Before the arrival of the Internet, generations of scholars of antiquity were served by a major printed encyclopedia offering information on all aspects relating to the literature and history of the ancient world. The encyclopedia, known to scholars familiarly as the Pauly-Wissowa or the Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, comprised an impressive 83 volumes when it was finally completed in 1980. The work, which was begun in 1890 under the editorial control of Georg Wissowa was envisaged initially as a revision of an earlier, six-volume encyclopedia begun in 1839 by fellow German scholar, August Pauly. On Pauly's death in 1845, his work was completed by Christian Waltz and Wilhelm Teuffel in 1852. Apart from the sheer size of the Pauly Wissowa encyclopedia together with a correspondingly high purchase price, the work had been compiled over a time-span covering almost a century by a good many specialist contributors and suffered accordingly from a wide variation in the standard of individual articles. Moreover, as the encyclopedia was written in German, the work's usefulness was, of course, restricted to scholars with an adequate command of the German language.
In 1964, J.B. Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung embarked on the publication of a much abbreviated and updated version of the encyclopedia known by scholars as Der Kleine Pauly which was duly completed in 1975 in five volumes. More recently a further revision called Der Neue Pauly was started in 1996 from the same publishing house and the main work completed in 18 volumes in 2003 with a further 7 supplements appearing between 2004 and 2012. In cooperation with the German publishers, Dutch publisher Koninklijke Brill has now made the Neue Pauly available in an English translation, of which the volume under review is the sixth and final supplement. A full review of the English language edition of Brill's New Pauly by Stephen Pomes appeared in these columns in 2003 (RR 2003/271), while a previous supplement was covered in 2007 (RR 2007/344).
The present volume is a biographical encyclopedia of major scholars who have contributed significantly to the field of classical studies. It has been edited by Peter Kuhlmann and Helmuth Schneider of the universities of Gottingen and Kassel, respectively, aided by a team of editors each responsible for broad thematic areas, and supported, in turn, by > 250 contributors. The work contains biographies of some 2,500 individuals who have contributed to one or more aspects of the study of antiquity. In their brief but enlightening foreword, editors Kuhlmann and Schneider point out that, although great weight is nowadays rightly attached to research institutions, nevertheless, advances in scholarship come about through the work of individual scholars and by virtue of their insight, interests and creativity. Certainly advances in the study of ancient civilizations have often come about through the efforts of single individuals, such as Heinrich Schliemann, who devoted much of his life to establishing the location of the city of Troy and its destruction by a foreign power; Michael Ventris, who opened a window on Mycenaean civilization by deciphering the Linear B tablets; and Harold Mattingley whose life's work was the compilation of a catalogue raisonné of Roman imperial coinage. The lives and work of all these scholars will be found discussed at length in the present volume.
The volume begins with a 30-page article tracing the development of classical studies from Petrarch to the twentieth century. Included here are discussions of the printing of classical texts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the acquisition of the Hamilton collection of classical vases by the British Museum in the nineteenth century and the beginning of excavations to reveal the secrets of Pompeii. The main body of the work consists of the biographical articles which range from less than a page to several pages in the case of major figures such as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Heinrich Schliemann. Brief biographical details of each subject are included together with an exposition of the individual's work and influence, as well as writings by and about the individual discussed. Each article is signed by its respective author. The volume is completed by an index of names of individuals mentioned throughout the volume, both those who are the subject of individual entries, as well as others mentioned in passing.
In compiling a biographical encyclopedia of individuals active in a discrete subject area a primary consideration for editors is naturally the decision of who to include or to omit. For an area covering so extensive a time-span, this dilemma is obviously especially acute. Nevertheless, the editors are to be congratulated on the compilation of this valuable resource which includes not only the early humanists such as Aldus Manutius, Erasmus and Poggio Bracciolini but also modern scholars such as Arnoldo Momigliano, Denys Page and C. M. Bowra. Scholars will not search in vain for the famous such as Arthur Evans, Flinders Petrie, Richard Bentley and Carl Blegen. However, entries will also be found for other individuals familiar only to the most serious of scholars, such as George Grote and Richard Jebb. Researchers might, perhaps, be surprised to find entries for Karl Marx, whose theories on socialism owed much to concepts expounded by Aristotle, as well as Friedrich Nietzsche. They may be even more surprised by the inclusion of Jane Ellen Harrison, a nineteenth century British academic active at a time when few women were admitted to scholarly circles.
Whilst the work is an integral part of the complete New Pauly it may also be purchased as a stand-alone work and consulted separately. The high price of this volume and, indeed, of the complete encyclopedia suggest that it is clearly aimed at academic institutions where the study of antiquity forms part of the teaching curriculum and is of interest to serious scholars in this field. Although there is less demand nowadays for courses which require proficiency in the languages of antiquity, courses which study the importance of these civilizations in world history and culture remain as popular as ever, thus ensuring a ready market for the work. This volume will doubtless provide many hours of serendipitous pleasure and anyone contemplating research into the life and work of individuals who have contributed to the study of antiquity will find this an invaluable source of information.
The Brill publishing house has a well-deserved reputation for scholarly publishing in the field of studies of antiquity, and it is, therefore, especially fitting that it should undertake responsibility for production of this English language edition of the Neue Pauly. Classical scholars will recognise that it is also highly appropriate given that the Brill publishing house is located in the Dutch university town of Leiden which, in the seventeenth century, was itself home to one of the most important publishing houses responsible for the printing and diffusion of classical texts, the Elsevier family. The present volume marks the completion of arguably the most important reference work for the study of antiquity, and thanks are due to the Brill for making this available in English and thus to a wider audience.
