Lecture

The calamus and the cross : the Christianization of writing and the fate of classical culture in Late Antiquity (5). Schools (2)

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Images : page from a Coptic schoolbook (© Cotsen Children's LibraryCotsen Children's Library, Princeton University Library) ; White Monastery (© Barbara Emmel)

We continue our exploration of the world of teaching in late Antiquity : after having noted the strong influence of the classical model in the teaching methods in force in the Greek schools of Egypt, this year we must ask whether the same is true of schools with a more specific profile, which spread from the 4th   century: schools in monastic environments. We'll be looking for traces and justifications of these schools among Christian authors, and attempting to bring them back to life, despite certain methodological difficulties, through equivocal and multiform documentation (papyri, ostraca and inscriptions found in sometimes unexpected places). Our investigation will complement - and perhaps modify - the rather too normative and uniform image provided by literary sources.

These lectures are dedicated to the memory of Raffaella Cribiore, who tragically passed away this summer : she was the first to make teaching in Greco-Roman Egypt, and more broadly in the Greek world, a field of research in its own right.

Program