Comprehensive Papyrology and Digital Study of Ancient Manuscripts

Our Master’s programme Comprehensive Papyrology (in German: Fachübergreifende Papyrologie) will start in October 2027/8. The programme is currently being prepared for accreditation. It is being set up jointly at the Universities of Münster and Cologne. Teaching will be provided by these two institutions, along with the University of Heidelberg.

The degree is aimed at both German and international applicants who are interested in learning how to decipher unedited papyri in Greek, Coptic and Demotic, in order to make knowledge from antiquity accessible to the modern world. One component of the programme, lasting about a month, will take place at the papyrus collection of one of our collaborating institutions: Hamburg, Leipzig or Vienna, Cologne and Heidelberg.

The resources of different leading institutions will thus be combined for the benefit of our students. All teaching in the core modules will be provided in hybrid format, meaning that students have a choice whether to attend classes in person or online. Münster will provide Coptic papyrology, Digital Coptic papyrology, and Ancient History; Cologne offers Greek Literary and Documentary papyrology; Heidelberg will contribute Demotic papyrology, Digital Greek papyrology, Latin papyrology, as well as the study of papyri from Herculaneum.

In this way, students will be provided with a comprehensive and balanced overview of the spectrum of written legacies from Ptolemaic to early Arab Egypt, hundreds of thousands of unread ancient texts that are preserved in papyrus collections. This encompasses roughly 1,500 years of ancient history, from the 4th century BCE to the 11th century CE, when the use of Greek in Egypt finally ceased and the Egyptian language became entirely extinct as a written language.

This initiative is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation's World Knowledge programme with nearly one million euros.

Further information will be posted on this page as the project develops. Please contact Thomas Ford if you have any questions: tford@uni-muenster.de.