From a jar found in 1905 by Gustave Lefebvre in the Middle Egyptian village of Aphrodité, the Dioscore d'Aphrodité library is the only one of those examined that does not come from a city. It is also the one whose owner is best known : Dioscore, a notary and poet in his spare time, whose floruit dates from between 543 and 573. His native language was Coptic, but he received a solid Greek education.
In his library coexist classical works (theIliad accompanied by a codex of minor scholia, ancient comedies by Menander and Eupolis), texts of practical interest (a Life of Isocrates with elementary notions of rhetoric, metrological tables, a thematic Greek-Coptic glossary, tables of Greek conjugations), as well as original productions. Some are Dioscorus' own work, such as his numerous poems, or were copied by him, like an isopoephal eulogy of Saint Menas that he found in Constantinople, where the Egyptian saint was also venerated.
