April 22, 2005

More authoritative info on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri

Some more authoritative information is posted in the CLASSICS-L list. An excerpt:
The London press got wind of this (the unrolled Herculaneum papyrus of Epicurus' Peri physeos in the British Library is being done this week) and reported enthusiastically, if selectively. No mention, for example, was made of the success on the Bodleian Herculaneum papyrus (P.Herc. 118), now thereby revealed to be a Peri Epikourou or at any rate a pre-Philodemean history of the school. The article certainly should not have said (if it did) that all the papyri had been discovered yesterday, only that we made significant (and sufficiently exciting) advances in reading and confirmation of identifications with some, the same with some other pieces, while still others were identified for the first time, some standard classical authors, as usual, while others remain complete mysteries. Readings from some identified from earlier multi-spectral trials since 2002 were refined. The Oxyrhynchus texts will be published in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, beginning with the next volume (LXIX), still scheduled for publication next month. An article on the technical aspects is planned for Scientific American.

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