Classics
Clientele: Primary clientele is the Department of Classics with 10 regular faculty, but there are at least again as many interested faculty in other departments: History, Government, English, Romance Studies, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Near Eastern Studies and History of Art.
Existing collection: ECS 4-- LANG: W
Since the Greek and Roman Classics have been taught at Cornell from the very inception of the University and in fact constituted the core of the Humanities curriculum well into the 20th century, the existing Classics collection is quite strong in older text editions, monographs , reference works and early journal runs. Much of this material is not superseded and still in active use today. Coverage of the scholarly literature in the major European languages continues fairly solid up to the late 1970's. After that the collection is noticeably uneven, with wide gaps in holdings of more recent scholarship. Many important series and single monographs are lacking, primarily although not exclusively of Continental origin, with holdings of recent Italian publications especially weak ( estimated at no more than 2+/3- level.) This greatly detracts from the overall utility of the collection since most important scholarship in classics has been and still is European, with the Italians playing a critical role in Roman history and archaeology.
Current collecting: CCI 3+ LANG: W
Available resources are insufficient to acquire more than a selection of currently published literature, let alone any retrospective material. As a results, existing gaps are perpetuated and new ones continuously formed. Priority is given to maintaining the existing base of serials and monographic series. Remaining funds are used to acquire, on a highly selective basis, monographs relevant to known research interests of the current faculty. No electronic resources (a few very useful but expensive CD-ROM versions of large texts are available) can be acquired. No new series subscriptions can be started which is unfortunate since much of the important literature in Classics is published in series.
Subjects covered: LC classes; B 108-708, BL 780829, CN 350-740, DF 10-289,DG 11-365, KJA, PA 1-4500, PA 6001-6971.
The collection covers all aspects of the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome: archaeology, history, government, economics, society, language & literature, religion & mythology, philosophy, epigraphy, numismatics and law. General chronological boundaries are from the Bronze age (ca. 2500 B.C on Crete) to the fall of the Roman Empire in the west (476 A.D.) Geographically selection extends to all areas which fell within the Greaco-Roman cultural or political sphere, but only for those periods during which such inclusion was actually in force. For example, Roman Britain is included, but pre-Roman (i.e. Celtic) and post-Roman (i.e Anglo-Saxon) Britain is not. Languages include all known Greek dialects, all Italic dialects and all non-Italic dialects of the Italian peninsula. Also included is the study of the Classics and the history of Classical scholarship in all periods and places.
Geographical information:
In order of importance, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the United States and the Netherlands are the leading centers of contemporary scholarly publication in Classics. The second tier includes the remaining Western European countries. There is some activity in a few countries outside of Europe, notably the larger Latin American countries, Japan, Australia and Israel, but while some of these contributions may be individually important in the aggregate they amount to only a small fraction of the overall output in the field. One reason for this is that much of the significant non-European (except U.S) scholarship is actually published by European publishers.
Exclusions:
1. Greek and Roman music: collected by Music Library.
2. Greek and Roman art : collected primarily by FAL. Some material may be collected for Olin, especially if it is part of general Classics series.
3. Greek and Roman Science: collected by History of Science bibliographers.
4. Any aspects of Judaism in the Graeco-Roman world, including Jewish writings in Greek (e. Josephus, Septuagint): collected by Jewish Studies bibliographer.
5. Most early Christian (Patristic) writings even if composed before 476 A.D.: collected by the Religion bibliographer. Some such literature may be included, as may general works about Christianity in the Roman empire.
6. Writings in Greek and Latin composed after ca. 500 A.D.: collected by Medieval Studies and Romance Literatures bibliographer(s)
7. Writings in and about non-Graeco-Roman languages of the Classical world (e.g, Gaulish, Iberian )
8. Greece and Rome after 476 A.D (notably the Byzantine empire): collected by Medieval Studies bibliographer.
