| Sumario: | This article provides an improved edition, new translation, and commentation of P.Berlin P.8316, a recipe for a purple dye. Combining philological analysis with technical procedural considerations, the dyeing technique as described in P.8316 — the treatment of wool fibres first with a mordant and subsequently with a vegetable dyestuff — is reconstructed. Looking for an intellectual milieu of the recipe, it is argued that its archival context (the so-called 'Berlin Magical Library'), its technical language, and its content connect to early alchemical thought and writing. P.8316 can further be shown to offer recipe evidence for Pliny’s report about certain baffling artifices brought about by Egyptian dye workers.
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