John Conington’s three-volume edition of The Works of Virgil, begun in 1852, has long been unavailable except in rare second-hand sets. The whole work is now being reissued in six affordable paperbacks, with new introductions setting the commentary in its context. Well into the twentieth century Conington’s Virgil remained the sine qua non for school and undergraduate students and their teachers; Conington’s commentary is remarkably close and uncompromising in its engagement with the detail of Virgil’s Latin, as well as its literary sensitivity; it still has much to offer the modern reader.This volume includes Conington’s general introduction to Virgil, his introduction to the Aeneid, his introduction to Books I –VI, Virgil’s text and Conington’s commentary to Books I–II. It also includes Philip Hardie’s general assessment of Conington, along with Anne Rogerson’s introduction to Conington’s Aeneid.
