Studi paleografici sul P.Herc. 1232

Abstract

P.Herc. 1232 preserves the first book of the biographical work Περὶ Ἐπικούρου by Philodemus. It is dated to the 1st c. A.D. on the basis of palaeographical evidence and it was written by two different hands. This situation is not common among the Herculaneum papyri. As the studies by Del Mastro have shown, the presence of two or more different handwritings within the same roll can depend on many reasons: sometimes, the presence of a second hand is due to the restoration of the papyrus; in other cases, – as in P.Herc. 1232 –, the two hands act together taking turns. One of the two hands of P.Herc. 1232 is similar to that of Anonymous XXV, a scribe who cooperates with another scribal hand in at least another Herculaneum papyrus (P.Herc. 1669).