Images courtesty of University of California, The Bancroft Library.
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To President B.I. Wheeler1
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your letter
and the enclosure. The title page shall be
made to conform with the plan of the
Editorial Committee.2 I would venture to
suggest that 'Series I' , no. 1.'wo3 would be
more suitable than 'Vol. 1, no 1', for there
will4 at least two more parts, each
of which will be a 'volume'. But
without authorisation from you I dont
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propose to make any alteration in the
form of title-page desired by the Committee.
We have been working hard for five
months now at the Tebtunis papyri.
The first part will consist entirely of
late Ptolemaic texts (B.C. 130-80)
from the crocodile mummies. Many of these
are extremely large and well preserved
and of immense importance for the
internal history of Egypt during that
period. In particular I may mention a
series of 46 decrees5 on a great variety
of subjects issued by Euergetes II6 near
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the end [o]f his reign.7 Among the literary fragments
are pieces of several anthologies, including
part of a chorus from a lost tragedy on the mentioning
Iphigenia.8 About 2/5 of the book is now
in type and we expect to finish writing
the rest by the end of the year when we
leave for a three months visit to Egypt
(address Jan.-March. P.O. Cairo.). The printing
will be continued during our absence and
we anticipate issuing the volume in May
1902.9 The suggested size, 500 pages,10 suits
us very well, for that, or a little more, was
just what we had ourselves arranged.
As you have no doubt heard, out of the whole edition
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of 1250 copies of the first Part 750 are
going to be taken up by the Egypt Exploration
Fund. They wish to have ^ in their copies on the binding at the
bottom 'Egypt Exploration Fund, Graeco-Roman
Branch', so as to be uniform with our other
volumes, e.g. the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Do you
wish for a corresponding mention of the
University of California ^ on the binding onf the other 500 copies?
If so, would you kindly let me know your
views? There is hardly room on the binding
for all that you wish put at the top of
the title-page.
Tebtunis Part II, containing the papyri of
the Roman period with an account of the excavations,
miscellaneous antiquities etc, we hope to
issue in 1903 or 4.11
With kind remembrances from Mr. Hunt and myself
to Prof. Gayley,12 I am yours faithfully
Bernard P. Grenfell.
2. Presumably at the University of California.
3. He seems to have written "'Series I' wo" (the beginning of would) first, then to have canceled "' wo", inserting ", no. 1'.".
4. "be" was omitted in original.
5. Published as P.Tebt. I 5.
6. Also known as Ptolemy VIII.
7. He died in 116. The dates mentioned in the decrees correspond to 121-120 and 120-119.
8. A misinterpretation, doubtless made before Friedrich Blass had weighed in, of ll. 1-4 of P.Tebt. I 1.
9. It would come out in August.
10. In the event there would be 603 pages plus indexes.
11. It would come out in 1907, without an extensive account of the excavations, nor would any (non-papyrological) objects be published. There would be a long appendix on "The Topography of the Arsinoite Nome."