There is a really good discussion of a significant amount of evidence for female involvement in literary activities such as reading, authoring, and writing, in Leah Mascia, 'Female Monastics and Devotees in Late Antique and Byzantine Egypt: Papyrological, Epigraphic and Archaeological Sources' in Female Agency in Manuscript Cultures (ed. E. Grossmann; SMC 39; Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2024), 129-169. The whole book is available Open Access.
Conclusion: 'This survey has aimed to provide some insight into the lives of female devotees and monastics in late antique and Byzantine Egypt, offering tangible evidence of their roles as readers, writers, scribes and active participants in the contemporary literary society. While numerous questions remain open regarding women’s literacy in Christian Egypt, the integration of papyrological and epigraphic evidence – in their original archaeological contexts whenever possible – strongly suggests that a significant part of female society was able to read and write. These data force us to rethink many of the dogmas upon which our understanding of female literacy in ancient Egypt is based. While many women were probably not accustomed to reading and writing on a regular basis, others stand out for their remarkable writing skills, which in some cases are comparable to those of professional scribes. The examination of textual evidence associated with specific monastic communities leads us to think that women may also have played a significant role in book production. In this sense, the comparative study of written and archaeological sources and, in particular, the evaluation of the Coptic textual evidence alongside the Greek have the potential to shed new light on the role played by women in shaping the manuscript culture of Christian Egypt.'
woke nonsense
ReplyDeleteThanks Troll. A carefully considered comment. Maybe read the chapter and come back later.
DeleteWould you be so kind as to take your altright nonsense to a forum where it’s welcome?
DeleteAnd Anonymous shall speak unto Anonymous, and thus it shall be for all who is called Anonymous; so that every man shall know not any other man, and all shall be confused.
Delete— Spoken by Anonymous number N, otherwise known as Alexander Thomson.
Then there was that female skeleton unearthed from an abbey graveyard which contained pigment between the front teeth, indicating a manuscript illustratrix who licked her brush, reminiscent of the Radium Girls. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/female-medieval-master-artist-revealed-dental-calculus.
ReplyDeleteThen there is this little passage in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.23.2
ReplyDelete"For [Origen] dictated to more than seven amanuenses, who relieved each other at appointed times. And he employed no fewer copyists, besides girls who were skilled in elegant writing. For all these Ambrose furnished the necessary expense in abundance, manifesting himself an inexpressible earnestness in diligence and zeal for the divine oracles, by which he especially pressed him on to the preparation of his commentaries." (NPNCF translation]
After reading through all the cited source material, one important question remains: do *any* Greek NT MSS have a colophon indicating a female scribe? (I don't know, but have never noticed any).
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