KYPRIANOS DATABASE OF ANCIENT RITUAL TEXTS search icon
MANUSCRIPTS
TEXTS
ARCHIVES
HELP


KYPRIANOS M154

Sigla: question mark icon Modern names for the manuscript, including inventory and publication numbers.

PGM III
P. Louvre N 2391
P. Mimaut
Mimaut 541 (1837 catalogue)

Category: question mark icon Classification of the contents, e.g. magical (formulary or applied), alchemical, liturgical, documentary or medical.

Magical (formulary)
Contents:

1. PGM III. 282-315 (Ro col. 1): Divination (ritual of apparition). (Hand 1)
2. PGM III. 187-262 (Ro cols. 2-3): Divination (ritual of apparition: unmediated:direct) (Hand 1)
3. PGM III. 263-275 (Ro col. 4): Divination (binary oracle) (Hand 2)
4. PGM III. 275-281 (Ro col. 4): Calendar for the performance of rituals according to the position of the moon in the Zodiac (calendar) (Hand 2)
5. PGM III. 1-164 (Ro cols. 5-10): “Ritual of the Cat” curse against charioteers, adapted to also function as dream sending ritual, love spell, and separation spell. (Hand 1)
6. PGM III. 165-178 (Ro col. 10): Invocation for unclear purposes. (Hand 1)
PGM III.179-186: Marginal notes? (Hand 1, perhaps also a third hand)
7. PGM III. 494-611 (Vo cols. 1-4): Sustasis (union) with the sun god. (Hand 1)
8. PGM III. 612-632 (Vo col. 4): Ritual for acquiring paredros (familiar spirit) (ritual of apparition: unmediated:direct). (Hand 1)
9. PGM III. 633-731 (Vo cols. 4-6): Sustasis (union) with the sun god. (Hand 2, includes Old Coptic)
10. 363-409: (Vo cols. 7-8): Spell for foreknowledge. (Includes Old Coptic)
11.PGM III. 410-423 (Vo col. 8): Ritual for creation of amulet for good memory. (Includes Old Coptic)(Hand 2)
12. PGM III. 424-466 (Vo cols. 8-9): Ritual for foreknowledge and memory. (Hand 2)
13. PGM III. 467-478 (Vo col. 9): Ritual for memory. (Hand 2)
14. PGM III. 479-483 (Vo col. 9): Foreknowledge procedure. (Hand 2)
15. PGM III. 483-488 (Vo col. 9): Foreknowledge procedure. (Hand 2)
16. PGM III. 488-493 (Vo col. 9): Foreknowledge procedure (?). (Hand 2)
See all texts in this manuscript.

Language(s):

Greek
Egyptian (Coptic)
Script(s):

Greek
Coptic (Old)
Dialect:
Language/dialect notes:
Date: question mark icon Dates are CE unless preceded by a minus sign <->, in which case they are BCE. 201 – 400
Date notes:

GEMF (17/4/2024); 301-400 (TM 21/3/2019)
Archive/collection: question mark icon Larger collection to which manuscript belongs.
Archive name:
State of edition:

Published.
Image: https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010001517#

Form:

Roll
Material:

Papyrus
Dimensions (cm): Height: 27.5 Width: 180.5 Depth:
Dimensions (notes):

Height varies from 10.5-27.5 cm. Love (2017: p. 176)
Folding pattern:

For study of pattern of some 26 vertical creases from rolling, see Love 2017
State of preservation:

Nearly complete, but significant damage along creases created by flattening of roll. Preserved in multiple fragments in four different glasses.
Pages/Columns: question mark icon Total surviving columns in the manuscript for rolls, sheets and rotuli; total number of pages for codices.

20
Pages/Columns (notes):

11 columns recto (→), 9 columns verso (↓). Protokollon (↓) visible at far left of recto.
Hand:

Hand 1 recto col.s 1-11, and verso cols. 1-3; Hand 2 versocols. 4-9, and addition at bottom of recto col. iv. Perhaps Hand 3 in recto col. 11.

Findspot:

Egypt

(TM places ID: 49)
Place of purchase:

Egypt

(TM places ID: 49)
Writingspot:

Egypt

(TM places ID: 49)
Present Location:

Paris, Louvre
Collection History:

Purchased by the Louvre from Jean-François Mimaut in 1837 (Dosoo 2016: p. 263). Nothing is known of its provenance before this, although it has occasionally been suggested (so far without any evidence) that Mimaut acquired it from Jean d’Anastasy (KD 26/3/2019).
Trismegistos collection: question mark icon Page on the database Trismegistos collections for the institution which currently houses the manuscript. 274
Collection website: https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010001517#

Notes/Discussion:

Love (2017) argued for the division of PGM III into two manuscripts; the second part formerly had the identifier KYP M1126. Recent work by Sofía Torallas Tovar and Raquel Martín-Hernández has confirmed that it is a single manuscript and established the order of the fragments. Here we follow their new column order, but give the line numbers established by Preisendanz. A new edition is forthcoming as part of the series “Greek and Egyptian Magical Formularies” (ed. Faraone & Torallas Tovar).

Bibiliography
Editions:

Bortolani, Ljuba. Magical Hymns from Roman Egypt: A Study of Greek and Egyptian Traditions of Divinity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, 117-150, nos. 3 & 4.

Eitrem, Samson. Les papyrus magiques grecs de Paris. Kristiana: Jacob Dybwad, 1923, 37-45.

Heitsch, Ernst, Die griechischen Dichterfragmente der römischen Kaiserzeit 1. Göttingen: Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, 1961, 180 no. LIX 2 & 5.

★ Preisendanz, Karl, and Albert Henrichs. Papyri Graecae Magicae: Die Griechischen Zauberpapyri. 2 Vols. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1973–1974, vol. 1, 30-63, no. III; vol. 2, 238, 241-242, 247, hymns 2, 5, 12.

Tissi, Lucia Maddalena. “Edizione critica, traduzione e commento dell’inno magico 5 Pr. (PGM III 198-­‐ 228).” Analecta Papyrologica 25 (2013): 171-204.

Wessely, Carl. “Griechische Zauberpapyrus von Paris und London.” Denkschriften der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 36 (1888): 115-124.
Translations:

Betz, Hans D. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Including the Demotic Spells. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, 18-36, no. III.
General:

Dosoo, Korshi. ‘A History of the Theban Magical Library.’ Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 53 (2016) 251-274.

Dosoo, Korshi. Rituals of Apparition in the Theban Magical Library. Unpublished doctoral Thesis, Macquarie University (2015).

Harrauer, Christine. Meliouchos: Studien zur Entwicklung religiöser Vorstellungen in griechischen synkretistischen Zaubertexten. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1987.

Horak, Ulrike. Illuminierte Papyri, Pergamente und Papiere I, Wien, 1992, 246.

Love, Edward O.D. “Bilingualism and Mono-/Bigraphia at the Nexus of Magical Traditions: From Egyptian-Greek to Coptic-Arabic Magical Texts”, in Christians and Muslims in Early Islamic Egypt, edited by Lajos Berkes. Ann Arbor: American Society of Papyrologists, 2002, p. 177-178.

Love, Edward O. D. “The PGM III Archive.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 202 (2017), p. 175-188.

Love, Edward O. D. ““Crum’s Chicken”: Alpak, Demonised Donkeys, and Avianised Demons among the Figures of Demotic, Greek, and Coptic Magical Texts”, in Magikon Zōon: Animal and Magic, edited by Korshi Dosoo and Jean-Charles Coulon (forthcoming).

Van Haelst no. 1075.

Trismegistos ID:

64511

 PAThs:
PGM: question mark icon Papyri Gracae Magicae

3

 SM: question mark icon Supplementum Magicum GEMF: question mark icon Greek and Egyptian Magical Formularies (forthcoming) 55 ACM: question mark icon Ancient Christian Magic
Bélanger Sarrazin: question mark icon Bélanger-Sarrazin. “Catalogue des textes magiques coptes” AKZ: question mark icon Ausgewählte koptische Zaubertexte CBd: question mark icon Campbell-Bonner Magical Gems Database Mert.-Pack: question mark icon Mertens-Pack online database
Van H: question mark icon van Haelst, Catalogue des papyrus littéraires

1075

 Bruyn-Dijkstra: question mark icon de Bruyn and Dijkstra, “Greek Amulets and Formularies (Checklist)" TheDefix: question mark icon Thesaurus Defixionum To Zodion: 4
Edit History:

EL (2017); KD (26/3/2019); MPS (9/7/2019); EL (31/8/2020); KD (1/10/2021); KD (21/3/2022); KD (7/10/2023); KD (17/4/2024); KD (17/9/2024)

How to cite:
Korshi Dosoo, Edward O.D. Love & Markéta Preininger (chief editors). "KYP M154," Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects, www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/index.php/manuscript/kyp-m154. Accessed on 30/04/2025

Found a mistake? Let us know!