Coptic binding is a bookbinding method that was used by the Copts in the 3rd and 4th centuries CE for the gospel of Thomas and other Gnostic manuscripts found in 1945, buried in a jar near the Egyptian village of Nag Hammadi. Papyrus sheets were folded in half and attached at midpoint to a leather cover, stiffened by cartonnage (used but no longer needed pieces of papyrus). Old book binding and cover Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of separate or bifoliate sheets of paper or other material. ... The word Copt signifies the natives of Egypt as a nationality, and in popular common culture in Egypt it is used to specifically signify Christian Egyptians, although its use to mean Egyptian is not unwitnessed. ... // Overview Events 212: Constitutio Antoniniana grants citizenship to all free Roman men 212-216: Baths of Caracalla 230-232: Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east 235-284: Crisis of the Third Century shakes Roman Empire 250-538: Kofun era, the first... The Gospel of Thomas is a New Testament-era apocryphon completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. ... The town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt Nag Hammâdi (Arabic نجع حمادي; transliterated: Naj Hammādi) (26°03′N 32°15′E), is a town in the middle of Egypt, called Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor with some 30,000 citizens. ...