In the Introduction to his 1909 Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts in the Collection of the John Rylands Library Manchester, Walter Crum provides for the reader some clues regarding the formation of the Coptic collection at The Rylands. Enriqueta Rylands purchased the collection from the Earl of Crawford in 1901, who had assembled it in two distinct parts.

The first part, labelled by Crum as ‘A’, consists of manuscripts Crawford acquired from Archdeacon Tattam, Rev. R. Lieder, and J. Lee.

The second part, labelled ‘B’, is comprised of manuscripts purchased by the Earl of Crawford from two antiquities dealers in Giza in 1898/99, and it is in this part to which all the Coptic papyri belong. The provenance of the purchased material is difficult to obtain, although internal evidence suggests the lion’s share of material was produced in Hermopolis, and a smaller number from the Fayyum.

It is in the same Introduction that Crum assigned the fate of a rather large portion of Coptic papyri fragments by ascribing them to a “limbo.” He writes: Something should be said as to certain methodological features of this catalogue. Whereas all the MSS. composing the older collection (A) are described, the same has not been done with the later, ‘Ashmunain’ stock. Here I have been allowed to use discretion, and so have described but a selection of the great mass of fragments, abandoning a considerable quantity of impracticable material to a limbo. […] But it is earnestly to be hoped that this and the similar papyrus collections will, in time, be attacked afresh by other students; for such texts are destined to yield invaluable contributions both towards Coptic vocabulary and syntax.

Over the course of decades this subset of Coptic material has come to be known as the Coptic Limbo collection, and while surveys of this fragmentary material have estimated the Limbo collection to be comprised of hundreds of works in Coptic, a comprehensive study of the material culminating in a contribution to the field has yet to occur. It has been well over a century since Crum set these fragments, and the field of Coptic studies has grown immeasurable with data, new methods, and digital tools, and so once again, this time through an online database, these Coptic works have been made available to be studied, bringing fruition to Crum’s hope that future generations will complete what was originally set aside.