Auction of One of the Oldest Books in the World; Experts Estimate Its Value at Over Two and a Half Million Dollars

A book from Egypt, written during the emergence of Christianity and recognized as one of the oldest texts of Christianity, is set to be auctioned in London in June; this book, which is one of the oldest surviving books in the world, is expected to sell for over two and a half million dollars. According to Reuters, Christie's auction house states that the estimated sale value of this ancient manuscript, written in Coptic on papyrus around 250 to 350 AD and produced in one of the earliest Christian monasteries, is estimated to be between 2.6 million and 3.8 million dollars. Eugenio Donadoni, a senior expert at Christie's, says, "In that transitional period, the papyrus scroll began to take the form of a manuscript, and thus the books we know today and what we have in this book are the oldest known texts of the two scriptures." This senior expert on medieval and Renaissance manuscripts attributes the major factor in preserving these ancient sheets to Egypt's dry climate, noting that only a handful of books from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD have survived to this day. The book consists of 52 leaves or 104 pages, written by a scribe over a period of 40 years in a monastery in Upper Egypt, and includes the First Epistle of Peter and the Book of Jonah. Discovered in Egypt in the 1950s and purchased by the University of Mississippi, it was kept there until 1981. Dr. Martin Schoyen, a Norwegian collector of manuscripts, bought it in 1988 and is now auctioning it along with some other prominent works from his collection. This exquisite manuscript will be on public display at Christie's auction house in New York for one week starting Tuesday, April 2, and will then be auctioned in London on June 11.