Tag Archives: books
Manuscripts of the Alexander Romance
The Alexander Romance (or The Life of Alexander of Macedon or the Life and Acts of Alexander, or The History of Alexander the Great, King of the Macedonians…) survives in hundreds of manuscript copies in several languages. The Romance has … Continue reading
The Antinoopolis Charioteers Papyrus and Alexander the Great
One of the most famous illustrated papyri is a scrap that was found in a garbage heap in the Egyptian city of Antinoopolis. The papyrus contains a painting of a group of charioteers wearing brightly colored racing outfits. The papyrus … Continue reading
The Provenance and Date of the Berlin Cretans
One of the reference points that used to come up very frequently in discussions of the earliest codices was a manuscript of Euripides–the Berlin Cretans, an isolated parchment folium that was published in 1907 as BKT V.2 XVII (P.Berol. inv. … Continue reading
Manuscripts of The Jewish War by Josephus
The seven-book composition by the historian Josephus describing the sacking of Jerusalem goes by different names in the Greek manuscript copies: Περὶ ἁλώσεως Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἱστορία περὶ ἁλώσεως Ἰουδαϊκὸς πόλεμος πρὸς Ῥωμαίους In the Latin tradition, these books were known to … Continue reading
New Radiocarbon Analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls
An important new study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has just been published (open access!) in the journal PLOS One: Mladen Popović et al., “Dating ancient manuscripts using radiocarbon and AI-based writing style analysis,” PLOS One 2025. In some ways, … Continue reading
Pumice, Parchment, and Papyrus
In the latest issue of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (2024, just out–table of contents here), I have an article on the use of pumice on papyrus (AAM here). Here is the abstract: Papyrological handbooks published in … Continue reading
Decoration of the Fore-edges of Coptic Codices
There is a fun article in The New York Times about the growing trend among publishers of producing deluxe editions of romance and fantasy books. The article mentions different kinds of cover enhancements but focuses on decoration of the fore-edge. … Continue reading
Roberta Mazza’s Stolen Fragments
I’ve just finished reading Roberta Mazza’s excellent new book, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts (Stanford: Redwood Press, 2024). This is a well organized and highly readable book. It tells a story–equal parts … Continue reading
A Relief from Ostia Showing Writers at Desks
The museum at the archaeological park at Ostia Antica has reopened after many years of closure for renovations. The results are quite impressive, and I hope to have a chance to post some reflections about the museum itself soon, but … Continue reading
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
