Category Archives: Reuse of manuscripts

Reusing Pages of Books

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Brent Nongbri

Parts of ancient books were recycled in a variety of different ways, but I don’t recall having seen anything quite like this before. It’s a portion of a parchment folium from a codex that contained some works of Demosthenes (P.Amh. … Continue reading →

Posted in Biblical Majuscule, Reuse of manuscripts | Leave a comment

Augustine in the Cairo Genizah

Posted on December 22, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

Thinking about the letters of Augustine reminds me of one of the more interesting manuscripts I encountered this year. Among the many remarkable manuscripts in the Cairo Genizah is Cambridge University Library ADD.4320. It’s a collection of fragments of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Cairo Genizah, Palimpsests, Reuse of manuscripts | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

P.Bodmer 1, A Land List Reused for Books 5 and 6 of the Iliad

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

2018 was an important year for the study of the Bodmer Papyri, with the launch of the “Papyri” cluster of the Bodmer Lab website, which made available digital images of the papyrus and parchment manuscripts from Egypt in the collection. … Continue reading →

Posted in Bodmer Papyri, Reuse of manuscripts | 3 Comments

Palimpsests among the Tura Codices

Posted on May 11, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

A question concerning papyrus (rather than parchment) palimpsests came up recently in the comments over on Bart Ehrman’s blog. I thought I would post here a good example of a papyrus palimpsest, namely the papyrus codex containing the commentary on … Continue reading →

Posted in Codices, Palimpsests, Reuse of manuscripts, Tura Papyri | Leave a comment

P.Ryl. 1.1: A Datable Papyrus Codex of Deuteronomy in Greek

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

In a previous post, I discussed the phenomenon of papyrus codices made from reused documents. Among this group is a very interesting item in the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester. In fact, it was the first piece … Continue reading →

Posted in Chester Beatty Papyri, Codices, Palaeography, Reuse of manuscripts, Rylands Papyri | 7 Comments

Codices Made from Reused Documents

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Typically, ancient papyrus codices were made by cutting off sheets from a long roll of blank papyrus, stacking the sheets, and folding them into quires. There is, however, a small group of somewhat odd papyrus codices that were made in … Continue reading →

Posted in Chester Beatty Papyri, Codices, Reuse of manuscripts | 4 Comments