Recommandations diététiques et thérapeutiques dans l’Égypte byzantine (284-641) : l’apport de la papyrologie

Abstract

The c. 100 Greek literary medical papyri from the Byzantine period (284-641) are much more numerous than the papyri containing culinary texts. Several of them deal with questions of dietetics and nourishment. They preserve both theoretical treatises and prescriptions of medicaments to be taken per se, often prepared with ingredients also used for cooking. In this paper, the analysis of both the external (provenance, date, format, layout, script) and the internal (language, genre, content) aspects of these papyri is followed by an assessment of the information they provide, not only about the practice and teaching of medicine in Byzantine Egypt, but also about the alimentary and dietary customs of a quick-changing multicultural society.