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I'm looking to find a source for some high resolution images of some pages of Biblical papyri, such as John in P66 or Corinthians in P46. I need them to be high enough resolution that I can look carefully at the paleographic writing characteristics of ink and pen.

Google finds lots of lower resolution images, but the higher res ones are hard to find. I know some are probably closely held materials in the various libraries, but surely at least some are easily available online, or perhaps available for purchase?

Would appreciate your help.

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@Dottard provided The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts to some Greek manuscripts available online, and the examples given in the question are only of Greek MSS, but there are some very nice scans of Hebrew manuscripts at Hebrew Manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries.

Here is also one that seems quite clear of Greek Papyrus 51, apparently that of The Morgan Library and Museum.

They have other papyri on their site as well by using a search.

Here is their search result for "P66" (which I cannot seem to find useful--is it even close?).

However, I share the frustration of those seeking high-resolution images online, as they seem difficult to find.

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  • Thanks, that is a lot of useful information. Regarding P66 I was thinking of Bodmer P66 which has the whole of John in it. (I'm not sure what that one you linked was, though it does seem to be labelled P66.) It is definitely a bit sloppy in places, but it is VERY old and so useful for a few important textual variants. Thanks for all the links. I'm not sure about the ethics of hiding these MSS. It isn't like they are in (c), and it seems rather small minded to restrict access to something so many people are interested in. As if we need a priestly class of experts to interpret them for us.
    – Fraser Orr
    Commented Feb 12, 2023 at 20:11
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The best place to see high resolution images is the Virtual Manuscript Room.

Note, though, that a number of these are 'locked out' so that you cannot access them without an account. A number of them, though, (e.g. the Chester Beatty papyri) are available. Just be sure to click the images that don't have an orange 'locked' image in the top right.

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  • Thanks for the helpful answer.
    – Fraser Orr
    Commented Feb 12, 2023 at 20:05
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You can find high quality images indexed by passages in the Gospel of John at https://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/manuscript-workspace (start by searching for "p66" then select whatever page you are interested in).

It's also published (transcribed) as:

Comfort, Philip Wesley, and David P. Barrett. "P66." In The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2001.

For this particular papyrus, you might also be able to view photos of it on the website dedicated to the associated collection (P66 is part of a collection referred to as the Bodmer Papyri): https://bodmerlab.unige.ch/constellations/papyri (note that they've collated several mss under the old numbering system into a few collections—I am not sure what the correct designation would be).

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