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Mathematics Mathematics
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Scribal Mathematics Scribal Mathematics
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Academic Mathematics Academic Mathematics
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Astronomy and Astrology Astronomy and Astrology
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The Hellenistic Period The Hellenistic Period
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The Roman Period The Roman Period
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Medicine Medicine
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The Egyptian Tradition The Egyptian Tradition
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The Graeco-roman Tradition The Graeco-roman Tradition
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Bibliography Bibliography
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15 Mathematics, Science, and Medicine in the Papyri
Get accessAlexander Jones, Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University.
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Published:18 September 2012
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Abstract
The sciences that are significantly attested among the papyri are mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and astrology. Medicine and astrology were professions with numerous practitioners who possessed collections of reference texts and whose activity involved producing written documents. Astronomy had a central role in weather prediction, calendrics, and, above all, astrology. Mathematics had its uses in calculation and mensuration, and applied and theoretical mathematics were often components of technical and liberal education, respectively. These were all subjects that were cultivated for external ends at least as much as for pure intellectual satisfaction. The most obvious difference between the evidence of the medieval textual tradition, which was heavily influenced by the intellectual elite of the later Roman and Byzantine periods, and that of the papyri is that much of the papyrological record has a direct bearing on practice and applications.
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