Private libraries (2)
The Aurelia Ptolemaïs family library
This library is thought to have been built up in the 3rdcentury , before being discarded in the 4thcentury . Following an investigation based on two documents, it was possible to reconstruct this library (containing two copies of theIliad, a historical work and book XVIII of the Cestes of Julius the African), whose last owner was a certain Aurelia Ptolemaïs, daughter of Hermogenes, an important figure in the city of Oxyrhynchos. The copy of the latter's will on the back of the scroll containing the Cestes de Jules l'Africain suggests that this work must have been of little interest to Aurelia Ptolemaïs. While she may have kept Homer's work for her children's education, it seems more prudent to see this set of four manuscripts as a reflection of her father's eclectic tastes (poetry, history, literary criticism).
The library of Oxyrhynchos' "second find
Entirely devoted to classical Greek literature, this library was used until the 4thcentury , when it too was dumped. It is characterized by its wide chronological range ̶ the oldest manuscript dates back to the 2ndc. BC. ̶ which implied regular maintenance of the books (some of them indeed bear traces of repair, others of treatment against insects). This collection reveals the profile of a lover of Greek literature, with a predilection for lyric poetry, who not only read the works, but also equipped himself with the tools needed to understand them better. More than an amateur, we're dealing with a scholar, perhaps a grammarian (or a line of grammarians), as evidenced by the impressive number of glosses belonging to several hands (some of which, tachygraphic in nature, could be notes taken during lectures).
The library of a novel lover?
It's not impossible that a set of seven manuscripts found at Oxyrhynchos and dating from the 3rd/4thc. formed a library in the truest sense of the word. The strong presence of Greek novels (Leucippé and Clitophon by Achille Tatius, the Roman de Sesonchôsis and an unidentified novel) gives this set a sufficiently characteristic facies to point in this direction, but the hypothesis remains no less fragile.
