scribe B1 (nos. 25, 26).^56 Work of at least four of these scribes is known
from other archaeological contexts as well,^57 indicating that they worked
not just for this book collector, but for a number of collectors. All of this is
consistent with the picture of books produced by trained copyists as
outlined above, although this evidence does not allow us to rule out
other scenarios, such as purchase of some items at auction or from used-
book dealers.^58 In any case, this collection does not seem to have been
created by reliance upon any one copyist; rather, the owner(s) patronized a
series of copyists.
- Personalities of the collections. We saw above that the lists of books in
papyri (table 10.1) allow us to assess the contents and organization of book
collections, and to learn something of the interests of their owners. The
concentrations of literary works enable us to push even further in this
direction, for here we have the manuscripts themselves, and we can see
what types of literature each collector favored, and how he treated and
worked with his volumes.
59
I will make a few quick observations about
some of the concentrations, and we will then study Grenfell and Hunt’s
second find (table 10.3) in more detail. One important preliminary note:
I will often, for convenience, refer to ‘‘the collector,’’ as though only one
person owned each set of books. It should be understood, though, that any
given set of books might have been, and probably was, owned by a succes-
sion of collectors, with additions and deletions occurring over time. We will
discuss precisely this matter below, under point 5, ‘‘life of the collection.’’
The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum (table 10.2, no. 1) is, of course,
the most obvious and complete example of a private library in which the
collector’s interests are made clear by the identity of the books. Even if
the Villa possessed general collections of Greek and Latin literature,^60 it is
very clear that philosophy, and in particular Epicurean philosophy, was of
great interest to the Villa’s book collector(s), and continued to be so for
- The manuscripts assigned to various scribes are conveniently set out in Johnson
2004, 61 5, drawing on and expanding Kru ̈ger 1990, 193 5. I say that there were several
additional scribes at work because other manuscripts in the collection are dated in the same
period but not (yet) assigned to any particular scribe. These are nos. 3, 6, 22, and 29 (all lyric
poetry, and probably professionally produced), 27 (Sophocles), 21, 24, and 32. - These are A5, A11, A20, and A32. See Johnson 2004, 61 5, for lists of all their
known manuscripts. B1, too, may have done other work, in prose: Turner 1971, 66 (noted by
Johnson 2004, 64,adscribe B1). - It is also possible that the book collector owned one or more of the scribes (who
might be slaves), and that the slave scribe produced books both for his own master and to be
sold to others. We cannot know the exact mechanisms. - The concentrations do not, of course, give us any information about the organization
or physical arrangement of the collections. - The suggestion that a great villa such as this must have had general collections of
Greek and Latin classics in addition to its philosophical collection has been made frequently,
but is quite uncertain. See, for discussion of the matter and some bibliography, Johnson
2006, 496.
256 Institutions and Communities