trations nos. 3, 4, 5, and 7 were written in the second century and
discarded in or around the end of the third century. Although we cannot
know exactly why they were discarded (change of taste? or interest?
replacement bycodices?or simply worn out), the simple fact remains
that the concentrations indicate a useful life of between one hundred
and two hundred years for a majority of the volumes, with a significant
minority lasting two hundred years or more.^51
- Did novels remain in vogue for more than a brief period?In 1996,
Guglielmo Cavallo published a most useful article on what the Italians
call the ‘‘letteratura di consumo,’’ in the case of this particular article
meaning novels and romances.
52
Cavallo noted that most romances
known from papyri are attested only in copies produced within a limited
period of time, often less than a century. The Novel of Ninus, for example,
is known only from papyri written in the middle and second half of the first
centuryA.D.
53
Cavallo inferred from this that such works enjoyed a brief
period of popularity, but then were dropped in favor of new stories.
Looking at books sorted by collection, however, allows us to suggest a
more nuanced picture. The Breccia 1932 find (table 10.2, no. 4) was
thrown out, as we have seen, in aboutA.D. 300, but it includes a first-
century copy of the Novel of Ninus. In this case, that is, the novel was
either passed along in a collection for some two hundred years, or pur-
chased as a used copy long after it was originally written. It is possible, of
course, that this particular manuscript is an intruder in this collection,
blown hither by the wind, but that it does belong to the collection is
indicated by the presence in this same concentration of a second novel and
of a first-century copy of the mimes of Sophron, not to be sure a novel,
but certainly relatively light reading.^54 In any case, this should keep us
alert to the possibility that extended works of prose fiction might be kept
in collections, and perhaps read and reread, long after they were first
produced.
- The formation of collections. If we examine the concentrations closely, we
can begin to formulate some hypotheses on how they came into being.
Although we cannot here deal with all ofthe concentrations, we can look at
one of them—Grenfell and Hunt’s second find—in some detail. In table 10.3
- A few anecdotes in literature similarly document items lasting two or three hundred
years. Gellius, for example, reports finding an autograph manuscript of Aelius Stilo in the
library of the Temple of Peace (Gell.NA16.8.2). The manuscript must have been more than
200 years old, and probably about 250. - Cavallo 1996, 29. I will refer to these works as novels, following Stephens and
Winkler 1995, 3. - A complete list of the known papyrus copies of novels is provided by Stephens and
Winkler 1995, 480 1. Their list clearly supports Cavallo’s point. Only two novels are known
from copies produced over a period of 150 years or more: Achilles Tatius (150 300) and
Chariton (150 600), and in Chariton’s case we have three papyrus rolls all dated in the
period 150 200, and one parchment codex of aboutA.D. 600.
54.PSI1220 (novel) and 1214 (Sophron).
Papyrological Evidence for Book Collections and Libraries 251