From the hand of Dioscorus of Aphrodito, sixth-century Coptic lawyer and poet, we have the only autograph poems to come down to us on papyrus from the late ancient world. Both the poetry he wrote for special occasions and the documents he produced in his legal career, in Greek and Coptic, reflect the major preoccupations of Dioscorus' society and his age: the nature of Byzantine imperial government, the patronage of the powerful elite, and the spirituality of the Egyptian Christian church. Thanks to residence in Egypt and many years of work with the original papyri, Leslie S. B. MacCoull is able to present a comprehensive picture of Dioscorus and his times. Through detailed analyses of the documents and poems, some previously unknown, she leads us to a fresh perception of the Coptic culture of Byzantine Egypt. She reveals the man and his world as inheritors of and contributors to the Egyptian-Classical-Christian fusion of society and intellectual life that gave birth to Gnosticism and the Desert Fathers. Dioscorus of Aphrodito epitomizes the little-known cultural flowering of late antique Egypt, which is now seen not as a place of sterility and decadence, but as the home of a strikingly original and creative culture whose subsequent eclipse still remains unexplained.

Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and His World (Transformation of the Classical Heritage)

Literature & Fiction

MacCoull, Leslie S.B.

History & Criticism

University of California Press

The transitions from Antiquity to the Middle Ages continue to demand explanation; in the case of Egypt there is the added question of why the Coptic language died out following the Arab conquests.  In these studies Dr MacCoull draws on the extensive papyrological evidence, in both Coptic and Greek, to explore the Egypt of the 6th-8th centuries, its culture, religion and society.  One group of articles focuses on the figure of the lawyer-poet Dioscorus of Aphrodito; in others she examines the adjustments made by Christian Egyptians as they became a minority under Muslim rule, as well as the methodologies of studying this society.  Les differents passages de l’Antiquité au Moyen Age nécessitent encore un certain nombre d’explications; dans le cas de l’Egypte, s’ajoute la question de l’extinction de la langue copte Ã  la suite des conquÃªtes arabes.  Au cours de ces études, le Dr MacCoull s’appuie sur l’abondante documentation papyrologique, en langue grecque et copte, afin d’explorer l’Egypte du 6e au 8e siècle, sa culture, sa religion et sa société.  Un groupe d’articles se concentre sur le personnage du poète juriste Dioscore d’Aphrodito; d’ailleurs, elle examine la faÃ§on dont les Chrétiens égyptiens se sont adaptés alors qu’ils devenaient une minorité sous l’empire des musulmans, ainsi que la méthodologie relative Ã  l’étude de cette société.

Coptic Perspectives on Late Antiquity (Variorum Collected Studies)

History

Ancient Civilizations

Routledge

Theodulf of Orléans: The Verse (Volume 450) (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies)

Andersson, Mr. Theodore M.

Ommundsen, Mr. Åslaug

ACMRS Press

The nineteen studies in this volume, produced over the last fifteen years, cover three areas in Christian Egypt's long and enduring history. First are eight papers dealing with record-keeping in both of the Christian Egyptian culture-carrying languages of late antiquity, Coptic and Greek, showing how these languages were used pragmatically and interactively to embody everyday transactions and messages. Then come five studies of a major sixth-century thinker and theologian, John Philoponus, who contributed greatly to the self-definition of the non-Chalcedonian Egyptian church and employed both classical philosophy and biblical exegesis to provide his fellow Miaphysites with needed intellectual tools. Finally there are six articles ranging from sixth-century philosophy, poetry, and liturgy to the cultural productions of Egyptian Christians living under Muslim rule, including how they sought to memorialize traditions and deal with internal conflict.

Documenting Christianity in Egypt, Sixth to Fourteenth Centuries (Variorum Collected Studies)

Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and His World

A study of Dioscorus, an official of the Egyptian city Aphrodito in Late Antiquity. Many of his personal papers survived to provide an unusually in-depth glimpse of an ancient person.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

ACLS Humanities E-Book

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Books by MacCoull, Leslie S.B.