Abstract
The Christianization of written culture was exemplified by : that of the letters of the bishops of Egypt, preserved on various media such as papyrus (in the form of scrolls or codices) or ostraca, written to organize and catechize dioceses or the patriarchate, from the simplest letters of recommendation (for example, those written by Sotas, bishop of Oxyrhynchos in the 3rd century) to the more official letters addressed to all the faithful of a diocese or of the whole of Egypt, informing them of a disciplinary decision, a doctrinal choice or a liturgical custom (both genres prefigured in the Pauline letters).
Egyptian documentation raises a twofold problem : (1) the Greek-Coptic bilingualism of Egyptian society and (2) the relationship between the actual letters and their transformation into literary works.
(1) The first bishops' letters were written in Greek (unlike the private letters of monks or other groups, which often used Coptic), but from the second half of the to the 6th century, some bishops began to write them in Coptic, such as Abraham of Hermonthis or Pisenthios of Keft (6th-7th centuries) ; the patriarchs of Alexandria continued until the 11th century to write their letters in Greek (including those announcing the date of Easter or " festal letters ") - even if they could be translated into Coptic (for example, Cyril's first festal letter translated into Achmimic). All this provides food for thought on the growing role of Coptic in Egyptian society between the 4th and 8th centuries, but also on its failure to become a truly public language.
(2) While bishops' letters were often written on ostraca, patriarchs' letters were preserved on papyrus in one of the two formats attested for other official texts : in scrolls written in several columns parallel to the direction of the fibers, or on a single column in the opposite direction of the fibers(transversa charta). These documents could also be part of collections of texts preserved in codices, on papyrus or parchment, sanctioning their transformation into literary texts : for example, Peter's letter with Melitius' excommunication, the Coptic translation of Athanasius' festal letters or Cyril's collection of festal letters.
