In the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of texts and objects came from Egypt to Europe. Among the English cities inundated with this flow of material, Manchester played a role that has not been always recognized and investigated as it deserves. Mentioning papyri alone, the Rylands is the third best collection in the United Kingdom in terms of quality and quantity (after those in Oxford and London). The history of the Rylands collection is closely related on the one hand to the rest of the manuscripts kept at the John Rylands Library, and on the other hand to the Egyptian collections of artefacts in the Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery. Although I am aware of the connections between these collections, this paper will focus on the Rylands Greek, Roman and Byzantine papyri from Egypt and their history, giving new information on the acquisition of manuscripts following the conspicuous and already well-studied purchase of the Earl of Crawford’s library by Enriqueta Augustina Tennant Rylands in 1901¹.

As is widely known, the John Rylands Library as a whole is the creation of Enriqueta Rylands, third wife and heiress of the textile magnate John². Following the passion of her husband for books, after his death Enriqueta was able to transform their private library into a public one through a series of acquisitions and the investment of money in the construction of the library building itself. John Rylands (1801-1888) was a merchant and manufacturer of Manchester who developed a deep interest in biblical studies and public education³. As a partner in his father’s firm, Rylands and Sons, in the years 1830-1860 he transformed it into the largest cotton manufacturer in the United Kingdom. Enriqueta Augustina Tennant moved in the same social circles, being the descendant of a family with mercantile interests in Cuba and Florida, and she shared his values and interests. John had a personal library of almost 2000 volumes ; his passion for books is attested by the sponsoring of mill libraries at Ainsworth in 1839 and Gorton in 1845, as well as public libraries in Stretford (1883) and Haven Street (1886).

When her husband died in 1888, Enriqueta inherited his fortune and decided to celebrate their common interest in public education, especially biblical, by founding an immense Nonconformist library of theology for the North of England. For this purpose she purchased some land in a slum in the District of Manchester, on Deansgate. The enterprise began to take off when the private libraries of the aristocracy started going on the market as a result of the agricultural depression of 1873-1896. The first big purchase of Enriqueta Rylands was the library of Lord Spencer in 1892. Ms Rylands hired Gordon Duff, a famous librarian and bibliophile, to take care of the volumes and publish a catalogue. Duff is an important figure in the history of the John Rylands Library, because he insisted on transforming it from a theological collection into a broader one. However, his relationship with Ms Rylands on the one hand and Manchester’s cultural environment on the other was not always easy⁴. In 1899 a joint librarian, Henry Guppy, was hired ; he continued alone after Duff resigned in October 1900. The inauguration of the John Rylands Library took place on 6 October 1899, the day of the Rylands’ marriage anniversary. Enriqueta was the first woman to be admitted to the Freedom of the City of Manchester, and the library was opened to the public from the beginning of the following year.

The Spencer collection had not contained ancient manuscripts ; it was in 1901, with the purchase of Lord Crawford’s library, that the nucleus of one of the most important manuscript collections of the world took shape. Commenting on the purchase, the former librarian Duff wrote in a letter to J.P. Edmond, Lord Crawford’s librarian : « I cannot understand why they (i.e. the manuscripts) were bought for Manchester, the one place where they will be most useless, and where there will be no one to look after them. »⁵

This assertion brings us to the intriguing relationship between the library and the surrounding environment. A city of recently acquired wealth, Manchester – renamed Cottonopolis for her important role in that business – certainly did not have a tradition of culture and education comparable to that of Cambridge, Oxford or even London. In 1824 the Mechanics’ Institute, first nucleus of the University of Manchester, was founded. It was a scientific and technological institution, connected with the industrial character of the city. However, in 1851 Owens College was established, and Greek and Latin were two of the first Chairs to which appointments were made ; other disciplines close to Classics and Oriental Studies were added in the second half of the century.

In the same period, another Manchester magnate, Jesse Haworth, sponsored Flinders Petrie’s excavations ; the Manchester Museum acquired an important Egyptian collection, now shared with the Whitworth Gallery, where Egyptian textiles mainly collected by Petrie are now preserved⁶. The cultural profile of the city experienced a dramatic change in those years, and Ms Rylands hired the best scholars in the country to catalogue and study the manuscripts.

The study of the Greek and Latin manuscripts started immediately after the Crawford Library purchase, and produced four catalogue volumes published in 1911, 1915, 1938 and 1952. In the preface to the fourth, Roberts stated that it included « all the Greek and Latin papyri at present in the possession of the Library which have not previously been published in the catalogue and thus concludes the undertaking begun by A.S. Hunt in 1911 ». But in 1962, after a reorganization of the manuscripts collection, it emerged that there were more Greek papyri – in fact about 1300 pieces of different sizes and importance, including a few fakes, and also a few texts in other languages⁷. Roberts examined the papyri and confirmed the presence of valuable pieces ; successively P.J. Parsons and E.A.E. Reymond conducted some preliminary work on them⁸. In 1968 Robert Kraft and Angeliki Tripolitis published an article with a brief description of the material and editions of some texts⁹. A few years later Alan Bowman, at that time a member of the Department of History at Manchester, was asked to catalogue the additional papyri. He and David Thomas started a project, which was interrupted when Bowman moved to Oxford and then the Vindolanda tablets were found¹⁰.

Research in the Library’s archives has recently given us access to documents that provide new and interesting insights into the history of the papyrus purchases. Although it remains true that the majority of the Greek papyri had been purchased by Hunt on behalf of Lord Crawford or Ms Rylands, we know that other acquisitions took place. The history of these acquisitions is important because it can link this material to that in other collections ; moreover, it reveals fascinating details on the history of papyrology and the culture of an epoch. I will concentrate here on a purchase of Greek papyri made in 1912, briefly mentioned in the introduction of P. Meyer I (ed. 1916 ; see more below) and in A. Deissmann’s second edition of Licht vom Osten¹¹. Some letters exchanges between the same Deissmann, James H. Moulton and Henry Guppy, and an entry dated 4 September 1912 in the Library’s accession register of that year, give new details on the acquisition¹². I am presenting here the texts of the letters in chronological order to facilitate the understanding of the sequence.

1) Letter of A. Deissmann to J. Moulton¹³ :

Professor Dr. Adolf Deissmann Berlin-Wilmesdorf, Prinzregentenstrasse 7, II 8/7/1912 Lieber Freund! Sie erinnern sich, dass ich neulich von einer kleinen, aber ungewöhnlich wertvollen Sammlung von griechischen Papyri erzählt habe, die ein mir bekannter Herr in diesem Frühling aus Ägypten mitgebracht hat. Vielleicht interessiert es Sie und Mr. Guppy, näheres zu hören. Ich bitte nur, die Sache ganz vertraulich zu behandeln. Die jezt hier in Berlin auf einer Bank deponierten Stücke sind 1., circa 30 Blättern von der ptolemaischen bis zur byzantinischen Zeit, Briefe, Rechtsurkunden etc. des verschiedensten Inhaltes, dabei einige recht interessante Sachen. Die Juwelen der Sammlung aber sind : 2., 5 Original-Libelli, gut erhalten, aus der Christenverfolgung des Kaisers Decius 250 n.Chr. Das ist gewiss ein ganz seltener Fall ; so viel ich weiss, sind in England (und Amerika) nur 2 Libelli vorhanden. 3., 1 Papyrus der Kaiserzeit (Urkunde) mit den roten Charagma-Stempel, von dem ich glaube, dass er nicht bloss für Apok. Joh. 13, 16f., sondern auch für die Geschichte des Druckes von hohem Interesse ist. Die Sammlung ist verkäuflich, der Preis beträgt 185 Pfund Sterling, das sind ungefähr die Selbstkosten, die der Käufer in Aegypten gehebt hat. Falls die John Rylands Library sich dafür interessiert, könnte ich veranlassen, dass die Sachen zur Ansichtnach Manchester gesandt würden. Ich bin von nächstem Freitag ab in Wünsdorf (Kreis Telton) bei Berlin. Mit herzlichen Grüssen und nochmaligen Dank für alle Ihre Freundschaft. Ihr Treuer Adolf Deissmann

Dear Friend, You remember that I have recently told you about a small, but absolutely valuable, collection of Greek papyri that a person I know well has brought from Egypt last spring. Maybe you and Mr. Guppy are interested to know more details about it. I only beg you to keep the information confidential. The pieces, already deposited here into a Berlin’s bank, can be described as follows : 1., about thirty sheets from the Ptolemaic to the Byzantine period, letters, documents, etc. of various content, among them some rather interesting things. But the jewels of the collection are : 2., 5 original libelli, well preserved, from the Christian persecution of the emperor Decius in AD 250. This surely is a very rare opportunity ; to the best of my knowledge there are only 2 libelli available in England (and America). 3., 1 papyrus of the imperial period (document) with the red charagma-stamp, that I think is of great interest not only for Rev 13, 16s., but also for the history of printing. The collection is on the market, and the price is £ 185 sterling, which is more or less the original cost paid by the purchaser in Egypt. In case the John Rylands Library were interested, I could arrange that the pieces be sent to Manchester. From next Friday I will be in Wünsdorf (Kreis Telton), nearby Berlin. With my best greetings and again many thanks for your friendship. Faithfully yours, Adolf Deissmann

2) Letter of J.H. Moulton to H. Guppy¹⁴ :

Didsbury College Manchester

10/7/1912

Dear Mr. Guppy,

I am in the middle of the July Comm<itments>, and have barely had time to read Deissmann’s letter : just able to see that you ought to look at it at once and make up your mind. Can you let me have the letter back when you have done with it ? I can’t give any mind to the question whether we ought to get it : Deissmann seems to regard it as a real catch, and you couldn’t get a better authority. I shall be eager to hear what you think. But it’s really no use trying to write a letter under these conditions.

Yours ever

James Hope Moulton

3) Letter of J.H. Moulton to H. Guppy¹⁵ :

Didsbury College Manchester

12/7/1912

Dear Mr Guppy,

It would be better wouldn’t it ? if you wrote, in a matter where you are so much concerned – I am only one Governor, and you are The Boss ! Of course I shall answer the letter, but I should think the official acceptance of this fine offer had better come from you. You remember his address – Berlin Wilmersdorf Prinzregentenstr<asse> 7 II. He is in the country now, but I don’t quite make out the address Wünsdorf (Kreis Telton) bei Berlin. It would be quicker to catch him there if it is accurate and full enough.

Yours ever

JHM

4) Letter of A. Deissmann to H. Guppy¹⁶ :

26/8/1912 Mein lieber Mr. Guppy, Entschuldigen Sie bitte, dass ich erst heute antworte. Ich bin selbstverständlich damit einverstanden, dass sie den Check erst Ende September ausstellen oder auch später, ganz wie es der Bibliothek am besten passt. Die Papyri liegen zur Zeit im Tresor einer Berliner Bank. Ich schreibe gleichzeitig an Moulton wegen der Publikation. Von Anfang September ab werde ich wieder in Berlin Wilmersdorf Prinzregentenstrasse 7/2 sein. Mit den besten Empfehlungen und in angenehmer Erinnerung an die Tage von Manchester. Ihr Ergebenster Adolf Deissmann

My dear Mr. Guppy, Please forgive that I am replying only today. Of course I agree that you will not make out the check until the end of September or even later, however the library will find it convenient. The papyri are at the moment in the vault of a bank in Berlin. I am writing at the same time to Moulton about the publication. From the beginning of September onwards I will be back in Berlin, Wilmersdorf Prinzregentenstrasse 7/2. With my best regards, remembering with pleasure the days spent in Manchester17. Respectfully yours, Adolf Deissmann

5) Letter of A. Deissmann to J.H. Moulton¹⁸ :

Wünsdorf Kreis Telton, Haus Anatolia, 26/8/1912 Mein lieber Moulton, Mehere Wochen habe ich so ganz wie nicht geschrieben, meine Hände sind hart von Gartenarbeit und Holzspalten, meine Augen voll Sägemehl und die Tinte ist fast vertrocknet. Bitte entschuldigen Sie daher, dass ich erst heute anworte. Ich würde Ihr Anerbieten, die Papyri selbst zu publizieren, sehr gern annehmen, aber ich kann es nicht, weil ich keine Zeit habe. Ich hatte aber Gelegenheit, mit Prof. Dr. Paul M. Meyer zu sprechen, dem Herausgeber der Giessener und Hamburger Papyri, und glaube, dass er eventuell bereit wäre, die Texte für The John Rylands Library zu publizieren. Aber Sie sind in keiner Weise verpflichtet, auf diesen Vorschlag einzugehen. Sie haben völlig freie Hand. Nur möchte ich bitten, dass Prof. Meyer, der sich schon vor Monaten mit den Blättern beschäftigt hat, die neuen Libelli in seiner nächsten Publikation der Hamburger Papyri vorläufig erwähnen darf, ähnlich wie er auch in seinem Libelli-Buch den Manchester-Libellus S. 34 erwähnt hat. Sollten die Governors einen anderen Herausgeber wünschen, so würde ich die Papyri im Sept. nach Manchester senden ; anderenfalls könnten sie vielleicht in Berlin bleiben ? Meyer könnte, glaube ich, bis Ende 1913 das druckfertige Manuskript einsenden. Ende nächster Woche bin ich wohl wieder in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Mit herzlichsten Grüssen an Sie alle Ihr Treuer Adolf Deissmann

My dear Moulton, It has been several weeks I have not written, as my hands are stiff for the gardening and the cutting of woods, my eyes full of sawdust and my complexion all withered. Please excuse me for answering only today. I am honoured by your suggestion to publish the papyri myself ; unfortunately I will not be able to, because of lack of time. I talked with Prof. Paul M. Meyer, the editor of the Giessen and Hamburg papyri, and I think that he would be willing to publish the texts for the John Rylands Library. But you should not feel obliged in any way to accept this suggestion. You are totally free. Only one kind request on behalf of Prof. Meyer, who already spent time on the papyri : can he mention the new libelli in his forthcoming publication of the Hamburg papyri, as he already did in his book on the libelli that quotes the Manchester libellus on p. 34 ? If the governors would prefer another editor, I would send the papyri to Manchester in September ; otherwise can you possibly come to Berlin ? I think Meyer would be able to send a complete copy of the manuscript by the end of 1913. Next week I will be back in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. With my best wishes to you all Faithfully yours, Adolf Deissmann

6) Letter of J.H. Moulton to H. Guppy¹⁹ :

Didsbury College Manchester

30/8/12

Dear Mr. Guppy,

I have just got back from Patterdale and find this letter from Deissmann. I strongly advise accepting his suggestion – P.-M. Meyer is very experienced. Would you kindly return the enclosed and say whether I may reply with yes ? In great haste – I hope you are splendidly better for your holidays, in spite of an alarmingly accelerated precession of the equinoxes having dragged Aquarius into August.

Yours ever,

James Hope Moulton

7) Post card of J.H. Moulton to H. Guppy²⁰ :

From Rev. Prof. James Hope Moulton

Didsbury College Manchester

12/9/1912

Dear Mr Guppy,

Thanks very much. I am writing to A. Deissmann who will quite understand. Peake sent the books to you as the most convenient way for me to pick them up. I hope to be coming in a day or two.

Yours ever sincerely

James Hope Moulton

8) Letter of A. Deissmann to H. Guppy²¹ :

14/9/1912 Lieber Mr Guppy, Unser Freund Moulton schreibt mir soeben, dass Dr. Hunt sich der neuen Papyri annehmen werde. Das ist sehr erfreulich. Meine Anregung (Meyer betr<effend>) bezog sich bloss auf den Fall, dass kein anderer Herausgeber sich finden werde. Darf ich mir noch eine Frage gestatten ? Darf Professor Meyer die Libelli gelegentlich ganz kurz erwähnen, ähnlich so wie er auch in seinem früheren Buche über die Libelli S. 34 den Manchester Libellus mit Erlaubnis von Dr. Hunt kurz erwähnen durfte ? Bitte teilen Sie mir auch gütigst mit, wann ich die Blätter absenden soll ; ich kann es jeder Zeit tun. Mit den besten Grüssen Ihr Adolf Deissmann

Dear Mr Guppy, Our friend Moulton has just written to me that Dr Hunt will take care of the new papyri. This is very satisfying. My suggestion (concerning Meyer) only applied in the case that no other editor was to be found. May I ask one more question ? May Professor Meyer mention the libelli in passing and very briefly, in the same way as he already mentioned the Manchester libellus in his previous book about the libelli at p. 34 with the permission of Dr. Hunt ? Kindly let me know when I should send the sheets ; I can do it at any time. With best wishes, Yours, Adolf Deissman

9) Letter of J.H. Moulton to H. Guppy²² :

Didsbury College Manchester

19/9/12

Dear Mr Guppy,

I have found Deissmann’s letter. He says the price is £ 185 sterling, so that your recollection is quite right.

Yours ever sincerely

James Hope Moulton

My student secretary has overlooked some words of mine, and I will take the opportunity of giving the German : « Die Sammlung ist verkäuflich ; der Preis verträgt 185 Pfund Sterling, das sind ungefähr die Selbstkosten, die der Käufer in Aegypten gehabt hat. »²³

The relationship between Deissmann and Moulton is well known²⁴. James Hope Moulton was first at Cambridge and then in Manchester where he taught New Testament at Didsbury College, and had been Greenwood Professor of Hellenistic Greek and Indo-European Philology at the University since 1908. In 1915, after his wife’s death, he embarked on a long trip to India, connected with his interest in Zoroastrianism, and then died sailing back from Port Said in the company of Rendell Harris in 1917²⁵. Gustav Adolf Deissmann, philologist and theologian, Professor of New Testament first in Heidelberg (1897-1908) then in Berlin (1908-1935), was the leading theorist of the Hellenistic Greek koine²⁶. While New Testament Greek had been generally considered as a special, separate language, Deissmann understood that it was more probably a language reflecting the everyday Greek spoken by the educated people of the Mediterranean, an opinion shared by Moulton²⁷. Their common interest in and common views on New Testament Greek gave birth to an intense intellectual relationship and friendship. Moulton surely was among the promoters of the honorary doctorate that Deissmann received in Manchester in June 1912²⁸.

According to his own autobiography, Deissmann’s interest in papyri started when he chanced on a volume of the BGU while still a young academic in Marburg²⁹. It never ended ; on the contrary his appointments in Heidelberg and Berlin only served to increase it further. In fact he was among the supporters of the big purchase of ancient manuscripts made by the University of Heidelberg in 1897, and published some papyri and ostraca from the collection³⁰. Deissmann briefly recalls his role in the purchase of papyri and ostraca for the collections in Heidelberg, Manchester and Berlin in his afore-mentioned autobiography of 1925, and he personally owned a collection of ostraca³¹.

We know that Deissmann visited Egypt during his second tour in the East in 1908. One of his companions was the Coptologist and Egyptologist Carl Schmidt, who was in close contact with some dealers in Cairo and elsewhere, and we may identify with him the « dear friend » mentioned in the first letter³². In fact, in the introduction of P. Meyer I (ed. 1916), Paul Meyer explains that out of the 45 papyri belonging to the New Testament Seminar of the University of Berlin that he was publishing, three were acquired in 1914, while the rest had been bought in the summer of 1912 by Carl Schmidt as a part of a collection, the major part of which went to the John Rylands Library. The dealer involved was Schech Aly Abdelhay el Gabri, based in Gizeh, and Meyer supposed the manuscripts came from the Fayum. The first of Deissmann’s letter clarifies some details. The papyri bought by the John Rylands Library numbered around 36, dating from the Ptolemaic to the Byzantine period ; the texts highlighted by Deissmann are five libelli and a Roman document with the official red stamp. The five certificates of sacrifice are easily identified as P.Ryl. II 112 (three texts fully published and two described)³³. These papyri are part of a well-known dossier of libelli from Theadelphia now scattered in different collections³⁴. Less easy to identify is the other papyrus, since in the Manchester collection there are various examples of Roman documents with a red stamp. P.Ryl. II 174 (written in Ptolemais Euergetis, AD 112) is a plausible candidate, since the stamp bears also the remains of an image of the emperor.

As already mentioned, Hunt was in charge of the second volume of the Catalogue, which came out in 1915 with the assistance of Johnson and Martin. In the Preface (p. I), he states that the edition was delayed because the work increased, « owing partly to the incorporation of fresh texts, partly to the desirability of dealing at length with certain problems which arose during the course of our investigations. » We can reasonably assume that the fresh texts are those acquired through Deissmann’s mediation.

I am currently working on other archival files relating to the acquisitions of the Rylands papyri. These documents and the Catalogues inform us that at least four acquisitions took place after those resulting from or connected with the Earl of Crawford’s collection :

– September 1912 : purchase of about 36 pieces from Deissmann & Schmidt, analysed above.

– June 1913 : purchase of six Greek ostraca from the bookseller P.M. Barnard³⁵.

– 1916-1917 : Rendell Harris acquisitions.

– June 1920 : about 67 papyri acquired from Grenfell for the sum of £ 105, the most interesting of which were published by Roberts in the fourth volume of the Catalogue. They include the famous Gospel of John fragment (P.Ryl. III 457) and the letter against the Manichees (P.Ryl. III 469)³⁶.