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About the Classics Library Collection

Overview of the Classics Library Collection

The Classics Library Collection encompasses 100,000 volumes, 400 journals, and all the major databases. As the scope of the collection is wide, it includes materials that are of interest to researchers in a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, art history, English, modern languages, and history. Undergraduates, especially those who are enrolled in Classics courses, are encouraged to make use of the collections and of our reading room, in 225 Main Library.

The collection is especially strong in critical texts on and literature of the Greek and Latin authors, Greek and Latin grammar and lexicography, philology, epigraphy, and papyrology. A consistent policy of buying practically all publications of real value and of adding older material that still retains scholarly value has made the collection unusually well-rounded and useful in a practical way. Medieval Latin, patristics, and Byzantine Greek are also well-represented.

The collection is also strong in the particular research interests of different members of the faculty. For example, the book and pamphlet material is especially extensive for Aesop, Avianus, Epictetus, Homer, Jerome’s Lives of the Hermit Saints, Apuleius, Suetonius, Terence, the Greek and Latin romances, the social and economic aspects of Greek and Roman civilization, and the ancient collections of proverbs and fables.

In addition to the materials housed in Room 225, many classics-related works of wider scope may be found in the general stacks in the Main Library.

Overview of the Classics Library Classification System