DETECTING EARLY MEDIAEVAL COPTIC LITERATURE IN DAYR AL-ANBA MAQAR, BETWEEN TEXTUAL CONSERVATION AND LITERARY REARRANGEMENT: THE CASE OF VAT. COPT. 57

The modern volume called Vat. copt. 57 represents a re-bounding of the ancient codex that has lost only a few leaves compared to its original structure. On the contrary, all the other volumes of this group of Vatican manuscripts — Vat. copt. 58 to 69 — are rather “recueils factices”, that is collections and assemblages of group of leaves originally belonging to several codicological units or ancient codices,12 although it may happen that more “blocks” of the same original codicological units have been bound together with other nuclei of different codices. Such state of affairs explains the choice of dedicating an entire issue of Studi e Testi to Vat. copt. 57, which for codicological,13 palaeographical and intellectual reasons, represents an extremely interesting case in order to understand the specific culture, needs, tastes and production aims of the scriptorium of Dayr al-Anbâ Maqâr