The Amherst papyri are a collection of ancient papyri now mostly kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.[1] They were acquired by John Pierpont Morgan in 1912.[2] They are named for Lord Amherst of Hackney, who began assembling the collection in the 1860s through purchases from R. T. Lieder and John Lee.[3] He kept them at Didlington Hall in Norfolk.[1]
The collection includes or included 42 papyri in Egyptian written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script;[2] 84 in Coptic, of which only 37 were ever catalogued, the rest being described as "very decayed, powdery and worthless";[2] and 237 mainly in Demotic Egyptian and Greek, but including a few in Coptic, Arabic and Latin.[4]
List
- Astarte and the Insatiable Sea
- Papyrus 12
- Papyrus Amherst 3a
- Papyrus Amherst 63
- Papyrus Leopold II
- Philinna Papyrus
- Uncial 076
Notes
- ^ a b Jellicoe 1993, p. 225.
- ^ a b c Steiner 2017, p. 17.
- ^ Steiner 2017, p. 3.
- ^ They were described as "Demotic and Greek" in a letter from Herbert Eustis Winlock to Morgan. In fact, the 36 of these catalogued by Newberry 1899, pp. 54–56, included Demotic, Greek, Coptic and Arabic. Likewise, Grenfell & Hunt 1901, pp. ix–xii, catalogued 192 that included Greek, Latin, Coptic and Arabic. See Steiner 2017, p. 17.
Bibliography
- Grenfell, Bernard P.; Hunt, Arthur S. (1900). The Amherst Papyri: Being an Account of the Greek Papyri in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, F.S.A. at Didlington Hall, Norfolk. Vol. 1: The Ascension of Isaiah, and Other Theological Fragments. Bernard Quaritch.
- Grenfell, Bernard P.; Hunt, Arthur S. (1901). The Amherst Papyri: Being an Account of the Greek Papyri in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, F.S.A. at Didlington Hall, Norfolk. Vol. 2: Classical Fragments and Documents of the Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine Periods. Bernard Quaritch.
- Jellicoe, Sidney (1993). The Septuagint and Modern Study. Eisenbrauns.
- Newberry, Percy E. (1899). The Amherst Papyri: Being an Account of the Egyptian Papyri in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, F.S.A. at Didlington Hall, Norfolk. Bernard Quaritch.
- Steiner, Richard C. (2017). "Lord Amherst's Demotic Papyri and Lady Amherst's Mummy". Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies Faculty Publications. Yeshiva University.
This page was last edited on 3 November 2023, at 01:29