Amherst papyri

The Amherst papyri are a collection of ancient papyri now mostly kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.^[1] They were acquired by John Pierpont Morgan in 1912.^[2] They are named for Lord Amherst of Hackney, who began assembling the collection in the 1860s through purchases from R. T. Lieder and John Lee.^[3] He kept them at Didlington Hall in Norfolk.^[1]

Hieroglyphic papyrus from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525 BC), containing the Book of the Dead, now Amherst Egyptian Papyrus 22.4

The collection includes or included 42 papyri in Egyptian written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script;^[2] 84 in Coptic, of which only 37 were ever catalogued, the rest being described as "very decayed, powdery and worthless";^[2] and 237 mainly in Demotic Egyptian and Greek, but including a few in Coptic, Arabic and Latin.^[4]

List

• Astarte and the Insatiable Sea
• Papyrus 12
• Papyrus Amherst 3a
• Papyrus Amherst 63
• Papyrus Leopold II
• Philinna Papyrus
• Uncial 076

Notes

1. Jellicoe 1993, p. 225.
2. Steiner 2017, p. 17.
3. Steiner 2017, p. 3.
4. They were described as "Demotic and Greek" in a letter from Herbert Eustis Winlock to Morgan. In fact, the 36 of these catalogued by Newberry 1899, pp. 54–56, included Demotic, Greek, Coptic and Arabic. Likewise, Grenfell & Hunt 1901, pp. ix–xii, catalogued 192 that included Greek, Latin, Coptic and Arabic. See Steiner 2017, p. 17.

Bibliography

• Grenfell, Bernard P.; Hunt, Arthur S. (1900). The Amherst Papyri: Being an Account of the Greek Papyri in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, F.S.A. at Didlington Hall, Norfolk. Vol. 1: The Ascension of Isaiah, and Other Theological Fragments. Bernard Quaritch.
• Grenfell, Bernard P.; Hunt, Arthur S. (1901). The Amherst Papyri: Being an Account of the Greek Papyri in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, F.S.A. at Didlington Hall, Norfolk. Vol. 2: Classical Fragments and Documents of the Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine Periods. Bernard Quaritch.
• Jellicoe, Sidney (1993). The Septuagint and Modern Study. Eisenbrauns.
• Newberry, Percy E. (1899). The Amherst Papyri: Being an Account of the Egyptian Papyri in the Collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, F.S.A. at Didlington Hall, Norfolk. Bernard Quaritch.
• Steiner, Richard C. (2017). "Lord Amherst's Demotic Papyri and Lady Amherst's Mummy". Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies Faculty Publications. Yeshiva University.