Classical Philology: Primary Texts
Overview
On this page, you can find links and information about the best editions of Greek and Latin primary texts available to UB library users.
Original Language | Original Language with Facing-Page Translation | Original Language with Commentary | Primary Texts Online
Original Language
Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis:
The Oxford Classical TextsThe Oxford Classical Texts, or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, are renowned for their reliability, and for their presentation. The series consists of texts without commentary but with a brief apparatus criticus at the foot of each page. There are now over a hundred volumes, representing the greater part of classical Greek and Latin literature. The aim of the series remains that of including the works of all the principal classical authors. Although this has been largely accomplished, new volumes are still being published to fill the remaining gaps, and to revise old editions in the light of recent research.
Related Resources
UB Holdings: A complete list of volumes from the Oxford Classical Texts series held by UB libraries.
Wikipedia: The Wikipedia article on the Oxford Classical Texts offers information on the history of the series.
Bibliotheca Teubneriana:
The Teubner LibraryThe Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana, established in 1849, has evolved into the world's most venerable and extensive series of critical editions of Greek and Latin literature, ranging from classical to Neo-Latin texts. Some 4-5 new editions are published every year. A team of renowned scholars in the field of Classical Philology acts as advisory board. Formerly out-of-print editions are offered as print-on-demand reprints. Furthermore, all new books in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana series are published as eBooks. The older volumes of the series are being successively digitized and made available as eBooks.
Related Resources
UB Holdings: A complete list of volumes from the Teubner series held by UB libraries.
A Teubner A Day: A blog listing links to public-domain, downloadable editions of out-of-copyright classical texts in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana.
Links Galore: A list of links to digital copies of books of interest to classicists and medievalists, in Google Sheets format. Click on the Teubner tab at the top of the page to navigate to a list of Teubner editions available online.
Wikipedia: The Wikipedia article on the Bibliotheca Teubneriana offers significant information on the history of the series and of its famous Greek typeface.
Original Language with Commentary
Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics
This series provides texts and commentaries on works of Greek and Latin literature aimed primarily at undergraduate and graduate students of either language. Almost one hundred volumes have been published to date. The commentaries discuss texts as works of literature while providing all the guidance needed by today's student.
Related Resources
UB Holdings: A complete list of volumes from the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics held by UB Libraries.
Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries
This series provides critical editions of Greek and Latin authors for scholars and advanced students. Each volume contains an introduction, a text with apparatus, and a commentary which discusses in detail textual and other problems.
Related Resources
UB Holdings: A complete list of volumes from the Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries held by UB Libraries.
Original Language with Facing-Page Translation
The Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library® is the only existing series of books which, through original text and English translation, gives access to all that is important in Greek and Latin literature. Epic and lyric poetry; tragedy and comedy; history, travel, philosophy, and oratory; the great medical writers and mathematicians; those Church fathers who made particular use of pagan culture—in short, our entire classical heritage is represented here in convenient and well-printed pocket volumes in which an up-to-date text and accurate and literate English translation face each other page by page. The editors provide substantive introductions as well as essential critical and explanatory notes and selective bibliographies.
Related Resources
UB Holdings: A complete list of volumes from the Loeb Classical Library series held by UB libraries.
Links Galore: A list of links to digital copies of books of interest to classicists and medievalists, in Google Sheets format. Click on the Loeb tab at the top of the page to navigate to a list of Loeb editions available online.
Loebolus and Downloebables: Two exhaustive and regularly updated listings of Loeb editions that have fallen into the public domain and are available around the web in PDF format.
Digital Loeb Classical Library: The complete Loeb collection is available through this online interface to UB users only.
Wikipedia: The Wikipedia article on the Budés offers significant information on the history and scope of the series
La Collection des Universités de France : « Les Budés »
Publiée sous le patronage de l'Association Guillaume Budé (dont le but est de défendre et promouvoir la culture classique et la culture intellectuelle en général), la Collection des Universités de France, dite "Collection Budé", a pour vocation tous les textes grecs et latins jusqu'à la moitié du VIe siècle, mis à jour et accompagnés de traductions françaises nouvelles, d'introductions, de notices, de notes et d'un apparat critique. Série grecque | Série latine
Related Resources
UB Holdings: A complete list of volumes from the Collection des Universités de France held by UB Libraries.
Wikipedia: The Wikipedia article on the Budés offers information on the history of the series.
Fondazione Lorenzo Valla : Scrittori greci e latini
Con la collana «Scrittori greci e latini», la Fondazione Lorenzo Valla e l’editore Mondadori intendono fornire al pubblico italiano – quello degli studiosi e quello, più vasto, dei semplici lettori colti – l’autorevole raccolta di classici che esso non ha mai posseduto. Si desidera pubblicare dei libri che entrino stabilmente a far parte della biblioteca di ogni studioso, come fondamentali opere di consultazione: testi e commenti, che raccolgano tutta la tradizione degli studi filologici e storici e che offrano interpretazioni nuove, attraverso le quali debba passare la strada della scienza. Il programma della collana comprende testi di ogni specie: poetici e storici, filosofici e religiosi, teatrali e scientifici, narrazioni e viaggi: libri che sono il simbolo stesso della classicità, come l’Odissea e l’Eneide, e libri mai tradotti in italiano, ignoti al pubblico colto, o inediti. L’arco storico della raccolta è vastissimo: dai documenti micenei fino alle ultime testimonianze della grecità pagana, dalla letteratura latina arcaica a Boezio: capolavori della patristica greca e latina, vite dei santi, libri storici del primo e tardo Medioevo latino, e quella letteratura bizantina di cui il pubblico italiano ignora la ricchezza. Ogni volume della collana comprende: un’introduzione; una bibliografia; il testo originale, accompagnato da un apparato critico; la traduzione italiana; un commento, che chiarisce tutti gli elementi (d’ordine storico e filologico, archeologico e religioso, filosofico e simbolico, linguistico e stilistico) necessari alla comprensione e all’interpretazione del testo; indici e sussidi. I curatori sono scelti tra i maggiori studiosi dell’antichità classica e cristiana, della civiltà bizantina e del Medioevo latino, oggi attivi in ogni paese. Vengono pubblicati in media quattro volumi ogni anno.
Related Resources
UB Holdings: A complete list of volumes from the Scrittori greci e latini held by UB Libraries.
Wikipedia: The Italian Wikipedia article on the Scrittori offers information on the profile and scope of the series.
Primary Texts Online
- Thesaurus Linguae Graecae This link opens in a new window The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG®) is a Special Research Program at the University of California, Irvine. Founded in 1972 the TLG® represents the first effort in the Humanities to produce a large digital corpus of literary texts. Since its inception the project has collected and digitized most texts written in Greek from Homer (8 c. B.C.) to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453. Its goal is to create a comprehensive digital library of Greek literature from antiquity to the present era. TLG research activities combine the traditional methodologies of philological and literary study with the most advanced features of information technology. More InfoFull-TextUB ONLY
- Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL) This link opens in a new window The BTL Online database provides electronic access to all editions of Latin texts published in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana, ranging from antiquity and late antiquity to medieval and neo-Latin texts. A total of approximately 13 million word forms are thus accessible electronically. Each year, the database is extended by the texts of the newly printed Latin editions of the Bibliotheca Teubneriana. UB ONLY
- Perseus Digital Library Since planning began in 1985, the Perseus Digital Library Project has explored what happens when libraries move online. Two decades later, as new forms of publication emerge and millions of books become digital, this question is more pressing than ever. Perseus is a practical experiment in which we explore possibilities and challenges of digital collections in a networked world. Our flagship collection, under development since 1987, covers the history, literature and culture of the Greco-Roman world. We are applying what we have learned from Classics to other subjects within the humanities and beyond. We have studied many problems over the past two decades, but our current research centers on personalization: organizing what you see to meet your needs.
- The Latin Library These texts have been drawn from different sources. Many were originally scanned and formatted from texts in the Public Domain. Others have been downloaded from various sites on the Internet (many of which have long since disappeared). Most of the recent texts have been submitted by contributors around the world. Occasionally texts are submitted by contributors or discovered on the Internet without indication of the edition from which they derive. If I am unable to identify the edition (which is often the case), I have attempted, if feasible, to conform the text to an out–of–copyright edition. The texts are not intended for research purposes nor as substitutes for critical editions. Despite constant effort to remove “scanner artifacts” and other typographical errors, many such errors remain. The texts are presented merely for ease of on–line reading or for downloading for personal or educational use. No morphological or vocabulary aid is presented with the texts. Many sites exist for various texts and, most comprehensively, the outstanding Perseus site, where the texts are presented section by section with morphological links.