Papyrus Fragment of a Letter
Unknown Artist
580–640
Medium
Papyrus with ink
Dimensions
Overall (14.1.544 & .551 together): 3 7/8 × 12 1/16 in. (9.8 × 30.6 cm) Framed (14.1.544 & .551 together): 4 × 12 5/8 in. (10.1 × 32.1 cm)
Classification
Papyrus
Culture
Coptic
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1914
Accession Number
14.1.551a, b
Art Historical Context
This delicate papyrus fragment, dating 580–640 CE, preserves a portion of a personal letter written in Greek ink. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Medieval Art department, it from Coptic culture in late antique Egypt, a time when Christianity flourished amid the transition from Byzantine rule to early Islamic influence. As a rare survivor of everyday correspondence, it offers a glimpse into the literacy and social connections of ordinary people in a world where papyrus was the premier writing surface, lightweight and abundant from the Nile Delta. The fragment's significance lies in ...