Tag Archives: papyrology
Conservation of a Papyrus Roll with No Glass Frames
Some of the real workhorses of both my teaching and public presentations over the years have been a group of papyrus rolls in Berlin. They are a set of Greek documentary rolls from the second half of the second century … 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
The Recette de Saint-Remi and the Layout of an Early Greek Parchment Codex
As 2025 comes to a close, one last article is coming out: “Mise-en-page Between Roman Egypt and Medieval Europe: The Recette de Saint-Remi and the Layout of an Early Greek Parchment Codex (P.Ant. 1 27),” Fragmentology 8 (2025), 155-169. This … Continue reading
Taking Care of Papyrus Scrolls in Antiquity
The digital edition of a new book has recently become available: The volume is the result of a workshop back in 2022 in which I was fortunate enough to participate. It was a somewhat unusual seminar in the sense that … Continue reading
A New Article on Carl Schmidt and the Antiquities Trade
The coptologist Carl Schmidt (1868-1938) was very active in the antiquities trade. His name is associated with the purchase of many well known manuscripts, including one I’ve discussed here. An important new article on Schmidt has appeared in a journal … 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 Correction and a Codicological Mystery in P.Bodmer 13
I only recently learned of the death, about a year ago now, of Stuart G. Hall (1928-2023). It sent me back to an article that we wrote together. In 2015, I stumbled across grainy black and white photographs of what … Continue reading
Stichometry 3: Counts for Galatians in Greek Manuscripts
In an earlier post, I set out the evidence used to establish that for ancient Greek and Latin prose writing, a stichos (or versus) was generally equal to 16 syllables. In a subsequent post, I drew attention to the discussion … Continue reading
The Sale of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex and its Cost Over Time
The auction of several items from the collection of Martin Schøyen took place yesterday in London. The highlight of the sale was the so-called Crosby-Schøyen codex, which sold for just over the high end of the estimated price range at … Continue reading
Variant Readings 