English summary: Did the Egyptians invent bureaucracy? The question is not an easy one since rituals, orality and patronage networks must have played a role that was at least as important as formal written procedures. What is however certain is that during the New Kingdom period, between 1500 and 1070 before Christ, Egypt achieved the size of an Empire. From Nubia to Syria, there were huge resources to explore and to exploit. It is therefore no surprise that this age was also the age of a revolution in the status of the ...
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English summary: Did the Egyptians invent bureaucracy? The question is not an easy one since rituals, orality and patronage networks must have played a role that was at least as important as formal written procedures. What is however certain is that during the New Kingdom period, between 1500 and 1070 before Christ, Egypt achieved the size of an Empire. From Nubia to Syria, there were huge resources to explore and to exploit. It is therefore no surprise that this age was also the age of a revolution in the status of the Egyptian writing. As agents of the institutional control of activities, scribes played a prominent role and formed a social category which had its own values and language. In order to trace the entire history of this environment and of these men, Chloe Ragazolli uses archeological and textual sources that has been so far largely unexploited: the manuscripts of miscellanea, called florilegia, in which scribes showed their skills and literary knowledge. The investigation begins looking at the scribe's hand on the manuscript, his writing, ink on papyrus, where variation and compilation from memory play an important role. Scribes take hold of the literate archive of their time and indulge in thousands of variations in order to produce new literary genres which have led us to consider them as masters covered with honour. Scribes are therefore an intermediary elite which is the only instance capable of initiating and operating the political and state machinery. In a word: how a literate knowledge holds an Empire, and even more, its memory. French description: Les Egyptiens ont-ils invente la bureaucratie ? Difficile de repondre tant le rituel, les reseaux de patronage et l'oralite devaient jouer un role au moins aussi important que les procedures formelles ecrites. Ce qui est sur en revanche, c'est qu'au Nouvel Empire, entre 1500 et 1070 avant Jesus-Christ, l'Egypte prend les dimensions d'un empire. De la Nubie a la Syrie, les ressources a exploiter et a administrer sont immenses. Ce n'est donc pas un hasard si cette epoque est aussi celle d'une revolution du statut de l'ecrit. Depositaires du controle institutionnel des activites, les scribes occupent le devant de la scene et forment un monde social avec ses valeurs et son discours propres.Pour dresser l'histoire integrale de ce milieu et de ces hommes, Chloe Ragazzoli a recours a des sources - archeologiques et textuelles - encore largement inexploitees: les florileges, ces manuscrits de miscellanees ou les scribes faisaient montre de leurs competences et de leurs savoirs lettres. Au ras du manuscrit, suivant la main du scribe, l'enquete commence par la maniere meme d'ecrire, a l'encre, sur papyrus, ou la variation et la compilation de memoire jouent un grand role. Les scribes s'approprient l'archive lettree de leur temps et jouent de mille variations pour produire de nouveaux genres litteraires qui nous font voir tant le scribe dissipe que le maitre couvert d'honneurs. Le tableau depeint est celui d'une elite intermediaire qui seule est a meme de mettre en branle et de faire fonctionner la machine politique et etatique. En un mot: comment un savoir lettre tient un empire, et plus encore, sa memoire.
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