Hoi tou Kallimachou Kyrenaiou Hymnoi te Kai Epigrammata
by Callimachus
Callimachus was a Greek poet and scholar from the Hellenistic Age. He was born around 310-305BCE in Cyrene, North Africa and died c.240BCE in an unknown location. Callimachus had the extraordinary honor of being commissioned by the Egyptian king Ptolemy II to catalogue all the books in the Library of Alexandria. His completed catalogue contained 120 volumes which helped the library, but likely more importantly to Callimachus, allowed him to find and incorporation scholastic material into his poetry and prose (the latter of which, none survives from his time at Alexandria). The only poetry which survives intact to this day is Callimachus’s six Hymns and sixty-one short epigrams. The remainder of Callimachus’ surviving poetry is in fragments, much on papyri (and therefore likely from his time in Alexandria). [1] Notable among the plethora of prose works completed by Callimachus are the aforementioned catalogue of the Alexandrian Library and his foundational works on lexicography and pardoxography. [2]
This particular work from Wythe’s library contains the complete hymns and epigrams of Callimachus. The Hymns somewhat mirror the famous “Homeric Hymns” though Callimachus did not intend his to be performed. They were meant to be read to, or recited for, an audience interested in narrative. [3] The hymns to Zeus, Artemis and Delos highlight the gods’ birth and virtues, while those to Apollo, Athena and Demeter are dramatic “imagined ritual[s]” [4] Callimachus’s Epigrams, on the other hand, cover a wide variety of “literary, erotic, dedicatory, and sepulchral themes.” Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag Robert was a barber before enrolling in University of Glasgow courses, while Andrew “received a more regular education…[as] a student of Humanity” who taught Greek, Latin and French for a time after he graduated. [5] The brothers began as booksellers and then transitioned to publishing and printing books, with Robert initiating each endeavor before later being joined by Andrew. [6] In 1740-42, Robert had other printers print what he chose to publish, but began printing his own books in 1742 which continued until his and his brother’s deaths in 1775 and 1776, respectively, when Andrew’s son Andrew took over The Foulis Press. [7] The Foulis Press primarily produced text books and other “works of learning…and of general literature,” as it was the printer to the University of Glasgow. [8] The press is unique for the plethora of variant issues and editions of published books on special paper, in special font, or even on copper plates. [9]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Callimachus
Title: Hoi tou Kallimachou Kyrenaiou Hymnoi te Kai Epigrammata
Publication Info: Glasguae: Excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis, academiae typographi, 1755.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary, or near contemporary, calf. Purchased from Black Swan Books, Inc.
References
- ↑ "Calli'machus” in The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, ed. by M.C. Howatson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- ↑ " Callimachus " in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, ed. by John Roberts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- ↑ "Calli'machus”
- ↑ "Callimachus"
- ↑ Ibid 3.
- ↑ Ibid 6-10.
- ↑ Philip Gaskell, The Foulis Press (Hampshire, England: St. Paul’s Bibliographies), 15-17.
- ↑ Ibid 17-18.
- ↑ Ibid 18-19.
