Cedopal - The Mertens-Pack³ File

The Mertens-Pack³ file

As for the Catalogue of Greek and Latin Literary papyri or Mertens-Pack³ (or in abbreviation MP³), containing 2,369 units in the first edition of 1952, the number of units reached 3,026 in the 1965 edition and today totals some 7,000 numbers in the file on computer. Meanwhile, several of its sections have appeared in various publications, for example :

P. MERTENS, Papyrus et parchemins d'origine égyptienne édités après la dissertation de B. Hausmann, dans B. Hausmann, Demosthenis Fragmenta in Papyris et Membranis Servata, Diss., [Leipzig, 1921] Florence, 1981, pp. 135-145 (Papyrologica Florentina, VIII) ;

P. MERTENS, Vingt années de papyrologie odysséenne, dans Chronique d'Egypte, 60(1985), pp. 191-203 ;

P. MERTENS, Les papyrus littéraires latins d'auteurs classiques durant les deux dernières décennies, dans Miscel.lánia Papyrologica Ramon Roca-Puig, Barcelone, 1987, pp. 189-204 ;

M.-H. MARGANNE - P. MERTENS, Medici et medica, dans Proc. of the XVIII Int. Congress of Pap., Athens 25-31 May 1986, I (Athènes, 1988), pp. 105-146 ; une 2e édition, mise à jour à la date du 15 janvier 1997, est parue dans I. ANDORLINI (a cura di), 'Specimina' per il Corpus dei Papiri Greci di Medicina. Atti dell'Incontro di Studio (Firenze, 28-29 marzo 1996), Florence, 1997, pp. 3-71 ;

J. LENAERTS - P. MERTENS, Les papyrus d'Isocrate, dans Chronique d'Egypte, 64 (1989), pp. 216-230 ;

D. MARCOTTE - P. MERTENS, Les papyrus de Callimaque, dans Miscellanea Papyrologica in occasione del bicentenario dell'edizione della Charta Borgiana, II ( Florence, 1990), pp. 409-427 (Papyrologica Florentina, XIX, 2) ;

O. BOUQUIAUX - P. MERTENS, Les papyrus de Thucydide, dans Chronique d'Egypte, 66 (1991), pp. 198-210 ;

O. BOUQUIAUX - P. MERTENS, Les témoignages papyrologiques d'Euripide : liste sommaire arrêtée au 1.6.1990, dans M. CAPASSO, Papiri letterari greci e latini = Papyrologica Lupiensia, 1 (Lecce, 1992), pp. 95-107 ;

P. MERTENS, Les témoins papyrologiques de Ménandre. Essai de classement rationnel et esquisse d'étude bibliologique, dans Serta Leodiensia secunda, Liège, 1992, pp. 331-356 ;

P. MERTENS - J.A. STRAUS, Les papyrus d'Hérodote,dans Ann. Pisa, ser. III, 22 (1992), pp. 969-978 ;

D. MARCOTTE - P. MERTENS, Catalogue des femmes et grandes Eoées d'Hésiode. Liste, description et bibliographie fondamentale des fragments papyrologiques (= MP3 508-531.2), dans Storia, Poesia e Pensiero nel Mondo Antico. Studi in onore di Marcello Gigante, Bibliopolis, Naples, 1994, pp. 407-423 ;

P. MERTENS, Les papyrus d'Aristophane. Actualisation des données bibliologiques et bibliographiques, dans Hodoi Dizèsios. Le vie della ricerca. Studi in onore di Francesco Adorno, Florence, 1996, pp. 335-343.

It may not be without interest to provide here some brief indications most of which appeared in those parts of the Mertens-Pack3 file that have already been edited.

a) All the numbers in our catalogue, both those in Pack² and those belonging only to MP³, are noted in bold type.

b) The papyri that have not changed their position since 1965 - the vast majority, fortunately - have kept the numbers they had in Pack³.

c) The witnesses that have shown up since Pack² and those that have had to be moved about on the list carry a numbering with one or two decimal digits according to whether they came to our knowledge before or after January 1, 1985 or whether the reasons justifying their change of position appeared before or after that date.

d) The three-figure number inserted between broken brackets and given right at the end of the second or third line of each number corresponds to a code serving to indicate the place of conservation of the said papyrus (see locations list).

e) The line that follows the mention of the edition may contain from one to four types of information, i.e. origin, the date or dates proposed, certain bibliographical information : direction of fibres, anything to be found on the back of the papyrus, format and material (CP = papyrus codex, CM = parchment codex, ostracon, tablet) and, if this is the case, later use as mummy-cartonnage. Save in exceptional cases, the date is always mentioned. If the origin is not shown, this is because it is unknown, and if the bibliological details do not appear, it is because we are dealing with a scroll or a piece of papyrus with writing on the front (->) but nothing on the back.

f) papyrus size is noted in width by height order (width x height). In the case of fragmented texts, we give, in principle, the measurements of the fragment with the largest surface.

g) To satisfy paleographs, we have endeavoured to refer back to at least one photographic reproduction of the witness. If no complete and easily accessible printed photograph exists, the "Photographie à Liège" indication means that this latter can be consulted in the CEDOPAL archives or be reproduced there for private use.

h) Most of the abbreviations used in the bibliography are in common use in classical philology and papyrology. Names of authors or titles used in isolation will appear in our "general" and "particular" bibliographies. A few signs marking authors, works or reviews may, however, be problematic and are put together in the abbreviation list.