the half-life of papyrus book rolls = around 125 years?

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Peter Kirby
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the half-life of papyrus book rolls = around 125 years?

Post by Peter Kirby »

http://thetextualmechanic.blogspot.gr/2 ... fe-of.html
I recently finished reading through George Houston's, Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity, and was struck by the wonderful insights that Houston discovered in his detailed study of Roman libraries. In many ways these insights illuminate the world of Christian book collections and manuscripts as much as they do Roman libraries.
This is especially true of Houston's observations on the useful life of papyrus book rolls. In the conclusion to Inside Roman Libraries, Houston wrote;
The identification of such collections, and of the manuscripts within them, provides new evidence on an old question: how long did a papyrus roll last? The evidence from our collections indicates that a usable lifetime of about 100 to 125 years was common and can reasonably be considered the norm; a small but significant number of manuscripts were still usable some 300 years after they were first created; and on rare occasions a manuscript might last, it seems, for half a millennium. (p. 257)
Houston's observations are helpful in understanding some of the references made by various Church fathers to ancient manuscripts consulted during their studies.
I wonder if the codex might have been more durable, and particularly the vellum codex, made from animal skins (as might be suggested from the long life of some particular ancient vellum codices that are quite famous).
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DCHindley
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Re: the half-life of papyrus book rolls = around 125 years?

Post by DCHindley »

Peter Kirby wrote:I wonder if the codex might have been more durable [than a roll?], and particularly the vellum codex, made from animal skins (as might be suggested from the long life of some particular ancient vellum codices that are quite famous).
WRT rolls, I would think that the repeated physical act of unrolling and rerolling as it is read would exert stress on papyrus that would, in time, destroy its structural integrity. I mean, it is essentially strips of papyrus reed laid horizontally that have been glued to other strips laid over them vertically. It is not woven from flax fibers like linen or even wood/cotton fibers used to make paper, which form a lattice. Temperature and humidity would also play a factor. But all things being equal, a roll used repeatedly on a regular basis, such as a liturgical text, would begin to fail far earlier than one which is only read occasionally, on a whim by the library owner. Vellum or leather should be much stronger than plant fiber. It would probably also be significantly affected by temperature and humidity. I suppose, though, that even when unrolled and rolled on a regular basis a vellum/leather roll would hold up by a factor several times that of a papyrus roll.

I would think that the stress exerted by turning the pages of a codex would not be quite as damaging as the stress exerted by unrolling and rolling. There would still be the same issues affecting papyrus and vellum/leather codices as with a roll. However, I think that all things being equal a vellum codex should outlast a vellum roll. Just my 2 centavos.

DCH
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