Alexandrian World Chronicle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
"Golenischev papyrus" redirects here. For the ancient Egyptian mathematical papyrus, see Moscow Mathematical Papyrus.

File:Alexandrian World Chronicle - Pl. 6 Verso.jpg
Pl. 6, Verso - Chronicle of 389–392. Top left: Emperor Theodosius with a small Honorius at his side. Middle left: Theophilus with a Gospel in his hand and a halo. Top right: Lower fragments of a figure representing Emperor Valentinian. Middle right: the counter-Emperor Eugenius. Bottom: two fragments of the Serapeum with stone-throwing monks between them.

The Alexandrian World Chronicle or Chronographia Golenischevensis is an anonymous Greek chronicle compiled in Alexandria, recording history from Creation until the year 392 AD. The chronicle survives in the fragments of a c. 6th-century papyrus named the Golenischev papyrus, well known for its examples of early historical illumination.[1]

Papyrus

[edit | edit source]

The Golenischev (or Goleniščev) papyrus is a fragmentary illuminated papyrus in which the Alexandrian World Chronicle is attested. It has been dated to various periods between the 5th and 8th centuries, though the consensus now dates the text to the c. 6th-century;[2] It has been conjectured that the papyrus belonged to a very wealthy patron, due to its lavish illustrations.[3] It has been named after the Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev who obtained it at some point before 1901 from one 'Sheikh Ali' in Giza.[4]

The papyrus exists in 80 fragments of Alexandrian majuscule text[5] currently housed at the Pushkin Museum[6] with marginal illustrations depicting - among other figures - Roman kings, a map of the Mediterranean, Old Testament prophets and characters, and personifications of the Roman months.[7] The best preserved fragment (Pl. VI verso) depicts Pope Theophilus atop the Serapeum and has been called an "iconic image [...] in the history of Late Antique Alexandria";[8] the fragment has been used by historian Johannes Hahn to date the destruction of the Serapeum to 392 AD[9] though this date has been criticised by Adolf Bauer, R. W. Burgess and Jitse H. F. Dijkstra as having little authority.[10]

In 1905, the Greek text of the Chronicle was published as Eine Alexandrinische Weltchronik, edited together from papyrus fragments of the Golenischev Papyrus by Josef Strzygowski and Adolf Bauer with glass plates containing colored facsimiles of the illuminated fragments (see below). The fragments were obtained from Vladimir Golenishchev and reconstructed to form images of what the text may have looked like.[11] The fragments of the Golenischev papyrus have since been mishandled and their quality is greatly reduced from when Strzygowski and Bauer reproduced them.[12]

Text

[edit | edit source]

The Excerpta Latina Barbari, a late 8th-century Latin chronicle, appears to be partly based on the Chronicle.[13] Burgess and Dijkstra have conjectured that both texts are based on a common source composed of the c. 221 Chronographiae of Julius Africanus and the c. 205 Liber generationis.[14]

[edit | edit source]

The following plates and captions adapted from Bauer & Strzygowski 1905:

References

[edit | edit source]
  1. ^ Baldwin & Cutler 1991, Burgess 2016, Burgess & Sparks 2018
  2. ^ Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, p. 65: "Bauer’s initial date of the first half of the fifth century has long been abandoned by specialists of this type of writing in favour of a later date. The common consensus is that the text dates to the sixth century, a date that has been confirmed by recent discussions of the Paschal letter."
  3. ^ Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, p. 44, Garstad 2011, p. 32
  4. ^ Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, p. 59
  5. ^ Burgess 2013, p. 63
  6. ^ Burgess & Sparks 2018
  7. ^ Baldwin & Cutler 1991, Garstad 2011, p. 32
  8. ^ Burgess 2013, pp. 42–3
  9. ^ Hahn 2006
  10. ^ Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, pp. 96–8, Burgess & Sparks 2018
  11. ^ Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, p. 39, Bauer & Strzygowski 1905
  12. ^ Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, pp. 59–60
  13. ^ Baldwin & Cutler 1991, Burgess 2013, pp. 4–5, Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, pp. 44–5, Garstad 2011, p. 32
  14. ^ Burgess & Dijkstra 2013, p. 46

Bibliography

[edit | edit source]
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
[edit | edit source]

Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons

Lua error in Module:Authority_control at line 153: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

Retrieved from "http://70.231.62.181/index.php?title=Alexandrian_World_Chronicle&oldid=12555062"