The Beginning of Giuseppe Botti and Aksel Volten’s Collaboration on the Literary Papyri from Tebtynis (1934–1948)

The discovery of the Tebtynis temple library deposit in 1930/31 entailed an enormous sorting process of the tens of thousands of fragments that ended up, through excavation and purchase, in Florence and Copenhagen. This task was entrusted to Giuseppe Botti and Aksel Volten, both of whom worked diligently on the project over three decades. Their efforts have been of considerable consequence for later research into this invaluable collection of texts; with this in mind, we aim to offer an initial account of the scope and nature of their efforts in this preliminary paper. This overview is based on a small corpus of letters by G. Botti preserved at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, and Aksel Volten’s applications to the Carlsberg Foundation, supplemented by other sources from the Turin State Archive, the archive of the Florence Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and the material at the Istituto Papirologico “G. Vitelli” in Florence.