I filled my first reference request today! A professor at one of the Claremont Colleges is doing research that involves the Nag Hammadi texts, and of course that means she’s interested in what we’re processing over here at Special Collections.
I had the pleasure of meeting her briefly on Wednesday, and followed up on her request to learn more about how she could view the facsimile images of this amazing gnostic library. Although the collection I’m processing won’t be open for scholarly research until I’m done organizing and conserving it, I was able to point her in the direction of some resources that might be helpful for her work in the meantime. I thought I’d share them with you all today, so that any other Nag Hammadi fans out there could settle in for some great weekend reading! There are three main areas I’d recommend looking:
- Special Collections has already digitized many of the Nag Hammadi images, and anyone with an internet connection is free to study them!
- You can find publication details if you’re interested in purchasing (or finding at your local library!) the official, 15-volume facsimile set.
- Not fluent in ancient Coptic yet? No problem! There are at least three scholarly translations of the Nag Hammadi library into English of which I am aware: one by Bentley Layton, another by Claremont’s own James M. Robinson and the last by Marvin Meyer and Elaine Pagels.
These should be enough to get you off to a strong start! If I find anything else, I’ll let you know!