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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID496
TM IDTM 62042
Findspot (DEChriM ID)-   ()
ClassTextual
MaterialParchment
Writing mediumCodex
Text contentLiterary
LanguageGreek
Description

P.Laur. III 55

Parchment fragments containing the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 26:1-2, 5-7, 27:29-30 and 28:1-8.

Two small parchment fragments (fragment A 5 x 2.7 cm; fragment B 5.7 x 8 cm) from different folios belonging to the same codex.

On fragment A, the hair-side precedes the flesh-side contextually, and on fragment B the flesh-side precedes the hair-side. The fragments could possibly constitute folios 2 and 7 of a quaternio; see Kraft 1982: 93. The original height is estimated to have been approx. 11 cm, producing a codex of a small format. The side margins have been lined by incision. Nomina sacra could be assumed in the lacunae; see Kraft 1982: 93.

The hand is a Biblical majuscule. 

Selection criteriaLiterary genre (Biblical)
Date from350
Date to450
Dating criteria

Palaeography. The ed. pr. places the fragment in the 4th c.; the script is comparable to  P.Vindob. G 19890 (Paul Romans from the 4th c., Fayûm) and P.Vindob. G 31489 (Paul Thessalonians from the late 5th c., provenance N/A). The date has more recently been expanded to include the first half of the 5th c. by comparison with the Codex Colberto-Sarravianus (4/5 c.). 

Absolute/relative dateRelative date
Archaeological context

Provenance is unknown.

Accession number

Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, PL III 424

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps:

∙ Pintaudi, Rosario, ed. 1979. Dai Papiri della Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana III. Florence,  no. 55 and pl. 52. 

Additional bibliography:

Treu, Kurt. 1982. "Christliche Papyri VIII". Archiv für Papyrusforschung 28, 93. 

∙ Orsini, Pasquale, and Edoardo Crisci, eds. 2005. Manoscritti in maiuscola biblica: materiali per un aggiornamento. Cassino: Università degli Studi di Cassino, 79.

∙ Rahlfs, Alfred and Detlef Fraenkel. 2004 (1914). Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments. Göttingen, 114, descr. no. 864.

Authors
Sofia Heim, 2021
Suggested citation
Sofia Heim, 2021, "Artefact ID 496", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/496
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