Issues and Methodologies in Coptic Palaeography

Due to the drastic change of the graphic system that accompanied the emergence of the Coptic language and manuscripts (third century), the issues and methods in producing texts have also changed, becoming closer to those related to Greek texts copied and written in Egypt. The most difficult issue in Coptic codicology is assigning scripts a date, which is linked to their description. The article discusses in some detail these dating issues, first for literary manuscripts, taking into account the dialect and considering not only writing but also other parameters, such as the various aspects of copying and manufacturing a book or the provenance, and then for documents, where regional practices are important variables.