Embedded within Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History is a rather
curious reference to Origen's female calligraphers (HE 6.23). This
article seeks first to contextualize Eusebius' remarks by surveying
the evidence--both literary and epigraphic--for female scribes in
Greco-Roman antiquity and early Christianity. The appearances of women
as amanuenses, notariae, and librariae in Latin literature
and inscriptions are explored. The article then turns to the evidence for
women copying texts in late-ancient Christian monasticism. The central
proposal of the article--that some of our earliest Christian manuscripts
may have been copied by women--offers a new dimension to the history of
the textual transmission of early Christian writings.
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