As Gregg Schwendner pointed out a few weeks ago on the What’s New in Papyrology blog, Brill have brought out a new CD-ROM version of the Berichtigungsliste der Griechischen Papyrusurkunden aus Ägypten (vol I-XI). From the publisher’s website:
With the advent of the CD-ROM edition of the great Berichtigungsliste der Griechisen Papyruskunden aus Ägypten, all the scholarship in the field, meticulously assembled over eighty years, is instantly accessible using a wide range of quick-search criteria. There is no better, faster, more satisfactory way to ensure a solid grounding in the corrections of readings and datings, as well as supplementary information, as this work has appeared in a wide spectrum of publications.
A license for the CD-Rom costs €149.00 / US$209.00 for an individual user; €395.00 / US$549.00 for an institutional license (1-3 users). I’m not entirely clear whether the purchase of one license lasts for life, or whether it needs to be renewed periodically as with the TLG (if the former, then presumably updated CD-ROMs would need to be purchased anew in future).
I’m curious to know, from anyone who has seen this resource, or who has access to it in their institutional library, what sorts of research question one can ask of the BL database that could not also be answered by Open Access resources such the Papyrological Navigator, for example (or the various other papyrological metadata databases at Heidelberg, Leuven, etc.). The Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri includes some readings and corrections from BL, although presumably not all. I’d be interested if any papyrologist could give us a brief review of the value of this new resource.
