THE CORONIS
The purpose of this article is to examine the use and history, in the roll and early codex, of the marginal flourish which is frequently found in Greek papyri and which is known as the coronis (1); and to consider in the possibility which has sometimes been put forward that it might be a guide to the scribe, or to the provenance or date of the manuscript. I have found R. A. Pack's catalogue, The Greek and Latin Literary Texts from Greco-Roman Egypt, most useful, and would refer the reader to it for further information about the non-biblical papyri mentioned. I should moreover like to record my gratitude to Mr C. H. Roberts and to Professor E. G. Turner, to both of whom I am very greatly indebted for suggestions and advice.
The characteristic form of the coronis from the first century B. C. onwards was, alike in the roll and the codex, a g finished off top and bottom with a few diminishing horizontal strokes (ranging from one to fourteen in number : three or four is usual) and a slanting tail (PI. 2, abc). The central g may become a figure-of-eight (2) (PL 2, de), or occasionally be simplified to a cross or even a pair of dots; but with very few exceptions (3) the general shape of the design remains constant. A central bar frequently intersects the figure (PI. 2, i), and the precise line of the text is often indicated by a para- graphus as well. The total design may well extend beside four or more lines of writing.
Before the first century B. C, however, it is a different story : the coronis is much more variable in shape, being either an asymmetric (4) (e. g. PI. 1, ab), or no more than an <? shaped hook attached to the outer end of the paragraphus (5) (PI. 2, /). It would be reasonable to attribute the standardization of design which took place during the first century B. C.
(1) Though strictly applicable only to the more elaborate figure, the name is sometimes in of papyri used also of the forked paragraphus, and even of other signs.
(2) Possibly not quite as often as the published transcriptions would suggest : I have found one or two examples of g printed as 8 > but none the other way round. (Similarly I know of no two coronides from different papyri which are exactly alike, although for typographical convenience coronides are often printed as identical.
(3) The main ones are : P. Lit. Lond. 139 (= P. Lond. 3. 884) ; P. Ryl. 53 ; and the Freer Gospel Codex, Freer V.
(4) E. g. Timotheus, Persae, P. Berolinensis 9875, ed. Wilamowitz, Timotheos : Die Perser, Leipzig 1903 (fourth century B. C) ; ( ?) Timotheus, ed. G. A. Gerhard, Griechische Papyri, Heidelberg 1938 ; ( ?) Diodes of Garystus, P. Heidelberg inv. 401, ed. G. A. Gerhard, Site. Heid. Akad., 1913, Abh. 13 ; P. Tebt. 3. 694, treatise on music (all of the third century B. C) ; P. 129, anthology of letters ; P. Strasbourg 2342, Euripides, Alexander, ed. W. Croenert, Gôtt. Nachr., 1922, 1-17 (both of the first century B. C).
(5) E. g. P. Lit. Lond. 112 ( ?) Aristotle ; P. Hibeh 4, post-classical tragedy ; P. R. U. M. I. 7, lyric fragments ; P. Cairo 65445, ed. Guéraud et Jouguet, Un livre d'écolier, 1938 (all of the third century B. C) ; P. Paris 2, Chrysippus, rapl àTcoçomxûv ( ? third to second century B. C).
