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Article Concerning the Laws, Customs, and Patriarchs of the Coptic or Alexandrian Church

Image: Title page of De Ecclesiae Coptae
Title page of Lingua Ægyptiaca restituta... Rome: Apud Ludovicum Grignanum, 1643, by Athanasius Kircher. Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room, Library of Congress.

Translated from the Latin by David Shive
Edited by Carolyn M. Ramzy

In the sacrifice of the Mass, mostly they use the liturgies of St. Peter, St. Mark, St. Basil, St. Gregory and St. Cyril. These liturgies are translated in the Coptic language, which perhaps in their own time, if I understand correctly, we will present in Coptic, Arabic, Greek, and Latin with the intention to demonstrate, by irrefutable argument against the unbelieving heretics, the antiquity and uniformity honored in the Roman Church. In the sacrifice of the Mass, all of them are leaning on the staff,[1] by this very thing, showing themselves to be travelers, awaiting the blessed hope and the coming advent of God's great glory. Therefore, they are always ready for the spiritual journey [from this world to the next].

By singing the liturgies and other prayers, they honor God, which their voices do through definite steps and leaps, or they so inflect the tones (which they call in Coptic Coptic exmaple and in Arabic Arabic example said Hink[?]) sometimes by stretching them, sometimes by relaxing them, so that as a result they exhibit a quite pleasant sound to the listeners. Indeed, in order that we may offer some specimen of this thing to the curious reader, I will write out here a solemn intonation of the Mass with musical notes just as I was able to extract it from the mouth of my Coptic scribe. I thought it should be set down.

Kircher Translation example
Example of Coptic chant in the solemn rite of the Mass

Repeating this tone again and again they chant with such great intensity of mind and body [that] they seem to want to care for and value none other than this sonority. It differs not much from our Gregorian chant, and it has the flavor somewhat of Greek psalmody and, in fact, it is not so discordant as the chant of the Hebrews and other Orientals [which] is performed without any artistry or sonority.

From Kircher, Athanasius. "De Ecclesiae Coptae..." in Lingua Ægyptiaca restituta... Rome: Apud Ludovicum Grignanum, 1643, pages 515-516. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Library of Congress. Call number: PJ2033.K5.

Note

  1. Historically, as Coptic churches did not have church pews, congregation members could only stand, kneel, or lean against the wall during the long services. Both Kircher and later Villoteau made note of a crutch that congregation members used for support. In his 1809 transcription, Villoteau devotes some time to the 'ekāz, Arabic for staff, in one of his footnotes. [back to article]

About this Item

Title

  • Concerning the Laws, Customs, and Patriarchs of the Coptic or Alexandrian Church

Names

  • Kircher, Athanasius -- 1602-1680 (author)
  • Shive, David (translator)

Headings

  • -  Articles
  • -  Songs and Music

Genre

  • article

Notes

  • -  From Lingua Ægyptiaca restituta.... Rome: Apud Ludovicum Grignanum, 1643, pages 515-516. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Call Number: PJ2033.K5 (General)

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Wassif Boutros-Ghali, President, Société d’Archéologie Copte, Cairo, for permission to reproduce articles on O.H.E. Burmester by Otto Meinardus, an atlas of Christian sites in Egypt by Meinardus, a photograph of O.H.E. Burmester, and a brochure on a map of Christian Egypt by Burmester, all published by the Société d’Archéologie Copte. 

Yasmine El Dorghamy, Turath, for permission to reproduce the article on Ragheb Moftah by Dr. Raymond Stock from Turath, August 2008.

Estate of John E. Gillespie, for permission to use two articles by John Gillespie and to reproduce the Gillespie correspondence in the American Folklife Center.

Chi Keat-Man, Syndication Account Manager, Telegraph Media Group Limited, London, for permission to reproduce three 1931 and 1932 articles on Newlandsmith from The Daily Telegraph

Claire Lamont, The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, for permission to reproduce Oriental Hymn Tunes by William Henry Temple, 1930.

Karen Lee of Cengage Learning, Belmont, California, for permission to use a selection of texts from The Coptic Encyclopedia.

Father Charles Libois, S.J., Collège de la Sainte-Famille, Cairo, and Lebanon, for photographs of Fathers Jules Blin and Louis Badet, as well as biographical sources on them.

Stephen McArthur of Multicultural Media, for permission to digitize four tracks from Echoes of the Nile: Aspects of Egyptian Music.

MVF - Michael Video, Heliopolis, for permission to reproduce film of Moftah’s funeral, 18 June 2001.

Simon O’Neill, Group Editor, The Oxford Mail and The Oxford Times, for permission to reproduce two articles on Newlandsmith’s lectures in England in  May 1931.

Alan Powell, The Star, Sheffield, for permission to reproduce an article on Newlandsmith in the Sheffield Mail, 1931.

Sinead Porter, NI Syndication, London, for permission to reproduce an article on Newlandsmith from The Daily Herald, 1931.

David Ramm, Editor-in-Chief, AMS Press, Brooklyn, New York, for permission to reproduce The Coptic Morning Service for the Lord’s Day by the Marquess of Bute.

Dr. Geoffrey Rutowski and Dr. Carl Zytowski, University of California, Santa Barbara, for permission to reproduce their memorial article on John Gillespie.

Father Thomas Sable, S.J., Director, Center for Eastern Christian Studies and Editor of Diakonia, The Theology Department, University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, for permission to reproduce Marian Robertson’s article on Newlandsmith’s transcriptions, and for giving us a copy of Diakonia.

His Grace, Bishop Serapion, Bishop of Los Angeles, and His Grace, Bishop Youssef, Bishop of Southern USA, for permission to reproduce The Divine Liturgies of Saints Basil, Gregory and Cyril, 2001.

Youssef Sidhom, Editor-in-Chief, Watani Newspaper, for permission to use the documentary film, Eminent Copts in Egyptian History: The Power of Coptic Music, Ragheb Moftah 1998, which includes an interview with Moftah by the late Egyptian musicologist, Dr. Adel Kamel.

Welcome Video Film, Cairo, for permission to reproduce film of Moftah’s 100th birthday, 21 December 1998.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Kircher, Athanasius, and David Shive. Concerning the Laws, Customs, and Patriarchs of the Coptic or Alexandrian Church. Web.. https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200155949/.

APA citation style:

Kircher, A. & Shive, D. Concerning the Laws, Customs, and Patriarchs of the Coptic or Alexandrian Church. [Web.] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200155949/.

MLA citation style:

Kircher, Athanasius, and David Shive. Concerning the Laws, Customs, and Patriarchs of the Coptic or Alexandrian Church. Web.. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200155949/>.