XX. Observations on a Fragment of a very ancient Greek Manuscript on Papyrus, together with some Sepulchral Inscriptions from Nubia, lately received by the Earl of Mountnorris; in a Letter from Thomas Young, M.D. F.R.S. addressed to Taylor Combe, Esq. F.R.S. Director

Extract

I. The fragment of papyrus contains eight parallel and equidistant lines of the original manuscript, with five interlineations in a different hand, apparently unconnected with them, and consisting chiefly of numbers, with some abbreviated words. It is a sort of genealogy, perhaps the beginning of a deed; the characters are much like those of the manuscript deciphered by Schow, but more distinct; and there is every reason to think them at least as ancient: so that if Schow was right in considering the Borgian manuscript as of the second century, we must refer this fragment to the same period. It was sent over from Egypt by Mr. Salt, together with a variety of other remains of antiquity, many of them extremely interesting, but without any account of the exact place in which it was found. In modern characters it must stand nearly thus: