Punctuation, Iota Adscript, and Nu-movable in Ancient Literary Bookrolls

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Punctuation, Iota Adscript, and Nu-movable in Ancient Literary Bookrolls

William A. Johnson

TRISMEGISTOS ONLINE PUBLICATIONS X

Trismegistos Online Publications
https://www.trismegistos.org/top.php

This publication is a new analysis based on old data, along with the data itself. The
data was gathered in the first instance for my 1992 Yale dissertation during travels
to papyrological collections in the years 1991-1992 (Oxford, the British Library,
Harvard, Yale, the Oriental Institute, and the many small institutions that hold the
distributed Oxyrhynchus papyri). The dissertation was entitled The Literary
Papyrus Roll: Formats and Conventions. An Analysis of the Evidence from
Oxyrhynchus. That close study focused on matters of book format and certain
crucial scribal questions, but placed to one side the analysis of details such as
diacritics, punctuation, or deployment of nu-movable and iota-adscript. I returned to concerted work on literary papyri rolls in the period 1995-1999. This second phase of the project expanded the focus well beyond the Oxyrhynchus texts, and
involved additional travel to papyrological collections, in particular those in Berkeley, Berlin, Vienna, and London. The result was my 2004 monograph, Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus (Toronto University Press). But, again, that volume reserved for future work the analysis of details like diacritics, punctuation, deployment of nu-movable and iota-adscript.