Prerequisites
Prerequisites are competence in both basic Papyrological skills (5ECTS) and in a historical or cultural area such as Greek Literature, Greek History, Roman History, and Classical Archaeology, for which the sources that are to be studied may be applied.
Course unit content
The course will deal with the reading of both literary and documentary papyri in a historical or cultural area such as Greek Literature, Greek History, Roman History, and Classical Archaeology. Life and culture, history and administration over the Ptolemaic and Roman periods will be explored. Reading will include reproductions of the originals as well as translations. Students will be introduced to a proper method of interpretation of literary and documentary texts found on papyri ranging in date from the fourth century BC to the sixth century AD. A training in the use of bibliographic instruments to deepen a correct understanding of interdisciplinary aspects offered by the sources is also included.
Bibliography
E.G. Turner, Papiri greci, ed. italiana a c. di M. Manfredi, Roma: Carocci, 2002;
A.K. Bowman, L'Egitto dopo i faraoni (Introd. di Edda Bresciani), Firenze: Giunti, 1997;
Th.C. Skeat, La produzione libraria cristiana delle origini: papiri e manoscritti, Firenze 1976 (fotocopie);
G. Cavallo, La nascita del codice, SIFC, ser. III/3 (1985), pp. 118-121;
N. Lewis, Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986 (cap. 7)
R.S. Bagnall, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History. London and New York: Routledge, 1995 (pagine scelte);
H. Maehler, Alessandria, il Museo, e la questione dell'identità culturale, in Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, v.XIV (2003), pp. 99-120.
