In Search of Clement of Alexandria’s Hypotyposes

Abstract:This article aims to contribute to the discussion about Clement of Alexandria’s Hypotyposes and the alleged existence of the manuscript of this work. The only modern witness of the manuscript was Louis-Alexandre d’Antraigues, who claims to have seen it in the Monastery of Saint Macarius in Wadi Natrun in 1779. The article re-examines Eric Osborn’s remarkable efforts to follow d’Antraigues’s testimony and find the manuscript in the last decades of the twentieth century. Osborn’s dedicated account is supplemented by a survey of skeptical reactions to d’Antraigues’s testimony and brief comments on the manuscript of d’Antraigues’s testimony. The article concludes that doubts about d’Antraigues’s veracity are well substantiated and that d’Antraigues’s testimony about the manuscript should be counted among the fictional elements of his report.