Scribal Habits at the Tebtunis Temple Library: On Materiality, Formal Features, and Palaeography

TY - CHAP

T1 - Scribal Habits at the Tebtunis Temple Library

T2 - On Materiality, Formal Features, and Palaeography

AU - Ryholt, Kim

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - The Tebtunis temple library provides a unique opportunity to investigate the operation of an institutional library from ancient Egypt as the only surviving example of its kind. The paper focuses on a range of formal features, paleography, and the maintenance of texts and manuscripts. An analysis and comparison of formal features—such as the choice of new vs. reused papyrus, choice of script, and the use of guidelines and pagination—with contemporary material from other sites reveals considerable variation in practice and indicates general local trends. However, there is also significant variation within the temple library itself, and it can be shown that some features are closely linked to specific scribes and their personal habits. The many distinctive hands attested in the library leads to the related question of paleography and orthography and the extent to which these factors may help to determinative the provenance of specific text. Finally, the maintenance and transmission of texts and manuscripts through collation, corrections, repair, and re-copying is addressed.

AB - The Tebtunis temple library provides a unique opportunity to investigate the operation of an institutional library from ancient Egypt as the only surviving example of its kind. The paper focuses on a range of formal features, paleography, and the maintenance of texts and manuscripts. An analysis and comparison of formal features—such as the choice of new vs. reused papyrus, choice of script, and the use of guidelines and pagination—with contemporary material from other sites reveals considerable variation in practice and indicates general local trends. However, there is also significant variation within the temple library itself, and it can be shown that some features are closely linked to specific scribes and their personal habits. The many distinctive hands attested in the library leads to the related question of paleography and orthography and the extent to which these factors may help to determinative the provenance of specific text. Finally, the maintenance and transmission of texts and manuscripts through collation, corrections, repair, and re-copying is addressed.

U2 - 10.1093/oso/9780198768104.003.0007

DO - 10.1093/oso/9780198768104.003.0007

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9780198768104

SP - 153

EP - 183

BT - Scribal Repertoires in Egypt from the New Kingdom to the Early Islamic Period

A2 - Cromwell, J.

A2 - Grossman, E.

PB - Oxford University Press

CY - Oxford

ER -