Trends in Classics – Scholarship in the Making - Böcker

It is unusual for a single scholar practically to reorient an entire sub-field of study, but this is what Chris Stray has done for the history of UK classical scholarship. His remarkable combination of interests in the sociology of scholars and scholarship, in the history of the book and of publishing, and (especially) in the detailed intellectual contextualisation of classical scholarship as a form of classical reception has fundamentally changed the way the history of British classics and its study is viewed. A generation ago the history of classical scholarship still consisted largely of accounts of particular scholars and groups of scholars written by other scholars from a broadly biographical and ‘heroic individual’ perspective. In these works scholars often sought to find their own place in the great tradition, choosing to praise or blame those whose work they admired or deprecated, and to identify with particular schools or trends, and there were few attempts to provide a broader and less prosopographical perspective. Almost all the chapters in the volume originated as papers at a conference in honour of the honorand, and have been improved both by discussion there and by the rigorous peer-review process conducted by the two experienced editors. It covers various aspects of classical reception, with a particular focus on the history of scholars, their institutions, and their writings; the main focus is on the UK, but there are also substantial engagements with continental Europe and (especially) the USA; the period covered runs from the Renaissance to the present. The cast contains a number of world-famous names. Unusually, the volume also contains an essay by the honorand, but we are very keen to include this, especially as it focusses on the topic of scholarly collaboration.

An updated history of classical philology had long been a desideratum of scholars of the ancient world. The volume edited by Diego Lanza and Gherardo Ugolini is structured in three parts. In the first one (“Towards a science of antiquity”) the approach of Anglo-Saxon philology (R. Bentley) and the institutionalization of the discipline in the German academic world (C.G. Heyne and F.A. Wolf) are described. In the second part (“The illusion of the archetype. Classical Studies in the Germany of the 19th Century”) the theoretical contributions and main methodological disputes that followed are analysed (K. Lachmann, J.G. Hermann, A. Boeckh, F. Nietzsche and U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff). The last part (“The classical philology of the 20th century”) treats the redefinition of classical studies after the Great War in Germany (W. Jaeger) and in Italy (G. Pasquali). In this context, the contributions of papyrology and of the new images of antiquity that have emerged in the works of writers, narrators, and translators of our time have been considered. This part finishes with the presentation of some of the most influential scholars of the last decades (B. Snell, E.R. Dodds, J.-P. Vernant, B. Gentili, N. Loraux).

Commentaries on classical authors are more and more becoming a privileged field of study for the specialists in the reception of the classics. As Virgil is one of the most influential, widely read, and intensively commented upon classical authors throughout the ages, the study of the commentaries to his texts is especially rewarding, both as a tool for a better understanding of those very texts, and as a window onto the cultural features of the age in which each commentary was produced.This volume collects twenty-six papers from a conference held at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” in June 2021. The essays cover a wide chronological span from the Renaissance to present day, and address the topic of Virgil’s commentaries from a variety of points of view. Some papers are devoted to the study of single commentators, both well-known, such as La Cerda, Heyne, and Conington, and more marginal to the canon, such as Nannius, Willichius, and Keightley. Wide-ranging themes encompassed by other papers include metamorphosis, Egypt and Africa, and the rediscovey of Homer in early modern commentaries. Also considered are the different geographical and cultural areas of production, from the commentaries by Jesuit scholars to the reception of Virgil in modern Russia.The volume will be of interest both to scholars interested in the interpretation of Virgil’s texts and to scholars of classical reception.