List of titles for papyrus texts
This list has been informed by Wilcken's "General-Register" (Archiv für
Papyrusforschung 1 [1901] 1-28) and the "Sachübersicht" in recent volumes
of SB, the "Testi recentemente pubblicati" published in recent issues of
Aegyptus and the first part of Montevecchi's "Rassegna di alcuni tipi di
documenti" (O. Montevecchi, La papirologia [2nd ed., Milano 1988] 177-233 and
565-570), the online catalogue of the Yale papyrus collection and the proposed
categories for the electronic Prosographia Ptolemaica as well as standard papyrus
editions in English such as P.Cair.Isid.,
P.Mich. 6 and 8, and P.Oxy. 50, 51, 55 and 58. The categories are chosen
according to the content of the papyrus texts, rather than according to their
form. The list permits of refinements as more papyri are catalogued. It is not
complete when it comes to subliterary, let alone literary, texts. For known
literary texts LCNAF will often provide standardized names of authors and their
works. In other cases L. Berkowitz & K.A. Squitier, Thesaurus Linguae
Graecae: Canon of Greek Authors and Works (3rd ed., New York & Oxford
1990) might be helpful for the names of Greek authors.
NB: the categories marked with * have not yet been used.
- Category
- Expanded examples from existing records (Remarks)
- Account
- Accounts; Account of arrears; Account of corvée; Account
of deliveries; Account of expenses; Account of fish; Account of five-day
periods; Account of oil; Account of payments; Account of taxes; Account of
money taxes; Account of taxes in kind; Account of transportation; Account of
wheat; Daily account (cf. inventory, list, register)
- Alphabet
- Amulet
- Magical amulet
- *Application
- Book
- Model book
- *Certificate
- Cession
- Cession of land
- Charm
- Love charm
- Contract
- (to be used for Adoption contract; Apprenticeship contract;
divorce contract; Freight contract; Indemnity contract; Labor
contract; Manumission contract; Marriage contract; Partnership
contract; Service contract; Wet-nursing contract; and in all other
cases where one cannot leave out the word "contract"; if one
can, as in the case of nouns denoting the transaction of a piece
of property, the word "contract" has been left out)
- Commentary
- Biblical commentary
- Copy of
- Can modify all categories
- Correspondence
- Official correspondence (to be used in case of an exchange
of letters or ledgers of correspondence; cf. letter)
- Cryptograph
- *Curse
- (cf. charm)
- *Decision
- (made by an emperor, his representative or a judge)
- Declaration
- Census declaration; Declarations; Declaration of land; Declaration of
livestock,
Epikrisis declaration (to an official; cf. notification, which is
otherwise often used instead of declaration)
- *Decree
- (issued by a king; cf. edict)
- *Deposit
- *Deposition
- Description
- Description of land
- *Diary
- (of an official; cf. proceedings)
- Diatribe
- Cynic diatribe
- *Diploma
- *Directions
- Division
- Division of property
- Documentary text
- (to be used if the category cannot be
determined)
- *Donatio mortis causa
- (cf. testament)
- Donation
- Donation of property
- Draft of
- (can modify all categories)
- Drawing
- Duplicate of
- (can modify all categories)
- *Edict
- (issued by an emperor or his representative; cf. decree)
- Epigram
- *Exchange
- Exercise
- School exercise
- Extract from
- (can modify all categories)
- Handbook
- Magical handbook
- Homily
- Horoscope
- Hymn
- Inventory
- (cf. account, list, register)
- *Law
- Lease
- Lease of land; Lease of a palm grove; Lease of a vineyard
- Letter
- Business letter; Official letter; Private letter; Letter of
appointment; Letter of recommendation
- *Libellus
- (from the Decian persecution)
- List
- List of goods; List of items; List of land; List of objects; List of
persons; List of villages; Tax list (cf. account, inventory, register)
- Literary text
- (to be used if the category cannot be determined)
- Liturgical text
- (to be used if the category cannot be determined)
- Loan
- Loan of money; Loan of wheat
- Magical text
- (to be used if the category cannot be determined)
- Martyrdom
- Memorandum
- Official memorandum; Private memorandum
- Mythological text
- *Notification
- (from an official; cf. declaration)
- *Oracle question
- Order
- Order for payment; Order to supply seed
- Painting
- Pass
- Safe-conduct pass
- Petition
- Petition against assault; Petition against defaulting debtor;
Petition to the katholikos (to be used for any complaint)
- Philosophical text (to be used if the category cannot be determined)
- Power of attorney
- (to be used for mandates)
- Prayer
- Prescription
- Medical prescription (cf. recipe)
- Proceedings
- (cf. diary)
- Protocol
- Receipt
- Customs receipt; Receipt for barley; Receipt for payment in
kind; Receipt for rent paid in kind; Receipt of tax payment through a bank; Tax
receipt
- *Recipe
- (cf. prescription)
- Register
- Register of declarations of livestock; Register of land; Register of
money tax payments; Register of petitions; Register of tax payments; Register
of unusable land; Tax register (cf. account, inventory, list)
- Regulations
- Report Official report; Report of inspection; Report on the shipment of wheat
- Request
- Request to inherit; Request for registration of property
- *Rescript
- (issued by an emperor; cf. subscription)
- Sale
- Sale of a donkey; Sale of land; Sale of wine in advance
- Scholia
- *Settlement
- Subliterary text
- (to be used when the category cannot be determined)
- *Subscription
- (issued by the prefect of Egypt; cf. rescript)
- *Summons
- (a court term; cf. warrant)
- Surety
- (for someone else; cf. undertaking)
- Syllabary
- Tachygraph
- *Testament (cf. donatio mortis causa)
- *Undertaking
- (personal; cf. surety)
- Voucher
- *Warrant
- (a police term; cf. summons)
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Last updated by Peter van Minnen on 12/4/95