Bibliotheca Classica
- John Lempriere, D.D., A Classical Dictionary; containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors: with the the value of coins, weights, and measures, used among the Greeks and Romans; and a chronological table. The fourteenth edition, corrected. London. Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1826.
- John Lemprière, Bibliotheca Classica, or, a Dictionary of All the Principal Names and Terms Relating to the Geography, Topography, History, Literature, and Mythology of Antiquity and of the Ancients: with a Chronological Table. Revised and corrected, and divided, under separate heads, into three parts: part I, geography, topography, &c.; part II, history, antiquities, &c.; part III, mythology; by Lorenzo L. Da Ponte and John D. Ogilby. Fifteenth American edition, greatly enlarged in the historical department, by Lorenzo L. Da Ponte. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1856. Retrieved on 2020-05-26.
- For an appreciation of the importance of this work, see Bibliotheca Classica on Wikipedia.
The peculiar circumstances under which the present edition of Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary is offered to the public, and the changes which have been introduced into the plan of the work, and still more in its execution, appear to demand from the editors an exposition of the views by which they have been governed, and a justification of the various alterations which they have ventured to make. They feel, however, that no apology can be required for the liberties which they have taken with the text of Lempriere. The design of his work, the most comprehensive of all the publications of the class that have appeared, either in this country or in England, and which has secured to it an unequalled popularity, can hardly atone for the many glaring and pernicious inaccuracies which deface the detail ; inaccuracies misleading the mind, and sometimes mixed with grosser failings, to pervert the moral sense and feeling of the youthful inquirer who may have recourse to its pages. It was first in this city that the attention of the public was called to these defects, and that some attempt was made to correct them ; and the last American Edition may be considered, by the approbation with which it was received, to have ascertained and collected the public voice in favour of further amendments. More recently, the Quarterly Journal of Education undertook the task of reviewing the original book; and that paper, published under the authority of names beyond all competition in letters, among which are those of Lord Brougham, Lord John Russel, Sir T. Denman, Hallam, Hobhouse, Maltby, Mill, and Pattison, appears to have set on it the final seal of absolute reprobation. Impressed with a full conviction of the utter worthlessness of an authority so universally sought after, and so incessantly consulted, the editors of the present edition had long contemplated the publication of a volume which should resemble Lempriere's in nothing but in the outline of its plan; in embracing, namely, a general account of antiquity. With this view, they proceeded to separate the Mythological from the Geographical and Historical parts, and these from each other; intending, for the sake of distinctness, to treat them separately, that the certain and actual narrations and descriptions which belong to the historian and geographer might not be blended with the fictitious or allegorical representations of the poet or mythologian. To this they were the rather induced, from observation of the inevitable and irremediable confusion produced in the mind of the youthful readers of Lempriere, as a consequence of the indiscriminate blending of these separate objects of study. Even the mind accustomed to analysis may be sometimes bewildered, and forget the truth in its heterogeneous mixture with fable. Having accomplished this separation, they had intended to re-write every article, and to introduce such new ones as might appear requisite to make the work what it purports to be, a complete Bibliotheca Classica. Before, however, they could even prepare for the commencement of this task, by procuring from Europe the proper authorities, the call of their publisher required them to begin ; and the demand of the market, they were informed, was of so urgent a character, that unless the work could appear within a limited time, it was considered as of no avail to prepare it. This call the editors were not at liberty to disregard, from the nature of their contract, and from the engagements which had arisen out of it between their publishers and other parties not originally concerned. The seventh edition is presented, therefore, with great diffidence to the public as the result of three months’ labour, bestowed on it by the editors in the evenings of days devoted to professional avocations. Under circumstances such as these, it was impossible that the whole work should be re-written, or even submitted to a perfect revision ; and as the Geographical department has always been held the most important, at the same time that it was the most incorrect in the original work, it will be observed that that department has claimed the principal care of the editors. The addition of many new articles, in all, it is believed, amounting to several hundred, was the smallest part of their labour; the greater number of all those which were to be found in former edition, being entirely re-written in this. The geography of Italy and Greece has recently been admirably illustrated by the research and the labours of many learned scholars ; but no writer has succeeded in describing more accurately or more eloquently the interesting cities, rivers, and mountains, of those countries, all equally connected with the most pleasing associations of the classical scholar, than the Rev. J. A Cramer, in his Geographical descriptions of Ancient Italy and Greece. The results of this able antiquary’s investigations the editors have freely transferred to their pages, having put to the test of a strict comparison with the ancient authorities the passages of which they have thus availed themselves. This may detract in some measure from the originality of their work, but it is confidently presumed that it will greatly add to its value. The editors, however, believe that whatever they may have now first introduced, and with whatever exactness they may have corrected the original articles, they have performed in that a less useful work than in the scrupulous care with which they have removed from their pages the offensive matter with which those of the first author were so profusely stained, and which were not thoroughly eradicated in any subsequent edition.
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