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Crossing Abbreviations, Monograms, and Symbols. Preliminary Survey of chi-rho, Staurogram, and stauros in Greek Documentary Papyri from Egypt

  • Nicola Reggiani

Chi-rho ⳩ is universally known as the Christian monogram, consisting of the first two letters of the name Χριϲτόϲ. In ancient times, it coexisted with other common signs, the staurogram ⳨ and stauros ϯ, both connected to the Holy Cross of Jesus. An analysis of the development of these signs in papyrological evidence from Hellenistic, Roman, and Late-Antique Egypt allows us to track the everyday use of these writing strategies from their pre-Christian origins onward. While the staurogram and stauros are extensively employed in late documents to place texts under God’s protection, the chi-rho developed in a distinctive way. It originated in Ptolemaic cursive handwritings as a simple monogram, inconsistently abbreviating words beginning with χρ-, and survived with a similar function in Roman and Byzantine documents, though mostly in other χρ-words and terms characteristically containing those letters (e.g. χειρόγραφον, χαίρειν). A specific field examined is that of medicine, where it indicated the imperative χρῷ “use” in prescriptive texts, and eventually became a graphic symbol in medical recipes and lost its linguistic role. In only one document is the monogram employed to indicate Christ’s name. Possibly, the extensive use of ⳩ in documentary writings prevented the Christian meaning of the monogram from being employed in non-literary papyri. This chapter discusses these complex interactions, attempting to outline the interplay between writing strategies, symbolic thought, and the materiality of written texts from a semiographic point of view.

  • Keywords:
  • Greek papyri; monograms; abbreviations; chi-rho; medical prescriptions.,
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Nicola Reggiani

University of Parma, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0001-9798-9887

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  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2024
  • Pagine: 293-303

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Informazioni sul capitolo

Titolo del capitolo

Crossing Abbreviations, Monograms, and Symbols. Preliminary Survey of chi-rho, Staurogram, and stauros in Greek Documentary Papyri from Egypt

Autori

Nicola Reggiani

Lingua

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9.17

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Anno di pubblicazione

2024

Copyright

© 2024 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Informazioni bibliografiche

Titolo del libro

Text, Layout, and Medium

Sottotitolo del libro

Documents from the Greco-Roman World between Epigraphy and Papyrology

Curatori

Davide Amendola, Cristina Carusi, Francesca Maltomini, Emilio Rosamilia

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Numero di pagine

426

Anno di pubblicazione

2024

Copyright

© 2024 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Editore

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0455-2

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0456-9

Collana

Edizioni dell’Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli»

ISSN della collana

2533-2414

e-ISSN della collana

2612-7997

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