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Codicology Papyrus Provenance

Papyrus Codices in 19th Century European Libraries

The great age for the discovery of papyrus manuscripts in Egypt was of course the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. But a handful of papyrus manuscripts, more specifically Latin papyrus codices, also survived from antiquity in European libraries.

Paris, BnF Lat. 11641; image source: Gallica

In his paleographical handbook published in 1893, Edward Maunde Thompson gave a list of these. As it turns out, images of most of them are available online:

Avitus, Sermons and letters (Paris, BnF Lat. 8913 and 8914; CLA 573)

Augustine, Sermons and letters (Paris, BnF Lat. 11641; Geneva Ms Lat. 16; St. Petersburg, Russian National Library Lat. F. I. 1; CLA **614)

Hilary, De trinitate (Vienna, Austrian National Library Cod. 2160*; Vatican Library, Barberini Lat. 9916 (one folio); Sankt Florian Austria Stiftsbibliothek III.15.B (one folio); CLA 1507)

Josephus, Antiquities (the so-called Ambrosianus papyraceus; Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana Cimelio 1; CLA 304)

Isidore of Seville, Synonyma and Eusebius Gallicanus, Sermons (Sankt Gallen Stiftsbibliothek 226; Zürich Zentralbibliothek RP 5-6; CLA 929)

Codex traditionum ecclesiae Ravennatis (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 44)

Justinian’s Digest (Pommersfelden, Bibliothek Graf von Schönborn PPL 1–6; CLA 1351)

We’re happy to be informed of other similar papyrus codices not noted by Thompson.

Edward Maunde Thompson, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1893), p. 34.