Papyri

Papyrus ...

… was the most important writing material of ancient times.
 

Our papyrus collection ...

… was made possible by a donation from the mathematician Friedrich Prym (1841–1915). This enabled Ulrich Wilcken (1862–1944), a classical historian and philologist who worked in Würzburg from 1900–1903, to build up a research and teaching collection for the University of Würzburg through several purchases made up to 1913 via the German Papyrus Trust (Deutsche Papyruskartell).

By far the most extensive part of the collection (204 papyri) is made up of Greek documents, plus 5 Greek literary texts, 3 Coptic texts and 4 Arabic texts. The Greek documents date from the 3rd century BCE through to the 10th century CE.
 

How are our papyri indexed?

We digitised the entire Würzburg papyrus collection between 2007–2009 as part of a German Research Foundation (DFG) project and added it to the German Papyrus Portal (Deutsche Papyrusportal).
 

How can I see the papyri?

You will need to submit a written application (PDF, 363 KB), with an academic reference and present your ID or passport.

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