Studies on the Derveni Papyrus, volume II

Studies on the Derveni Papyrus, volume II brings together two new editions of the first fragmentarily extant columns of the Derveni Papyrus and seven scholarly articles devoted to their interpretation. The Derveni Papyrus is by far the most important textual discovery of the 20th century regarding early Greek philosophy, religion, exegetical theory and practice, linguistic ideas, and a host of other areas and issues. But the editorial and interpretative history of this extraordinary document has been very checkered. While the interpretation of the better preserved later columns is still highly controversial in many regards, at least the text of those columns has by and large found a scholarly consensus; but the editorial and interpretative situation with the worse preserved first columns is quite different. This volume offers not one but two editions of the first columns, by Richard Janko and by Valeria Piano, given that it is not currently possible to agree upon a single edition; and it explains clearly and in detail the papyrological problems and doubts that lead to these two editions, making it possible for readers (even non-papyrologists) to form their own informed judgment about the most likely readings to be adopted. Furthermore, it contains a number of articles by leading scholars on the Derveni Papyrus, above all offering original solutions to the question of the relation between the earlier and the later columns, but also providing analysis and interpretation of other, related problems.

Glenn W. Most, Professor of Greek Philology, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Glenn W. Most retired in November 2020 as Professor of Greek Philology at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and remains a regular Visiting Professor on the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. He has published books on Classics, on ancient philosophy, on the history and methodology of Classical studies, on comparative literature, cultural studies, and the history of religion, on literary theory and on the history of art, and has published numerous articles, reviews, and translations in these fields and also on such other ones as modern philosophy and literature.

Introduction, Glenn W. Most
I. Two Editions of the First Columns
1. The Derveni Papyrus, Columns 41-7 (formerly I-VII): a proekdosis from Digital Microscopy, Richard Janko
1a. Techniques of reading: ink, fibres, and burning
1b. Diplomatic Transcript and Palaeographical Commentary
1c. Diplomatic Transcript and Palaeographical Commentary
1d. Postscript
2. The Derveni Papyrus, Columns. -2-VII: a Critical Edition from Digital Microscopy, Valeria Piano
2a. Methodology and Criteria of Reconstruction
2b. Methodology and Criteria of Reconstruction
2c. Text, Translation, and Apparatus Criticus
II. Questions of Unity
3. The Cult of the Erinyes, the Villa of the Mysteries, and the Unity of the Derveni Papyrus, Richard Janko
4. The Opening Lemmas, David Sedley
III. Heraclitus and the Derveni Author
5. Cosmic Order, the Erinyes, and the Sun: Heraclitus and Column IV of the Derveni Papyrus, Gábor Betegh-Valeria Piano
6. Heraclitus in the Opening Columns (III-VI) and in Columns XI and XX of the Derveni Papyrus, Vojtech Hladký
IV. Other Aspects of the Papyrus
7. Notes to Derveni Papyrus, Column XXI, Alberto Bernabé
8. Practices of Interpretation in the Derveni Papyrus and the Hippocratic Text On Dreams (Vict. IV, Mirjam E. Kotwick
9. Orphism in Macedonia: The Derveni Papyrus in Context, Angelos Boufalis