Survival and memory

A fragmentary papyrus discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, containing passages from the satyr play 'Trackers' by Sophocles, British Library, Papyrus 2068 (2nd century AD)

There are always two ways to keep a book alive. Either by reproducing it time and time again, generation through generation, transmitting it from one readership to another; or by writing a…