In the second edition of this classic work a section of notes was included, and a new chapter was added which dealt with some aspects of scholarship since the Renaissance. For this third edition the authors have responded to the urgent need to take account of the very large number of discoveries in this rapidly advancing field of knowledge by substantially revising or enlarging certain sections.

Thousands of texts, written over a period of three thousand years on papyri and potsherds, in Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, Persian, and other languages, have transformed our knowledge of many aspects of life in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology provides an introduction to the world of these ancient documents and literary texts, ranging from the raw materials of writing to the languages used, from the history of papyrology to its future, and from practical help in reading papyri to frank opinions about the nature of the work of papyrologists. This volume, the first major reference work on papyrology written in English, takes account of the important changes experienced by the discipline within especially the last thirty years. Including new work by twenty-seven international experts and more than one hundred illustrations, The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology will serve as an invaluable guide to the subject.

The Villa of the Papyri is a unique archaeological site and has been very influential in the field of classical studies. The papyri (the only intact library to survive from Graeco-Roman antiquity) and bronze sculptures found in the villa have contributed to our knowledge of the ancient world and the Villa has become for us the 'ideal model' of Roman luxury villa culture. This volume presents contributions on the Villa's architecture, decoration, and content (i.e., wall-paintings, sculptures, and papyri); their reception since the 18th century; the current state of knowledge based on the recent partial excavations in the Villa; the use of digital models of the Villa, and a discussion on the ways in which such models may be used for educational and research purposes.

This book is at once a thorough study of the educational system for the Greeks of Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, and a window to the vast panorama of educational practices in the Greco-Roman world. It describes how people learned, taught, and practiced literate skills, how schools functioned, and what the curriculum comprised. Raffaella Cribiore draws on over 400 papyri, ostraca (sherds of pottery or slices of limestone), and tablets that feature everything from exercises involving letters of the alphabet through rhetorical compositions that represented the work of advanced students. The exceptional wealth of surviving source material renders Egypt an ideal space of reference. The book makes excursions beyond Egypt as well, particularly in the Greek East, by examining the letters of the Antiochene Libanius that are concerned with education. The first part explores the conditions for teaching and learning, and the roles of teachers, parents, and students in education; the second vividly describes the progression from elementary to advanced education. Cribiore examines not only school exercises but also books and commentaries employed in education - an uncharted area of research. This allows the most comprehensive evaluation thus far of the three main stages of a liberal education, from the elementary teacher to the grammarian to the rhetorician. Also addressed, in unprecedented detail, are female education and the role of families in education. "Gymnastics of the Mind" will be an indispensable resource to students and scholars of the ancient world and of the history of education.

Lying now under the sand 300 kilometres south of the coastal metropolis of Alexandria, the town of Oxyrhynchus rose to prominence under Egypt's Hellenistic and Roman rulers. The 1895 British-led excavation revealed little in the way of buildings and other cultural artefacts, but instead yielded a huge random mass of everyday papyri, piled thirty feet deep, including private letters and shopping lists, government circulars, and copies of ancient literature.The surviving bookrolls - the papyrus rolls with literary texts - have provided a great deal of information on ancient books, ancient readers, and ancient reading. Examining only those texts that survive in full form in medieval manuscripts, William Johnson has analysed over 400 bookrolls to understand the production, use, and aesthetics of the ancient book. His close analysis of formal and conventional features of the bookrolls not only provides detailed information on the bookroll industry - manufacture, design, and format - but also, in turn, suggests some intriguing questions and provisional answers about the ways in which the use and function of the bookroll among ancient readers may differ from modern or medieval practice. Meticulously erudite, this work will be of great importance to all papyrologists, classicists, and literary scholars.

Review
"Ancient historians, as well as papyrologists, will find this an extremely useful guidebook for formulating their research." -- Religious Studies Review
"Bagnall does an excellent job of surveying the kinds of work currently being done on papyri..." -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Ancient historians, as well as papyrologists, will find this an extremely useful guidebook for formulating their research
.
–Religious Studies Review
As the third volume in the Routledge series, Approaching the Ancient World, that aims at introducing students to problems and methodologies currently embraced by ancient historians, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History eminently succeeds. In this study, Bagnall lucidly summarizes the nature of Greek papyrological evidence.
–International Journal of the Classical Tradition
Bagnall does an excellent job of surveying the kinds of work currently being done on papyri and suggesting how to improve on these
.
–Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Product Description
The recovery of vast quantities of papyri from the sand of Egypt has been a major new resource for the study of ancient history and literature. This book, written by one of the leading scholars in the field, examines the uses of papyrus in ancient societies, explains in archaeological terms how this evidence has survived and evaluates its uses as an informative source for studying history.

Most of the everyday writing from the ancient world - that is, informal writing not intended for a long life or wide public distribution - has perished. Reinterpreting the silences and blanks of the historical record, leading papyrologist Roger S. Bagnall convincingly argues that ordinary people - from Britain to Egypt to Afghanistan - used writing in their daily lives far more extensively than has been recognized. Marshalling new and little-known evidence, including remarkable graffiti recently discovered in Smyrna, Bagnall presents a fascinating analysis of writing in different segments of society. His book offers a new picture of literacy in the ancient world in which Aramaic rivals Greek and Latin as a great international language, and in which many other local languages develop means of written expression alongside these metropolitan tongues.