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Greek and Latin Literary Papyri from Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Fayum (4th BC – 7th AD)

Greek and Latin literary papyri are the tangible remains of an intricate phenomenon: the diffusion of ‘Classical’ literary heritage from the original centers to the far East. As such, they play a key role for the reconstruction of crucial historical processes: the developing of an early ‘cultural globalization’, its local declinations, its fading. The research will approach that focusing on papyri from a specific region: the Fayum, where Classical texts were read from early Hellenistic age to decades after the Arab conquest. The project aims at: increasing evidence, publishing a selection of new papyri and offering improved editions for those published in the late 19th or early 20th century, through a survey of some major collections in Italy and abroad; offering a global survey of Fayum literary papyri, considering textual characteristics, physical features, archaeological context; tracing the reception of Greek and Latin literary culture in a specific zone and in a large span of time, so to offer a case study and a model for further philological and historical reflections. In this way, an unprecedented picture of complex acculturation processes will be traced, offering a view from the bottom of the spread and survival of Classical literary heritage.