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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID	1635
TM ID	TM 33189
Findspot (DEChriM ID)	- ()
Class	Textual
Material	Papyrus
Writing medium	Sheet/roll
Text content	Documentary
Language	Greek
Description	P. Lond. 5 1658: Letter from Antonios This letter (8.9 x 16.5 cm), is written by an Antonios, an ecclesiastic, to an illegible recipient addressed as τῷ […] υἱῷ (line 1) and greeted ἐν κ(υρί)ῳ (line 2). Publications on the letter had previously concerned the identity of the writer, contemplating that the author may have been St. Anthony (in part due to the name’s alleged rarity in Egypt, in part due to perceived similarities to attestations of his writings), using an amanuensis to compensate for his lack of Greek, or that the present text was a later Greek translation. Wipszycka 1974 has opposed these claims, pointing to the authentic use of the text as a letter (including an address on the verso) and more attestations of the name Antonios. An initial reading of line 1 (ἀιμνήτῳ) was corrected by Gonis 1997 as ἀγαπατῷ. The verso contains the address, as well as the beginning of another letter. Nomina sacra: κω
Selection criteria	Christian terms/formulas/concepts, Nomina sacra
Date from	300
Date to	399
Dating criteria	Palaeography
Absolute/relative date	Relative date
Archaeological context	Provenance unknown. Acquired 1906.
Accession number	London, British Library Pap 1614

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps
• Bell, Harold I. 1917. Greek Papyri at the British Museum. Catalogue, with Texts. Vol. V. London: The Trustees of the British Museum. 18-19, No. 1658.

Additional bibliography (in chronological order)
• Ghedini, Giuseppe. 1920. “Una lettera autografe di S. Antonio abate?” La Scuola Cattolica. Rivista di Scienze Religiose (ScCatt) 48. 247-250.
• Ghedini, Giuseppe. 1923. Lettere Cristiane dai Papiri Greci del III e IV Secolo. Milano: Presso l'amministrazione di Aegyptus e la società editrice Vita e Pensiero. 150-153, No. 19.
• Delehaye, Hippolyte. 1924. “Review of: Giuseppe Ghedini. Lettere cristiane dai papiri greci del III e IV secolo.” Analecta Bollandiana 42: 173-174.
• Leclercq, Henri. 1929. "Lettres Chrétiennes." In Dictionnaire d'Archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 8(2), fasc. 90–91, edited by Fernand Cabrol and Henri Leclercq. Paris: Librairie Letouzey & Ané, col. 2683-2885: col. 2786-2787, No. 19.
• Winter, John Garrett. 1933. Life and Letters in the Papyri. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 161.
• Barison, Paola. 1938. “Ricerche sui monasteri dell'Egitto bizantino ed arabo secondo i documenti dei papiri greci.” Aegyptus 18. 29-148: 140.
• Koskenniemi, Heikki. 1956. Studien zur Idee und Phraseologie des griechischen Briefes bis 400 n. Chr. Annales Academia Scientiarum Fennicae Ser. B, Volume 102,2. Helsinki: Finnish Society. 81-82.
• Naldini, Mario. 1968. Il Cristianesimo in Egitto. Lettere private nei papiri dei secoli II-IV. Firenze: Le Monnier. 195-197, No. 42.
• Wipszycka, Ewa. 1974. “Remarques sur les lettres privées chrétiennes des IIe–IVe siècles. (A propos d’un livre de M. Naldini).” Journal of Juristic Papyrology (JJP) 18. 203-221: 211-212.
• Gonis, Nikolaos. 1997. “Anthony and His Letter to a Dead Man.” Archiv für Papyrusforschung (AfP) 43: 364-367. Plate IX, Abb. 2. [Incorrectly captioned as P.Mich. inv. 1051]
• Burnet, Régis. 2003. L’Egypte Ancienne à Travers Les Papyrus. Vie quotidienne. Paris: Pygmalion. 86, No. 32.

Authors

Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023

Suggested citation

Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023, "Artefact ID 1635", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/1635

Json data

External links

TM 33189 DDbDP (PN) HGV The British Library – Papyrus 1614

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