How the first pages from the White Monastery were discovered

In the 18th century, a chamber in the ruins of the White Monastery at Sohag in Egypt contained piles of loose leaves of a vast and ancient Coptic library. In previous posts I have noted how the first to learn of the existence of this material was Cardinal Stefano Borgia, secretary of the Papal missionary organisation, the Propaganda Fidei. In 1781 he published a Coptic text containing two miracles of the obscure Coptic saint Colluthus from some pages sent to him by a Franciscan missionary in Egypt.1 The actual transcriber and translator was, of course, not the mighty cardinal but A. Giorgi. I thought that it would be interesting to see exactly what Borgia said about the find, in his preface. An English translation is below. Latin: ERUDITO LECTORI STEPHANUS BORGIA Fragmentum sane pretiosum, ac insigne prorsus Actorum S. Coluthi Martyris, quod nunc publici iuris facimus, detectum fuit anno circiter MDCCLXXVIII inter rudera veteris monasterii, quod situm erat prope Thebas in superiore…