The 13th International Congress of Coptic Studies came to a close today after a memorable week in Göttingen, bringing together nearly 300 scholars from around the world. Hosted jointly by the Georg-August-Universität and the Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the congress reaffirmed Göttingen’s long-standing place among the great centres of global Coptology.

During the closing ceremony, outgoing IACS President Paola Buzi expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the many individuals and institutions whose commitment made the congress possible. She paid special tribute to Andreas Effland, who had been deeply involved in the organization of the meeting before his unexpected passing on 26 January 2026. His contribution was remembered with appreciation and affection. Thanks were also extended to the Georg-August University and the Göttingen Academy, to the university leadership and the Academy’s presidency, to Bishop Damian, and especially to the many student assistants whose dedication ensured the smooth running of the congress. Particular recognition was given to Dr. Frank Feder, who served as Congress Secretary on behalf of the Göttingen Academy, and to Heike Behlmer, who coordinated the congress from the University. Together with an outstanding team of student assistants, they organized an event that will long be remembered as a tremendous success.

The General Assembly of the International Association for Coptic Studies followed. Secretary Stephen Emmel commemorated colleagues who had passed away since the previous congress, including Theofried Baumeister, Martin Krause, Bentley Layton, Peter Nagel, Birger A. Pearson, Paul-Hubert Poirier, Michel Roberge, and Frederik Wisse. A moment of silence was observed in their memory. The Assembly also approved a revision of the IACS statutes introducing term limits for several key offices, including the Secretary, Webmaster, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Coptic Studies, and Director of the Cairo Center.

The meeting also marked an important transition for the Journal of Coptic Studies. Warm appreciation was expressed to Anne Boud’hors, who has served as editor since 2013. Beginning with the next volume, the journal will adopt a new editorial structure headed by Matthias Müller as Editor-in-Chief, working together with Korshi Dosoo, Esther Garel, and Ivan Miroshnikov as editors.

Another welcome announcement concerned the publication of the congress proceedings, which will appear online in open access with the support of the Göttingen State and University Library. In this way, a selection of papers presented during the past week will be freely accessible to researchers worldwide.

The Assembly also accepted the proposal to hold the 14th International Congress of Coptic Studies in Oslo in 2030. The event will be organized by Hugo Lundhaug (University of Oslo) and Victor Ghica (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society). Participants enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to continue the tradition of the congress in another important centre of Coptic scholarship.

The newly elected IACS Board was then announced. Tonio Sebastian Richter becomes President, with Sofía Torallas Tovar serving as President-Elect. Victor Ghica succeeds Stephen Emmel as Secretary, while Hugo Lundhaug assumes the office of Congress Secretary. Alin Suciu continues as Webmaster, Mennat-Allah El Dorry becomes Director of the Cairo Center, and Matthias Müller takes over as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Coptic Studies. The Members-at-Large are Florence Calament, Maher Eissa, Mary K. Farag, and Frank Feder, who joins the Board following Hugo Lundhaug’s move to the position of Congress Secretary.

In his inaugural address, the new President, Tonio Sebastian Richter, thanked Paola Buzi for her years of dedicated service and officially declared the 13th International Congress of Coptic Studies closed. Former President Paola Buzi remarked that the congresses have become “family reunions” for the international Coptic scholarly community, encouraging everyone to remain curious, collaborative, and open-minded.

Participants return home with new ideas, new collaborations, and lasting memories of an exceptionally successful congress. The Coptologists now looks forward to meeting again in the beautiful city of Oslo in four years’ time.

The 13th International Congress of Coptic Studies was officially inaugurated today in the Aula Magna of the University of Göttingen, bringing together nearly 300 scholars from more than thirty countries for the world’s leading international gathering dedicated to the study of Christian Egypt.

Opening the ceremony, Frank Feder, chair of the local organizing committee, reflected on the remarkable development of Coptology since the first congress in Cairo in 1976. While digital resources have transformed research and made manuscripts more accessible than ever before, he emphasized that Coptic studies also has a broader mission. In a world increasingly marked by conflict and polarization, the humanities – and especially smaller disciplines – play a vital role by fostering historically informed and nuanced perspectives. Feder also highlighted the Göttingen Academy’s commitment to open-access scholarship and the training of a new generation of researchers, many of whom will present their work during the congress.

One of the highlights of the opening ceremony was the presentation of the IACS Award of Academic Excellence 2026, led by President-Elect Tonio Sebastian Richter. The Master’s Prize was awarded to Kierán Meinhardt (Free University Berlin) for his innovative study of Greek loanwords in Coptic. The doctoral prize was exceptionally shared between Élodie Mazy (Université libre de Bruxelles), whose dissertation offers the first comprehensive study of festivals in Coptic Egypt, and Vincent Walter (Free University Berlin), whose work sheds new light on late Coptic documentary texts and the transition from papyrus to paper.

The ceremony also featured a particularly moving moment when Stephen Emmel was appointed Honorary President of the International Association for Coptic Studies, in recognition of more than four decades of service to the Association. Emmel reminded the audience that his work had always been driven by “the love of Egypt” and the pursuit of human knowledge. He remains the only participant to have attended every International Congress since the inaugural meeting in Cairo in December 1976.

In her presidential address, Paola Buzi offered an assessment of the current state of Coptic studies. She emphasized the increasingly collaborative nature of the discipline, the growing importance of digital scholarly resources as research outputs in their own right, and the flourishing of Coptic Studies in Egypt through new academic programmes, archaeological discoveries, and international collaborations.

The opening ceremony also included a speech by Heike Behlmer on Göttingen’s more than 250-year tradition in Egyptology and Coptic Studies. Greetings were delivered by His Eminence Metropolitan Damian, conveying the blessing of Pope Tawadros II; Professor Sameh Soror, Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of Egypt; Professor Axel Schölmerich, President of the University of Göttingen; Professor Daniel Göske, President of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, in a recorded video message; and Professor Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.

The opening ceremony set the tone for a week of lectures, discussions, and discoveries.

On June 25^th and 26^th, I was fortunate enough to participate in the workshop ‘The Material Tradition of the Psalms,’ organized by Karin Becker, Erene Morcos, and Hanna Wimmer, under the auspices of The Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artifacts at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC). The event was attended both in situ and online. The goals of this workshop as set out by its organizers included the exploration of the Psalms not simply as text, but as a vast collection of objectified, visualised, and embodied traditions; and the study of the visual and material expressions of this sacred poetry with particular attention to material choices, modes of transmission, and the dynamics of fragmentation and reproduction.

Although, this conference was supported by the CSMC, it actually took place at the celebrated Warburg-Haus.

At the end of the 19^th c. and the beginning of the 20^th, Aby Warburg dedicated himself to the study of the influence of antiquity on the modern era and he also established the Warburg Library for Cultural Studies (KBW). This library was located in Hamburg until 1933 and then relocated to London. We were kindly offered a tour of this institution, which included a small description of Aby Warburg’s ideals, studies, and reasonings behind the creation of his library; and how Warburg-Haus functions today.

This tour was of special interest to me because as a graduate student in London, I often used the library of the Warburg Institute since it houses various resources otherwise not available at the University of London.

After the tour of this historic institution and an introduction by our three organizers, the conference began with the first paper by Oliver Huck who presented on ‘Written Music in the Psalter and the Psalms with Music in Medieval Western European Manuscripts.’ Huck explained that while one might expect the manuscript tradition of the Psalter to have included musical notation alongside the psalms, this is not the case. He added that music accompanying entire psalm texts is almost entirely absent from Western European psalters throughout the Middle Ages.

I followed with a paper on ‘The Coptic Psalms and their Transmission on Papyrus, Parchment, Stone, and Clay.’ I concentrated on the survival of Psalms on ostraca, inscriptions, and wooden tablets and the interplay of education, piety, and magic in late antique Egypt.

After lunch, Justin Wilson spoke on ‘Textual Survivor: The Psalter in Slavonic Author Images.’ Wilson focused on two Slavonic psalters from Novgorod and Moravia, both dated to the fourteenth century. The codices reveal a pronounced interest in the origins of the Psalms text. By situating the Simonov and Serbian image cycles alongside that of other Slavonic psalters, he argued for the artifactual nature of their texts.

Next, Ronny Vollandt followed with the ‘Arabic Translation of the Book of Psalms: A Survey.’ His lecture examined the early Arabic translations of the Book of Psalms as preserved in manuscripts from Sinai and Damascus, highlighting their historical, linguistic, and cultural significance. Particular attention was given to both bilingual Greek Arabic codices and later monolingual Arabic copies which reflect different stages in the development of the text.

The last session of the first day started with Uta Lauer who presented on ‘From Faith to Life-Style Product – Psalms and Chinese Cultural Conventions.’ Her paper explored the material and visual presentation of Psalms in China in different media, ranging from blue-and-white porcelain, cloisonné, lacquer, ink-cakes, and paintings to calligraphic renditions from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Finally, David Ganz spoke on ‘Psalms in Golden Splendor.’ He dealt with the use of gold lettering for the Psalms in the early Middle Ages, and took a comparative perspective on psalters in gold lettering and examined the specific aesthetic and political concepts underlying the use of gold in the context of the Psalms.

The second day of our conference kicked off with Sophia Dege-Müller and Jonas Karlsson on ‘Continuity and Innovation in the Ethiopic Tradition of the Psalms.’ Their presentation

began with a broad introduction to the Book of Psalms in the Ge’ez tradition, then presented in

detail one of the patristic texts that occasionally accompanied the Book of Psalms in medieval

Ethiopia, namely, the Introduction to the Psalms by Eusebius of Caesarea (CAe 6719).

Georgi Parpulov then presented his new research on ‘The Seven Penitential Psalms in Greek.’ He showed us seven pocket-sized parchment codices copied in Western Europe in the second half of the fifteenth century that contain the Greek text of the Seven Penitential Psalms (LXX 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129,142). He added that these same Psalms were also included in the Greek Book of Hours printed by Aldus Manutius in 1497, discussed the reasons for their popularity, and traced their manuscript tradition.

Grace Clipson was next with her presentation ‘Constructing Devotion: Architectural Framework in the Queen Mary Psalter.’ She concentrated on the Queen Mary Psalter (London, c. 1310-20), which contains a series of striking, yet under-studied, illuminated architectural frameworks. Diverging from scholarship that portrays manuscript borders as decorative pleonasms, her paper examined how these archimorphic containers actively structured the manuscript’s broader devotional use.

Following Clipson, Marco Pavan presented on ‘The Internal Segmentation, and Graphic Arrangement of Hebrew Poetry at Qumrân. The Dead Sea «Psalms» Scrolls and the Hodayot as a Case in Point.’ Building on previous research, his analysis focused on the differences in internal segmentation and graphic arrangement in the Dead Sea «Psalms» scrolls, highlighting how the text of the Psalms was received and interpreted in the final centuries of the Second Temple period.

Then came Anastasia Tsacheridou with ‘Whoever Dwells in the Shelter of the Most High (Psalm 91/90): Psalms and Apotropaic Practices in Byzantine Minor Art.’ Drawing on a corpus of small devotional and prophylactic objects (amulets, enkolpia, inscribed armbands, rings) her study investigated how selected Psalm verses were materialized, circulated, and employed in daily life as safeguards against any physical and spiritual danger.

The final paper of these proceedings was delivered by Giovanni Ruffini on ‘The Psalms as Nubia’s Shield.’ He presented on twenty-five texts in Nubian, Greek, and Coptic, and showed that Nubia’s Psalms appear in educational texts, lectionaries, wall paintings, phylacteries, and funeral texts. They all served as a form of protection for Christian Nubia against the world’s forces of evil.

In conclusion, this workshop offered a welcomed and much-needed approach to the study of the Psalms. Not only did it span a period from the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls to contemporary China, but it also brought into the discussion considerations on the role of Psalms when executed on stone, clay, wood, and metal. Its goals as set out by its organizers were achieved; all participants presented on those; and there was ample constructive discussion and feedback at the end of each paper. I certainly look forward to its forthcoming publication.

For more than a century, five parchment leaves preserved in the Austrian National Library in Vienna (P. Vindob. G 2324) have been regarded as one of the oldest surviving Greek Gospel lectionaries. In the Gregory-Aland list of Greek New Testament manuscripts, they feature as Lectionary 1043.

In a new article published in Novum Testamentum, I argue that this common assumption is mistaken. By reconstructing the original manuscript from scattered fragments now preserved in libraries across the world, I demonstrate that the Vienna leaves belonged to a codex from the famous White Monastery in Upper Egypt. The codicological reconstruction reveals that the Greek passages were copied by the same scribe at the end of a manuscript containing the four gospels in Sahidic.

This discovery alters the presumed character of the Vienna leaves entirely. What had been considered one of the earliest Greek lectionaries turns out instead to be the work of a bilingual Egyptian scribe active in the seventh century.

My investigation also led to several other unexpected discoveries. I identified previously unknown fragments of the same codex, currently held in collections in Paris, Oslo, Vienna, and among the tiny parchment scraps excavated in 2011 at the White Monastery. I was also able to find another Sahidic New Testament manuscript – containing the Acts of the Apostles and the Catholic Epistles – copied by the same scribe.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the manuscript I pieced together is its sophistication. The scribe employed a series of scholarly tools borrowed from the Greek biblical tradition, such as the Ammonian-Eusebian apparatus, Gospel chapter cross-references, and stichometric counts. These features are unattested elsewhere in Sahidic manuscripts of the gospels, which demonstrates that the White Monastery was a significant learning center during the Coptic period.

The remaining puzzle is why these Gospel extracts in Greek were added at the end of a Coptic manuscript. My study argues that the scribe sought both to avoid wasting valuable parchment and to preserve a selection of important Gospel readings in Greek. Thus, this bilingual manuscript offers a rare glimpse into a period when Greek still retained a privileged status in the Coptic Church.

But beyond recovering the purpose of the manuscript to which the Vienna leaves originally belonged, I hope my study contributes to a broader methodological perspective. Greek and Coptic manuscripts from Egypt are often studied separately, as if they belonged to different worlds. My article implicitly argues that they should instead be approached together. Only by viewing them within the same bilingual scribal culture can we properly understand how manuscripts were produced and used in late antique Egypt.

It is not only the content but also the format of late antique manuscripts that can reveal interesting facts about the use and functions of biblical and non-biblical literature in Roman-Byzantine Egypt. Recently, there has been increased research on particularly small-format codices, as demonstrated by Michael J. Kruger’s monograph “Miniature Codices in Early Christianity,” published in 2025. In his work, Kruger primarily examines Greek manuscripts of the smallest format containing Christian texts. However, this type of codex was also widespread in Egypt among Coptic manuscripts. This became clear several years ago when Alin Suciu published a list of Coptic miniature codices. 

Building on this and other studies, a monograph has recently been published, which, in appr. 600 pages, for the first time explicitly examines Coptic miniature codices from the late antique period. Jan-Malte Ziegenbein’s work defines and catalogues a corpus of over 140 Coptic manuscripts of a particularly small format that can be dated to the 4th–8th centuries. Based on content, material, palaeographic, and linguistic-orthographic characteristics, conclusions are also drawn regarding the dating, origin, and function of the codices.

The work originated as a PhD thesis at the University of Göttingen, supervised by Prof. Heike Behlmer and Dr Frank Feder. It has now appeared as the fifth volume of the series Texte und Studien zur Koptischen Bibel / Texts and Studies on the Coptic Bible (TSKB) distributed by the Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden.

Psalter & Gospel of Matthew. Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Copt. Ms. 815, fol. 152r. Approx. 10.5 x 8.5 cm (h x w), 6th–7th century. Source: https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image/Cpt_815/305/.

A key to defining a corpus of Coptic miniature codices: In the colophon of Copt. Ms. 815 at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, the manuscript itself is explicitly referred to as ⲡⲉⲓ̈ⲕⲟⲩ<ⲓ> ⲛ̄ϫⲱⲱⲙⲉ “this small book”.