Since his election in 2015, Jean-Luc Fournet has been exploring, through his lectures and the research programs that feed them, the major cultural issues that run through Late Antiquity (4th-7th centuries) and to which papyri are able to make a new and decisive contribution. Decisive, not only because they resurrect authors who sank in the wreckage of the ancient literary heritage, but also because of the quality of the view they help us to take of ancient societies : alongside inscriptions or literary sources, which present a more idealized or normative image of individuals and their institutions, papyri plunge us into the everyday life of the Ancients, giving us a glimpse behind the scenes. What's more, unlike literary sources preserved by medieval witnesses and the result of long transmission that has altered at least their form, papyri are original documents that make possible an archaeology of ancient writing. Over and above their content, papyri contain information that sheds light on the way in which the Ancients wrote, read and formatted the authors or acts they wished to circulate.
The contribution made by papyri was exacerbated during Late Antiquity (4th-7th centuries), a period of transition marked by the decline of paganism and the triumph of Christianity, which gave rise to a new way of looking at ancient works, new forms of literary production and new ways of writing. Documentary papyri began to reflect a more demonstrative conception of culture, which had a profound impact on their writing. They become veritable cultural documents, enabling a more sociological approach to literary culture than is possible with literary texts themselves.
After setting the scene for Egypt's multilingual and multicultural history, Jean-Luc Fournet continues his archaeology of written culture : how did it become Christianized ? How did traditional culture react ? To this end, he is exploring the places where this culture was put into practice, such as libraries and schools, in a constant dialogue between literary texts and documents.
Parallel to the lectures, the seminars provide an opportunity to decipher and study previously unpublished papyri, thus enriching the courses.
Finally, in addition to developing new research tools, in 2020 the Chair launched the Studia Papyrologica et Aegyptiaca Parisina collection, hosting papyrological studies and monographs on post-Pharaonic Egypt.
