned” manuscripts is a trope that goes back to the very beginning of European encounters with Egyptian papyri. The earliest such report known to me is Nicolao Schow, Charta papyracea graece scripta musei Borgiani Velitris (Rome: A. Fulgonium, 1788), iii–iv: “diripiebant Turcae, earumque fumo (nam odorem fumi aromaticum esse dicunt) sese oblectabant” (the Turks tear them up; they are delighted by the smoke, for they say its smell is aromatic). Continue reading
For some time now, I’ve been trying to make progress in ascertaining the previous ownership of both the manuscripts and the cartonnage (from mummies and other sources) that ended up in the Green Collection. This post will focus on the mummy masks. For the record, there are several mummy masks that have been associated with the Green Collection over the years. 
Thanks to Alin Suciu and Tommy Wasserman for pointing out that some of the 
The John Rylands Library contains a great collection of papyri in different languages. I’m most interested in the Greek pieces, the bulk of which were published in the first half of the twentieth century in four volumes. Digital copies of the first two volumes, edited by Arthur S. Hunt, have for some time been available at the wonderful archive.org. Volumes 3 and 4, published in 1938 and 1952 have not been available online, but I just realized that at some point late last year, the University of Manchester uploaded scans of volumes 3 and 4 (interestingly, the copies are from Princeton Theological Seminary). These volumes contain some very important Jewish and Christian manuscripts. This is a fantastic development for those of us without access to a good papyrological library. Thanks to our friends at the University of Manchester and archive.org (and PTS)! Links are here:
