Bodmer Library

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Bodmer Foundation
Bodmer Cologny 4.jpg
Location Cologny, Canton of Geneva   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Coordinates 46°12′55″N6°10′50″E / 46.2153°N 6.1806°E / 46.2153; 6.1806
Type memory institution
museum   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Heritage designationclass A Swiss cultural property of national significance  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
CountrySwitzerland  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
DirectorJacques Berchtold  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website www.fondationbodmer.ch
Partial view of the Bodmer Foundation (Cologny, Switzerland). Bodmer Cologny 2.jpg
Partial view of the Bodmer Foundation (Cologny, Switzerland).
Example of a 14th-century precious book of the foundation. Wachtelmare cb-0072 253v.jpg
Example of a 14th-century precious book of the foundation.

The Bodmer Foundation (French: Fondation Bodmer) is a library and museum specialised in manuscripts and precious editions. It is located in Cologny, Switzerland just outside Geneva.

Contents

Also known as Bibliotheca Bodmeriana (or Bodmer Library), it is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. [1] The library was established by Martin Bodmer and is famous as the home of the Bodmer Papyri. Some of these papyri are among the oldest remaining copies of the New Testament. Some manuscripts are written in Greek, others in Coptic (e.g. Papyrus Bodmer III). The first of the manuscripts was purchased in 1956 (Papyrus Bodmer II — P66). It also houses a copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

History

Martin Bodmer established the library in the 1920s. Bodmer selected the works centering on what he saw as the five pillars of world literature: the Bible, Homer, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. [2] He prioritized autographs and first editions. 1951 Bodmer had built two neo-baroque houses in Cologny to accommodate the collection.

In 1970, shortly before Bodmer's death, the Bodmer Foundation was established to make the collection accessible and conserve it. In 2003 the building was remodelled by Mario Botta. He connected the cellars of the two houses by a two-story underground structure, pierced by light shafts. [3]

Items

The collection comprises some 160,000 items, including Sumerian clay tablets, Greek papyri and handwritten originals including music sheets. He aimed at representing the historical context by adding political, philosophical and scientific items. [2] Some samples are:

Photos

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus</span> Writing and implement

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rylands Research Institute and Library</span> Research library building on Deansgate in Manchester, England

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband, John Rylands. It became part of the university in 1972, and now houses the majority of the Special Collections of The University of Manchester Library, the third largest academic library in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egerton Gospel</span> Biblical manuscript

The Egerton Gospel refers to a collection of three papyrus fragments of a codex of a previously unknown gospel, found in Egypt and sold to the British Museum in 1934; the physical fragments are now dated to the very end of the 2nd century CE. Together they comprise one of the oldest surviving witnesses to any gospel, or any codex. The British Museum lost no time in publishing the text: acquired in the summer of 1934, it was in print in 1935. It is also called the Unknown Gospel, as no ancient source makes reference to it, in addition to being entirely unknown before its publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cologny</span> Municipality in Geneva, Switzerland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus 66</span> New Testament manuscript

Papyrus 66 is a near complete codex of the Gospel of John, and part of the collection known as the Bodmer Papyri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodmer Papyri</span> Collection of ancient manuscripts from 200 AD until the 6th century

The Bodmer Papyri are a group of twenty-two papyri discovered in Egypt in 1952. They are named after Martin Bodmer, who purchased them. The papyri contain segments from the Old and New Testaments, early Christian literature, Homer, and Menander. The oldest, P66 dates to c. 200 AD. Most of the papyri are kept at the Bodmer Library, in Cologny, Switzerland outside Geneva.

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A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures to huge polyglot codices containing both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the New Testament, as well as extracanonical works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester Beatty Papyri</span> Collection of 3rd-century Christian manuscripts

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus 75</span> Early Greek New Testament manuscript

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus 72</span> New Testament manuscript

Papyrus 72 is the designation used by textual critics of the New Testament to describe portions of the so-called Bodmer Miscellaneous codex, namely the letters of Jude, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter. These books seem to have been copied by the same scribe, and the handwriting has been paleographically assigned to the 3rd or 4th century.

Papyrus 73, designated by 𝔓73, is a copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew. The surviving texts of Matthew are verses 25:43; 26:2-3. The manuscript paleographically has been assigned to the 7th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus 74</span> New Testament manuscript

Papyrus 74, designated by 𝔓74, is a copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles and Catholic epistles with lacunae. The manuscript paleographically had been assigned to the 7th century.

Codex Bodmer XIX is a Coptic uncial manuscript of the four Gospels, dated palaeographically to the 4th or 5th century. It contains the text of the Gospel of Matthew 14:28-28:20; Epistle to the Romans 1:1-2:3. It is written in the Sahidic dialect of the Coptic language.

Codex Bodmer III, is a Coptic uncial manuscript of the fourth Gospel, and the first four chapters of Genesis, dated palaeographically to the 4th century. It contains the text of the Gospel of John with some lacunae. It is written in an early Bohairic dialect of Coptic language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minuscule 556</span> New Testament manuscript

Minuscule 556, A 213, is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on a parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century. Scrivener labelled it by number 526.

<i>The Vision of Dorotheus</i> 4th-century Greek Christian epic poem, where the narrator is transported to Heaven

The Vision of Dorotheus or Dorotheos is an autobiographical Homeric Greek poem, composed in 343 lines of dactylic hexameter and attributed to "Dorotheus, son of Quintus the Poet". The poem chronicles a vision, wherein the author is transported to the Kingdom of Heaven and finds himself in its military hierarchy. He is conscripted into and deserts his post, only to receive punishment, be forgiven, and rediscover his Christian faith. The poem, penned sometime in the 4th-century, depicts the Kingdom of Heaven in an Imperial fashion; Christ is enthroned as a Roman emperor, surrounded by angels bearing Roman military and official titles, with the military structures of the Kingdom of Heaven modelled on those of Rome.

References

  1. "Kantonsliste A-Objekte:Geneva" (PDF). KGS Inventar (in German). Federal Office of Civil Protection. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  2. 1 2 Koch, Hans-Albrecht: Spiegel der Welt: Die Bibliotheca Bodmeriana zu Gast im Schiller-Nationalmuseum / Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Mario Botta: Fondazione Martin Bodmer - Biblioteca e Museo, Cologny". Botta.ch. Retrieved 2013-12-29.

Bibliography