Papyrus

PAPYRI — Part of the letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians (41 A.D.).
London, British Museum, Greek papyri, Papyrus 1912.

to Modena; then custodian of the convent of S. Francesco in Assisi (1800) and guardian of the convent of the SS. Apostoli in Rome (1803); finally, minister general of his Order (1803–1809).

He devoted himself particularly to Franciscan historical studies, of which, in his time, he was a true restorer and a discerning critic in evaluating the Minorite historical sources, and is still consulted with profit today.

Among his published works, the most important are: Etruria francescana (part 1, Siena 1797; part 2 unpublished); Notizie sicure della morte, sepoltura, canonizzazione e traslazione di s. Francesco e del ritrovamento del di lui corpo (Florence 1822, Foligno 1824); Storia del Perdono di Assisi (Florence 1824); Storia di s. Francesco d'Assisi (2 vols., vol. III unpublished, Foligno 1825–27); Index Fratrum Minorum Conventualium qui scientias et artes, conducti, publice tradiderunt, in Miscell. Franc., 31 (1931), pp. 95–102, 170–174, 259–60; 32 (1932), pp. 33–36, 72–77.

languages (v. PAPIROLOGIA); the particular dryness of the soil in certain regions of the ancient world (especially in Egypt, and also at Dura Europos on the right bank of the Euphrates) favored the preservation of p. documents, which, now surviving in such considerable numbers, can serve admirably to document the material and spiritual life of antiquity in its most diverse aspects.

As regards Christianity, the surviving p. (Greek, Latin, and Coptic) relate to texts by authors (scriptural, liturgical, and patristic), to documents concerning the functioning of Christian Churches and monasteries in Egypt (correspondence, accounts, denunciations, petitions, etc.), and to various manifestations of Christian life (private letters, amulets, etc.).

Scriptural texts are very numerous, whether they relate to the Old Testament (in the Septuagint version) or to the New. The Greek Old Testament is represented by nearly 150 p. and ostraca, almost all from the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.; important is a p. of Deuteronomy from the Ptolemaic period, dating from the 2nd century B.C. (P. Ryl., III, 458); the most extensively represented book of the Old Testament is Psalms, with more than 60 p., especially from the 4th and 5th centuries; fragments of more than half of the Psalms are preserved in them, and more frequently of those at the beginning of the traditional series. Next in frequency is the book of Genesis, with about twenty p., including a fragment of a Latin translation and a commentary by Origen on Genesis itself; among the prophets, Iiaia would seem to be the best known; the importance, moreover, of all these biblical p. lies in the fact that they make a useful contribution to the countless questions concerning the manuscript tradition of the books and their various philological and exegetical problems. A surviving text from the 3rd century A.D. (P. Oxy., XVII, 2070) contains a Christian treatise in polemic against the Old Testament, of the type of Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.

The p. of the four canonical Gospels are likewise numerous; Matteo has more than ten fragments dating from the 3rd to the 7th–8th centuries; in its text they are closer to the Sinaitic and Vatican codices than to the Syriac; Marco has only 4, from the 4th to the 6th century; Luca has about ten, likewise from the 4th to the 6th; but it is above all the Fourth Gospel that is frequently represented, with more than 15 fragments and, a particularly noteworthy fact, with a fragment dating as early as the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. (v. RYLAND), which helps place its composition increasingly close to the end of the 1st century, something that many, before the discovery of the p., did not seem willing to accept (cf. C. H. Roberts, An unpublished fragment of the IV. Gospel, Manchester 1935 [*P. Ryl., III, 457]); other such manuscripts date from the 3rd century; the most recent is from the 7th century; p. Egerton 3 perhaps also contains a fragment of a commentary on the Gospels. More than ten p. of the Acts of the Apostles have so far survived, dating from the 3rd to the 6th century; it is interesting that among them the “Western” text of the Acts appears. Of the letters of s. Paolo, the best represented are those to the Romans and then that to the Hebrews, in specimens sometimes important even from the 3rd century; next, especially, those of s. Giacomo; those of s. Pietro and s. Giovanni are also occasionally represented; the Apocalypse has six p., dating from the 3rd to the 7th century, with Oecumenius’s commentary in a Michigan papyrus (H. Ch. Hoskier, The complete Commentary of Oecumenus on the Apocalypse*, Ann Arbor 1928).

A series of apocryphal Gospels is also represented in the p.; one of the most noteworthy is the so-called Egerton p. (v.), another is the Proto-Gospel of James, surviving to a considerable extent in a p. of the 4th century, and there is also a Gospel of Maria in the 3rd-century Ryland p., and perhaps a Gospel of the Egyptians; some Loghia Iesu are likewise found in the p., being read in the p. of Ossirino (v. OSSIRINO).

There also appear Acts of Giovanni, Acts of Pietro, and above all the Acts of Paolo, preserved, among other places, in an important manuscript dating from around 300 (Πράξεις Παύλου, ed. Schubart and Schmidt, Glückstadt-Hamburg 1936) and in other p.

The p. also preserve various hymns, prayers, and liturgies: hymns to the Savior, the Virgin, the Trinity, and the martyrs; one consisting of a cento of Psalms, discovered among the 7th–8th-century Berlin p. (Berl. Klass. Texte, 8, XVI);

another, exceptionally noteworthy, contains the oldest piece of Christian music known to date (P. Oxy., XV, 1786; cf. G. B. Pighi, Ricerche sulla notazione ritmica greca. L'uno cristiano del P. Oxy. 1786, in Aegyptus, 21 [1941], p. 189 ff.). The liturgical texts number more than twenty, and among them one is written in Latin (P. Ryl., III, 472) and belongs to the 3rd–4th century; another, which sets forth the Christmas liturgy, is found among the Berlin p. and belongs to the 7th century (Berl. Klass. Texte, 6, VII, 2); a συναπτή widely used in Byzantine liturgy was re-

cognized in a Florentine p. (cf. A. S. Mercati, Frammenti della συναπτή in un p. fiorentino, in Aegyptus, 20 [1940], p. 212 ff.). For liturgical p. cf. C. Del Grande, Liturgiae, preces, hymni Christianorum e papyriis collecti, Napoli 1938. Amulets on p., containing verses from the Gospel and other canonical texts, sometimes mixed with pagan invocations, have likewise survived among the material so far brought to light.

(Institute of the Library)
PAPIRO – A page of the ancient Latin revision of Josephus’ Antiquitates Iudaicae on papyrus (6th century) – Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

Sacred writers also figure among the surviving papyrus material: Athanasius, Cyril, the Apology of Aristides, Eusebius of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen, Irenaeus, the Didache, and especially the Shepherd of Hermas, which is preserved in about ten papyri dating from the 2nd to the 6th century and therefore demonstrates that it was widely read in Egypt (cf. L. Alfonsi, Ermia, Brescia 1947). Some papyri contain Acts of martyrs: Abraham, Nabrahe, Julian of Anazarba, Paphnutius the anchorite, St Christina, and perhaps others.

Another category of papyri of interest for the life of the Church consists of the texts of the Nicene Creed (P. Ryl., I, 6 is the oldest) and of the Constantinopolitan Creed; the fragment of a festal epistle of 577, sent by a patriarch of Alexandria to the Church of Egypt (P. Grenfell, II, 112), and a very extensive Easter letter by another Alexandrian patriarch, preserved in the Berlin papyri (Berl. Klass. Texte, 6, VI, 3); an ecclesiastical calendar of 535–36 has also survived (P. Oxy., XI, 1357; cf. H. Delchaye, in Anal. Bolland., 42 [1924], pp. 83–99).

The series of nearly one hundred libelli from the so-called persecution of Decius in 250 brings us more directly into contact with the period and manner of the struggles against the nascent Church (v. Bludau, Die ägyptischen Libelli und die Christenverfolgung des Kaiser Decius, in Röm. Quartalschrift. Suppl., 27 [1931]).

Very numerous administrative documents concern the Egyptian Church and the monasteries of every century, and have for the most part been studied (v. P. Barison, Ricerche sui monasteri dell'Egitto bizantino e arabo, in Aegyptus, 18 [1938], pp. 29–148; L. Antonini, Le chiese cristiane in Egitto dal IV al IX secolo secondo i documenti dei papiri greci, ibid., 20 [1940], pp. 129–208). The Christian letters found in the papyri have likewise been collected and studied; this subject deserves to be taken up again today (v. G. Ghedini, Lettere cristiane da p. greci del sec. III e IV, Milano 1923).