Hybrid books (2)
The examination of composite books continues, each time revealing very different universes: non-Christian texts sometimes belong to the Pharaonic tradition, sometimes to the Greek tradition, taken up as it is or updated, while Christian texts are sometimes biblical, sometimes patristic. Their function varies, from anti-pagan polemic to calligraphic training, from rhetorical training to medical-magical activities. Each of these cultural microcosms demonstrates the diversity of the world of books, and encourages us to look beyond a Manichean opposition to accept that several types of Christian and pre-Christian culture can complement each other in sometimes unexpected ways, depending on the personality of their users.
We need to pursue this sociology of books by looking for the readers who are no longer hiding behind isolated books, but behind real libraries, better able to reflect the complexity of their profiles and interests.
Private libraries (1)
Magical libraries
At the dawn of the 4thcentury , the first of these libraries was " the Theban magic library ", consisting of a dozen magical and alchemical books. Its function and context of use are still hotly debated among specialists. But with this set of manuscripts, as with the other magical and astrological libraries provided by the papyri, we are in any case dealing with collections of texts of a professional nature that hardly allow us to draw a precise cultural profile of their users - and certainly not their literary tastes - for all that their highly specialized content is conditioned by the exercise of a profession.
The library of Aurelius Ammôn
One of the first true libraries that could be described as private is that of Aurelius Ammon, son of Petearbeskhinis (Panopolis, 4thc. ): his books, found together with his family's documentary archives, provide an excellent sample of the attachment to Hellenism - in its most refined form - of the last generations of pagans, who combined fine literature with philosophy. Ammôn and his family prefigured the philosophical circle of the pagan Horapollon (also from the Panopolis region) and the poetic circle of the Thebans Nonnos of Panopolis, Cyrus and Pamprepios in the following century.
