Showing posts with label Epigraphy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Epigraphy. Show all posts

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Russell Meiggs & David Lewis (1969). A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century B.C. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

I've been feeling a bit out of it for the last few days, so I was really looking forward a day off where I could go see if there was anything new or interesting in the local used book shops. There wasn't really anything of interest at the book auction other than a copy of the second volume of Gotlands Runinskrifter (which is incidentally available online so I might as well leave that for someone who actually does runology), so I moved onto Vangsgaards main shop on Fiolstræde. 

It appears that there were a few new books in the Greek history and literature section, including a copy of Meiggs & Lewis' A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century B.C.


I admit I already have a copy of the revised version of this which was reissued as a Clarendon Paperback in 1992 (a purchase from the very fine Hellenic Book Service in London some years back), but it is always nice to get a good clean copy of the original hardcover – especially at a reasonable price of 125 DKK (ca. $17.61 USD). Also, my paperback copy is currently in storage in Canada and it's not really helping me at the moment.

I believe I would also be somewhat remiss to mention that the book has been in-part superseded at least with regard to the coverage of fifth century inscriptions following the Persian Wars has by Robin Osborne and Peter Rhodes' Greek Historical Inscriptions 478–404 BC (Oxford, 2017), but it's still nice to have for the selection the inscriptions from 479 BCE and earlier.


Saturday, September 30, 2023

Karen Rørby Kristensen (2005). Gortynloven: Den store indskrift fra Gortyn på Kreta. København: Museum Tusculanums Forlag.

Museum Tusculanum Press publishes a series of books called Selskabet til Historiske Kildeskrifters Oversættelse (The Society for Translation of Historical Source Texts) which I first noticed when I saw in shops their latest offering, a complete Danish translation of Pausanias' Beskrivelse af Grækenland (Description of Greece) in a very attractive hardbound volume with lots of pretty maps and illustrations (but I've been having difficulties convincing myself to purchase a copy for the asking price while I am not yet fully fluent in the Danish language). The series seems to translate all manner of historical source texts primarily from Ancient Greek and Latin, although I note there is also a Danish translation of the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon (Sangen om slaget ved Maldon) as well.

While I was looking up the other titles in this series I noticed that there is among them also Gortynloven: Den store inskrift fra Gortyn på Kreta (The Gortyn Law: The large inscription from Gortyn on Crete), and I am not going to lie: those who know me know that I am an enjoyer of archaic Greek dialectal inscriptions. I am also supposed to be teaching the MA Greek (Indo-European) course next spring which has had a selection from the Gortyn Code on its reading list in the past syllabus and I'm probably going to keep it on mine. So this seems like a useful thing to have around and possibly something I can recommend to students that they can read in their own first language if they want and not have to resort to English, German, or French publications for once.


As it turns out the ordering system on Museum Tusculanum Press's website is currently borked (I know the person responsible for making the new website so hopefully that will be fixed soon), but I did manage to find a copy of the book at the Paludan Bogcafé & Antikvariat on Fiolstræde for the low, low price of 125 DKK (approx. $17.72 USD) which frankly I think is a steal for a recent-ish introduction, text, translation, and historical commentary of such an important Ancient Greek text. I do not need to think twice about adding this to my collection.


F. W. Walbank. 1957–1967. <i>A Historical Commentary on Polybius</i> (Volumes 1 & 2). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

In downtown Copenhagen Vangsgaards Antikvariat has an ongoing Antikvariske Bogudsalg  (Antiquarian Book Sale) that is kind of run like a Dut...