Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800

Praise / Awards

• "Beautifully written; imaginative use of comparative material (the Paston letters); the best presentation to date of the only way to find out what ordinary women did and thought in classical antiquity; set in the multilingual, multicultural world of Greco-Roman Egypt, covering over a thousand years; goes into the nuts and bolts of how to read a papyrus letter -- handwriting, vocabulary, changes over time; explains how to tell a scribe's work from a woman's words; really thinks about women's lives, literacy, self-expression, informed by intelligent reading in comparative social history as well as by years of grueling expeditions into the Egyptian deserts. A milestone in social history."
  —Amy Richlin, Professor of Classics, University of California, Los Angeles
  
• "This comprehensive collection of papyrus letters by women makes an outstanding contribution to women's history, exemplary in the combination of scholarly rigor with accessible presentation. Ten brief but authoritative introductory chapters contextualise the following comprehensive collection of women's letters from Greco-Roman Egypt, which allow unprecedented access in English translation to ancient women's own voices and their daily concerns."
  —Jane Rowlandson, Senior Research Fellow in Ancient History, King's College London, University of London
  
• "At last! A comprehensive collection of known women's letters from Alexander the Great to the end of the eighth century C.E., this volume provides a wonderful window onto the daily lives of women in antiquity. Here we catch glimpses of their concerns in work and family life, health and legal issues, economic exchanges, and religious practices. Bagnall and Cribiore's excellent introduction to the collection offers a necessary corrective to a simplistic and transparent reading of the letters. An essential volume for all who are interested in gender and the socio-historical fabric of ancient life.
  
  A wonderful window onto the daily lives of women in antiquity. An essential volume for those interested in the socio-historical fabric of ancient life."
  —Kim Haines-Eitzen, Associate Professor of Early Christianity Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University
  
• "Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt is a remarkable accomplishment. Bagnall and Cribiore combine an elegant presentation of translations of women's letters from Greek and Roman Egypt with thoughtful and penetrating analyses. The end result is a self-contained, readable and fascinating publication of a rich body of evidence. This book combines the guilty pleasure of reading other people's mail with the edification of greater insight into the ancient world. Thanks to the authors' expert commentary, the women (and men) of Greek and Roman Egypt come to life through countless vivid details in their own words. This book will revolutionize our understanding of women and literacy in Greek and Roman Egypt."
  —T. G. Wilfong, Associate Professor of Egyptology, Department of Near Eastern Studies and Associate Curator for Graeco-Roman Egypt, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan
  

• "This important collection makes available to students and scholars a vast trove of letters attributed to women that is unparalleled in the ancient world. These documents were written on papyrus and ostraca and appear here in English translation . . . For senior scholars to publish a collection like this one is an act of altruism for which all who study women must be grateful."
  —Bryn Mawr Classical Review

• "This valuable collection makes available in English translation all letters written by women in Egypt from the reign of Alexander to the end of the Greco-Coptic period in the late eighth century. In bringing these artifacts to a broader audience in such a clear and conscientious manner, the editors of this work have done a great service."
  —Bret Mulligan, The Journal of Hellenic Studies

• "With its unique introduction to Egyptian feminine epistolography of the classical and late periods, this volume is a useful resource to fill out the otherwise predominantly androcentric classical sources...These letters tease and tantalize with their brief glances into the lives of ordinary women, their problems and their joys."
  --CJ-Online
  
  
• "This volume has already proved invaluable to professional scholars of papyrology and ancient history...But it is also a seminal text for students of women’s history, as well as being easily accessible to the intelligent general reader."
  --Classics for All

• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Letters
• Illustrations
• Front Matter