Marie-Hélène Marganne’s passion for Egypt, ancient times and medicine revealed itself when she was only a child aged 5 or 6, and it has never left her.

She obtained a diploma from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris in 1981 (in historical and philological sciences) and a doctorate in “Philosophie et Lettres” (classical philology) from the University of Liège in 1983. Her thesis on the contribution of papyrology to the history of ancient medicine was accepted summa cum laude. As she notes, her childhood dream came true before she was 30 years old. After her dissertation defence, Marganne became a freelance researcher. This status allowed her to raise her four children, in the midst of her books, and she never stopped writing and doing research. She has taught papyrology at the University of Liège since 1997, and in 2007 she began to teach Greek palaeography. She directed seminars in the history of medicine at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris (Sorbonne) in 1999 and in 2002.

Marganne became a researcher at CEDOPAL (Literary papyrology documentation center - University of Liège)) in 1999 and became director of that organisation the next year. CEDOPAL is a research centre specialising in information concerning Greek and Latin literary papyri. As an institution, CEDOPAL has over 100 years of experience in papyrology, in teaching and research, and is well-known in the international scientific community for its unique collection of 8,000 photographs of Greek and Latin literary papyri. CEDOPAL also has a small collection of actual papyri, mostly Greek, and the oldest are over 2,000 years old.

The Royal Academy of Medicine conferred upon Marie-Hélène Marganne the Dr Frans Jonckeere Prize for the History of medicine (1982/1983). She was also awarded the Joseph Gantrelle Prize (1994/1995) of the Classe des Lettres of the Royal Academy of Belgium for L’ophtalmologie dans l’Egypte gréco-romaine d’après les papyrus littéraires grecs. She is a member of many learned societies. Some of her literary works, which are published under the pseudonym Marie Blaise, have also won distinction. She has also written, under her own name, a number of plays for the theatre, written in the Walloon dialect of French as spoken in Liège.

Selection of publications

MARGANNE M-H., La transmission du savoir médical dans le monde gréco-romain : l’apport de la papyrologie, in F. Le Blay, Doctrinarum disciplina. La transmission des savoirs dans le monde hellénistique et romain, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes. (In presse)

MARGANNE M-H., Monstres et monstruosités dans l’antiquité : problèmes de terminologie et d’interprétation, Actes du colloque interuniversitaire Monstres et monstruosité de l’Antiquité à nos jours (Bruxelles, 2009).

MARGANNE M-H., Aspects chirurgicaux du Codex de Nicétas dans les affections articulaires, Actes des Journées d'histoire des maladies des os et des articulations. Paris, Hôpital Cochin, 21-22 novembre 2008 = Rhumatologie pratique, 267, 2 (Paris, septembre 2009), p. 37-40.

MARGANNE M-H., Papyrus et papyrologie à l’Université de Liège, in Cahiers du Cédopal, 5 (Liège, Cedopal- Université de l’ULg, 2007).

MARGANNE M-H., Catalogue des papyrus littéraires grecs et latins : plus de 7000 notices sur le site du CEDOPAL http://promethee.philo.ulg.ac.be/cedopal/index.htm (2005).

MARGANNE M-H., Livres de médecine illustrés dans l’Egypte gréco-romaine, in collaboration with N. Istasse, in Medicina nei secoli, 13, 1 (Roma, 2001), p. 1-23.