Business Letter
Business letter sent to a superior about some workshops and objects which seem to be part of their furnishing
One text, 3 sources · Trismegistos-Text 32870
Business letter to a superior about a leased workshop and its equipment TM 32870Oxyrhynchites (?)350 CE – 450 CE
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
Fragmentary business letter addressed to a superior ('master', 'your Excellency') about a leased workshop, its equipment such as weights, hammers and pots, and sums of money in solidi and myriads of denarii. It mentions a man named Kyros and the addressee's own rent-collectors. Probably from the Oxyrhynchite nome, 4th-5th century AD.
In English machine translation
[...]
[...] master
[...] ... [...]
[...] ... [...]
[...] 3 1/2 solidi [...]
[...] 3 1/2 solidi and [...]
[...] is [...] and in this
[...] take care of me, the
[...] my workshop to Kyros the
[...] since the matter
[...] ⟦my apprentice (?)⟧ was putting inside
[...] embrymia (?) and coverings and [...]
[...] and a weight and hammers and pots
[...] and lye (?) and kentrophania (?) [...] they live in the workshop inside this
[...] two, 100 myriads, and for the cups 1 1/2 carats
[...] your Excellency, that he has lost (it). I have
[...] I leased the workshop from the [...] on this very day [...]
[...] I was already considering that such [...]
[...] of your own rent-collectors, who [...]
[...] his answer, no one [...]
[...] as we were considering that it is not [...]
[...] we perceive a workshop full (?) [...]
[...]
[...]
Several equipment terms (embrymia, kentrophania) are rare or obscure and their meaning is uncertain. Sums are given both in gold solidi and in myriads of debased denarii.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Business Letter). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
p.col.8.240
[… ? lines lost …] […] δεσπότῃ […] … […]ουουκα […]ως … […]υρεα […]…ου νομισμάτια γ 𐅵 οτ[…]θοικιεν […]εμου νομισμάτια γ 𐅵 καὶ αναεαν […] ἐστιν […] το…σηνας καὶ ἐν τούτῳ […]κιν[…]του φρόντισον ἐμοῦ τοῦ […]ωσας […] ἐργαστήριόν μου Κύρῳ τῷ […]…οτ…ιστικον ἐπεὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα […] ἔβαλλεν ἔσ…