Scrinium Classical Antiquity

WOS, J.W., Alessandro di Masovia vescovo di Trento (1423-1444). Un profilo introduttivo. Gruppo Culturale Civis, Biblioteca Cappucini Trento, Trento, 1990. 195p. ills.(B&W photographs Sewn. Cover a bit foxed. Series: Civis, Supplemento 6. € 19.50 (Antiquarian)

WOSIEN, M-G., De Magische Dans. Ontmoeting met de goden. (Vertaald uit het Engels). DeHaan, Bussum, 1974.128p. ills. Wireless. € 13.50 (Antiquarian)

WOUDE, A.M. van der, Het Noorderkwartier. Een regionaal historisch onderzoek in de demografische en economische geschiedenis van westelijk Nederland van de late middeleeuwen tot het begin van de negentiende eeuw. Deel I. Deel II. Deel III. Veenman & Zonen, Wageningen, 1972. (iii),258;259-614;615-857p. Sewn. A few light stains to spine and back cover vol.2. € 15.00 (Antiquarian)

WOYTEK, E., Die Ciris im Kontext der Augusteischen Dichtung. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, 2018. 261. Paperback. A lot of pencil markings and annotions made by a reviewer. Series: Wiener Studien, Beiheft 39. In his monograph Erich Woytek tackles the Cirisfrage - the question of the authorship and the date of composition of the pseudo-Virgilian poem Ciris - and offers a solution: the Ciris was written in 27-26 B.C. by Asinius Pollio. How does he arrive at it? The Ciris poses a paradox: while the poem's internal features point to a date of composition in the Late Republic, its numerous and often extensive parallels with Virgil may seem to betray a borrower. The debate, initiated in 1901 by Franz Skutsch and reopened in 1999 by Dorothea Gall [1], has mainly concentrated on a comparative analysis of these parallels, on the belief that it is possible to establish for which text a shared passage was originally composed. Initially the main criterion was 'better fit' in terms of meaning, which led Skutsch and Friedrich Leo (Skutsch's main opponent) to the opposite conclusions. [2] Gall introduced a new approach: she asked in which text a shared passage is stylistically more at home, and concluded that parallels are usually more typical of the Ciris' style than Virgil's. Woytek proposes a set of further formal criteria for distinguishing between the original and the imitation and argues that the poem was composed after the Georgics, but before the Aeneid. Woytek analyses a large corpus of parallels in the Ciris, Virgil, and Ovid (among others) and sketches a kind of typology of the ways in which a borrowed or imitated passage can be recognised as such when compared with its original. (...) While Woytek's treatment of this material is always detailed and penetrating, I have several issues with his typology and its application. (...) Woytek's readings of individual parallels between the Ciris and Virgil or Ovid are often stimulating and can indeed produce arguments on the dating of the Ciris, as long as these are considered in the framework of other relevant facts rather than as self-sufficient formal criteria. (...) To sum up: Woytek's monograph is not the last word in the Cirisfrage, but it is inspiring to see that the debate goes on.' (BORIS KAYACHEV in Sehepunkte Kayachev, 15.10.2018 € 45.00 (Antiquarian)

WOYTEK, E., (ed.), T. Maccius Plautus Persa. Einleitung, Text und Kommentar. Together with: Offprint Antidosis. Festschrift für Walther Kraus zum 70. Geburtstag, pp.477-486: E. WOYTEK, Plautus, Persa 228-232 (Zur Verteilung der Verse). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, 1982. 466p. Sewn. With editor’s dedication on free endpaper.'The most instructive component of W.'s commentary is the copious material he has assembled from other Plautine plays to illustrate the lexical, syntactical and stylistic phenomena of the Persa text. (...) Wilamowitz (...) located the original of the Latin play in the period of the 'middle' comedy and found here the source of its many singularities. W.'s introduction is largely taken up with an effort to demolish Wilamowitz's theory. The singularities of the play are used to support a dating of the original to the period after the flowering of the 'new' comdey. What reminded Wilamowitz of the 'old' Attic comedy spurs in W. speculation about Hellenistic farce. (...). W's discussion of the the stock situations and characters of ancient comdey is intelligent and will be of interest however little one accepts his belief in the possibiblity of tracing genetic relationships between motifs or his view of the Persa as a close version of a nearly contemporary Attic piece. (H.D. JOCELYN in The Classical Review (New Series), 1983, pp.196-97). 'W. has done us a service. He provides a useful introduction to the problems of Persa, a challenging text, and a commentary that will put future literary discussion on a firmer philological base. Readers may regret that his work is not better, but they will not be sorry to have it.' (SANDER M. GOLDBERG in Classical Philology, 1984.p.250). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott. € 52.50 (Antiquarian)

WRAY, J.A., An Elementary Introduction to the Taita Language. Eastern Equatorial Africa. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1894. 128p. Cloth. Small personal library mark and name on free endpaper. Nice copy. (Rare thus).From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 29.50 (Antiquarian)

WREN, M.C., Ancient Russia. Drawings by E. Hammond. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, n.d.(>1965). 126p. ills. Bound wrps. Series: A young historian book. € 12.00 (Antiquarian)

WRIGHT, F.A., The Arts in Greece. Three Essays. The Dance. Music. Painting. Longmans, London, 1923. VIII,111p. Cloth. Some rust stains on the edges. Cover partly discoloured and scratched. € 16.00 (Antiquarian)

WRIGHT, J., Dancing in Chains: The Stylistic Unity of the Comoedia Palliata. American Academy in Rome, Rome, 1974. XIII,230p. Cloth wrps. With author’s dedication on free endpaper. Series: Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. XXV. (Rare).'Wright begins by making Plautus illustrate Plautus. Most. 1-8 is a vivid and spontaneous-seeming exchange, yet the diction is (...) economical and formulaic, though carefully chosen for aural effects. (...) this is shown by full citation and precise discussion of parallels which here as elsewhere (...) are not new but which, because of the compression of the traditional commentary or edition, are not usually worked through in this way. (...) it directs attention to the other writers of 'palliatae'. (...) This prepares the way for chapters on the comic fragments of Andronicus, Naevius, the minor poets (Ennius, Trabea, Atilius, Licinius Imbrex, Juventius, Luscius, Aquilius), Caecilius, Terence, Turpilius. the books ends with a brief survey of the circumstances in which Roman Comedy developed and some remarks on the problems of the literary criticism of Plautus (...). there is a useful index and a full index locorum. (...). Do not be put off by the trendy title: this is an excellent book, clear, concise, graceful, and unpretentious. Wright never seems hurried, and he judges nicely the amounts of enumeration and exemplification appropriate to a question.' (A.S. GRATWICK in The Classical Review (New Series), 1978, pp.73-74). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott. € 85.00 (Antiquarian)

WRIGHT, J.E., The Early History of Heaven. Oxford University Press, Oxford/NewYork, 2000. XVIII,318p. Bound wrps. This volume traces the backgrounds, origin, and development of early Jewish and Christian speculation about the heavenly realm - where it is, what it looks like, and who its inhabitants are. Wright begins his study with an examination of the beliefs of ancient Israel's neighbours Egypt and Mesopotamia, reconstructing the intellectual context in which the earliest biblical images of heaven arose. A detailed analysis of the Hebrew biblical texts themselves then reveals that the Israelites were deeply influenced by images drawn from the surrounding cultures. Wright goes on to examine Persian and Greco-Roman beliefs, thus setting the stage for his consideration of early Jewish and Christian images, which he shows to have been formed in the struggle to integrate traditional biblical imagery with the newer Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos. In a final chapter Wright offers a brief survey of how later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions envisioned the heavenly realms. (Publisher's information). € 65.00 (Antiquarian)