Academic CentreThe historical collection of Classical Philology was created during the thirties of the 20th century and stocked up by various means. In 1922 about 300 books were purchased, while in 1926 the University of Padova made a gift of 2,000 valuable original and translated editions by antique authors. During all the 20th century this collection has been replenished with books necessary for the study process.
The collection now contains about 3,860 items, 1560 of which are in Ancient Greek and about 1000 in Latin. Together with the works in original languages there are scientific literature and translations into foreign languages, mostly German but also French and Italian and these total about 1300 items.
The books were published in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries but mostly the 19th. There are some special rare editions as well, including the poetry of Horatius in Latin and Italian, published in 1682, a multivolume selection of Tacitus’ works, published in 1772 and selected letters of Cicero in French translation, published in 1801.
The historical collection of Classical Philology is rich in the original works of ancient Greek and Roman authors and translations, as well as publications on the historical, geographical, political, religious and literary discourse of the ancient world. Widely and richly represented are the works of philosophers Aristotle, Plato and Cicero and historians Plutarch, Thucydides, Xenophon and Titus Livius. The works of poets Horace, Juvenal, Persius Flaccus, Ovid, Homer, Hesiod, grammarian Aulus Gellius and others are also represented, together with studies about them.
One of the most valuable items is the so called “Aristotelian corpus”, which is an academic edition in 5 volumes of all his extant writings. Also considered as valuable are philosophical works by Plato, edited by J.G.J. Hermann (1772-1848). The collection holds a rather complete corpus of Roman grammarians’ works, on which all teaching of grammar is based.
Items can be ordered via the Union catalog.
List of the editions included in the collection is available here.
