Scribes. The text-makers of ancient Egypt.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 22229 |
| Format | 15 x 21.5 |
| Détails | 710 p., 1 map, numerous figures, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2019 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
Did the Egyptians invent bureaucracy? It's difficult to answer, given that ritual, patronage networks, and oral tradition must have played at least as important a role as formal written procedures. What is certain, however, is that during the New Kingdom, between 1500 and 1070 BC, Egypt took on the dimensions of an empire. From Nubia to Syria, the resources to be exploited and administered were immense. It is therefore no coincidence that this period was also one of a revolution in the status of writing. As custodians of institutional control over activities, scribes took center stage and formed a social world with its own values and discourse. To draw up the complete history of this environment and these men, Chloé Ragazzoli uses sources – archaeological and textual – that are still largely untapped: the anthologies, these miscellaneous manuscripts where the scribes demonstrated their skills and their literate knowledge. At the level of the manuscript, following the hand of the scribe, the investigation begins with the very manner of writing, in ink, on papyrus, where variation and compilation from memory play a major role. The scribes appropriated the literate archive of their time and played with a thousand variations to produce new literary genres that show us both the dissipated scribe and the master covered in honors. The picture painted is that of an intermediary elite that alone is capable of setting in motion and making the political and state machine work. In a word: how literate knowledge holds an empire, and even more, its memory.
Did the Egyptians invent bureaucracy? It's difficult to answer, given that ritual, patronage networks, and oral tradition must have played at least as important a role as formal written procedures. What is certain, however, is that during the New Kingdom, between 1500 and 1070 BC, Egypt took on the dimensions of an empire. From Nubia to Syria, the resources to be exploited and administered were immense. It is therefore no coincidence that this period was also one of a revolution in the status of writing. As custodians of institutional control over activities, scribes took center stage and formed a social world with its own values and discourse. To draw up the complete history of this environment and these men, Chloé Ragazzoli uses sources – archaeological and textual – that are still largely untapped: the anthologies, these miscellaneous manuscripts where the scribes demonstrated their skills and their literate knowledge. At the level of the manuscript, following the hand of the scribe, the investigation begins with the very manner of writing, in ink, on papyrus, where variation and compilation from memory play a major role. The scribes appropriated the literate archive of their time and played with a thousand variations to produce new literary genres that show us both the dissipated scribe and the master covered in honors. The picture painted is that of an intermediary elite that alone is capable of setting in motion and making the political and state machine work. In a word: how literate knowledge holds an empire, and even more, its memory.