The Hermitage's Coptic collection was formed by the 1890s. In 1997, the Hermitage Directorate planned a series of events dedicated to the centenary of the Coptic collection. The curator of the Department of the Middle Ages and Renaissance Vladimir Georgievich Bok (1850-1899) devoted 13 years of his short life to its creation and scientific processing. The conference "Copts: Religion, Culture, Art", held in the Hermitage on September 29-30, 1999, was dedicated to his memory. It was attended by employees of several departments of the Hermitage, specialists from the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Museum, the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, the Museum of the Peoples of the East and the I. E. Grabar All-Russian Research Center for Restoration.

The conference was opened by G. V. Vilinbakhov, Deputy Director for Research at the Hermitage. In his speech, he noted that the conference continues the tradition of holding scientific conferences and readings in the Hermitage dedicated to the memory of museum employees who left a significant mark on its history: B. B. Piotrovsky, V. F. Levinson-Lessing, V. G. Lukonin, A.V. Bank and others.

The conference topic was broad. A. Y. Kakovkin's report "Museum worker, collector, scientist (touches to the portrait of V. G. Bock)" was devoted to various activities of V. G. Bock. The results of scientific processing of materials brought by V. G. Bok from trips to Egypt, Turkey and Greece were discussed in the reports of S. P. Boriskovskaya "Corinthian Archaic ceramics of the VII-VI centuries BC from the collection of V. G. Bok" and V. V. Guruleva "Weight signs in the Hermitage collection brought by V. G. Bok from Egypt to Russia". 1898". There were reports on the relations of Coptic Egypt with other regions: S. V. Berzina - "Coptic Egypt and the Bosporan Kingdom in the III-VI centuries", Yu. N. Sadovskaya - "Purification of the mouth of Isaiah" as an Old Testament prototype of the Eucharist in the painting of the Church of the Three Crosses in Cappadocia and Coptic Egypt". A number of reports were devoted to the iconography and symbolism of Christian art: V. N. Zalesskaya - " Eulogy of the time of the Emperor Julian the Apostate (on the pagan and Christian symbolism of the prototype)", A. Ya. Kakovkin- "The Image of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark in Coptic art", Yu. A. Pyatnitsky- "The icon of St. Mamant" from the catacombs Alexandria", I. A. Shalina - "Icon of the Mother of God of Egypt". Osharina made a report on the use of incense burners by the early Christian Church. Deacon A. Musin made a report "The New Testament text as an apotropee in the Christian tradition (Coptic amulet and Bronkholm amulet)", and A. L. Khosroev in his report "On an astronomical reality in Coptic Kefalaya" traced the presence of Manichaean influences in Coptic texts. Our colleagues from museums and research institutions in Paris, Strasbourg and Berlin also sent their abstracts to the conference, as they were unable to participate in the conference for objective reasons.

Most of the conference reports aroused great interest among the participants and attendees. B. I. Marshak, A. A. Ierusalimskaya, S. Ya. Berzina, V. G. Shkoda, I. A. Shalina and others took part in discussions of coptological problems. Abstracts and booklets were published for the conference: "Treasures of Egyptian Hermits (monuments of Coptic art and writing in the Hermitage collection) "and" Monuments of bone carving in the Hermitage Coptic Collection. From the history of the collection". Now the plan of the Hermitage's anniversary events includes organizing a Coptic exhibition and publishing materials for this anniversary - "Coptica Hermitagiana".

Permanent link to this publication: