Unknown photographs of an ancient Egyptian papyrus from A. Branicki Library (IM of VNLU, F. XXIV, No. 2702)

Abstract

The article subject is the identifi cation of two sheets of an ancient Egyptian manuscript on four photographs from the fonds of the Institute of Manuscript of V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (fond XXIV, No. 2702). We have discovered that these photos feature the papyrus No. 147822 from the National Museum in Warsaw (“papyrus Bytomski”). Photos of this scroll from the Institute of Manuscript fonds allow to find the name of its first owner and to assume that this manuscript was brought from Egypt to Poland by the Earl Aleksander Branicki and was stored before World War II in his library in Sucha Beskidzka. As A. Branicki was one of photography pioneers in Poland, pictures of this papyrus might be taken by him.