DCLP

Introduction

Medical recipes. Fragment (6 x 11.3 cm) of a papyrus roll much abraded on both sides. Not enough of the 9 lines of the recto, written along the fibers, survives to give us a hint of the nature of the text. It has a upper margin of 2.5 cm and a right margin of 1.5 cm. The hand is a large, elegant cursive assignable to the 2nd cent. AD. The text on verso, written across the fibers, is upside down with reference to the text on the recto. Whereas the latter contains the upper right portion from a column of writing, the verso preserves the lower right portion: in view of the fact that the text on the verso is not complete and ought to have been continued in another column, we may have one more example of a re-used official roll. Beneath the text on the verso is a margin of 2 cm and to the right of the last two lines, a margin of 0.5-1 cm. The letters are small and often individually made. Above l. 1 is a wide space of 2.5 cm, which has near the broken, irregular upper edge a long paragraphos, extending the full width of the papyrus. Since the content of the succeeding text is obviously a medical prescription, the paragraphos and blank space mark the end of a preceding prescription, which may have had the same general purpose as those in ll. 1-6 and 7-8 of our text, which are both meant to treat affections in the mouth. Although only the title of the second recipe is preserved ([πρὸς π]άντα τὰ ἐν τῷ στόμα[τι πάθη]), we are fortunate to be able to recover with reasonable certainty five of the six or seven ingredients of the first recipe, and those five are commonly found in preparations of Galen called στοματικὰ φάρμακα (see Gal. Comp.med.sec.loc. 12, 928-58). These are primarily syrupus, ointments, and powders for mouth and throat ailments of various kinds. Since our first recipe contains honey, it belonged to one of the two latter categories, most likely the διάχριστα (ointments), since the title of the second recipes indicates its use as an all-purpose ointment and as a powder (see Youtie 1978, 280-1).

Apparatus

Notes

• 1.

  [ἄλλο διάχριστον], or [ἑτέρα στοματική], or [ἄλλη ἀρτηριακή]: see Gal. Comp.med.sec.loc. 12, 941, 942, 945 K and 13, 27 K.

• 2f..

  Since most of the στοματικά of Galen call for at least five of the aromatic vegetable materials, and we have recovered for our text only rose flowers, sumach, and saffron, the lacunae at the beginning of these lines may have held additional dry ingredients.The phrase μετὰ μέλιτος is only found in the directions. An imperative verb, therefore, may have stood in the lacuna at the beginning of the line (e.g. λειοτρίβει, or τρῖβε). Since the space available will accommodate ca. 13 letters, an additional dry ingredient would have preceded the verb, if the latter was τρῖβε, e.g. ἴρεως, νάρδου, κόστου, or ζμύρνης, followed by the amount.

• 3.

  Another dry ingredient, with amount, probably stood at the beginning of this line, perhaps preceded by the amount of honey, though the latter is not in any way necessary.The amount of misy, 80 dr. (π), in view of the foregoing, is not possible. It is surely a simple writing error, probably Π in place of Η, i.e. 80 in place of 8. Either the writer ‘thought’ 8 but wrote 80, or he misread his exemplar, taking Η for Π.

• 4-6.

  The supplements at the end of line 4 and in line 5 are illustrative only. Line 5 has suffered considerable damage and line 6 is almost totally obliterated. No parallel seems to fit the remaining traces. In Galen’s στοματικά-ointments, the directions for mixing are varied in length: see e.g. Gal. Comp.med.sec.loc. 12, 938, 941-2, 956, 957, 958 K.

• 7.

  [ἑτέρα πρὸς κτλ.], or [ἡ ἀνθερὰ πρὸς κτλ.]: see Gal. Comp.med.sec.loc. 12, 945 K.

• 7-8.

  στόμα[τι] has been preferred to στομά[χῳ] because of the prevalence of the five ingredients of the preceding recipe in the στοματικά-recipes of Galen (see Youtie 1978, 285-6).