papyrus Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture (4 ed.)
... Decoration based on stylized versions of the flowers and leaves of the paper-reed ( Cyperus papyrus ), often found in Ancient-Egyptian architecture, notably on capitals . Stylized representations of papyrus decorations: ( a ) five-branched form indicative of Lower Egypt; ( b ) papyrus-sceptre; ( c ) abstraction of flowering papyrus; ( d ) Egyptian painted papyrus decoration resembling a bell-capital. Stems can vary in...
Papyrus Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... The written scrolls of the ancient Egyptians are called papyri because they were written on papyrus. See also paper...
papyrus Reference library
Garner's Modern English Usage (5 ed.)
... /pa- pī -rәs/ (= [1] a tall sedge native to northern Africa; [2] the pith of this plant made into paper-like writing material; or [3] a manuscript written on this material) overwhelmingly makes the plural papyri /pa- pī -rī/ —not papyruses . Current ratio in print ( papyri vs. papyruses ): 104:1 ...
papyrus ([Sp]) Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (3 ed.)
... [Sp] 1 A type of reed ( Cyperus papyrus ) found around the Mediterranean with a distinct flower, once growing abundantly in the marshy districts of Lower Egypt. 2 [Ma] A cheap and serviceable writing material made from the stems of papyrus reeds split, beaten, and pasted together in two layers at right angles. Papyrus, with an ink‐like liquid, was the main writing medium in widespread use in Egypt from the 5th Dynasty (Old Kingdom) through to early Christian times and was also adopted in the Greek and Roman worlds. It was normally stored in...
Papyrus Reference library
Leslie S. B. MacCoull
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
... , the principal writing material of the ancient world and late antiquity, made from strips of the pith of an Egyptian reed plant ( Cyperus papyrus ). The manufacture and sale of papyrus was a large-scale industry in Egypt throughout its history, until well after the Arab conquest. Papyrus came in all grades and was used for every purpose, official and private, and in every format, from roll to codex . It provided a tough and long-lasting writing surface. Most extant texts, literary and documentary, on papyrus were preserved in Egypt (though not all...
papyrus Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Stout, perennial water plant, native to s Europe, n Africa, and the Middle East, used by the ancient Egyptians to make a paper -like writing material. Strips of the stem were arranged in layers, crushed and hammered to form a loosely textured, porous kind of paper. Height: to 4.5m (15ft). Family Cyperaceae; species Cyperus papyrus...
papyrus Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
... Aquatic plant growing primarily in *Egypt , used to make a *writing -surface material. Papyrus was replaced by *parchment in the 4th-century west but was used for documents in the eastern provinces, Gaul, and *Ravenna during the 6th and 7th centuries, and as an exotic writing material by the *papacy until the 11th century, in Arab-ruled regions until approximately the mid 10th century, and in *Byzantium until c .1100 . See also manuscript book production . Pamela O. Long N. Lewis , Papyrus in Classical Antiquity (1974; rev. edn. 1989)....
Papyrus Reference library
Encyclopedia of Africa
...twenty to thirty feet) in length. The Egyptians wrote on papyrus in regular columns, which in literary prose rarely exceeded 7.6 centimeters (three inches) in width; in poetry the columns were often wider to accommodate the length of the verse. The Greeks seem to have known papyrus as early as the beginning of the fifth century b.c.e ., but the earliest extant Greek papyrus is believed to be the Persae of the poet Timotheus, who lived during the fifth and early fourth century b.c.e . The use of papyrus for literary works continued among the Greeks and the...
Papyrus Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art
...papyrus trade, and caution is necessary when applying to earlier periods the relatively copious evidence from Greco-Roman Egypt. Ancient Egyptian tomb reliefs, illustrating scenes of daily life, show only the gathering of bundles of papyrus stalks. Papyrus was probably manufactured at all periods by numerous small workshops, close to sources of supply. These workshops must always have been most abundant in the Delta and Faiyum, but papyrus may also have been made elsewhere. The cost of papyrus has been much discussed, some writers being more impressed by, for...
papyrus Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Book
... (scientific name Cyperus papyrus ) The principal writing medium used during the classical period ( see 3 ). Described by Theophrastus as a plant growing in shallows to the height of 6ft, papyrus is a rush first used in Egypt to create writing material. The pith of the stem of the papyrus plant, which grew freely in the marshes of the Nile delta, formed the substance from which the writing medium was made. The manufacturing process ( see 10 ), first discovered in Egypt, was widely adopted in the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome, and...
Papyrus Reference library
John Tait
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
... . As a writing material, papyrus was in use in Egypt from at least 3000 bce until as late as the tenth century ce . It was manufactured from the papyrus plant, ( Cyperus papyrus ), which grew along the Nile River. This plant is only one of some six hundred species with the genus Cyperus , which all belong to the far larger family of sedges (Cyperaceae). In antiquity, the papyrus plant was widespread in the Nile Valley, but it was overused and so nearly disappeared from there before modern times; it now flourishes chiefly in eastern and central...
Papyrus Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture
...show only the gathering of bundles of papyrus stalks. Papyrus was probably manufactured during all periods by numerous small workshops, close to sources of supply. These workshops must always have been most abundant in the Delta and Faiyum, but papyrus may also have been made elsewhere. The cost of papyrus has been much discussed, some writers being more impressed by, for example, the vast amounts of new papyrus used by the bureaucracies of the New Kingdom and later, others by the frequent reuse of papyrus scraps and the employment of ostraca as...
papyrus Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (2 ed.)
... The main writing material of the Egyptian and classical world, it was prepared from the stem of the marsh plant of the same name (Latin) found in Egypt and what is now Sudan. Papyrus was used in Egypt from as early as the 3rd millennium bc and was not replaced by parchment until the 4th century ad onwards. It continued to be used in the Papal Chancery, however, until the 10th...
Papyrus Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
...strips, constituting the recto, the inner face of the roll. The papyrus already written on the recto could afterwards be reused on the verso. Much used in Egypt and at Rome in Antiquity, papyrus continued to be used in the West for private documents and acts of chanceries at least up to the mid 7th c. and in the pontifical chancery up to the mid 11th century. The Arabs, after conquering Egypt, ended by forbidding the export of papyrus (ordinance of 692 ): at this time papyrus factories are attested in Sicily , where they were maintained until the...
Papyrus Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East
... . The writing material named after the plant from which it is made, papyrus, was manufactured as early as the first Egyptian dynasty ( c. 3100 bce ). The emergence of writing and the concomitant use of papyrus seem to be outcomes of the imperial bureaucracy. The Egyptians used papyrus until the ninth-eleventh centuries ce —some four thousand years. Papyrus was first exported to Syria no later than the twentieth century bce . It found its way to other societies that had developed writing, such as the Greeks. The majority of extant papyri have been...
papyrus Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Art (3 ed.)
... . A writing material made from the stem of the marsh plant of the same name, growing in antiquity principally in Egypt and now in the Sudan. Its use in Egypt goes back to at least the third millennium bc and it was the standard writing material in ancient Greece and throughout the Roman Empire. From the 4th century ad it was increasingly replaced by parchment...
papyrus Quick reference
A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.)
... A plant which flourished near the delta of the * Nile in * Egypt (Job 8: 11), used for making writing material. The stem was cut into sections, split open, and sliced into strips which were then laid flat and a second layer superimposed crossways before the sheets were pressed together. Sheets could be stuck together to form a roll, or (by the 2nd cent. ce ) a * codex (a book with pages). Documents made of papyri survived well in the dry climate of * Egypt , and fragments of the Greek Bible written in the 2nd cent. ce have been...
papyrus Reference library
Marco Perale
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity
... and papyrology Papyrus is a writing surface derived from the plant Cyperus papyrus , and papyrology the discipline which studies texts preserved on papyrus artefacts. The term ‘papyrus’ conventionally refers to all writing materials constituting the object of study of papyrology, including parchments, potsherds, wooden tablets and labels, leather , metal, bone, or linen. The term papyrology is not primarily applied to inscriptions on stones or coin legends, which constitute the area of research of epigraphy and numismatics. Papyrus, commodity and...
Egerton Papyrus Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
...Papyrus . Two imperfect leaves and a scrap of papyrus in the British Library (‘Egerton Papyrus 2’) containing passages from a Greek writing akin to, but distinct from, the canonical Gospels. It used to be dated c. ad 150 , but is now put nearer...
Charioteer Papyrus Reference library
Nicholas Sparks
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity
...Papyrus Papyrus fragment from a codex, found at Antinoe, written not before ad 450, now in the collection of the Egypt Exploration Society, depicting a group of charioteers, dressed in coloured jackets, representing the circus factions . The style of illustration, typically Egyptian, is similar to the Ambrosian Iliad fragments. There are parts of a few lines of an unidentified text, written in large, rounded capitals. Nicholas Sparks E. G. Turner , ‘The Charioteers from Antinoe’, JHS 93 (1973),...
