PAPYRI. Rolls made of the paper of the papyrus plant are commonly known as papyri, corresponding to the Greek biblia. These rolls are of a very remote antiquity, some of the still remaining-Egyptian papyri being certainly as old as the sixth dynasty, and.pthers as old as the twelfth, or from about 2,000 B.C. This is owing to their mode of preservation, and to the peculiarly dry character of Egypt. These rolls have been found deposited in different ways, those of a religious nature being placed upon the bodies of mummies, at the feet, arms, or even in the hands, sometimes, indeed, packed_ or laid between the bandages, or even spread over the whole bandages, like a shroud. At the time of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties (1320-1200 n.c.), they were often deposited in hollow wooden figures of the god Ptah Socharis Osiris, or of the god Osiris, which were placed near the mummies. Papyri of a civil nature were deposited in jars or boxes, which were placed tear the mummies, or have been found in the remains of ancient libraries. The following are the principal kinds of Egyptian papyri: I. Hiero glyphical papyri, always accompanied by pictures or vignettes, and consisting classes: 1. Solar litanies or texts, and pictures relating to and describing the sun's pas sage through the hours of the night, when that luminary was supposed to enter the Egyptian hides or hell. 2. Books of the empyreal gate, or heaven, with vignettes of deities, and other representations referring to the genesis of the cosmos or universe. 3.. The so-called ritual, consisting of a series of sacred or hermetic books, some of a very remote antiquity, accompanied with rubrical titles and directions as to their efficacy and employment, and comprising various formulas ordered to be placed on the coffins, amu lets, and other furniture of the dead, for the better preservation of the souls of the dead and of the mummies in the future state. In this book, chapters giving an account of the future judgment, of the malchenu, or boat of the dead, of the Elysian Fields, and of the halls through which the dead had to pass are also found. The work was considered the Egyptians themselves mystic, and parts were supposed to be written by the god '1 both himself. A copy more or less complete, according to the wealth of the deceased, was deposited with all the principal mummies; and from the blank spaces left for the name, which were afterwards filled up, it is evident that they were kept ready made.— II. Hieratic papri, written in the hieratic or cursive Egyptian hand, comprising a more extensive literature than the hieroglyphic papyri. This handwriting being used for civil as well as religious purposes, the papyri found in it differ considerably from one another, and comprise rituals of the class already mentioned, principally in use about the 26th dynasty, or the 6th c. n.c., but found also on some few papyri of a remote period; a book called the Lamentations of Isis; magical papyri, containing directions for the preparation of charms and amulets, and the adjuration of deities for their protection; civil documents, consisting of the examination of persons charged with criminal offenses, the most remarkable of which are that of an offender charged with the practice of magic in the 19th dynasty, another of a criminal charged with various crimes, in the reign of Sethos I., the examination of a conspiracy in the palace of Rameses II., and the proces rerbal of an offender charged with violating the sepulchers of the kings in the reign of Rameses IX. Besides these, there are several letters of various scribes upon subjects
connected with the administration of the country and private affairs; laudatory poems of Egyptian monarchs, one describing the campaign of Rameses II. against the Khita or Hittites; historical documents, the journeys in foreign parts; the endowment of temples by Rameses III.; works of fiction, one of the adventures of two brothers, the death of the younger, owing to the false accusation of the wife of the elder, his revival, and transformation into a bull and a Persea tree; another, the story of a doomed prince, and the adventures of different persons. Works on plants and medical subjects, books of proverbs, lists of kings, historical accounts, are amongst these documents.—III. The last class of Egyptian papyri, those written in the demotic or enchorial character, consist of rituals, contracts for the sale of mummies and lands, accounts and letters, and mis cellaneous documents. These papyri are often bilingual, sometimes acconanied with hieratic or Greek versions. of these papyri have been translated by de Rouge. Chabas, Heath, Goodwin, Birch, and others. Many Greek papyri have been found belonging to the archives of the Serapeion, referring to the administration of that temple, the•orations of Hypereides, and some of the books of Homer. At all times in the history of Egypt, libraries of papyri seem to have existed, and, under the Ptolemies, are said to have contained as many as 700,000 rolls.
Another class of ancient papyri, those of Pompeii and Herculaneum, are of con siderable interest, as showing the condition and arrangement of a Roman library. The papyri of Herculaneum are from 8+ to 12/ in. wide, and are rolled up in a cylindrical roll, w/umen, upon a stick or inner roll, bacillus, 'umbilicus, having a stud at the end, rornu. They had their titles written on a strip, locum, in red letters, and the writing was either on blind lines, or else on lines ruled with lead. About 1800 papyri were dis covered at Herculaneum in 1753, in the library of a small house, charred to a cinder, and some of these, by the greatest skill and care, have been unrolled by a verylaborious process at Naples. Unfortunately, they have not .answered the literary expectations formed of them, consisting of the works of philosophers of the Epicurean school, which the proprietor of the library seems to have collected. Some of the papyri were in Latin, and more difficult to unroll. Many of them have been published. They are only written on one side. When a small number were required, they were placed in a cylin drical bronze chest (vista), packed tightly in a perpendicular position, and were taken out single, and read by unrolling from one end. These papyri were of various prices; old -ones, like old books, being of immense value, but those containing the works of con temporary authors were not dearer, perhaps, than modern books. extensive pri vate and public libraries, existed in Greece and Rome, but all have perished except those exhumed from Herculaneum.
Wilkinson, Man. and Cast. iii. 62, 147, 188, v. 482; Winekelmann, ii. Bd. i. 1; Cita has, Pap. d' Harris (Chalon, 1860); Papyrus Hieratiques (Svo, Chalon, 1863); Voyage :cruet Egyptien (1866); Pleyte, Papyrus de Turin Cambridge Essays (1858), p. 227; De Rouge, Bev. Contemp. xxvii. p. 3S9; Devena, Papyrus Judicione de Turin (1868); Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch. (1874).