Fragment No. 1: A small portion of The Psalter (Ps. XLIII, 24ff) on three pieces of vellum

Object Details

• Provenance

  To 1909

  Ali Arabi, Giza, Egypt, to 1909 [1]

  From 1909 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Ali Arabi in Giza, Egypt, in summer of 1909 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Miscellaneous List, Biblical Manuscripts Section, S.I. 1483, pg. 7, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. See also, Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record. Also see W. H. Worrell: The Coptic Manuscripts in the Freer Collection; University of Michigan Humanistic Series, Vol. X (1923), Part I, pp. ix, xiii-xxvi. According to W.H. Worrell ". . . Professor Sanders has stated about all that can as yet be said of the provenance of the collection. The dealer who sold the manuscripts, [except no. 9] Ali Al Arabi of the village of Gizeh, near Cairo, at first asserted that they had been acquired in Akhmim, Upper Egypt. Later he owned that the statement was false, and produced the actual finders, who maintained that the manuscripts had been discovered at a spot which, though it cannot at present be named, is quite consistent with all the other evidence; it would have been a likely refuge for fugitives from the ruined Monastary of the Vinedresser, which lay near the third Pyramid, and was near enough to modern Gizeh so that the manuscripts would naturally be offered there for sale. It is therefore impossible to believe that the manuscripts were found near the White Monastary at Akhmim, or at Eshmunen" (W. H. Worrell: The Coptic Manuscripts in the Freer Collection; University of Michigan Humanistic Series, Vol. X (1923), Part I, p. x).

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Ali Arabi (ca. 1840-1932) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Fayyum, Egypt

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Manuscript

• Restrictions and Rights

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  500s, 400s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Arabi, Ali

• Place

  Fayyum, Egypt

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Ancient Egyptian Art

• Culture

  Egyptians

• Object Type

  Manuscripts