Some of the terms used by papyrologists can be obscure, and since
many of them are Greek or Latin terms, they can be difficult to
remember. If you are in doubt about the meaning or usage of a particular
term, hopefully you will find it here. This listing is by no means
complete, but covers some of the more common terms which may be
foreign to beginners.
A Beginner's Glossary of Papyrological Terms
- Cartonnage
- Cartonnage is material used for mummy wrappings. Cartonnage
was often made from used papyrus, and the layers of mummy cartonnage
can be separated, allowing the texts on the papyrus to be studied.
- Codex
- A codex is a form of text that resembles a modern book,
consisting of several leaves of parchment or papyrus bound together.
For more, see Ancient Book Forms.
Plural codices.
- Kollesis
- Also known as a "sheet join", a kollesis
is the place where two sheets of papyrus were joined together
when making a roll. For roll-making, see How
Papyrus Was Made. Plural kolleses.
- Ostrakon
- An ostrakon is a pottery fragment (pot-sherd)
used to receive writing. The term is related to the practice of
ostracism, whereby Athenian citizens could vote to exile
a person by casting a ballot with that person's name written on
it. For an example, see Ancient
Writing Materials. Plural ostraka.
- Palimpsest
- A palimpsest is a text which has been reused by washing
off old ink and writing new ink in the same area. An example of
a palimpsest is P.Mich.inv.
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- Papyrus
- The term papyrus may be used to denote either the reed
which grows in marshes along the Nile river, or the writing material
made from the plant. Plural papyri.
- Paragraphos
- A paragraphos is a horizontal line drawn near the
first letter of a line of text. This mark usually indicates a
break in the text, e.g. a new sentence, a change of speaker in
a dramatic text, or a new poem in a collection of poetry.
- Parchment
- Parchment is the writing material made from the hide
of animals (typically sheep and goats). Vellum is the
term used for especially fine material made from the skins of
kids and calves, although the two terms are sometimes used interchangably.
- Recto
- The term recto denotes the 'front' side of a papyrus.
Generally, recto refers to the side of a papyrus roll
which would be written on first, where the papyrus fibers ran
horizontally, parallel to the writing. This can also be thought
of as the side of the papyrus that would be inside when rolled
up. (see also verso)
- Roll
- The common form of a papyrus, a roll generally consists of
several sheets of papyrus pasted together, on which the writing
is in many columns written side by side, with lines running parallel
to the length of the papyrus. For more on rolls, see Ancient
Book Forms.
- Terminus ante quem, terminus
post quem
- These terms are used to give an approximate date for a text.
Terminus post quem is used to indicate earliest point
in time when the text may have been written, while terminus
ante quem signifies the latest date at which a text may have
been written. One common way to assign a terminus post/ante
quem is when a date is given on the opposite side of a recycled
papyrus.
- Transversa charta
- The term transversa charta is used to describe texts
written on a sheet of papyrus that was torn from a roll and written
at a ninety-degree angle to the fibers.
- Vellum
- see parchment.
- Verso
- The term verso denotes the 'back' side of the papyrus.
As opposed to recto, it is the outside of a papyrus roll, where
writing would run perpendicular to the fibers, usually only written
on after the recto had been used (see recto).
Additional Terms
The following list of definitions is taken from William A. Johnson's
work, Bookrolls
and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus.
- Bookhand
- One of the various types of scribal hand commonly used for the
writing of literary texts, characterized by a lack of cursive
letter formations.
- Coronis
- An elaborate marginal sign that marks a major point of division
in the text, such as the end of a work.
- Dicolon
- In a Greek context, dicolon is used to distinguish
a colon with two dots, (:) like the colon in English, from the
single raised dot of the Greek colon.
- Diplê
- In appearance like a right angle bracket (>) the diplê
is used as a marginal signal of varying import, such as to mark
noteworthy lines.
- Diplê obelismenê
- The diplê obelismenê or forked paragraphus
is a horizontal line with a diplê or a fork affixed
at the left ( ). When (as is usual) the horizontal line is positioned
like a paragraphus, the diplê obelismenê
marks divisions in the text more prominent than, or otherwise
to be distinguished from, those marked by a simple paragraphus.
The same sign is also sometimes added to the left of a line, in
function and form like the diplê.
- Dittography
- A scribal error in which a letter, syllable, or word is accidentally
repeated in the text.
- Ductus
- The specific path taken by the pen when the scribe forms a letter
shape.
- Eisthesis
- The line of text is said to be in eisthesis when it
protrudes to the right of the notational left margin (i.e., when
it is 'indented').
- Eschatokollon
- The eschatokollon is the last (blank) sheet in a bookroll.
- Expungement dot
- A dot added above a letter by the scribe as a signal to delete
that letter. Used in lieu of (and sometimes in addition to) a
strike through.
- Haplography
- A common scribal error in which a letter, syllable, or word
is written once instead of twice. Thus, e.g., a copyist may write
corpusque for original corpususque.
- Homeoarchon
- An instance in which nearby words or parts of words have identical
beginnings. The similarity of letter shapes can lead the scribe
to skip over the intervening text or otherwise err in the copying
(see haplography, parablepsy).
- Intercolumn (L. intercolumnium)
- The blank area between the written columns of text in a bookroll
(often but rather improperly called the 'left margin' or 'right
margin').
- Kollêma
- The kollêma is one of the (usually twenty) sheets
of papyrus that are glued together to create a manufactured roll.
Plural kollêmata.
- Kollêsis
- The kollêsis is the glue joint between the sheets
of papyrus (the kollêmata) in a papyrus roll. Plural
kollêses.
- Leading
- The vertical space between lines of text, measured from base
line to base line.
- Opistrograph
- A bookroll where the text is written on both front (recto) and
back (verso). This term does not apply when both sides are written
upon because the papyrus has been reused.
- Parablepsy
- A scribal error in which distraction of the eye causes an omission
in the text. Haplography is a special case of this more general
term.
- Paradosis
- The text as traditionally transmitted. In particular, those
elements of text that the scribe intends faithfully to copy.
- Paregraphus
- A horizontal line placed below a line of text at the left margin
to signal a notational division (such as the end of a period,
or a change of speaker). See also diplê obelismenê.
- Prôtokollon
- The prôtokollon is the first (blank) sheet in
a bookroll.
- Reclamans
- Works with multiple 'books' (i.e., multiple bookrolls) sometimes
contain, at the very end of the book, the first line of the next
book, as a help with the sequential ordering of the bookrolls.
This repeated line is called the reclamans.
- Scriptio continua
- Writing in which the letters are written one after the next
without word spaces (standard practice in ancient Greek literary
texts) is called scriptio or scriptura continua.
- Stichometry
- Scribes sometimes placed a letter of the Ionic alphabet in the
left intercolumn after every 100 stichoi, by way of a
running total. For verse texts, the count equals the number of
lines; for prose texts, the stichos signifies a unit
roughly equivalent to the length of a hexameter line, usually
calculated at 15 or 16 syllables in length. The classic study
of stichometric signs and their significance is Ohly 1928; see
Obbink 1996, 62 n. 1 for more recent work.
- Synkollêma, synkollêsis
- When the user (as opposed to the manufacturer) glues together
rolls or parts of rolls in order to create a longer unit, the
glue join is the synkollêsis (which differs in
a subtle way from the manufactured join). The combined papyrus
roll that results is the synkollêma.
- Trêma
- Also known as diaresis, a trêma is in
appearance a double point above a letter (like an umlaut). In
papyrological texts, this most often marks an iota or upsilon
at the beginning of a word, though it can also (as in modern edited
texts) distinguish a vowel that forms its own syllable.
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