Observing the Scribe at Work: Scribal Practice in the Ancient World

Description

Scribes are paradoxically both central and invisible in most societies before the typographic revolution of the 15th century, witnessed by every manuscript, but often elusive as historical figures. The act of writing is a quotidian and vernacular practice as well as a literary one, and must be observed not only in the outputs of literary copyists or reports of their activities, but in the documents of everyday life. This volume collects contributions on scribal practice as it features on diverse media (including papyri, tablets, and inscriptions) in a range of ancient societies, from the Ancient Near East and Dynastic Egypt through the Graeco-Roman world to Byzantium. These discussions of the role and place of scribes and scribal activity in pre-typographic cultures both contribute to a better understanding of one of the key drivers of these cultures, and illuminate the transmission of knowledge and traditions within and between them. Contents Abbreviations Preface Contributors Observing the Scribe at Work • Rachel Yuen-Collingridge TIlimilku of Ugarit, l’homme et l’oeuvre: An Enquiry into a Scribe’s Authorial Role • Nick Wyat The Role of the Scribe in the Composition of Written Correspondence in Israel and Judah • Gareth Wearne Two Groups of Deir el-Medina Ostraca Recording Duty Rosters and Daily Deliveries Composed with Identity Marks • Daniel Soliman How Many Scribes in P.Berol. 13270? New Considerations about the Handwriting • Valeria Tezzon Compositional Practice and Contractual Authority in the Patermouthis Archive • Rodney Ast Scribes and Other Writers in the Petra Papyri • Marja Vierros The Problems of Anonymous Scribes at Wadi Sarga • Jennifer Cromwell Theodore the Stoudite and the Stoudios Scriptorium in Ninth-Century Byzantium • Ken Parry Mirroring Byzantium: Scribes, Dukes, and Leadership in Pre-Norman Southern Italy • Norman Underwood Observing Neo-Assyrian Scribes at Work • Jacob Lauinger Wenamun: Directions in Palaeography and Structure. A Preliminary Survey • Anthony Spalinger and Tasha Dobbin-Bennett Inscriptional Copies from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Period • Julia Lougovaya Professional Scribes and Letter-Cutters in Archaic Greece • Elena Martín González Saving the Ivory Tower from Oblivion: The Role of Scribes in Preserving Alexandrian Scholarship • Francesca Schironi Accounts and Scribal Practice in Dime in the Roman Period • Marie-Pierre Chaufrey Text and Paratext in Documentary Papyri from Roman Egypt • Malcolm Choat The Use of Abbreviations in Duplicate Documents from Roman Egypt • Korshi Dosoo Scribal Process and Cognitive Philology in Didymus the Blind’s Lectures on Psalms (Tura Codex V) • Gregg Schwendner