Coptic
The collection of Coptic texts on papyrus forms the largest group within the Chester Beatty Papyri Collection.
The majority of the texts are Christian in subject matter and include biblical texts, homilies and accounts of martyrdoms from the period c. AD 300-800.
The most important non-Christian texts are the remarkable Manichaean codices, most of which date from c. AD 400.
The codices are housed in over 1,000 frames and include many unique sacred texts of a lost world religion which once rivalled Christianity and Islam and spread from North Africa and the Near East along the Silk Road.