Greek papyri in the British Museum : catalogue with texts PDF
Preview Greek papyri in the British Museum : catalogue with texts
fft §ite»g (Satmll Iftniwwttg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME PROM THE ENDOWMENT FUND SAGE THE GIFT OF Hetifg M. Sag* 1891 Cornell University Library PA 3304.B861 V.2 Greek papYri in the British Museum ... 3 1924 022 695 096 *n....2 Cornell University Library ^ 'ffn The book original of this is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022695096 GREEK PAPYRI IN THE MUSEUM BRITISH CATALOGUE, WITH TEXTS EDITED BY KENYON, F. G. M.A., D.Litt. ASSISTANT KEEPER OF MANUSCRIPTS, BRITISH MUSEUM VOL. II PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES SOLD AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM And by Longmans and Co., 39 Paternoster Row Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly; Asher and Co., 13 Bedford Street, Covent Garden Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road AND Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press Warehouse, Amen Corner London 1898 \All rights reserved^ r HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY PREFACE. *" I ^HE second volume of this catalogue describes the Greek papyri acquired by the Museum -*- from the end of 1890 (where the first volume closed) to the middle of 1895, and gives the texts of all the more important documents of a non-literary character obtained within that period. The printing of it was begun in the middle of 1896, but was suspended early in 1897, when twenty sheets had been finally printed off, in order to allow of more rapid progress with the edition of the odes of Bacchylides, published in that year. But for this delay, the volume would have appeared about a year earlier than the present date. As in the case of the first volume, it is accompanied by an atlas of facsimiles, in which is given a selection of the most important and best preserved papyri, especially those which, having precise dates, are of most value for palaeography. The number of plates is one hundred and twenty-three, containing reproductions of one hundred and thirty-two papyri, ranging from the second century b. c. to the seventh of the Christian era. EDWARD SCOTT, L, J. Keeper of MSS. British Museum, August 25, 1898. a 2 — — CONTENTS. PACE PREFACE iii INTRODUCTION v ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA xi TABLE OF PAPYRI xiii TEXTS:— A. Ptolemaic Period . i B. Roman Period ; 1. The Census and Poll-Tax 17 2. Death Certificates 65 3. Taxation 69 4. Miscellaneous Official Documents . . 148 5. Petitions ........... ..... 163 ................. 6. Sales and Leases 176 7. Receipts 200 ................. 8. Loans . .217 Accounts ..... 222 9. 10. Private Letters 252 11. Miscellaneous Documents 257 C. Byzantine Period: 1. The Correspondence of Abinnaeus . . . . . . . . . . . .267 2. Miscellaneous Fourth-Century Documents 307 3. Late Byzantine Documents 323 INDICES:— INTRODUCTION. THE present volume of the Catalogue of Papyri differs in some points of detail and arrangement from the first. The first volume dealt with the papyri acquired by the Museum up to the year 1890, and every such papyrus, with the exception of the merest scraps (and not excepting some even of them), was included in it, both in the texts and in the accompanying atlas of facsimiles. Since that date, however, the number of papyri discovered in Egypt has increased to such an extent that it is no longer either possible or desirable to publish the texts of all in full. In the present volume, therefore, which covers the acquisitions of the Museum from the beginning of 1891 to the middle of 1895, a selection has been made, and only the texts of the more perfect and important papyri are given in full. By way of compensation, however, the numerical table prefixed to the texts, which in the first volume gave merely the briefest possible description of each papyrus, has been enlarged into a full descriptive catalogue, so as to provide an adequate amount of information with regard to those papyri ofwhich the full texts are not printed^. In all, about 410 papyri are included within the range of this volume; and the texts of 262 distinct documents are printed in full. A similar principle of selection has been applied to the facsimiles, the best and most important papyri only (especially those which have precise dates) being selected for reproduction. The scope of this volume has been determined, so far as the lower limit of time is concerned, by the date (May, 1895) at which the British Museum received its share of the Petrie Papyri. To have included descriptions of these (amounting to about 120 in all), together with the texts of those which have not hitherto been published, would have swelled considerably the size of a volume already much larger than its predecessor. The Petrie papyri, therefore, together with all subsequent acquisitions of the Museum, are excluded from its survey. It so happens, however, that nearly all the more important papyri acquired since the date at which it closes have already been published elsewhere ; the Petrie Papyri in the two volumes edited by Prof. Mahaffy ^ and a large proportion of the more recent acquisitions in the two volumes edited by Messrs. B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt^ With a few exceptions, therefore, all the Greek papyri in the British Museum are now accessible to scholars. ' Even in the case ofpapyri ofwhich the texts arepublished hbraries ofthe British Museum, Oxford, and Dublin, has been in full, the details relating to dimensions, character of hand- pvihWsh.&d.mXh^ArchaeologicalReportoftheEgyptExploration writing, &c., will be found in the numerical catalogue, not in FundioT 1894-5, p. 55. the introductory notes prefixed to thetexts. ° AnAlexandrianEroticFragmentandother GreekPapyri, " The Flinders Petrie Papyri, by. the Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, chiefly Ptolemaic (Greek Papyri I), by B. P. Grenfell, M.A. D.D., F.T.C.D. (Royal Irish Academy, Cunningham Memoirs, (Oxford, 1896): New ClassicalFragmentsandotherGreek and nos.viii.andix). Two Parts, 1891and 1893,withAppendix,1894. Latin Papyri {Greek Papyri II), by B. P. Grenfell, M.A. A table showing the distribution of these papyri between the and A. S. Hunt, M.A. (Oxford, 1897). vi INTRODUCTION. In point of chronological distribution the papyri now published form a fitting supplement to those in vol. i, being strong in the periods where that was weak, and weak where that was strong. The first volume (apart from magical papyri, which stand by themselves) dealt mainly with the Ptolemaic and late Byzantine Periods, with only a few documents (though these were long and important ones) from the Roman period. The present volume, on the other hand, gives little from the Ptolemaic and late Byzantine periods, but has a long series of Roman documents (many of them precisely dated) ranging from B.C. lo to a. D. 275 ^ while the early Byzantine period, which hitherto has contributed almost nothing to the stock of extant papyri, is represented by a large group of documents from the middle of the fourth century. It may be added that the gaps still remaining in the chronological sequence of the Museum papyri, namely the later part of the Ptolemaic period and the years about A, d. 300 and 400, are to a considerable extent filled by the documents since acquired from Messrs. Grenfell, Hogarth, and Bevan, which have been published in the volumes of Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt. The periods as to which more light is still principally needed are the middle of the first century b. c. (with the transition from the Ptolemaic to the Roman period) and the fifth century of the Christian era. Thesame remarks apply to the purely palaeographical side of the subject, which is represented in the atlas of facsimiles by which this volume is accompanied. The atlas to the first volume contained 150 plates, giving facsimiles of 96 different documents, of which 48 belonged to the Ptolemaic period, 16 to the Roman (10 being magical papyri, which form, palaeographically as well as in content, a somewhat separate department), and 32 to the late Byzantine. The atlas to the present volume contains 123 plates, giving facsimiles of 132 different documents, of which ID belong to the Ptolemaic period, 91 to the Roman, 27 to the early Byzantine (fourth century), and 3 to the late Byzantine. Nearly all the papyri now reproduced possess exact dates, and they may be regarded as providing a characteristic representation of the course of non-literary palaeography during the centuries over which they extend. The papyri of the Roman period were, for the most part, acquired before the introduction to vol. i was written, and the palaeographical conclusions derivable from them were utilized in the sketch of the history of Greek writing upon papyrus which is there given (pp. xi, xli). The fourth-century papyri, however, were acquired too late to be more than briefly alluded to in that place (p. xli, note) ; and to them attention may now be directed as the most novel portion of the present publication from the palaeographical point of view. Three of them have already been published by the Palaeographical Society and two or three other documents ; of the period were previously known (see vol. i, p. xli) ; but the twenty-seven facsimiles now produced obviously place our knowledge on a much wider and sounder basis. The most marked feature which distinguishes the writing of this century from that of the Roman period is its great increase in size. The letters are larger, broader, and often thicker. Several of them, notably k, fi, and in many cases o, stand out conspicuously by their size ; and the fondness for long projecting strokes in such letters as e, i, X, p, which characterizes the later Byzantine period, is found in many documents of the fourth century, especially those which make a greater attempt at elegance of writing (e.g. Papp. CCXXXII, CCXXXIV). ' Most ofthese come from the great find made about 1892, has furnishedthousands ofpapyri tothe Berlin collection, while at or in the neighbourhood ofSocnopaei Nesus (Dimeh),which many havefound theirway to Vienna, Geneva, and elsewhere.
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