An Oxyrhynchite Education: How to Become an Apionic Scribe
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Giuseppina Azzarello
Abstract
This article analyzes a group of Byzantine papyri originating from the Oxyrhynchite and containing scribal exercises, which are connected to the famous domus gloriosa of the Apiones. Most of them are written on reused documents belonging to the Apionic dossier, and consist of documentary formulas or short passages copied out of other texts related to the management of the oikos. In a few cases, exercises seem to consist of copies of whole texts such as lists or accounts, so that they can be easily mistaken for real documents. Based on all these texts and on other papyrological evidence related to this issue, it is possible to argue that the oikos of the Apiones was involved in the management of a professional school located in the city of Oxyrhynchus and aiming at the education of future clerks.
Acknowledgments
This article was written during a very pleasant research stay, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, at the Institut für Papyrologie of the University of Heidelberg, directed by Prof. Dr. Andrea Jördens: to both institutions I am deeply grateful. For the permission to reproduce the clippings contained in this article I thank the Egypt Exploration Society and the University of Oxford Imaging Papyri Project. I am also indebted to Michael Sampson for generously correcting my English.
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© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Greek Literary Papyri in Context: Methodological Issues and Research Perspectives
- Part I Written, reused, recycled
- Reconstructing a Book Collection Through the Identification of a Copyist: Reused Rolls in Context
- Medical Opisthographs
- Recto and Verso in Bookrolls of Menander
- From Cartonnages to Cultural Contexts
- Part II Read, revised, studied
- Critical and Utilitarian Sigla in the Adespota Greek Hexameter Texts on Papyri
- An Oxyrhynchite Education: How to Become an Apionic Scribe
- ‘Problems’ at School: Mathematical Testimonies from the Fayum in the Roman Period
- Scroll for More: Papyrus Commentaries from Roman Oxyrhynchus and Context Clues
- Part III Found together
- Area G and the Digging of Kom Aushim
- The Library of the Taurinus Family (5th–6th c.): A Tentative Assessment and Interpretation
- List of contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Greek Literary Papyri in Context: Methodological Issues and Research Perspectives
- Part I Written, reused, recycled
- Reconstructing a Book Collection Through the Identification of a Copyist: Reused Rolls in Context
- Medical Opisthographs
- Recto and Verso in Bookrolls of Menander
- From Cartonnages to Cultural Contexts
- Part II Read, revised, studied
- Critical and Utilitarian Sigla in the Adespota Greek Hexameter Texts on Papyri
- An Oxyrhynchite Education: How to Become an Apionic Scribe
- ‘Problems’ at School: Mathematical Testimonies from the Fayum in the Roman Period
- Scroll for More: Papyrus Commentaries from Roman Oxyrhynchus and Context Clues
- Part III Found together
- Area G and the Digging of Kom Aushim
- The Library of the Taurinus Family (5th–6th c.): A Tentative Assessment and Interpretation
- List of contributors
