Papyri for the Semitic Museum

Some time ago the Egyptian Fund Society unearthed in Egypt many valuable papyri, or scrolls, written in the Graeco-Roman age. One hundred and eighteen of these original manuscripts are soon to be sent to this country to be distributed among certain universities and colleges. Pennsylvania will receive 29; Harvard, 19; Yale, 16; Columbia, 16; Princeton, 13; Hamilton College, 5; Vassar College, 4. No decision has been reached as to the particular manuscripts which each will receive, for the allotment is made difficult by the varying value of the different papyri.

These papyri have been for a long time in the hands of English scholars of Oxford and Cambridge who have studied them thoroughly and have made careful translations. They find among the manuscripts many of Homer's writings, poems by Sappho, some of Emperor Hadrian's letters and a portion of St. John's Gospel. Although this last is not supposed to be the original writing, it is known that it far antedates any of the codices from which the English version is taken.