In writing this book three questions chiefly interested me. What books and pamphlets did Richard Porson own? From whom did he acquire these materials? What has become of his holdings? Answering the first question was relatively easy. For over two hundred years students have known that, after his death, Porsons library was divided into two unequal parts. The larger portion was sent to auction, the smaller part, together with Porsons papers, was separately sold to Trinity College, Cambridge. To treat the problem I have examined all of the microfilm set of the Sotheby auction catalogues from 1783 to 1808, save when catalogues were not marked or the markings were too faint to decipher: notably Jan. 1, 1785; May 29, 1786; Jan. 22 and May 1, 1797; June 1788; Jan. 13, 1789; May 26, 1791; June 22, 1795; Jan. 1796; 1800; Nov. 14, 1803 through Dec. 3, 1804 (twenty-three catalogues); April 18 and May 29, 1805; April 14-30, May 19, June 5, July 2, 10, 15, 1806...or when the microfilm is imperfect. Likewise, I have seen, in London, most of Christies book catalogues from 1782 to 1808; and, in Los Angeles, much of the Frank Marcham collection at UCLA (coll. 416 boxes 10-34). Finally, I have seen almost all of Porsons books at Trinity and a few other places. From 1786 to 1808, Porson purchased hundreds of books and pamphlets. The records allow us to trace his purchases at forty-seven auctions. Of these, Leigh & Sotheby presented most of the sales. But Porson also bought at sales offered through Edwards, Robson and Clarke, King & Loche, and he at least interested himself in a Stewart sale. In addition, one has to take into account books given to Porson as prizes or gifts; perhaps books entrusted to him for review; and books for which he subscribed. Addressing the second question is complicated by three factors. First, there is the imperfection of the records. The archives of most houses do not sirvive; even the L&S house-files are, on occasion, imperfect or incompletely legible. Secondly, clerks wrote down what they heard. Often enough, they heard Pawson or Pauson, and it was needful to establish identity. Thirdly, there are difficulties in the way of determining specific editions: these range from the existence of multiple editions or impressions to incompleteness of library records and of descriptions of volumes of tracts.

Editors: May 1749-Sept. 1803, Ralph Griffiths; Oct. 1803-Apr. 1825, G. E. Griffiths.

This volume studies Sir Richard Jebb, Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge until his death in 1905, and the public competition ("praelections") in which five scholars - James Adam, Walter Headlam, Henry Jackson, William Ridgeway and Arthur Verrall - competed to become his successor. Eight essays are followed by Wilamowitz's entertaining review of the five candidates' orations, with a new translation by E. J. Kenney.

Professor C.O. Brink's English Classical Scholarship is the first sustained treatment since the early years of this century of the historical development of English classical scholarship. Brink shows the effect of the Italian Renaissance on nascent English scholarship and examines the contribution made by 17th century scholars such as Bishop Pearson and Thomas Gataker. He deals at length with the life of Richard Bentley, his troubled careers master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and above all the immenseadvances he made in classical studies, which were in turn developed by Richard Porson. He also shows how, paradoxically, in the Victorian era, while a classical education was seen as the key to advancement, classical scholarship almost wholly stagnated. Although the tradition of Bentley and Porson all but disappeared in England, it was nurtured by the great German scholars of the nineteenth century. It was only with the work of A. E. Housman that the tradition of the greatest classical scholars returned to its native land and Professor Brink shows how it began again to make a contribution to the 'European fund'.