La pyle. Due variazioni sul tema

The paper concerns the Π-shaped headpiece, which is very frequent in Byzantine manuscripts and which scholars call pyle, as well. After an overview on the use of the latter name in the cataloguing tradition, the first part of the study deals with the origin, the diffusion and the articolations of the famous frame. The second part focuses on SB Kopt. II 845, a Coptic documentary papyrus dating back to the 5th century, which offers an evidence of the word pyle referring to the processes of manuscript illumination or rather book binding in late antique monastic communities.