Anopisthographon

Anopisthographon is a technical term used in papyrology and refers to a parchment or papyrus document that is unwritten on the reverse. The term is composed of the Greek elements Toggle "un-" opistho- and "rear" graphein "write".

Papyrus and even more parchment were valuable writing materials . In order not to waste this, in addition to the easily writable front side of a papyrus roll (recto), where the writing runs with the fiber, the less easily writable back (verso) was also used as a writing medium, where the writing runs across the fiber; in this case one speaks of an opisthographon . Often such text is later on the back than on the front and deals with a different topic. If the texts of a fragment on the front and back belong to the same work and the handwriting is identical, it is very likely that it is not a fragment of a scroll but of a code .

swell

• Severin Corsten, Günther Pflug and Adolf Friedrich Schmidt-Künsemüller (ed.): Lexicon of the entire book industry. Vol. 1. Second, completely revised edition. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7772-8721-0

• Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01519-X

See also

• Palimpsest , a rewritten parchment