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).
ReplyDeleteI believe that the Codex Alexandrinus has a note (in Arabic) identifying its scribe as "Thecla"; would that count?
DeleteWikipedia : "Tregelles made another suggestion, the New Testament volume has long been mutilated, and begins now in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, in which chapter the lesson for Thecla's Day stands. 'We cannot be sure how the story arose. It may be that the manuscript was written in a monastery dedicated to Thecla.' Tregelles thought that Thecla's name might have on this account been written in the margin above, which has been cut off, and that therefore the Egyptians imagined that Thecla had written it."
DeleteFurther, Catholic Ecyclopedia : "An Arabic note states that it was written by Thecla the martyr; and Cyril Lucar the Patriarch adds in his note that tradition says she was a noble Egyptian woman and wrote the codex shortly after the Nicene Council. But nothing is known of such a martyr at that date, and the value of this testimony is weakened by the presence of the Eusebian Canons (d. 340) and destroyed by the insertion of the letter of Athanasius (d. 373)."
ReplyDeleteThanks. May I take it then that the answer to you original question is 'yes'; that this Greek MSS, at least, does have an ancient or medieval colophon (or note) that indicates a female scribe? Which then prompts further, and more interesting questions: as to how that note came to be written on the opening page of the codex; and to whom it refers?
DeleteCyrll Lucar pasted a donation notice into the front of the codex; which reads in part:
"Nomen Theclae, in fine libri erat exaratum, sed extincto Christianismo in Aegypto a Mahometanis et libri una Christianorum in similem sunt redacti conditionem. Exstinctum ergo et Theclae nomen et laceratum, sed memoria et traditio recens observat.
Cyrillus Patriarcha Constanti."
So Cyril proposed that there had been a Greek colophon at the end of the Codex Alexandrinus, naming 'Thecla' as a scribe; which had then been lost due to the mutilation of the manuscript while it was being kept in the Patriarchate in Cairo under Muslim rule, but was the basis of the Alexandrian tradition represented by the Arabic note. And indeed the final leaves of the New Testament - containing 2 Clement and the Psalms of Solomon - were missing when Cyril took the codex; as were the Eusebian canons and most of Matthew from the beginning of the New Testament.
Around 1308 however, when the Codex Alexandrinus was presented to the Alexandrian Patriarchate by patriarch Athanasius II (recorded in another Arabic note), the Biblilcal text appears to have been complete; as shown by the Arabic page numbers inserted at the time. Which rather knocks on the head Tregelles's speculation for the origin of the Alexandrian tradition associating Thecla with the mansucript, as arising from the loss in antiquity of pages from Matthew.
All in all, it seems to me that Cyril Lucar's speculation is much the more likely; the Arabic notator must have got the name of 'Thecla' from somewhere, and a subsequently lost Greek colophon is as good a guess as any. Whether this colophon was claiming the manuscript as having been written by a particular 'Thecla'; or otherwise by religious women at a monastery dedicated to Thecla, is not resolvable.
All of this - and more - can be found discussed in detail in Andrew Smith's monograph: " Study of the Gospels in Codex Alexandrinus: Codicology, Palaeography, and Scribal Hands" Brill 2014 - which can also be downloaded as his doctoral dissertation from the University of Edinburgh. https://discovered.ed.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44UOE_INST:44UOE_VU2&tab=Everything&docid=alma9924390556902466&lang=en&context=L&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&query=sub,exact,%20Bible%20--%20Criticism,%20Form
Either way, it still is not a *scribal* colophon (which would be the key in any determination of the actual scribe of a given MS). That concept remains a desideratum across the board.
Delete