The liturgical book was produced in one of the first Christian monasteries and contains the complete texts of two Bible books.
Eugenio Donadoni, senior specialist for books and manuscripts at Christie’s, told BBC News in April that the text is of “monumental importance as a witness to the earliest spread of Christianity around the Mediterranean”.
“The earliest monks in Upper Egypt in the earliest Christian monastery were using this very book to celebrate the earliest Easter celebrations, only a few hundred years after Christ and only a hundred or so years after the last Gospel was written.”
The manuscript itself contains texts including the first complete epistle of Peter, the Book of Jonah, and an Easter homily.
