Compilers of Magic: Greco-Egyptian Magical Handbooks through the Eyes of Their Scribes

Based on a presentation at the American Philosophical Society's Member Meeting in April 2023, this brief essay focuses on how ancient magic was compiled and transmitted. Previous studies of a body of ancient texts on magic focused on their textual and linguistic content. However, a focus on materiality offers new perspectives for the study of the circulation of magical books and the transmission of knowledge through the work of scribes in the production of books. Considering materiality leads to questions such as: How were these books produced? Who produced them and why were specific recipes and prescriptions collected in books? Who were their readers? This large and well-preserved corpus of papyri provides a laboratory to explore scribal experience and the materiality of ancient compilations. It offers, in other words, a window into the transmission of ancient technical knowledge, which may teach us something about magical texts, but also about other fields, like medicine, pharmacology, liturgy, and even cuisine.