Bilingual Scribes in Magical Formularies: The Cases of PGM/PDM XII (= GEMF 15) and XIV (= GEMF 16)

Abstract

This paper aims to offer a detailed palaeographical study of the stylistic peculiarities of the scribes involved in the copying of two bilingual magical formularies from the so-called Theban Magical Library. Our study concludes that both GEMF 15 and 16 were produced under the supervision of the same principal scribe-user who was probably trained in the tradition of the Egyptian temple priesthood, the only context in which the necessary knowledge of the Egyptian scripts (Demotic, Hieratic, Old Coptic) would have been available in the second century CE. This bilingual (Demotic/Greek) scribe appears to have copied the long Demotic sections of both manuscripts, and although he also wrote the short Greek sections integrated into the Demotic (either in-line or as glosses), he invited three further scribes – more highly trained in Greek – to copy the extensive Greek sections of both manuscripts.