224 PALAEOGRAPHY 



and the reaction of riper thought upon them, is discussed from divers standpoints in a 

 series of stimulating essays by Oxford students of anthropology. 1 



General. A new survey of ancient culture, containing brief but comprehensive mono- 

 graphs on the various branches of classical study, has been commenced under the super- 

 vision of Profs. Gercke and Norden. 2 A brief resume of Roman culture is contained in 

 a new Companion to Latin Studies, edited by Sir J. E.. Sandys. 3 



(M. O. B. CASPARI.) 



The largest field in which palaeographical discoveries are to be expected at this pres- 

 ent time and, indeed, in the future is that of papyrology. The vast possibilities that 

 ancient sites in Egypt offer for the recovery of the lost remains of Greek literature has 

 been demonstrated by the prolific results which have already rewarded excavation. 

 In other countries, which have been so thoroughly searched, it is only occasionally that 

 an early vellum codex, accidentally hidden or temporarily overlooked, may be recognised 

 and brought to notice by some travelling scholar or by the compilation of a new cata- 

 logue in some neglected library. But instances of such finds have been so rare that, 

 when they do occur, they come as a surprise. 



In Egypt, since the great successes achieved a few years ago, when large hoards of 

 papyri, notably such as the Oxyrhynchus collection, were recovered, there has been 

 something of a lull in respect of new discoveries. A period of digestion has set 

 in, resulting in the output of an ever-growing number of papyrological publications. 

 Not that the flow of material has actually ceased, for excavations of greater or less 

 extent still continue to feed public and private collections of Europe and America. In 

 this connection, evidence of the increasing number of local museums and libraries that, 

 following the fashion, lay themselves out for securing a share in the spoils is to be found 

 in the many useful publications which they issue describing their treasures. 



In England the scholars who devote themselves to the study of papyri have not been 

 idle during the past three years. The publication of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri by the 

 Egypt Exploration Fund has gone on steadily under the editorship of Dr. A. S. Hunt, 

 each year contributing its tale of new classical and other fragments, of more or less 

 importance, and its series of non-literary cursive documents. In Part vii, 1910, among 

 new discoveries there are considerable fragments of Callimachus; in Part viii, 1911, some 

 remains of the cynic poet Cercidas; and in Part ix, 1912, a large portion of the Ichneutae, 

 a satyric drama of Sophocles. To Dr. Hunt likewise is owing the commencement of 

 the catalogue of the Greek papyri in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, the first 

 volume being published in 1911. In that library we may notice in passing the existence 

 of a large portion of an uncial MS. of the Odyssey as early as the fourth century. But 

 the most important publication of cursive papyri is the fourth volume of the British 

 Museum catalogue of papyri, 1910, edited by Mr. H. J. Bell. In this volume is de- 

 scribed the collection of documents from Aphroditopolis (Kom Ishgau), which have 

 the advantage of being, not a miscellaneous gathering, but a compact group from one 

 locality and representing a limited period at the end of the seventh and beginning of 

 the eighth centuries, and of providing, in official correspondence and documents relat- 

 ing to the financial administration of the district, a valuable insight into the methods 

 of the earlier years of the Arab government of Egypt, while Greek officials were still 

 employed there. 



Outside England such well-established periodical publications as the Griechische 

 Urkunden of the Berlin Museum and the Berliner Klassikertexte in Germany, and the 

 Papiri Florentine in Italy have made their natural progress; and great activity has been 

 shown in the launching or prosecution of catalogues or descriptions of collections at 



1 Anthropology and the Classics (cd. R. Marctt: Oxford, 1908). 



2 Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft (Vols. i-iii: Leipzig, 1910-11.) 



3 Cambridge, 1910. 



4 See E. B. xx, 566 et seq. 



