It must be acknowledged that the interest of the present documents is of a somewhat restricted kind. There are no very outstanding texts, nor do the letters, in general, show any of those more vivid or intimate touches seen in several of the papyri or ostraca from other sites, or the legal texts present any points of juristic importance; but there is much topo graphical material of value, and some useful evidence on me trology, nor are some of the texts, whether Greek or Coptic, wanting in philological interest. The main importance of the collection lies, however, less in details than in its ensemble, as presenting a picture of the life and activities of a monastic settlement. The work of editing the single texts has, naturally, been divided between us according to the language employed; but since documents of the same class were written now in Greek (which, however, is sometimes to be styled Greek only by courtesy) and now in Coptic, no distinction between the two languages has been made in our arrangement, and each of us has read the whole volume, adding notes, where notes sug gested themselves, to his colleague's commentary. Throughout the volume the topographical notes are, with very few excep tions, due to crum, who has written also section II Of the Introduction and compiled the Indexes; bell is responsible for section IV, on metrology.
