29:
156:
860:
280:(1882) substantially widened research on stichometry. Birt saw that Graux's breakthrough led to a cascade of insights about scribal practices and publishing, citations and intertextuality, and the kinds of formats and editions used in antiquity. Stichometry thus led to a broader study of the spatial organization of ancient books and their social, economic, and intellectual roles. As
334:
stichometric reports, and the aims and history of stichometry among the Greeks, Romans, and
Byzantines. Ohly's catalog of ancient papyri with stichometry together with Bassi's survey and the line reports in medieval manuscripts collected by Graux provide a wide range of evidence for ancient stichometric practices and their evolution through the centuries.
102:(late 4th to early 3rd century), but these casual references suggest the practice was already routine. The same standard line was used for stichometry among the Greeks and Romans for about a thousand years until stichometry apparently fell out of use among the Byzantine Greeks in the Middle Ages as page numbers became more common.
343:
374:
Mirko
Canevaro (Durham University) argued that the stichometric totals in the Demosthenes manuscripts descended from the earliest editions. He used these totals to show that the supposed excerpts of documentary evidence inserted in the speeches were not present in those early editions and were thus
82:
Stichometry existed for several reasons. Scribes were paid by the line and their fee per line was sometimes fixed by legal decree. Authors occasionally cited passages in the works of other authors by giving their approximate line number. Book buyers used total line counts to check that copied texts
269:
noticed that isolated letters in the margins of two dialogues formed an alphabetic series and marked every hundredth standard line (alpha = 100, beta = 200, etc.). He was able to show that other manuscripts had similar marginal markings. His 1881 article named this kind of line-counting 'partial
324:
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, archaeologists discovered a large number of fragmentary, Greek scrolls in
Egyptian tombs, mummies, and city dumps. Some of these contained stichometric notations, and papyrologists became interested in the question of whether this data
305:
The nature of the literature of antiquity and the form of the ancient book reciprocally conditioned each other. The context of publication enveloped and modified literary creativity. The dividends of these investigations will thereby far exceed the satisfaction of merely antiquarian pleasures.
468:
Theopompus (c. 380 – c. 315 BC) congratulated himself for writing display speeches of not less than 20,000 lines and then for writing another 150,000 lines about the relations of barbarians and
Hellenes to each other. Photius Bibliotheca, cod. 176, p. 120b, fragment 30B = Fragments of Greek
333:
contained a complete survey of the treasure trove of newly discovered Greco-Egyptian papyri with stichometric notations. It is regarded as the standard work on stichometry. Ohly discusses the length of the standard line, the evidence for syllable counting, the various number systems used in
346:
Partial stichometry in Plato: The lambda in the margin means 'line 1100' since lambda is the eleventh letter in the Greek alphabet. The Greeks used letters of the alphabet for numerals but decorated them to distinguish them from ordinary letters, here with a two bars and two dots. The same
310:
Many of Birt's theories and interpretations are dated and have been superseded by later research, but he permanently broadened and deepened the methodologies used in histories of the ancient book and connected stichometry to a broad range of intellectual and literary issues.
217:
Since the list of line totals in the city of Rome is not reliable, and elsewhere because of greed is not complete, I have gone through each individual book, counting 16 syllables to the line (as used in Virgil), and recorded the number for each book in all of them.
167:
The libraries of Europe contain many medieval copies of ancient Greek and Latin texts. Many of these contain short notes or 'subscriptions' on the final page that, in hundreds of cases, give the total number of lines in the work. In texts of classical authors such as
212:
wrote 232,808 lines. The
Cheltenham Canon lists line totals for books in the Christian Bible and concludes with an anonymous note apparently written by a book dealer in the 4th century AD when the practice of stichometry was perhaps becoming less familiar:
32:
A List of Total Line Counts for
Christian Texts: The title is 'Versus Scribturarum Sanctarum' or 'Lines of Holy Scriptures.' The second line says 'Genesis Versus IIIId' or 'Genesis Lines 4500.' The third line says 'Exodus Versus IIIdcc (= 3700). From the
120:, which collects together the results of some fifty years of scholarly debate and research. Today, stichometry plays a small but useful role in research in fields as diverse as the history of the ancient book, papyrology, and Christian hermeneutics.
261:
proved that the numerals at the end of the medieval manuscripts were proportional to the length of each work and in fact gave the total number of a fixed unit equal to a
Homeric line. This discovery established the concept of the standard line.
222:
Beginning in the 19th century, archaeologists discovered a large number of more or less fragmentary Greek scrolls in Egypt. Ohly describes and analyzes some fifty papyri which provide direct, ancient evidence for total and partial stichometry.
44:
is the practice of counting lines in texts: Ancient Greeks and Romans measured the length of their books in lines, just as modern books are measured in pages. This practice was rediscovered by German and French scholars in the 19th century.
300:
Birt's 550-page work was stimulated by practical questions about the ancient culture of books but grew into a broad reevaluation and reorganization of our knowledge of ancient literature and intellectual life. His introduction argued:
180:
that were used in Athens during the classical period but abandoned sometime during the
Hellenistic period. Thus these stichometric totals are thought to descend, along with the content of the texts, from very early editions.
347:
stichometric notations appear in another Plato manuscript and they probably derive from an early edition. Clarke Codex of Plato's
Dialogues, copied in AD 895, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, leaf 210v, detail.
232:
143:, the practice of some Christian authors in late antiquity of writing texts broken into rhetorical phrases to aid delivery. Some modern Jewish and Christian scholars use ‘stichometry’ as a synonym for
239:(1st century BC). The first line says 'ΦΙΛΟΔΗΜ' or 'By Philodemus' (brackets around restored characters). The second says 'ΟΡΙΚΗϹ' or 'On Rhetoric.' The last says 'XXXXHH' or '4200 (written with
288:
The investigations of the recently deceased
Charles Graux, taken all too prematurely from the world of scholarship, have made it henceforth inalterably certain that the standard line (the
254:, a leading German classicist in the mid-19th century, stimulated interest in the mysterious numerals found at the end of medieval manuscripts by discussing them in several of his essays.
371:
Rachel Yuen-Collingridge and Malcolm Choat (Macquarie University) used stichometry along with other kinds of evidence to make inferences about scribal practice and copying techniques.
507:
Both terms are used in E. Tov, ‘The Background of the Different Stichometric Arrangements of Poetry in the Judean Desert Texts,’ in J. Penner, K. Penner, C. Wassen, editors,
86:
Scholars believe that stichometry became established in Athens sometime during the 5th century BC when copying prose works became common. Stichometry is mentioned briefly in
368:, that Plato counted the lines in his dialogues in order to insert symbolic passages at regular intervals and thereby formed various musical and Pythagorean patterns.
459:(136, c. 340 BC) that his composition is fit only for an audience that would countenance long speeches that even extended up ‘to a length of 10,000 hexameters.’
200:, the published catalogue of the Library of Alexandria, when he reports the total number of lines in the oeuvres of various authors. He says, for example, that
318:
extended these new developments to an analysis of the stichometric data found in many early manuscripts of the Christian Bible and other Christian texts.
354:
Holger Essler (University of Würzburg) discussed stichometry's role in the ongoing efforts to reconstruct the papyri excavated at Herculaneum.
188:
complains about the verbosity of a rival and says he can offer a description in fewer lines. In the 1st century BC, a philosopher criticized
325:
provided clues that would aid in reassembling the fragments. Kurt Ohly studied the stichometry found in many of the scrolls excavated at
147:, which is the occasional practice in ancient scriptures of laying out texts so that each biblical or poetic verse begins on a new line.
106:
576:
Ohly (p. 109 ff.) argues the citations by line number in Diogenes Laërtius (VII 33, VII 188, etc.) derive from a 1st-century BC critic.
817:
Rachel Yuen-Collingridge and Malcolm Choat, ‘The Copyist at Work, Scribal Practice in Duplicate Documents,’ in Paul Schubert, editor,
821:, in the series Recherches et Rencontres published by the Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Genève, 2012, Volume 30, 827–834.
292:) of the ancients was a unit of spatial length equal to the hexameter. Theodor Birt has rightly erected his shrewd and persuasive
71:, which may have been among the first long, Greek texts written down, became the standard unit for ancient stichometry. This
56:) is the Greek word for a 'line' of prose or poetry and the suffix '-metry' is derived from the Greek word for measurement.
235:
Total Stichometry on a Papyrus Column: A line count in the subscription on the last column of a text by the philosopher
321:
In 1909, Domenico Bassi published a survey of the stichometric notations found on the papyri excavated at Herculaneum.
902:
136:
is the practice of including a series of numerals in the margins of a text, usually to mark every hundredth line.
698:
83:
were complete. Library catalogs listed the total number of lines in each work along with the title and author.
743:, vol. 16, no. 2, 1881, p. 313. Schanz argued the Venetus manuscript was not a descendant of the Clarke Codex.
351:
Rudolf Blum summarized research on stichometry in the catalog of Callimachus at the Library of Alexandria.
594:
Sanday, ‘The Cheltenham List of the Canonical Books of the New Testament and of the Writings of Cyprian,’
79:, in German) was thus as long as an epic hexameter and contained about 15 syllables or 35 Greek letters.
258:
388:
251:
884:
on stichometry in the New Testament introduces stichometry and collects many references (German).
511:(Leiden: Brill Academic Publishing, 2011), pp. 409 -- 420. For the distinction, see James Kugel,
281:
231:
243:).' Transcription of papyrus charred by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 and excavated at
897:
193:
8:
875:
846:
192:
and cited particular passages by giving their line number to the nearest hundredth line.
34:
866:
693:(Repr. ed.). London: Published for The British Academy by Oxford University Press.
163:. His discovery of the standard line launched the rigorous, modern study of stichometry.
478:
Ohly, ch. IV. The decline of stichometry is also briefly discussed in Llewelyn Morgan,
28:
852:
694:
791:
For example, J. Kennedy, ‘Plato's Forms, Pythagorean Mathematics, and Stichometry,’
357:
Dirk Obbink (Oxford University) used stichometry in his restoration of Philodemus'
765:
Holger Essler, ‘Rekonstruktion von Papyrus Rollen auf Mathematischer Grundlage,’
756:(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), trans. H. H. Wellisch, pp. 157-8.
881:
398:
393:
240:
189:
177:
342:
891:
620:
The article ‘Nouvelles Recherches sur la Stichométrie’ first appeared in the
266:
155:
22:
364:
Jay Kennedy (Manchester University) claimed in several articles and a book,
273:
209:
160:
111:
326:
244:
173:
524:
There is a survey in Graux, ‘Nouvelles Recherches sur la Stichométrie,’
270:
stichometry' and contrasted it to 'total stichometry' studied by Graux.
236:
201:
99:
205:
169:
140:
95:
754:
Kallimachos: The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography
37:(5th or 6th century AD), Leaf 467v, National Library, Paris, France.
132:
is the practice of reporting the total number of lines in a work.
878:
of the Herculaneum stichometry at the Internet Archive (Italian).
67:
607:
See, for example, F. Ritschl, '‘Die Stichometrie der Alten,’ in
509:
Prayer and Poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature
265:
While studying the Clarke Codex of Plato's dialogues at Oxford,
50:
857:
collection of articles by Graux, esp. on stichometry (French).
185:
87:
61:
849:(1912) has a chapter on stichometry and colometry (English).
730:, vol. 37, no. 3, 1909, pp. 321 -- 363 (Internet Archive).
726:
Domenico Bassi, ‘La Sticometria Nei Papiri Ercolanesi,’
624:, new series 2, 1878, pp. 97 – 143 and was reprinted in
513:
The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History
847:
Thompson’s Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography
651:
Das antike Buchwesen in seinem Verhältnis zur Literatur
687:
For a discussion of the development of the field, see
482:(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 224.
515:, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).
257:
In an 1878 article that Ohly called ‘epoch-making,’
337:
159:Charles Graux (1852--1882): French classicist and
782:, Part 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
889:
819:Actes du 26 Congrès international de papyrologie
567:(Köhn, vol. VII, pp. 475-512); see Ohly, p. 5.
446:, 958e9 – 959a1. See Ohly's analysis, p. 92-3.
688:
480:Patterns of Redemption in Virgil's Georgics
379:, includes an introduction to stichometry.
176:, these totals are expressed in the older,
150:
806:The Musical Structure of Plato's Dialogues
420:(Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1928), ch. I.
366:The Musical Structure of Plato's Dialogues
184:Many ancient authors mention stichometry.
863:on partial stichometry at JSTOR (German).
455:For example, Isocrates says in his prose
834:(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
795:, vol. 43, no. 1, Mar. 2010, p. 1 -- 32.
585:Diogenes Laërtius, IV 5, V 27, and V 50.
554:(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
341:
230:
154:
139:Stichometry was sometimes confused with
27:
778:See, for example, Dirk Obbink, editor,
689:Roberts, Colin H.; Skeat, T.C. (1987).
890:
641:, vol. 16, no. 2, 1881, pp. 309 – 315.
490:
488:
717:(London: C.J. Clay & Sons, 1893).
611:(Leipzig, 1866), vol. I, pp. 74--112.
565:Adversus eos qui de typis scripserunt
226:
128:There are two kinds of stichometry:
105:The standard work on stichometry is
739:Martin Schanz, ‘Zur Stichometrie,’
637:Martin Schanz, ‘Zur Stichometrie,’
528:, new series 2, 1878, pp. 97 – 143.
498:(Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1928).
485:
314:In 1893, James Rendel Harris' book
98:(early to mid-4th century), and in
16:Practice of counting lines in texts
13:
832:The Documents in the Attic Orators
628:. ‘Epoch-making’: see Ohly, p. 95.
552:The Documents in the Attic Orators
377:The Documents in the Attic Orators
14:
914:
872:at the Internet Archive (German).
840:
598:, III, Oxford, 1891, pp. 217-325.
338:Recent research and applications
824:
811:
798:
785:
772:
769:, vol. 38, 2008, pp. 273 – 308.
759:
746:
733:
720:
707:
681:
669:
666:, vol. 17, no. 3, 1882, p. 377.
656:
644:
631:
614:
601:
596:Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica
588:
579:
570:
557:
544:
531:
59:The length of each line in the
869:The Nature of the Ancient Book
662:H. Diels, 'Stichometrisches,'
518:
501:
496:Stichometrische Untersuchungen
472:
462:
449:
436:
431:Stichometrische Untersuchungen
423:
418:Stichometrische Untersuchungen
410:
331:Stichometrische Untersuchungen
294:The Nature of the Ancient Book
278:The Nature of the Ancient Book
123:
118:Stichometrische Untersuchungen
94:(c. 347 BC), several times in
1:
404:
7:
382:
329:in Italy but his 1929 book
10:
919:
375:late forgeries. His book,
20:
389:Stichometry of Nicephorus
903:Ancient Greek literature
151:Evidence for stichometry
21:Not to be confused with
808:(Durham: Acumen, 2012).
854:Les Articles Originaux
691:The birth of the codex
626:Les Articles Originaux
539:Griechische Epigraphik
348:
308:
298:
296:upon this foundation.
248:
220:
196:probably draws on the
164:
38:
713:James Rendel Harris,
345:
303:
286:
234:
215:
158:
31:
780:Philodemus: On Piety
728:Revista di Filologia
676:Das antike Buchwesen
609:Opuscula Philologica
550:See Mirko Canevaro,
541:, 3rd edition, 1914.
882:F.G. Lang's article
767:Cronache Ercolanesi
622:Revue de Philologie
526:Revue de Philologie
208:wrote 445,270, and
178:acrophonic numerals
134:Partial stichometry
35:Codex Claromontanus
349:
249:
227:Modern rediscovery
165:
39:
469:Historians, F 25.
252:Friedrich Ritschl
194:Diogenes Laërtius
130:total stichometry
910:
861:Schanz's article
835:
830:Mirko Canevaro,
828:
822:
815:
809:
802:
796:
789:
783:
776:
770:
763:
757:
750:
744:
737:
731:
724:
718:
711:
705:
704:
685:
679:
673:
667:
660:
654:
648:
642:
635:
629:
618:
612:
605:
599:
592:
586:
583:
577:
574:
568:
561:
555:
548:
542:
537:See W. Larfeld,
535:
529:
522:
516:
505:
499:
492:
483:
476:
470:
466:
460:
453:
447:
440:
434:
427:
421:
414:
115:
918:
917:
913:
912:
911:
909:
908:
907:
888:
887:
843:
838:
829:
825:
816:
812:
803:
799:
790:
786:
777:
773:
764:
760:
751:
747:
738:
734:
725:
721:
712:
708:
701:
686:
682:
674:
670:
661:
657:
649:
645:
636:
632:
619:
615:
606:
602:
593:
589:
584:
580:
575:
571:
562:
558:
549:
545:
536:
532:
523:
519:
506:
502:
493:
486:
477:
473:
467:
463:
454:
450:
441:
437:
428:
424:
415:
411:
407:
385:
340:
247:(Oxford, 1824).
229:
153:
126:
109:
26:
17:
12:
11:
5:
916:
906:
905:
900:
886:
885:
879:
876:Bassi's survey
873:
864:
858:
850:
842:
841:External links
839:
837:
836:
823:
810:
797:
784:
771:
758:
745:
732:
719:
706:
699:
680:
668:
655:
643:
630:
613:
600:
587:
578:
569:
556:
543:
530:
517:
500:
484:
471:
461:
448:
435:
422:
408:
406:
403:
402:
401:
399:Greek numerals
396:
394:Attic numerals
391:
384:
381:
339:
336:
276:'s well-known
241:attic numerals
228:
225:
204:wrote 43,475,
190:Zeno of Citium
152:
149:
125:
122:
15:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
915:
904:
901:
899:
896:
895:
893:
883:
880:
877:
874:
871:
870:
865:
862:
859:
856:
855:
851:
848:
845:
844:
833:
827:
820:
814:
807:
804:Jay Kennedy,
801:
794:
788:
781:
775:
768:
762:
755:
752:Rudolf Blum,
749:
742:
736:
729:
723:
716:
710:
702:
696:
692:
684:
677:
672:
665:
659:
652:
647:
640:
634:
627:
623:
617:
610:
604:
597:
591:
582:
573:
566:
560:
553:
547:
540:
534:
527:
521:
514:
510:
504:
497:
491:
489:
481:
475:
465:
458:
457:Panathenaicus
452:
445:
439:
432:
426:
419:
413:
409:
400:
397:
395:
392:
390:
387:
386:
380:
378:
372:
369:
367:
362:
360:
355:
352:
344:
335:
332:
328:
322:
319:
317:
312:
307:
302:
297:
295:
291:
285:
283:
282:Hermann Diels
279:
275:
271:
268:
267:Martin Schanz
263:
260:
259:Charles Graux
255:
253:
246:
242:
238:
233:
224:
219:
214:
211:
207:
203:
199:
195:
191:
187:
182:
179:
175:
171:
162:
161:palaeographer
157:
148:
146:
142:
137:
135:
131:
121:
119:
113:
108:
103:
101:
97:
93:
89:
84:
80:
78:
74:
73:standard line
70:
69:
64:
63:
57:
55:
52:
48:
43:
36:
30:
24:
23:stoichiometry
19:
868:
853:
831:
826:
818:
813:
805:
800:
792:
787:
779:
774:
766:
761:
753:
748:
740:
735:
727:
722:
714:
709:
690:
683:
675:
671:
663:
658:
650:
646:
638:
633:
625:
621:
616:
608:
603:
595:
590:
581:
572:
564:
559:
551:
546:
538:
533:
525:
520:
512:
508:
503:
495:
479:
474:
464:
456:
451:
443:
438:
430:
425:
417:
412:
376:
373:
370:
365:
363:
358:
356:
353:
350:
330:
323:
320:
315:
313:
309:
304:
299:
293:
289:
287:
277:
274:Theodor Birt
272:
264:
256:
250:
221:
216:
210:Theophrastus
197:
183:
166:
145:stichography
144:
138:
133:
129:
127:
117:
104:
91:
85:
81:
76:
72:
66:
60:
58:
53:
46:
41:
40:
18:
898:Manuscripts
715:Stichometry
494:Kurt Ohly,
416:Kurt Ohly,
327:Herculaneum
316:Stichometry
245:Herculaneum
174:Demosthenes
124:Definitions
110: [
77:Normalzeile
42:Stichometry
892:Categories
700:0197260616
405:References
237:Philodemus
202:Speusippus
100:Theopompus
678:, p. 502.
433:, ch. IV.
206:Aristotle
170:Herodotus
141:colometry
107:Kurt Ohly
96:Isocrates
383:See also
359:On Piety
116:'s 1928
867:Birt's
793:Apeiron
653:, 1882.
563:Galen,
442:Plato,
290:stichos
198:Pinakes
68:Odyssey
54:stichoi
47:Stichos
741:Hermes
697:
664:Hermes
639:Hermes
429:Ohly,
284:said,
186:Galen
114:]
88:Plato
62:Iliad
695:ISBN
444:Laws
172:and
92:Laws
65:and
90:'s
51:pl.
894::
487:^
361:.
112:de
703:.
75:(
49:(
25:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
.jpg)
