One of the oldest books in the world, containing early Christian texts from the 3rd century, was sold at auction for an impressive sum of 3 million pounds sterling.
Daily Mail writes about it.
The Crosby-Cheyenne Codex, as it is called, became the object of enormous interest after it was discovered in 1952 in a jug buried in the sand at the foot of a rock in the Egyptian desert.
This book dates from the middle of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century and contains the two earliest complete texts of the Bible: the Book of Jonah and the first epistle of Peter . The texts, written on papyrus paper, became evidence of a transitional moment in history when Christianity began to replace the ancient Egyptian religion.
The Crosby-Shoyen Codex is the oldest known book in private hands, and one of the the oldest surviving books in history. Its pages are no longer bound together but are housed in glass frames and small wooden chests for safekeeping. Eugenio Donadoni, Christie's leading specialist in Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, noted: « This is a unique object of the history of Christianity and information technology. We know of the existence of other codices, but none of them have survived to our days».
The sale of this book at auction highlights its historical and cultural value, as well as the interest in early Christian texts. and their preservation over the centuries.