PREFACE

Due to the large size of the Byzantine documents intended for this volume, it was advisable to reserve them for a separate Part (XVI), which will likely be issued in the course of 1922. The present volume therefore, like Parts XI and XIII, consists of literary texts alone. The more extensive of these, including 1787-90, 1792, 1798, 1800, 1805-6, 1808, 1810, belong mainly to the second large literary find of 1905-6. Others originate from the work of different seasons, and a few, of which the most important are 1786 and 1793, were acquired by purchase on the site of Oxyrhynchus by Professor Grenfell during his visit to Egypt in the winter of 1919-20.

That unfortunately remains my colleague's chief contribution to the following pages. A few of the minor texts were originally copied by him, and he was able to revise my copies of a few others. The rest of the work involved in the preparation of this book has fallen to me, a fact which accounts for some delay in its appearance and for many defects in its execution.

I am again indebted to Mr. E. Lobel for much assistance with the new classical texts, and especially the fragments of Lesbian poetry. Valuable suggestions at an early stage were received from Professor Gilbert Murray, and Professor A. E. Housman kindly sent notes on a few passages in the poetical pieces. My thanks are also due to Professor H. Stuart Jones for a transcript in modern form of the musical notation of the early Christian hymn, No. 1786, and to some other scholars for help on special points, which is acknowledged in connection with the texts concerned.

Queen's College, Oxford,
December, 1921.