DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12583#0074
58
Pkogress of Egyptology.
must congratulate ourselves that these were made by so careful and
experienced a scholar as Prof. Wilcken. Among the vellum leaves acquired
by him were six leaves containing a Greek palimpsest text (under Coptic)
of about the seventh century, four of which belonged to the same romance
_byJJhariton, mentioned above, of which Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt found
an early papyrus copy at Karanis (Kom Ushim), while the other two
contain part of another romance, by an unknown author, the heroine of
which is named Chione.8 Some of Wilcken's remarks, based upon
Eohde's assignation of Chariton to the fifth or sixth century, are super-
seded by Grenfell and Hunt's discovery. The two new MSS. contain
different parts of the romance (the papyrus belonging to the fourth book,
the palimpsest to the eighth), so that they cannot be directly compared;
but the palimpsest appears to differ from the Florentine MS. more than
the papyrus. "Wilcken holds that the Florentine MS. and his palimpsest
represent independent redactions of a lost original text; but the fact that
the papyrus, which is so much earlier than the palimpsest, and cannot be
far removed from the date of the author himself, contains a text sub-
stantially uniform with the Florentine MS., somewhat discredits this view.
Wilcken also publishes some fragments of a papyrus of Polybius,9
recently acquired by the Berlin Museum along with the Hesiodic fragment
mentioned above. It is written in a large, clear, uncial hand, which he
assigns to the beginning of the third' century; on the verso are .accounts of
the year 276. In view of this fixed terminus ante quern it is to be
regretted that he gives no facsimile. The papyrus has several readings
which appear superior to those hitherto known, and Wilcken notes that it
confirms no less than eight conjectures of modern scholars, a very unusual
state of affairs.
Yet another article by Wilcken relates to a collection of papyri recently
acquired by the Munich Library.10 Among about 126 Greek _papyri,
ranging from the third century b.c. to the eighth or ninth century after
Christ, sixteen contain literary texts, mostly of very small extent. Wilcken
publishes the text of three—a fragment of Herodotus (i. 115-116), of the
first or second century, well and carefully written; a very handsome
fragment of Xenophon [JJopoi i. 5, 6), the writing of which Wilcken
compares with that of the Hawara and Oxyrhynchus Homers ; and three
scraps of a philosophical work, apparently by a disciple of Plato, in a
hand of the third century b.c. He also mentions two fragments of
^ejDtuagint MSS. (from Levit. i. and Judges v.), and the usual Homer
(II. iii.) ; while Dr. F. Boll publishes two short astrological texts from
the same collection, one on vellum, the other on papyrus.11
Pkogress of Egyptology.
must congratulate ourselves that these were made by so careful and
experienced a scholar as Prof. Wilcken. Among the vellum leaves acquired
by him were six leaves containing a Greek palimpsest text (under Coptic)
of about the seventh century, four of which belonged to the same romance
_byJJhariton, mentioned above, of which Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt found
an early papyrus copy at Karanis (Kom Ushim), while the other two
contain part of another romance, by an unknown author, the heroine of
which is named Chione.8 Some of Wilcken's remarks, based upon
Eohde's assignation of Chariton to the fifth or sixth century, are super-
seded by Grenfell and Hunt's discovery. The two new MSS. contain
different parts of the romance (the papyrus belonging to the fourth book,
the palimpsest to the eighth), so that they cannot be directly compared;
but the palimpsest appears to differ from the Florentine MS. more than
the papyrus. "Wilcken holds that the Florentine MS. and his palimpsest
represent independent redactions of a lost original text; but the fact that
the papyrus, which is so much earlier than the palimpsest, and cannot be
far removed from the date of the author himself, contains a text sub-
stantially uniform with the Florentine MS., somewhat discredits this view.
Wilcken also publishes some fragments of a papyrus of Polybius,9
recently acquired by the Berlin Museum along with the Hesiodic fragment
mentioned above. It is written in a large, clear, uncial hand, which he
assigns to the beginning of the third' century; on the verso are .accounts of
the year 276. In view of this fixed terminus ante quern it is to be
regretted that he gives no facsimile. The papyrus has several readings
which appear superior to those hitherto known, and Wilcken notes that it
confirms no less than eight conjectures of modern scholars, a very unusual
state of affairs.
Yet another article by Wilcken relates to a collection of papyri recently
acquired by the Munich Library.10 Among about 126 Greek _papyri,
ranging from the third century b.c. to the eighth or ninth century after
Christ, sixteen contain literary texts, mostly of very small extent. Wilcken
publishes the text of three—a fragment of Herodotus (i. 115-116), of the
first or second century, well and carefully written; a very handsome
fragment of Xenophon [JJopoi i. 5, 6), the writing of which Wilcken
compares with that of the Hawara and Oxyrhynchus Homers ; and three
scraps of a philosophical work, apparently by a disciple of Plato, in a
hand of the third century b.c. He also mentions two fragments of
^ejDtuagint MSS. (from Levit. i. and Judges v.), and the usual Homer
(II. iii.) ; while Dr. F. Boll publishes two short astrological texts from
the same collection, one on vellum, the other on papyrus.11