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Papyrus 2462

Record Id:

040-002105495

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002104451

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000224.0x000176

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100143124519.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Papyrus 2462

Title:

Letter of the Bishop Sotas on a Donation (P.Oxy. XII 1492, TM 31748)

Scope & Content:

A letter from the bishop Sotas to a certain Demetrianus, addressed as ‘holy son’, containing pious thoughts and instructions on dividing a plot of land which Demetrianus may decide to donate to the church. The address is on the back.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Greek Manuscripts
Papyri Collections

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002104451
040-002105495

Is part of:

Papyrus 1-3136 : Papyri

Papyrus 2462 : Letter of the Bishop Sotas on a Donation (P.Oxy. XII 1492, TM 31748)

Hierarchy:

032-002104451[1307]/040-002105495

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Papyrus 1-3136

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Papyrus sheet, damaged at the top and sides. The upper margin measures 17 mm, the lower 3 mm, the left 25 mm and the right is minimal. Writing is on both sides along the fibres, the back having a one-line docket. The papyrus is housed in a glass case.

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100143124519.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Greek, Ancient

Scripts:

Greek

Start Date:

0250

End Date:

0299

Date Range:

mid-late 3rd century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Papyrus.

Dimensions: 226 x 103 mm; housed in a glass case measuring 280 x 150 mm.

Script: Good-sized cursive hand, slightly slanting to the right. Diaeresis on initial upsilon and iota occurs. Nomina sacra are not contracted. Perhaps same hand as PSI IX 1041.

Custodial History:

Origin: Oxyrhynchus, Oxyrhynchite nome, Egypt.

Provenance: Oxyrhynchus, Oxyrhynchite nome, Egypt. Presented as part of a lot comprising Papyri 2435-2485 by the Egypt Exploration Society on 18 July 1922.

Former External References:

P.Oxy. XII 1492

Publications:

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1921-1925 (London: British Museum 1950), p. 366.

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri XII (London: Egypt Exploration Fund 1916), pp. 249-250, no. 1492.

G. Ghedini, ‘Ὁ ΤΟΠΟΣ nel POxy. 1492’, Aegyptus 2 (1921), pp. 337-338.

G. Ghedini, Lettere cristiane dai papiri greci del III e IV secolo (Milano: Vita e Pensiero 1923), pp. 123-128, no. 12.

C. Wessely, Les plus anciens monuments du christianisme écrits sur papyrus (Paris: Firmin-Didot 1924), pp. 385-186.

H. Leclercq, ‘Lettres chrétiennes’, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 8.2 (1929), coll. 2683-2685.

J. G. Winter, Life and Letters in the Papyri (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 1933), p. 148.

Berichtigungsliste der griechischen Papyrusurkunden aus Ägypten II.2 (Heidelberg: Im Selbstverlag des Verfassers 1933), p. 100.

H. Leclercq, ‘Papyrus’, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 13.1 (1937), coll. 1370-1520 (col. 1423).

H. A. Steen, ‘Les clichés épistolaires dans les lettres sur papyrus grecques’, Classica et mediaevalia 1 (1938), pp. 119-176 (p. 156).

H. I. Bell, ‘Evidences of Christianity in Egypt during the Roman Period’, The Harvard Theological Review 37 (1944), pp. 185-208 (p. 196).

G. Bovini, La proprietà ecclesiastica e la condizione giuridica della chiesa in età precostantiniana (Milano: A. Giuffrè 1948), pp. 128-130.

B. R. Rees, ‘Popular Religion in Graeco-Roman Egypt: II. The Transition to Christianity’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 36 (1950), pp. 86-100 (p. 97).

M. T. Cavassini, ‘Lettere cristiane nei papiri greci d'Egitto’, Aegyptus 34 (1954), pp. 266-282 (pp. 267, 272-273).

H. Koskenniemi, Studien zur Idee und Phraseologie des griechischen Briefes bis 400 n. Chr. (Helsinki: Suomalainen Kirjall. Kirj 1956), p. 150.

J. van Haelst, ‘Les sources papyrologiques concernant l'Église en Égypte à l'époque de Constantin’, in D. H. Samuel (ed.), Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Papyrology (Toronto: Hakkert 1970), pp. 497-503 (p. 501).

J. D. Thomas, ‘Notes on Documentary Papyri (P. Oxy. 1572 and 2561, BGU 2118)’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 8 (1971), pp. 278-284 (p. 280).

E. Wipszycka, Les ressources et les activités économiques des églises en Égypte du IVe au VIIIe siècle (Bruxelles: Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth 1972), p. 29.

‘Remarques sur les lettres privées chrétiennes. A propos de livre de M. Naldini’, Journal of Juristic Papyrology 18 (1974), pp. 203-221 (pp. 212-213).

J. P. Thomas, Private Religious Foundations in the Byzantine Empire (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection 1987), p. 11.

A. Martin, Athanase d'Alexandrie et l'église d'Égypte au IVe siècle (328-373) (Roma: École Française de Rome, Palais Farnèse 1996), p. 714, n. 287.

L. M. White, ‘Private Letters, in The Social Origins of Christian Architecture 2 (Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press 1997), pp. 162-164, no. 44.

M. Naldini, Il cristianesimo in Egitto. Lettere private nei papiri dei secoli II-IV (Firenze: Nardini 1998²), pp. 156-158, 436-437 no. 30, and passim.

M. Choat, Belief and Cult in Fourth-Century Papyri (Turnhout: Brepols; Sydney: Ancient History Documentary Research Centre 2006), p. 156.

AM. Luijendijk, Greetings in the Lord: early Christians and the Oxyrhynchus papyri (Cambridge, Mass.-London: Harvard University Press 2008), pp. 125-136, 147 and passim.

L. H. Blumell, ‘Christians on the Move in Late Antique Oxyrhynchus’, in Ph. H. Harland (ed.), Travel and Religion in Antiquity (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press 2011), pp. 235-254 (p. 248).

L. H. Blumell, Lettered Christians: Christians, letters, and late antique Oxyrhynchus (Leiden: Brill 2012), pp. 142, 301, and passim.

M. Choat, ‘Christianity’, in C. Riggs (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2012), pp. 474-492 (p. 483).

L. H. Blumell, T. A. Wayment (eds.), Christian Oxyrhynchus: Texts, Documents, and Sources (Waco: Baylor University Press 2015), pp. 481-487 (no. 134).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Demetrianus, recipient of a letter from Bishop Sotas, fl 2nd half of the 3rd century
Sotas, bishop in Oxyrhynchus, 2nd half 3rd century

Places:

Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), Oxyrhynchite nome, Egypt

Related Material:

The papyrus is part of the archive of the bishop Sotas, which includes PSI III 208, PSI IX 1041, P.Oxy. XXXVI 2785, and SB XII 10772 alongside the BL papyrus and perhaps also P.Alex. 29.