Beyond homeric papyri. Some remarks on bookrolls of historical epic poetry

In spite of the deep knowledge and the great awareness about the characteristics of the Homeric papyri, the rest of the epic book production remains quite neglected, or it is considered just for some peculiar elements. This paper aims to reconsider a series of bookrolls transmitting epic poetry with historical subject-matter, dated from early Ptolemaic age to the Imperial period, through an analysis of their physical characteristics (palaeographical aspects, layouts, paratextual elements, eventual signals of peculiar scribal attitudes) combined with a survey of their main textual features. The data thus obtained from both the material and the textual dimensions of the considered bookrolls will allow to try to focus on the possible contexts of circulation and the eventual readership of an almost forgotten and 'submerged' chapter of Greek literature, which, however, maintained a strong appeal for the Greeks in Egypt.