Roger S. Bagnall Knihy

Focusing on the early Christian texts discovered in former Roman Egypt, Roger Bagnall critiques the prevailing scholarship surrounding these manuscripts, arguing that much of it has been misguided. He explores the social, economic, and intellectual context of the time, revealing that the actual number of Christian books from the first three centuries AD is likely smaller than commonly thought. This examination challenges established narratives about Christianity's early presence in the region, offering a fresh perspective on the historical significance of these texts.

This second collection by Roger Bagnall brings together a further two dozen of his studies, this time covering Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Egypt, published over the last thirty years. Many of the articles deal with issues of historical and papyrological method: the restoration of papyrus texts, the direction of archaeological work in Egypt, economic models for Roman Egypt, the usefulness of postcolonial theory, and approaches to the defective literary tradition for the Library of Alexandria. Others concentrate on particular bodies of evidence, ranging from inscriptions to ascetic literature, from registers to women's letters.