The Michigan Medical Codex: P. Mich. Inv. 21 - Corso di Papirologia

130 L.C.Youtie
fat is described as follows:
6
yyLov o X
TOO rLOXOLOO CT'OLTOC ItQXoUCLV A6o'
TLL1EOC1CROVT?C ?CT(OCQV XLTpOLL 3, "2 lbs. of old fat: let it be that which those
selling it call axunge" (378,4). In a repetition of the recipe (391,12) he
repeats the description: 1COL Suo TOO rLcLXo.LLU cTEOLToc, 6 X{L XV &PTIV TOUC
TLLTLQPLC{OVTQLC 6iEoi5yyLov. He had earlier (376) specified that the cl6oip was
T65V
Wv, t ahd XPpi' 6? TO c10 o.p dvcLXOv TE }OLL cc 9VL X0QaLCTO TLOLXOLOTOLTOV E?VOLL,
"the fat must be unsalted and especially it is to be as old as possible."34)
Most of the instances of the word 6Eoi5yyLov in the recipes of Dioscorides,
Galen, Aetius and Paulus are without modification, or with raXaLoLV only. But
two recipes in Aet. XV. p.88,13 and 102,4 require 6Eouyy'oU vsoapoU, which is
the equivalent of our npocp6ToU. A closer parallel is found in a recipe for
a plaster of Damocrates (taken from a collection by Menecrates) which was put
into metre for easy memory: ToO XLTLOLPOO xOL~ TpocqxTou 6LEoUyyLou, VEvv?Q 56
TOU XELWc)VOC, S5C (PTCLV, fO&XELc (Gal. XIII 1002, 6-7), "but in winter, as he
said, add nine pounds of oily, fresh axunge."
8-11. For a discussion of white plasters, those containing white wax,
litharge, and white lead, see Gal. XIII 409ff.; on the various kinds of wax,
411; on the addition of fat, 424ff. For a comparison of the amounts of the
ingredients in our text with those in the parallel texts, see the Table at
the end of the commentary. In general, the amounts of the two metals are
the same; the amount of wax is four times that of the metals; and the amount
of fat is nearly double that of the wax.
9. (6p.) 4 (Ta,ToLTov): Our scribe was indeed careless in writing this line.
Not only did he omit the word 6iEouyyLov, but he wrote the symbol for one-fourth
in place of four. (See the app.crit.) The Table of Ingredients and Amounts
shows clearly that (8p.) u6 is required here.
10. [U]npoO Xsu%oO: Of the parallel recipes in the Table, the two Galen
texts are the only ones which specify white wax.
(6p.) x (T?TaxpTOV): (6p.) xb is required here. Cf. note to line 9. 6 and
the symbol for T'TcLpTov are easily confused.
'1LL1LOCLOU: this is the regular papyrus spelling for 4LvLUMCOU. Cf. M.-H.
Marganne, Inventaire Analytique des Papyrus Grecs de Medecine, p.373, s.v.
L1Lj1u'LOV, where only one of the eight references, P.Ryl. I 29a,41, is given
the restored spelling I[4Ljx5]Lou. But see now MPER N.S. XIII, Index, p.56:
of the 3 references there given, one has the spelling LJLVLUOLOU (No. 6, 9;
Tafel 4).
11ff. TO. TrnXToL X[aLT] TV Enp[5]V: "add the melted ingredients to the
dried, powdered ingredients." See 21 B verso, 12 and note ad loc. But the
direction in A adds three more words, X[p]6vq 5? cuv[Cc]TO.T (read -L),
34) For the same CPOLVLXLVf recipe, Paul. VII 17.29 has 6EuyyCou araXoO;
Orib.Syn. III 5 has XOupELOU TrLXOLLOu RcdL Lv6.Xou CT?OlTOC; while Aet. XV, p.44
has the same but adds TeTnrOToc (already melted). In the directions, however,
the item is referred to as ToO 6EuyyCLOU.