After last year's attempt, based on the thousands of papyri that have come down to us, to make a statistical study of the reception of both Christian and classical literature (i.e. produced by pre-Christian authors) during Late Antiquity, this year we'll be trying to give flesh and blood to the readers of these papyri by exploring the ties that bind them to their books through their libraries. By reconstructing these libraries, we'll be able to place the books in the context of their readers, and better understand their socio-cultural profile.
By examining the book not as a unit in itself, but as an element of the whole that is the library, we will ask ourselves the question of the relationship between Christian culture and classical culture : did the Ancients treat books from each of these cultures indiscriminately, as likely to mix and interact, or, on the contrary, as belonging to two distinct universes and called upon to fulfil different functions ?
