An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography / by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson.

Edward Maunde Thompson

Date:: 1912

Credit: An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography / by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

69/624 page 49

$Tyraniiio utatur glutinatorilais, ad cetera adiiiinistris, iisqac iinpcres ut suniant ineinljranulaiii ex qua indices tiant, quos vos Graeci, ut opiuor, ariWvfSovi ^ appellatis.’ Among tlie papyri from Oxyrliynchus a few tituli have been found. One of them, of papyrus (Ox. Pap. 301; Brit. ]\rus., Pap. dccci), measuring 5x1 indies, is inscribed CtOOPONOC MIMOl rYNAIK€IOI.2 In the perusal of a work the reader held the roll upright and unrolled it graduall}’’ with the right hand ; with the left hand he rolled up in the reverse direction what he had read.^ To unroll a book was aveiXeiv, aveXCa-a-eLV or avekCrTeiv, avaTvXLcrcrdi; or avaTvkiTTeiv, evolvere, revolvere, explicare-, as to roll it up was eiAetr or dkelv, kkLcra-uv, volvere,^ plicare. The book read to the end was ‘ explicitus usque ad sua cornua’ (Martial, xi. 107).^ From the term ‘explicitus’ came the mediaeval ‘ explicit ’, formed, no doubt, as a pendant to ‘ incipit By the time the reader had read the entire roll, it had become reversed, the beginning being now in the centre and the end being outside; therefore, before putting it away, it must be rolled back into * Anothei' reading of the word in this passage is cnrvPas; and it has been suggested that aiTTvPa may be more correct than airivPo^. ’ Others are : 0. P. 381 (B. M., Pap. 810), of papyrus, a.d. 76; 0. P. 958, of vellum, a. d. 80 ; 0. P. 957, of leather, a.d. 122-3 ; 0. P. 987, of vellum, fifth or sixth century. It may be convenient to quote here the two following passages in full, as referring to so many details dealt with in the text :— Vade, sed incultus, qualem decet exsulis esse ; Infelix, habitum temporis huius habe. Nec te purpureo velent vaccinia fuco ; Non est conveniens luctibus ille color. Nec titulus minio, ncc cedro charta notetur ; Candida nec nigra cornua fronte geras. Felices ornent haec instrumenta libellos ; Fortunae memorem te decet esse meae. Nec fragili geminae lioliantur pumice frontes, Hirsutus passis ut videare comis. Neve liturarum pudeat. Qui viderit illas, De lacrimis tactas sentiet esse meis.—Ovid, Trist. i. 1. 3-14. TiVa 70/5 (KniSa ical avTus excuv es to. Kal dvaTvKtTTeis (unroll) de/, «at diaicoXXqs (glue together sheets of papyrus), koI TrepiKonrei'! (trim the edges), Kai dXe'Kpeis tw KpuKw Kal Ktbpcp, Kal 5i<pd(pas (vellum wrapper's) TrtpipdXXai, Kai dpt(paXovs (rolling-sticks) (UTiOrjs, w? Sri Ti drroXavawv avrSiv ;—Lucian, Adv. indoct. 16. ® See an engraving, from a sculptured sarcophagus, in Daremberg and Saglio’s Pid. des Antiquity, s. v. ‘ Bibliotheca’, in which a man is represented reading from an open roll. ^ As volvere might mean to turn a thing in either direction, it was also used in the sense of unrolling : ‘ volveirdi sunt libri ’, Cic. Brut. 87. 298. ® To finish writing a roll was to come down to the umbilicus; Horace, Epod. xiv. 8 Deus nam me vetat Inceptos, olim promissum carmen, iambos Ad umbilicum adducere ; ■ and Martial, iv. 89 ;— Ohe, iam satis est, ohe libelle, lam pervenimus usque ad umbilicos. ® ‘Solemus completis opusculis, ad distinctionem reialterius sequentis, medium inter ponere Explicit aut Feliciter aut aliud eiusmodi.’—St. Jerome Ad Marctllam. E 1184$

An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography / by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson.

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