Emeritus Faculty

The distinguished faculty who have shaped our intellectual legacy.

Sofía Torallas Tovar

Professor Emerita

Research Interests

Papyrology; Greco-Roman Egypt; Magic; Coptic Studies; Early Christianity Studies

Portrail of Sofia Torallas Tovar

About

Sofía Torallas Tovar obtained her PhD in Classics in 1995 from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) for her thesis on the “Book on Dreams by Philo of Alexandria.” Her primary research interests are papyrology, Graeco-Roman Egypt, and the history of early Christianity in Egypt. Since 2002, she has also served as the curator of the papyrological collections at the Abbey of Montserrat (Barcelona). In addition to her contributions to fields such as the administration of Roman Egypt, language contact in the Mediterranean, and dreams in Antiquity, Torallas Tovar has authored many editions of papyri. She is currently engaged in an edition of a papyrus roll containing Athanasius’s Letter to Dracontius, the earliest extant witness to Athanasius’s works, and a critical edition of the Coptic versions of the Gospel of Mark in collaboration with Anne Boud’hors (IRHT Paris). She has also collaborated with the Swiss Institute in Cairo, in the edition of the Greek and Coptic ostraca excavated in Aswan. Over the past ten years, she has collaborated with Christopher Faraone on the project “Transmission of Magical Knowledge,” dedicated to the publication of Greco-Egyptian magical papyri. Their work was recently recognized with the Goodwin Award of Merit from the Society of Classical Studies (USA).

ISAC Publications

Select Publications

Edited Volumes

  • Christopher Faraone and Sofía Torallas Tovar (eds.). New Approaches to the Great Paris Magical Codex (PGM IV/GEMF 57). Transmissions 14. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2026.
  • Christopher Faraone and Sofía Torallas Tovar (eds.). Greek and Egyptian Magical Formularies. Text and Translation, Vol. 1. California Classical Studies 9. Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2022.
  • Christopher Faraone and Sofía Torallas Tovar (eds.). The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies. Libraries, Books and Individual Recipes. New Texts from Ancient Cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022. 
    Winner of the 2023 C.J. Goodwin Award of Merit

Articles

  • Sofía Torallas Tovar. "How Egyptian is the Greek of Septuagint?: Some Lexical Notes." Journal for the Study of Judaism 54 (2023), 527–557.
  • Anne Boud’hors and Sofía Torallas Tovar. "The Shorter Ending of the Gospel of Mark in the Coptic Versions." Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin 8:2 (2022) 39–55. 
  • Sofía Torallas Tovar. "Greek and Egyptian: Did Linguistic Policies Exist in Graeco-Roman Egypt." In Egypt and Empire. The Formation of Religious Identity after Rome, edited by Elisabeth R. O’Connell, pp. 279–292. British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 11. Leuven: Peeters, 2022.
  • Anastasia Maravela and Sofía Torallas Tovar. "Impossible Anatomies: the curse and death of Gessios." In The Rediscovery of Shenute. Studies in Honor of Stephen Emmel, edited by Anne Boud’hors, David Brakke, Andrew Crislip, and Samuel Moawad, pp. 367–391. Leuven: Peeters, 2022. 
  • Mariola Hepa and Sofía Torallas Tovar. "On the Southern Frontier: Latin Ostraca from Aswan." In Uniformity and Regionalism in Latin Writing Culture in the First Millennium of the Common Era, edited by Rodney Ast, pp. 61–78. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2022. 
  • Sofía Torallas Tovar. "Notes on Ostraca and Scribal Practice." In Novel Perspectives on Communication Practices in Antiquity. Towards a Historical Social-Semiotic Approach, edited by Y. Amory and K. Bentein, pp. 39–53. Leiden: Brill 2023. 
  • Sofía Torallas Tovar. "P.Heid. Inv.no. G 414: A Greek-Egyptian List and the Septuagint." In Pharaonen, Mönche und Gelehrte: Auf dem Pilgerweg durch 5000 Jahre ägyptische Geschichte über drei Kontinente. Heike Behlmer zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Diliana Atanassova, Frank Feder, and Heike Sternberg-el Hotabi, pp. 873–884. Texte und Studien zur Koptischen Bibel 4. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2023.

Research Projects

Active
An illustration from PGM V inscribed with magical names.

Transmission of Magical Knowledge

Location:
Egypt
Timespan:
2015 – Present

Thanks to the climatic conditions and scribal practices of Greco-Roman Egypt, a number of handbooks of magic from that region have reached us. These handbooks are precious witnesses to practices and…

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