Leiden University offers courses about papyri and papyrology for beginners and more advanced students (BA and MA), both based on texts in translation as well as in the original source languages, from Egyptian to Greek, Latin and Arabic.

Courses in papyrology are offered within the following programmes:

• BA Classics
• BA Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• BA History
• MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations
• MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research)
• MA Middle Eastern Studies
• MA Middle Eastern Studies (Research)

Papyrology courses in Leiden

A detailed description of each course mentioned below can be found in the e-Prospectus. Courses with a Dutch title are generally taught in Dutch, but some can be taught in English as well. If in doubt, contact the teacher.

Courses 2026-2027

FIRST SEMESTER

• Papyrological Sources [BA, 5 EC]

Introduction to papyrology and the use of papyrological sources for historical research. All sources are read in translation.

• Schriftelijke bronnen van het Oude Nabije Oosten [BA, 5 EC]

Introduction to the sources of the Ancient Near East: from cuneiform documents on clay tablets and hieroglyphic inscriptions on stone to texts on papyrus, parchment and palm ribs. All sources are read in translation.

• Editing Greek Papyri [BA, 5 EC]

Students learn to read unpublished Greek papyri from the collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute. 

• Editing Greek Papyri [(Res)MA, 10 EC]

Students learn to prepare a first edition of an unpublished Greek papyrus from the collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute.

• Culture and Society in the Medieval Muslim World [MA, 10 EC]

This course will examine the daily life experience of medieval Muslims through literary, documentary and archaeological sources to deepen the student’s knowledge and experience of the social and economic history of medieval Islam and to familiarise him/her with the written sources in Egypt and ‘Greater Mesopotamia’ between ca. 640 and 1000 CE.

• Magical papyri from Pharaonic to Late Antique Egypt [MA, 10 EC]

This Masterclass offers an in-depth, interdisciplinary exploration of magical texts and practices from Pharaonic Egypt through the Graeco-Roman period and Late Antiquity. Co-taught by an Egyptologist and a Greek papyrologist, the course is explicitly designed to bridge the methodological and disciplinary divide between Egyptology and Greek Papyrology.

 

SECOND SEMESTER

• Papyrus en perkament: de overlevering van klassieke bronnen [BA, 5 EC]

This coures introduces students to the handwriting (palaeography) and materiality of Greek and Latin handwritten texts from Antiquity until the beginning of printing press. Knowledge of Greek and Latin is required.

• Hiëratische paleografie [BA, 10 EC]

Reading texts in Ancient Egyptian cursive script from the period from approximately 2500 to 1100 BCE, including original papyri in the National Museum of Antiquities.

• Papyrus Archives and Libraries in the Ancient World (2500 BCE – 1000 CE) [MA, 10 EC]

In this course students will learn about the archaeological contexts, acquisition history and reconstruction methods of papyrus archives and libraries from the oldest Egyptian texts in hieroglyphs, hieratic and demotic scripts, to the use of Greek and Latin in the Eastern Mediterranean, down to the production of Aramaic, Coptic and Arabic texts in Late Antiquity in Egypt and the Middle East. All texts will be discussed in translation during classes, but students with knowledge of a relevant language will the study the papyri in their chosen papyrus archive in the original language.

• Coptic Papyrology [MA, 10 EC]

Reading various genres of Coptic non-literary texts in different varieties of the language. The texts will be read from original sources as found in excavations and in museum collections, such as inscriptions, graffiti, papyri and ostraca (potsherds), and students will learn how to prepare a text edition of a fragment.