The Story of the Bodmer Papyri

"Only James M. Robinson--based largely on first-hand experience--could recall, review, and evaluate the intricate details of the discovery and collection of the Dishn_ papers, which became part of the "Bodmer papyri." In a detective-like fashion, he traces the complex history of this sizable collection, utilizing conversations, letters, and reports from native discoverers, Egyptian antiquities dealers, collectors of manuscripts, museum curators and conservators, as well as papyrologists, Coptologists, and editors of Greek, Latin, and Coptic texts. This history can never again be retrieved, and Robinson's account will serve all future generations."

--Eldon Jay Epp

author of Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism



"As a young professor at the University of Geneva at the end of the sixties, I was invited with my students by Mr. Martin Bodmer to visit his collection of New Testament Papyri. Since then I have a special connection and affection to these manuscripts. I am grateful therefore to James M. Robinson for his patient inquiry. I cannot confirm everything that he says, but I can assure the readers that the scholar from Claremont put his many talents toward trying to solve some of the many riddles of the Bodmer Papyri."

--Francois Bovon

Frothingham research Professor of the History of Religion

Harvard Divinity School