DCLP

Introduction

Medical recipes. The fragment (9 x 8.5 cm) contains on recto a single column of 13 lines with a short text in the same hand in its left margin. On verso, 5 lines of unclear traces in a second, cursive hand can be discerned, written with the fibers after the papyrus had been folded twice from left to right. The surviving main text on the front totals 13 lines divided into two sections by a rather meandering horizontal line: ll. 1-2 contain the end of first recipe (possibly an eye salve), while ll. 3-13 preserve more substantial remains of a second collyrium: close parallels can be found with eye salves described, as here at l. 10, as ‘mild’ (τρυφερόν, or in Latin lene): see esp. Scrib. Larg. Comp. 19-27, Gal. Comp. med. sec. loc. 4.7 (12, 757.6-10 K; 758.3-8 K; 758.15-759.3 K; 769.11-7 K]; Aet. Iatr. 7.108 [CMG 8.2, 374-375 Oliv.]. These collyria are prescribed for a range of chronic eye diseases such as pustules, suppuration, sores, spots on the cornea, inflammation. The marginal text (ll. 14-16) is a further recipe. The hand is informal, cursive, assignable to the late second or third century. Line 3 is in ekthesis; monograms are found at ll. 1 and 9.

Apparatus

Notes

• 1f..

  The repeated mention of water suggests that this recipe, like the following, was a collyrium. The use of gum Arabic further support this suggestion. ὕδωρ : The last two letters of ὕδωρ are written as a monogram but this does not involve an abbreviation.

• 2.

  μεθ’ ὕδατος : The text is written up against the right margin, and appears to have been added after the text at l. 3 had already begun to be written. The horizontal line and subsequent text thus slope downwards markedly to accommodate it.

• 9.

  διάθεσις is regularly used in a medical context to denote an underlying condition or state of the body, often pathological. In the context of ophthalmological recipes, however, the term is often contrasted with recent or incipient eye complaints (see e.g. Ps. Gal. Introduct. 15 [14, 765 K]), suggesting that it refers specifically to established or chronic conditions.

• 12.

  κράση ι: It appears to be a phonetic error, though perhaps affected by μέσῃ preceding. That κράσει ἢ should be read is suggested by Aët. Iatr. 7.117 [CMG 8.2, 394.5-6 Oliv.].

• 14,ms.

  The surface of the papyrus is badly damaged throughout the line, with many dislodged fibres. Of the second letter, there is a trace perhaps of a horizontal mid-line; of the fourth, a steep diagonal rises from left to right high in the line, perhaps a upsilon; of the eight, a curving movement rises then descends, with a diagonal oblique projecting from its lower extreme, apparently a upsilon; of the last letter or letters, the feet of two verticals survive.