Christian Liturgical Service in Times of Change: The Story of a Composite Codex from Early Mediaeval Egypt

After a mission that lasted almost two years and which took him to Egypt and the Near East on behalf of Pope Clement XI Albani, Giuseppe Simone Assemani, scriptor orientalis (i.e., the person responsible for the Oriental manuscripts) at the Vatican Library, finally returned to Rome in 1717. On his travels, he had purchased hundreds of manuscripts to enrich the pontifical collection. One of these manuscripts - Vatican City, BAV, Vat. copt. 58 - was acquired together with other codices in the Monastery of St Macarius in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, a region located in the Egyptian southwestern Delta. Once in Rome, the codex enriched the collection of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide until 1723, when it was moved to the Vatican Library. The codex contains a collection of texts which disclose many aspects of the history of the St Macarius monastery and its members. But why were these texts arranged together? What was the function of this manuscript in this religious community?