So why should we edit Coptic martyrdoms anyway? The CSCO editor replies.

I’ve started to look at the modern critical edition of the texts around St Colluthus. This was printed a decade ago in 2013 in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO) volume 650, edited by Gesa Schenke.1 The texts were printed properly – in place of the half-assed hand-written texts in the editiones principales. The translation and commentary was in German, which nobody else can actually read, although some scholars pretend. Cough. Anyway I ran the preface through ChatGPT, just to get an English version and skim read it before looking at the good stuff. Well, we all know how boring these prefaces always are. So I was rather surprised to find something really interesting, and even inspirational. Have a read. Accuracy not guaranteed, of course. * * * * The impetus for my engagement with Coptic martyr legends came from reading courses and practical exercises conducted as part of my teaching at the Department of Egyptology at the University of Cologne. These hagiographical…