Ancient Egyptian Book to Be Auctioned in London with $2.6M Starting Price

An ancient book from Egypt, believed to be one of the oldest in the world, will be up for auction in London next June. The manuscript, known as the "Crosby-Schoen," was written on papyrus in the Coptic language between 250 and 350 AD. It contains the First Epistle of Peter and the Book of Jonah and was created in one of the oldest Christian monasteries. The book has 104 pages, 52 of which were copied by one writer over a period of 40 years. The value of the manuscript is estimated to be between $2.6 to $3.8 million.

According to Eugenio Donadoni, a Christie's specialist in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, this book is one of the oldest known texts of the two holy books. He revealed that during the transitional period, papyrus began to take the form of manuscripts and eventually became the books we know today.

The book was preserved over time due to the dry climate in Egypt. Donadoni notes that only a few books from the third and fourth centuries have survived to this day. He also states that most of the Christian manuscripts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were found in Egypt because of the delicate climatic conditions.

The manuscript was discovered in Egypt in the 1950s and was later acquired by the University of Mississippi, where it was kept until 1981.