Greek Papyri The Rediscovery of the Ancient World (1970)

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jeidsath
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Greek Papyri The Rediscovery of the Ancient World (1970)

Post by jeidsath »

This is quite a treat.

Greek Papyri The Rediscovery of the Ancient World (1970)

[Source: Evangelical Textual Criticism.]
Brent Nongbri announced the film today (on the Papy-L list):
This 44-minute movie was produced in 1971 by the Greek and Latin Departments and the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London in 1971. It was directed by Mirek Dohnal and features some fantastic archival footage of the British papyrologists of the day. The film is mentioned in an exhibition catalog by T. S. Pattie and E. G. Turner, The Written Word on Papyrus: An Exhibition Held in the British Museum 30 July - 27 October 1974 (British Library Board, 1974).

The quality of the production was said to be excellent. The obituary for Eric Turner in the Proceedings of the British Academy described the film as follows: “. . . in May [1971] came the première of Mirek Dohnal’s film Greek Papyri (Turner had suggested the subject to the head of the Slade Film Unit; he and his pupils and colleagues starred, with Zauberflöte in the background, and many hours of patient labour; the film won a silver medal at the Venice Festival) . . .”
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Greek Papyri The Rediscovery of the Ancient World (1970)

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

That was delightful, and amazing what they were able to do using quite simple techniques. Of course technology is considerably more advanced than in the mid-20th century, this Ted talk gives a taste of that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHjKnNbYiOs
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Cuncta mortalia incerta...

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