Plato, Phaedo: Late first century / early second century AD

On the left, a careful copy of Plato’s dialogue Phaedo written in a tiny rounded informal capital very similar (if not identical, as E. Lobel and E. G. Turner optimistically claimed) to that in the Sappho text (P.Oxy. 2076: shown on the right of this image). The scribe marked change of speaker with the placement of a thin line (paragraphos) underneath the beginning of the line in which the change occurs, and also added accents, a few breathings, some punctuation, and critical marks in the margin. The textual tradition followed by the papyrus is interesting and in keeping with modern editions but eclectic as regards the mediaeval mss. In the upper margin a scholarly annotation has been penned by a smaller and more cursive hand.

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol. XV no. 1809

Scribes and Scholars