Editorial for Rosetta issue 26.
Articles
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are an important source regarding everyday life in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. Some of the volumes in which they are published contain medical texts, like the P.Oxy. 5242 (second century AD) in volume LXXX. This papyrus discusses the preparation of iris, rose and lily oil, whose recipes are also described in a similar way in Dioscorides’ De materia medica. Moreover, the three ointments are examined in Theophrastus’ De odoribus and Historia Plantarum and in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia. Therefore it is possible to compare the P.Oxy. 5242 with these different sources, highlighting how other authors have discussed the same topic, albeit in different contexts. This article aims to show the interest in the art of thickening oils in the ancient world, focusing on the multiple perceived uses of plants and their products in practices related to perfumery and medicine.
Marriage is an institution that can be found in almost every society throughout history. In this paper, I analyse its social functions in late thirteenth and early fourteenth-century Byzantine literary tradition based on a rhetorical text, Metochites’ Ἠθικὸς ἢ Περὶ Παιδείας (On Education), and a romance Βέλθανδρος καὶ Χρυσάντζα (Velthandros and Chrysantza). I will compare these two works in order to identify similarities and differences, and specify whether marriage may have contributed to social stability or social mobility in the period under consideration. I will also examine the texts with regard to their authors’ views on family relationships and gender relations.
Book Reviews
No abstract.
Notes and Shorter Pieces
No abstract.