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The Material Aspects, Palaeography, and Layout of Roman Wills from Egypt

  • Lucia Consuelo Colella

This chapter investigates the physical features, mise en page, and palaeography of Roman wills from Egypt before and after Severus Alexander (222–235 CE). Writing media (tablets and papyri) and language (Latin and Greek) are important in determining whether we are dealing with an original will, a copy, or a translation. Moreover, a closer analysis of their physical features, writing surface, number of hands, and layout strategies can yield a deeper understanding of the documents in their context. I argue that other wills on tablets had a similar format to that of C.Pap.Lat. 221 in the position of the binding holes, while some of them probably conformed more closely to the senatus consultum Neronianum. It is a matter of debate whether original records of opening the will were in Latin; it is likely that they were, but some surviving examples are possibly private copies. In addition, some Greek records seem to have been copied from Greek translations rather than being directly translated from the Latin. Layout devices were often reproduced in the process of drafting, copying, and translating wills, whereas technical abbreviations appear to be more widespread in Latin than in Greek testimonia.

  • Keywords:
  • Roman wills; writing media; headings; writing surface; layout devices.,
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Lucia Consuelo Colella

University of Naples Federico II, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-0132-4483

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  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Pages: 121-139
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

The Material Aspects, Palaeography, and Layout of Roman Wills from Egypt

Authors

Lucia Consuelo Colella

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9.09

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Text, Layout, and Medium

Book Subtitle

Documents from the Greco-Roman World between Epigraphy and Papyrology

Editors

Davide Amendola, Cristina Carusi, Francesca Maltomini, Emilio Rosamilia

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

426

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0455-2

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0456-9

Series Title

Edizioni dell’Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli»

Series ISSN

2533-2414

Series E-ISSN

2612-7997

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