DCLP

Introduction

Medical prose. The fragment (8 x 12.5 cm) is broken on top, right and left sides, and it is written on the recto (verso is blank). Only the lower margin survives. The papyrus preserves the remains of two columns, each of 25 lines: the first one presents a large and irregular fracture in the middle; the second one (ll. 1-19) contains no more than two readable characters per line. The fragmentary state of the text makes the precise nature of its contents difficult to identify: two skin diseases (ἄνθραξ ‘carbuncle’; ἕρπης ‘shingles’) are mentioned at ll. 4-7; immediately after, a personal experience is probably reported from a first person perspective (ll. 7 ff.); finally, ll.21-25 seem to discuss dropsy (ὕδρωψ) and the best way to treat an undetermined disease (λύεσθαι τρό̣πον ἄριστον). The terminology employed suggests acquaintance with Hippocratic texts; in the second column (l. 25), the probable occurrence of the verb τηρέω (‘watch narrowly, observe’), commonly used as a technical term by Empiricists, may also reveal a connection with this medical school. The hand is a rather small and accurate majuscule assignable to the 2nd cent. AD.

Apparatus

Notes

• 5-6.

  For ανθρ[ακα]ς θερι[νους] see Hp. Epid. 2.1.1 (5, 72 L), 3.7 (3, 84 L).

• 6-7.

  For ερπητας εσθι̣ο̣με[νους] see Hp. Aph. 5.22 (4, 540 L), Liqu. 6 (6, 134 L). It is not possible to determine how many skin diseases might have been listed in these lines.

• 20.

  The verb κενοῦν is commonly used in medical literature to describe the practice of emptying the body by depletion either to expel the corrupt humors or to keep humors in equilibrium.