Papyrus

Papyrus (/pəˈpaɪrəs/ pə-PY-rəs) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge.^[1] Papyrus (plural: papyri or papyruses^[2]) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book.

This article is about the paper-like material. For the plant it is made from, see Cyperus papyrus. For other uses, see Papyrus (disambiguation).

Papyrus was first known to have been used in Egypt (at least as far back as the First Dynasty), as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region. Apart from writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts, such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets.^[3]

Etymology[edit]

The English word "papyrus" derives, via Latin, from Greek πάπυρος (papyros),^[17] a loanword of unknown (perhaps Pre-Greek) origin.^[18] Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος (byblos),^[19] said to derive from the name of the Phoenician city of Byblos. The Greek writer Theophrastus, who flourished during the 4th century BCE, uses papyros when referring to the plant used as a foodstuff and byblos for the same plant when used for nonfood products, such as cordage, basketry, or writing surfaces. The more specific term βίβλος biblos, which finds its way into English in such words as 'bibliography', 'bibliophile', and 'bible', refers to the inner bark of the papyrus plant. Papyrus is also the etymon of 'paper', a similar substance.

In the Egyptian language, papyrus was called wadj (w3ḏ), tjufy (ṯwfy)^[8]^: 5, or djet (ḏt).

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: this is a collection of William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney. It includes biblical manuscripts, early church fragments, and classical documents from the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine eras. The collection was edited by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt in 1900–1901. It is housed at the Morgan Library & Museum (New York).

Amherst Papyri

also known as the Vienna Papyrus Collection: is one of the world's largest collections of papyri (about 180,000 objects) in the Austrian National Library of Vienna.^[28]

Archduke Rainer Collection

Papyri: housed in the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection.^[29]

Berlin

(BGU): a publishing project ongoing since 1895

Berliner Griechische Urkunden

: this collection was purchased by Martin Bodmer in 1955–1956. Currently, it is housed in the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana in Cologny. It includes Greek and Coptic documents, classical texts, biblical books, and writing of the early churches.

Bodmer Papyri

: a collection of 11 codices acquired by Alfred Chester Beatty in 1930–1931 and 1935. It is housed at the Chester Beatty Library. The collection was edited by Frederic G. Kenyon.

Chester Beatty Papyri

Colt Papyri, housed at (New York).

the Morgan Library & Museum

The : these papyri were found in Herculaneum in the eighteenth century, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. After some tinkering, a method was found to unroll and to read them. Most of them are housed at the Naples National Archaeological Museum.^[30]

Herculaneum papyri

The : a collection of around a thousand papyrus documents, dealing with the management of a large Roman estate, dating to the third century CE, found at the very end of the 19th century at Kasr El Harit, the site of ancient Theadelphia, in the Faiyum area of Egypt by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt. It is spread over many collections throughout the world.

Heroninos Archive

The Houghton's papyri: the collection at was acquired between 1901 and 1909 thanks to a donation from the Egypt Exploration Fund.^[31]

Houghton Library, Harvard University

: biblical manuscripts in Greek and Coptic, Dead Sea Scrolls, classical documents

Martin Schøyen Collection

: this collection contains above 10,000 papyri fragments. It is housed at the University of Michigan.

Michigan Papyrus Collection

: these numerous papyri fragments were discovered by Grenfell and Hunt in and around Oxyrhynchus. The publication of these papyri is still in progress. A large part of the Oxyrhynchus papyri are housed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, others in the British Museum in London, in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and many other places.

Oxyrhynchus Papyri

: it is housed at the Princeton University^[32]

Princeton Papyri

Papiri della Società Italiana (PSI): a series, still in progress, published by the Società per la ricerca dei Papiri greci e latini in Egitto and from 1927 onwards by the succeeding Istituto Papirologico "G. Vitelli" in . These papyri are situated at the institute itself and in the Biblioteca Laurenziana.

Florence

: this collection contains above 700 papyri, with 31 ostraca and 54 codices. It is housed at the John Rylands University Library.

Rylands Papyri

Tebtunis Papyri: housed by the at the University of California, Berkeley, this is a collection of more than 30,000 fragments dating from the 3rd century BCE through the 3rd century CE, found in the winter 1899–1900 at the site of ancient Tebtunis, Egypt, by an expedition team led by the British papyrologists Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt.^[33]

Bancroft Library

Washington University Papyri Collection: includes 445 manuscript fragments, dating from the first century BCE to the eighth century AD. Housed at the .

Washington University Libraries

Yale Papyrus Collection: housed by the , it contains over six thousand inventoried items. It is cataloged, digitally scanned, and accessible online.^[34]

Beinecke Library

: this papyrus focuses mainly on snakebites and their remedies. It speaks of remedial methods for poisons obtained from snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas. The Brooklyn Papyrus currently resides in the Brooklyn Museum.^[35]

Brooklyn Papyrus

: this papyrus located at the Brooklyn Museum records the petition of a man named Pemou on behalf of his father, Harsiese to ask their god for permission to change temples.

Saite Oracle Papyrus

Strasbourg papyrus

: found at Deir el-Medina and dating to the 20th dynasty, it is notable because it is a legal document for a non-noble woman.^[36]

Will of Naunakhte

Palm leaf manuscript

Horst Blanck: Das Buch in der Antike. Beck, München 1992, 3-406-36686-4

ISBN

Rosemarie Drenkhahn: Papyrus. In: Wolfgang Helck, Wolfhart Westendorf (eds.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. vol. IV, Wiesbaden 1982, Spalte 667–670

David Diringer, The Book before Printing: Ancient, Medieval and Oriental, Dover Publications, New York 1982, pp. 113–169, 0-486-24243-9.

ISBN

Victor Martin (Hrsg.): Ménandre. Le Dyscolos. Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, Cologny – Genève 1958

Otto Mazal: Griechisch-römische Antike. , Graz 1999, ISBN 3-201-01716-7 (Geschichte der Buchkultur; vol. 1)

Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt

Leuven Homepage of Papyrus Collections

Ancient Egyptian Papyrus – Aldokkan

at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University

Yale Papyrus Collection Database

Lund University Library Papyrus Collection

Ghent University Library Papyrus Collection

Thompson, Edward Maunde (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). pp. 743–745.

"Papyrus"

. papyri.info. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.

"Papyri.info Resource and Partner Organizations"

Finding aid to the Advanced Papyrological Information System records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Modern commercial Papyrus paper making (photos)– Elbardy

(video), scidevnet, via youtube, April 2019.

Papyrus-making in Egypt

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