Togipurium o togipura?Sondaggi lessicali tra Oriente e Occidente

Abstract

This paper focuses on the term togipur[- - -], partially preserved in a second century Latin certificate on papyrus coming from Egypt. The word appears at the beginning of the text, where it alludes to the documentary typology, and refers to a declaration in which a Iulianus states that his son has assumed the toga pura. So far the term was thought to be unparalleled in the Latin lexicon as a whole and was interpreted by the editors of the papyrus as a neologism of the scribe or, conversely, as a common substantive otherwise unattested. However, some Latin and bilingual lexica of medieval tradition gloss a similar substantive, togipurium, with the interpretamentum toga pura. The present paper has three aims. First, it lists the occurrences of togipurium and, when possible, examines the relation between them; secondly, it considers the meaning(s) of the term togipurium; and thirdly, it proposes a new restoration for the substantive partially preserved in the papyrus.