The Ancient Greek Book Epigram

Originally, ancient books were made public on papyrus rolls, and later via codices. As early as the 3rd century B.C., the practice of attaching an epigram to the beginning or end of the edition arose. This epigram could be, for example, an ironic note by a scribe, a dedication, or a laudatory reference to the author of the book. Epigrams like these can be summarised under the term book epigrams. Unfortunately, only very few book epigrams have survived in their original context, i.e. on ancient books or their remains. However, many epigrams have been preserved in a famous collection of epigrams, the so-called Anthologia Palatina. Even though this collection was only compiled in the Byzantine period, it almost exclusively contains epigrams from antiquity. A range of further book epigrams can be found in Byzantine manuscripts, in which the text of the ancient books was copied together with the books epigrams. Up to now, these scattered book epigrams have neither been systematically collected nor closely studied. Therefore, the aim of the project is to close this research gap: In the course of the project, the ancient Greek book epigrams will be collected and examined in detail. The results will be used to describe the subgenre of the ancient book epigram comprehensively: features specific to the genre will be illustrated, the various types of book epigrams characterised, and the various functions, which a book epigram could fulfil in antiquity, discussed.