Provenance Utrecht

The Utrecht University library has a collection of Greek, Coptic, and Demotic papyri, largely acquired from Mrs Dr G. Kunta-Schmidt, heir of the Coptologist Carl Schmidt in 1956 (Schmidt died in 1938). The acquisition was arranged by Gilles Quispel, at that time professor at Utrecht University.

Before the manuscripts made it to Utrecht, a selection of Coptic pieces were offered to the Michigan Museum of Archaeology in 1930, as reported in a letter by Mrs Elinor M Husselman dated 7 Nov. 1956.[1] Unfortunately, the note does not mention who offered the fragments for sale. In his publication of the Coptic Acts of Andrew in 1956, Quispel reports Kunta-Schmidt’s estimation that “there is some reason for supposing that her uncle had acquired these leaves shortly before his death in Cairo on April 17th, 1938.” Whereas Van den Broek interprets the facts to mean that Schmidt must have acquired them after 1930, I believe it is likely that Schmidt offered the material to Michigan in 1930. This is supported by the fact that Michigan did buy a number of other fragments from Schmidt in 1935, 1937, and 1939.[2] One of these is a fragment of a Coptic manuscript acquired by Peterson in 1935.[3]
If this is indeed what happened, then Schmidt must have acquired at least those Coptic parchments before 1930. Given the information emerging from internal connections within the Greek material, it is likely that those fragments too were purchased in the 1920s. The Greek texts on the papyri have prosopographic connections with papyri published in P.Fouad, P.Col. and P.Mich., most of which can be traced to acquisitions in the late 20s or early 30s of the 20th century. P.Col. VIII 213, which is in the same hand as 6.17a, came to the collection between 1923 and the early 30s (P.Col. VIII, p. 7). P.Fouad 22, 23, and 24, which are connected to 6.33a, were bought by the king in 1930. P.Giss.Univ. VI 49v, a list in which a man was named whose name may also appear in 6.32b, was purchased by Schmidt in Medinet-al-Fayum in 1928.[4] P.Iand. VIII 151, possibly connected to 6.14b, was purchased by Schmidt in Medinet-al-Fayum in 1926.
Carl Schmidt was a particularly productive antiquities hunter in the twenties and thirties of the 20th century. A recent article by Wigand traces some of his purchases in Egypt for the Hamburg collection, and clearly demonstrates that Schmidt brought these to Europe without the permission of the Egyptian authorities.[5] Moreover, the correspondence cited clearly shows that Schmidt himself was aware of this fact. The texts he purchased for the Hamburg collection were rare Coptic manuscripts, apparently from the (robbed) grave of a bishop. Given the fact that the Utrecht may have been purchased around the same time, and that the Coptic manuscripts from this collection have proven to be of some interest,[6] it is possible that in the case of these papyri, too, Schmidt exported them illegally. Some of the folders which held the Greek papyri have notes on them, in one case Moh. Chalil no. 29. Mohammed Chalil/Khalil was a trader active in Medinet-el-Fayum from 1907-1931 who was the source of papyri for a number of German collections, through the Kartell.[7]

On the basis of the contents of the documentary papyri, we can establish that most if not all of the papyri were purchased in the Fayum, since those that include geographic references mention Tebtynis, Narmouthis, Soknopaiou Nesos or other places in the Arsinoites. This is further supported by Myriam Krutzsch’ judgment, based on photographs, that the general impression of the Hieratic and Demotic papyri suggests that they come from the Fayum. A small number can be securely linked to other parts of Egypt, specifically the Oxyrhynchite, Herakleopolite, and Hermopolite nome.


[1] “Photographs of leaves offered 1930 to Peterson for purchase, but not bought by us.” Hs. 31 A 12, Utrecht University Library.
[2] It concerns P.Mich. inv. 6869-6897.
[3] P.Mich. inv. 6896 (TM 112661).
[4] P.Giss.Univ. VI, p. iii.
[5] Wigand 2025.
[6] They were published by Quispel in the decades after the purchase: 1959, 1962, and 1964 (all with Zandee), 1975 and 1989; also Zandee 1961 and 1983.
[7] Unkel 2023, 54. The source for this statement is, in fact, Carl Schmidt, in a letter to Lange now kept in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, cited in Hagan and Ryholt 2016, 44-45.