Publisher's Synopsis
Volume 19 of the series "Berliner Griechische Urkunden" (BGU) contains papyrus documents exclusively from Hermupolis, as did volumes 12 and 17. Of the 80 texts in the new volume, 76 are here published for the first time, while four are revised re-editions. They cover a time-span from the middle of the first century B.C. to the beginning of the 7th century A.D., with the majority of the texts dating from the 4th to the 6th century. beginning with a fourth-century petition to the Emperor with a request for the restitution of a dowry (the only document in Latin), followed by other official texts, such as petitions and other documents either addressed to or issued by the authorities. The second part of this volume contains private documents, such as contracts of lease, sale, loan etc. These texts provide a large amount of new information on details; taken together, however, they also offer a vivid picture of the social and economic life in an important provincial capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt.
