DCLP

Introduction

Medical prescription for stomach disease. The rectangular fragment was written on verso against the fibers. Its conservation status only enables general remarks on the text: after the heading of the prescription, the patient is required to fast and the medicaments, mostly lost, are indicated. Palaeographical dating is uncertain: in the edition R. Pintaudi proposed 2nd-3rd century based on comparison with P.Oxy. III 425 (E.G. Turner, GMAW, p. 32, fig. 5), but Lucio Del Corso recently suggested IV A.D. (cd-ROM, Papiri letterari della Bibl. Medicea Laurenziana).

(This papyrus has been digitally edited by Federica Nicolardi as part of the Project "DIGMEDTEXT - Online Humanities Scholarship: A Digital Medical Library based on Ancient Texts" (ERC-AdG-2013, Grant Agreement no. 339828) funded by the European Research Council at the University of Parma (Principal Investigator: Prof. Isabella Andorlini). The digital edition is mostly based on the previous edition (R. Pintaudi, P.Laur. IV 151).)

Apparatus

Notes

• 1.

  Reading π̣ρ̣ό̣ς is difficult, but the expression is quite common (ex. gr. PSI X 1180,33 passim, 2nd A.D.; P.Ryl. III 531 recto, II 12, 3rd-2nd B.C.).

• 2.

  In spite of reading difficulties, verb and form are undoubted. Κακοστομαχέω occurs in Sextus Empiricus (P. 3.186, 6-12; M. 11.212), while κακοστομαχία and κακοστόμαχος are widely attested in medical texts.

• 3.

  Ypsilon seems very probable and a form of λειόω could be fine (cf. PSI VI 718, 4, 8, 4th-5th), but there is a trace before lambda. Alternative proposition for the lacuna is [φ]λε[γμαίν]ο̣ντος (L.C. Youtie).

• 4.

  φοι[ surely pertains to a case of the word φοῖνιξ, date, used in order to prepare ointments and cataplasmata (Dsc. 1.109, Gal. 12.151 K). After the principal ingredient there may have been an excipient or a verb like κατάπλασσε, σκεύαζε, χρῶ, etc.