two of Callimachus (nos. 8, 9), plus single rolls (so far as we know) of
Cercidas, Hesiod, and Ibycus (nos. 10, 15, and 16). Pindar (nos. 17–20) is
represented by a large but uncertain number of rolls, probably at least seven
and perhaps a dozen, and two of them were copied by scribe A20, who also
did one of the Alcaeus texts.^66 There are two manuscripts, probably of
different books and perhaps parts of a complete edition, of Sappho (nos. 22,
23). Two of the plays of Sophocles (nos. 25, 26) were copied by the same
scribe, then annotated by the same second hand, and so probably formed a
set, which may well have included other plays as well. A third play of
Sophocles (no. 27), a relatively early text of Theocritus (no. 28, first century
A.D.), more lyric, and a satyr play (nos. 29, 30) complete the list of poetic
worksattestedinthecollection.TheabsenceofHomerinthis concentration
is striking. As we noted above, the nature of the finds made by Grenfell and
Huntforbidsusfromreadingtoomuchintotheabsenceofany givenauthor,
but Homer is so ubiquitous in the papyrological record that his absence in
this collection, which is otherwise so strong in poetry, should at least be
noted, even if it cannot be explained.
67
There is also some prose. No. 14 is a text of Herodotus that was
carefully written and then annotated by at least two nearly contemporary
hands, who provided variants and, perhaps, explanatory notes. Demos-
thenes, Ephorus, and Satyrus all appear (nos. 11, 12, and 24), all of them
in manuscripts that have no annotation. The Plato text (no. 21, a section
from theRepublic) is, in stark contrast, heavily annotated with exception-
ally learned notes.^68
It is, in fact, the frequency, density, and content of marginal notes that
are the most striking characteristic of this collection. Of the thirty-five
manuscripts or groups of manuscripts into which it can be divided, at least
sixteen, or some 45 percent, contain marginal notes that cite other
sources for variant readings, explicate matters in the text, or both.^69
Not only is this percentage very different from that of the Breccia 1932
collection (table 10.2, no. 4), in which only three of fifty-two manu-
scripts, or about 6 percent, certainly contain such marginalia, it is also a
much higher figure than the average for all papyri: Kathleen McNamee
- The Pindar texts and their copyists have been carefully studied by Funghi and
Messeri Savorelli 1992a. Johnson 2004, 63,adscribe A20, did not accept all of their
suggestions concerning that scribe. - Not that we can’t take a guess. The absence of Homer in Grenfell and Hunt’s second
find may indicate not that the person who assembled this collection disliked Homer, but
rather that the person who threw out the lyric texts Grenfell and Hunt founddidlike Homer
and wanted to keep his Homer volumes. He also may have wanted to keep Euripides,
another very popular author not represented in this concentration. Or perhaps the original
collector, a scholarly reader as will emerge in what follows, was less concerned with such
standard authors as Homer and Euripides. - The notes, written in part in shorthand and extremely difficult to read, let alone
understand, have now been largely deciphered and explicated by McNamee and Jacovides
- Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 30.
258 Institutions and Communities