Epifanio di Salamina e le scritture dell'Oriente

In the centuries-long history of studies that have contributed to the correct understanding of Western Middle Iranian scripts (Inscriptional and Book Pahlavī), both Eastern and Western testimonies have played a fundamen- tal role. Among others, a few lines of Epiphanius’ Panarion (Pan. II haer. 66,13,3-4) assumed considerable importance from the very beginning of the first investigations dedicated to the decipherment of Middle Persian scripts. In this challenging passage, Epiphanius established a correlation between the canonical writing of “most Persians” and the “Syriac” one. In this paper, the traditional and current interpretations of this testimony are discussed and rejected in favour of a new reading, which is based (i) on a more in-depth exegesis of the literal content of the text, (ii) on a detailed reconstruction of Epiphanius’ linguistic and writing skills, and (iii) on a comprehensive overview of the Middle Iranian writing repertoire during the Sāsānian period. According to a new interpretation, Epiphanius was here describing the 4th century Middle-Persian repertoire in its two basic varie- ties, the monumental one (similar to the “Syriac” or, better, Eastern Aramaic scripts) and the cursive one (with entirely different features than the former).