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Author Archives: Brent Nongbri
The Potential Early Papyrus Codex at Graz
Back in June 2023, several news outlets picked up the story of “the Graz mummy book.” A team at the University of Graz led by Theresa Zammit Lupi had identified P.Hib. 113, a papyrus extracted from mummy cartonnage and published … Continue reading
Posted in Book binding, Codices, Codicology, Ink, Mummy cartonnage, P.Hib. 113
Tagged archaeology, Book History, bookbinding, books, cartonnage, egypt, history, mummy, papyrus
5 Comments
Storing Scrolls
I have papyrus rolls on my mind right now, but I’m also interested in parchment rolls. I’ve been reading an excellent new book by Bruce Holsinger, On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital … Continue reading
Posted in Voluminology
Tagged Book History, papyrus-rolls, parchment, Roman history, scrolls
4 Comments
Manufacturing a Papyrus Roll
Over the years, I’ve had many occasions to talk about the manufacture of papyrus rolls. I typically describe them as fairly simple artifacts–several individual sheets of papyrus pasted together to form a roll. And a papyrus roll is relatively simple … Continue reading
Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Papyrus Making, Voluminology
Tagged ancient-egypt, books, egypt, papyrus, papyrus-rolls
9 Comments
Radiocarbon Analysis of Museum of the Bible Manuscripts: Bodmer Psalms
Thanks to Mike Holmes for informing me that the most recent issue of Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik contains an article reporting the results of radiocarbon analysis of five papyrus manuscripts and one parchment manuscript that took place about a … Continue reading
The Color(s) of Papyrus and Pliny’s Instructions
A few months ago, I observed that two stalks of papyrus from the same plant could produce quite different colored sheets of papyrus. I’ve also noticed that the same stalk of papyrus can produce strips that, although they look the … Continue reading
The Robinson Papyri, and the Mississippi Papyri, and William H. Willis
Several years ago, I tried to sort out some of the confusion that surrounds the so-called Robinson Papyri, a collection of papyrus manuscripts accumulated by the archaeologist David M. Robinson (1880-1958) and eventually inherited by the classicist William H. Willis … Continue reading
P.Oxy. 87.5575 and P.Oxy. 60.4009: The Same Copyist
The editors of P.Oxy. 87.5575, the recently published papyrus fragment with a collection of sayings of Jesus, stated that P.Oxy. 60.4009, another papyrus with material about Jesus, “may well be in the same hand, though the loops in that papyrus … Continue reading
Posted in Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Palaeography
4 Comments
More Details on the Possible Codex at Graz
Earlier this year, I noted the news that we may have a new candidate for the earliest surviving portion of a codex, P.Hib. 113, a papyrus excavated from the Egyptian town of Hibeh and now kept at the University of … Continue reading
Posted in Book binding, Codices, Codicology, Mummy cartonnage, P.Hib. 113
1 Comment
The Date of the New Oxyrhynchus Sayings of Jesus P.Oxy. 87.5575
The publication of the latest volume of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri has been in the news. Among the newly published pieces is a small fragment of a leaf of a papyrus codex that contains a previously unknown collection of sayings of … Continue reading
Notes on a Forger’s Methods
John de Monins Johnson (1882-1956) was in some ways a kind of successor to Grenfell and Hunt for a short period in the early twentieth century. Before taking up a position at Oxford University Press, he had training as a … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Market, Fakes and Forgeries
6 Comments
Variant Readings 