Classical Commentaries

Explorations in a Scholarly Genre

Edited by Christina S. Kraus and Christopher Stray

An innovative contribution to the dialogue between two emerging fields of study: the history of scholarship and the history of the book
Explores individual commentaries, national traditions of commentary, the part played by commentaries in the reception of classical texts, and the role of printing and publishing
Features an interdisciplinary and international range of contributors

Classical Commentaries

Explorations in a Scholarly Genre

Edited by Christina S. Kraus and Christopher Stray

Description

This rich collection of essays by an international group of scholars explores commentaries in many different languages on ancient Latin and Greek texts. The commentaries discussed range from the ancient world to the twentieth century. Together, the chapters contribute to the dialogue between two vibrant and developing fields of study: the history of scholarship and the history of the book. The volume pays particular attention to individual commentaries, national traditions of commentary, the part played by commentaries in the reception of classical texts, and the role of printing and publishing. The material form of commentaries is also considered--including how they are advertised and their accompanying illustrations--as well as their role in education. Both academic texts and books written for schools are surveyed.

Classical Commentaries

Explorations in a Scholarly Genre

Edited by Christina S. Kraus and Christopher Stray

Preface
List of Figures
List of Contributors
1. Form and Content, Christina S. Kraus and Christopher Stray
Part 1: Individuals: Commentaries and Modern Commentators
2. Jebb's Sophocles, P. J. Finglass
3. A Teutonic Monster in Oxford: The Making of Fraenkel's Agamemnon, Christopher Stray
4. My Back Pages, Richard F. Thomas
5. Two-author Commentaries on Horace: Three Case Studies, Stephen Harrison
6. Dodd's Bacchae, S. P. Oakley
Part 2: Traditions: Commentaries on Specific Authors and Texts
7. Commentary Writing on the Annals of Tacitus: Different Approaches for Different Audiences, Salvador Bartera
8. Commenting on Fragments: The Case of Early Roman Poetry, Jackie Elliott
9. Between Scylla and Charybdis: Text and Conjecture in Greek Lyric Commentary, Armand D'Angour
10. Philosophers, Exegetes, Scholars: The Ancient Philosophical Commentary from Plato to Simplicius, Han Baltussen
11. Italian Commentaries on Lucretius, Guido Milanese
12. Citations of Ovid in Virgil's Ancient Commentators, Justin Haynes
13. The Historical Commentary, John Davies
Part 3: Material: Form, Series, Markets
14. Selling Terence in Renaissance Italy: The Marketing Power of Commentary, Paul F. Gehl
15. From Giovanni Pontano to Pierio Valeriano: Five renaissance Commentators on Latin Erotic Poetry, Julia Gaisser
16. Translation and Commentary: Pope's Iliad, Stuart Gillespie
17. Agricolan Paratexts, Christina S. Kraus
18. Fifty Shades of Orange: Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Roy Gibson
Part 4: Reception: History of Commentary
19. Hipparchus Among the Detractors, Caroline Bishop
20. Ancient Commentaries on Theocritus' Idylls and Vergil's Eclogues, Joseph Farrell
21. Biblical Exegesis and the Twelfth-Century Expansion of Servius, A. B. Kraebel
22. Christian Gottlob Heyne and the Changing Fortunes of the Commentary in the Age of Altertumswissenschaft, Katherine Harloe
23. Vauvilliers' Pindar and its Place in Pindaric Commentary, Penelope Wilson
Part 5: Futures: Commentaries and the Web
24. Heracles' Choice: Thoughts on the Virtues of Print and Digital Commentary, Peter J. Anderson
25. The Dream of a Universal Variorum: Digitizing the Commentary Tradition, Peter Heslin
26. Afterword, Sander M. Goldberg
Index

Classical Commentaries

Explorations in a Scholarly Genre

Edited by Christina S. Kraus and Christopher Stray

Author Information

Christina S. Kraus is Thomas A. Thatcher Professor of Latin at Yale University.

Christopher Stray is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History and Classics at Swansea University.

Contributors:

Peter Anderson, Grand Valley State University
Han Baltussen, University of Adelaide
Salvador Bartera, Mississippi State University
Caroline Bishop, Indiana University
Armand D'Angour, Oxford University
John Davies, University of Liverpool
Jackie Elliott, University of Colorado Boulder
Joseph Farrell, University of Pennsylvania
P. J. Finglass, University of Nottingham
Julia Gaisser, Bryn Mawr College
Paul F. Gehl, Newberry Library, Chicago
Roy Gibson, University of Manchester
Stuart Gillespie, University of Glasgow
Sander M. Goldberg, University of Oregon
Katherine Harloe, University of Reading
Stephen Harrison, University of Oxford
Justin Haynes, University of California at Los Angeles
Peter Heslin, University of Durham
A. B. Kraebel, Trinity University
Christina S. Kraus, Yale University
Guidov Milanese, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Stephen Oakley, University of Cambridge
Christopher Stray, Swansea University
Richard F. Thomas, Harvard University
Penelope Wilson, University of Cambridge

Classical Commentaries

Explorations in a Scholarly Genre

Edited by Christina S. Kraus and Christopher Stray

Reviews and Awards

"This is a book where one can comfortably dip into individual chapters, as it has no over-arching thesis, but covers a lot of territory and contains bits of the Higher Gossip. Nevertheless, readers will find themselves more aware of the form and content, premises and method, and the great tradition it stands in, when they next reach for a commentary."--Religious Studies Review

"The volume as a whole offers much of value to those interested in thinking seriously about commentaries and their aims, purpose(s) and development...The copy editing is of decent quality...The dust jacket illustration (the stacks in the Main Hall of the Cincinnati Public Library) was an inspired choice, and one can only read with regret the further information that such a wondrous place was demolished in 1955." --Benjamin Millis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review