OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

9.5 x 9.0 cm [H x W]

Lines:

14

Publication side:

Recto (Verso: blank)

Palaeographic description:

Neat semi-literary hand of the Roman period, written along the fibers.

State of preservation:

Square fragment of medium brown papyrus preserving lines from a single column of text. The first 9 lines are nearly complete, while the fragmentary condition of the bottom part leaves out a substantial portion of the remaining 6, especially towards the right end of the lines. Top margin: 3 cm. The right side is broken off at, or right before, the line ends. Presumably the left margin (1.5 cm) preserves part of an intercolumnar space.

Content

Date:

Early IInd century CE

Origin:

Unknown, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Paraliterary

Author:

–

Title / Type of text:

Medical treatise / Medical text

Content:

Dietetic prescriptions for the treatment of epilepsy and paraplexia.

Subjects:

Medicine Medical treatise Dietetics Regimen Epilepsy Paraplexia

Named people:

–

Named places:

–

English translation:

… [eating ?] eggs and dried figs, drinking thick, dark, dry wine, taking cold baths, has been the cause of prolonged epilepsy in not a few cases; and that those for whom these elements are maintained in the diet, should become well with more difficulty, while those for whom they are changed, become so with more ease, goes not against reason. If indeed in the brain and in those coming from the brain (i.e. the spinal cord ?) [vac.] remains in the case of epileptics and those afflicted with paraplexia, it becomes easier for the one able to (make the illness ?) resolve and run its course more easily, [...] the sooner the diet is altered, while it moves less [...] slower and with more difficulty ...

Provenance:

Probably the Fayum, Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased 1923 through the British Museum, with Maurice Nahman as dealer. Cf. reports and inventory list by H. I. Bell.

Acquisition year:

1923

Editions

• Eitrem, S., & L. Amundsen, P.Oslo III, 1936, p. 72

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 63583 / LDAB 4792 / DCLP / MP3 2384

Discussions

• Schmidt, K. F. W. (1938). [Rez.] Papyri Osloenses. Fasc. III. Philologische Wochenschrift, 58, 298.
• Bonati, I. (2018). Tra composti suffissi e neologismi nella microlingua della medicina: alcuni specimina tratti dai papiri. In N. Reggiani & F. Bertonazzi (Eds.), Parlare la medicina : fra lingue e culture, nello spazio e nel tempo : atti del convegno internazionale, Università di Parma, 5-7 Settembre 2016 (pp. 30-51). Le Monnier Università. On παρ[α]|πληκτικοῖς ll. 8-9 as an example from papyri of the productive ending -ικός in medical micro-language; see p. 45.
• Reggiani, N. (2018). The Corpus of the Greek Medical Papyri and a new concept of digital critical edition. In N. Reggiani (Ed.), Digital Papyrology II (pp. 3-61). On the vacat l. 9 as evidence of scribal inference in textual transmission; see p. 32.
• Reggiani, N. (2022). The digital edition of ancient sources as a further step in the textual transmission. Classics@, 20. https://classics-at.chs.harvard.edu/the-digital-edition-of-ancient-sources-as-a-further-step-in-the-textual-transmission/. On the vacat l. 9 as evidence of scribal inference in textual transmission.