The nucleus of the collection was formed from papyri purchased on behalf of Lord Crawford and Enriqueta Rylands by Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt. Enriqueta Rylands bought the Crawford Collection in 1901. Most pieces were acquired between 1895 and 1907 from towns in the Fayum, Oxyrhynchus, and elsewhere. Later on, other papyri were purchased in Egypt by Rendel Harris in 1916 and 1917, and B.P. Grenfell in 1920. In 1912 the Rylands Library purchased some papyri, together with the Neutestamentliches Seminar in Berlin, through the coptologist Carl Schmitt and the philologist and theologian Adolf Deissmann, as stated in the introduction of the P. Meyer and confirmed in documents from the Library archives in course of publication.
Description of the collection: The collection of Greek material contains about 40 ostraca (unpublished) and 2000 papyri, of which about 700 published, ranging between the 3rd century BC and the 7th century AD. It consists of classical, biblical, liturgical and medical texts, and important documentary papyri, including business papers, public records, records of local government offices, taxation documents and financial memoranda. Papyri from Hermopolis (1st-7th centuries AD) comprise conveyances, receipts, and official and private legal documents. About 1,300 unpublished Greek pieces were found in 1962, when the manuscripts collection was reorganized (R.A. Kraft, A. Tripolitis ‘Some Uncatalogued Papyri of Theological and other Interest in the John Rylands Library’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 51 (1968-1969), pp. 136-163; Alan K. Bowman and J.D. Thomas, ‘Some Additional Greek Papyri in the John Rylands University Library’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 61 (1978-1979), p. 290-313; SB XII 10798-10803; SB XIV 11851-11854). The Library owns also 26 manuscripts on papyrus and linen written in hieroglyphic (7) and hieratic (19); all are funerary documents dating between the 14th century BC and the 2nd century AD. There are 14 Demotic ostraca (unpublished) and 166 Demotic papyri, from the Ptolemaic and Roman period, (about 60 unpublished). The Coptic collection comprises 46 ostraca, 478 manuscripts on papyrus, paper and parchment published or described in the Catalogue and about 500 unpublished papyri (largely from Ashmûnein). The material ranges from the late antique to the modern period. The 800 Arabic manuscripts consist of private letters, tradesmen’s and household accounts (mostly from Ashmûnein and dating from the 8th to the 11th century AD); about 300 are unpublished. See also: F. Taylor, ‘The Oriental Manuscript Collections in the John Rylands Library’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library Manchester 54.2 (1972), p. 449-478; M. Choat, Pap. Congr. XXVI (Geneva 2010), 2012, p. 141-147; R. Mazza, Pap. Congr. XXVI (Geneva 2010), 2012, p. 499-507
