Winner, PROSE Award, Classics, Association of American Publishers (AAP), 2018

Writing down the epic tales of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus in texts that became the Iliad and the Odyssey was a defining moment in the intellectual history of the West, a moment from which many current conventions and attitudes toward books can be traced. But how did texts originally written on papyrus in perhaps the eighth century BC survive across nearly three millennia, so that today people can read them electronically on a smartphone?

Classics from Papyrus to the Internet provides a fresh, authoritative overview of the transmission and reception of classical texts from antiquity to the present. The authors begin with a discussion of ancient literacy, book production, papyrology, epigraphy, and scholarship, and then examine how classical texts were transmitted from the medieval period through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to the modern era. They also address the question of reception, looking at how succeeding generations responded to classical texts, preserving some but not others. This sheds light on the origins of numerous scholarly disciplines that continue to shape our understanding of the past, as well as the determined effort required to keep the literary tradition alive. As a resource for students and scholars in fields such as classics, medieval studies, comparative literature, paleography, papyrology, and Egyptology, Classics from Papyrus to the Internet presents and discusses the major reference works and online professional tools for studying literary transmission.

The papyri found in Egypt have yielded fragments large and small of ancient literary authors. We include in this volume from the 5th–4th centuries BCE fragments of two tragedies (one a satyr play by Aeschylus); of five by Sophocles; of ten by Euripides; of one by Ion; and of some plays not assignable. From Old Comedy, 5th century, we have fragments of one play each of Epicharmus, Cratinus, Pherecrates, Eupolis, and Plato; some fragments of Aristophanes; and unassignable fragments. From Middle Comedy and New Comedy, 4th and 3rd centuries, are twenty-six items including at least three by Menander and one each by Philemon, Timocles, and Straton. From mimes there are a fragment of Sophron and six unassignable, including 112 lines of clownish doings by the Indian Ocean. The lyric poetry, 7th century BCE–4th CE, twenty-one mostly anonymous items, includes some of Sappho, Corinna, Pindar, Philicus, fragments of dithyrambic poetry, hymns, songs and so on. There are seventeen examples of elegiac and iambic, 7th century BCE–3rd CE, including some Mimnermus, Amyntas, Leonidas, Antipater of Sidon, and Posidippus. The thirty items of hexameter poetry, 5th century BCE–6th CE are mostly unassignable but include Panyasis, Erinna (a lovely fragment of her 'Distaff'), Euphorion, Pancrates, and Dionysius (the 'Bassarica').

The three-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of Select Papyri also includes volumes of public and private documents.

This volume presents papyri relating to public business of various kinds in Egypt from the middle of the 3rd century BCE to 710 CE, thus including affairs in that country first when it was ruled by the Greek Ptolemaic kings, secondly when it was a Roman province. The earliest examples date from the reign of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus and the latest from the government by the Arabs after their conquest of Egypt in 639–641 CE.

The papyri chosen were all sent by persons in office (from king, Roman emperor, or governor downwards) or addressed to them or sent for their information: Codes and Regulations, 6 examples. Edicts and Orders, 26. Public Announcements, 6. Reports of Meetings, 3. Official Acts and Inquiries, 5. Judicial Business, 18. Petitions and Applications, 44. Declarations to Officials, 30. Appointments and Nominations, 7. Tenders and Contracts, 19. Receipts, 26. Orders for Payment, 6. Accounts and Registers or Lists, 12. Letters, 16. Notes on the systems of dating and of money in Egypt as well as a glossary of technical terms are provided.

The three-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of Select Papyri also includes a volume of poetry and one of private documents.

This is the first of two volumes giving a selection of Greek papyri relating to private and public business. They cover a period from before 300 BCE to the eighth century CE. Most were found in rubbish heaps or remains of ancient houses or in tombs in Egypt. From such papyri we get much information about administration and social and economic conditions in Egypt, and about native Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine law, as well as glimpses of ordinary life.

This volume contains: Agreements, 71 examples; these concern marriage, divorce, adoption, apprenticeship, sales, leases, employment of labourers. Receipts, 10. Wills, 6. Deed of disownment. Personal letters from men and women, young and old, 82. Memoranda, 2. Invitations, 5. Orders for payment, 2. Agenda, 2. Accounts and inventories, 12. Questions of oracles, 3. Christian prayers, 2. A Gnostic charm. Horoscopes, 2.

The three-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of Select Papyri also includes a volume of poetry.