Papyri Lipsienses III + IV: Edition, commentary and translation of unedited papyri and ostraca from the Leipzig Papyrus Collection (Homer, Hesiod, Thucydides et al.)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Oliver Schelske
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554755590

The aim of the project proposed here is to publish all remaining non-edited literary papyri as well as selected non-edited documentary Leipzig papyri and ostraca in two partial publications (working titles: P.Lips. III and P.Lips. IV) and to continue the systematic edition of the Leipzig collection begun in 1906 (P.Lips. I) and resumed in 2002 (P.Lips. II). This means that the edition of all literary papyri in the Leipzig collection will have been completed by the end of this project. The publication of new papyri is always of the highest academic relevance for classical philology and neighbouring disciplines. Previously unknown literary texts expand our knowledge of Greek literature and the contexts in which it was written, which is still incomplete in many places due to the lack of tradition. The Leipzig papyri with their broad spectrum of new texts (e.g. remains of unknown elegies, rhetorical exercises, oracles, a hitherto unique commentary on Hesiod and an ancient lexicon) shed light on the diversity of ancient literature and its role in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. Papyri with literary texts already known from the medieval tradition also provide in-depth insights into the practice of ancient teaching and scholarship and make important contributions to the transmission of ancient cultures of knowledge. In addition to Homer, the papyri in the Leipzig collection include Thucydides and Demosthenes, who are central to an understanding of ancient historiography and rhetoric. Finally, the documentary papyri and ostraca provide a direct insight into ancient economic and social history as well as the further development of the Greek language and give the literary texts, when they are written on the other side, a specific "Sitz im Leben". The Leipzig papyri thus offer new basic texts not only for Classicists, but also for Ancient historians and Egyptologists, for the field of rhetoric, comparative literature, linguistics and religious studies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Almuth Märker