best edition of aeneid

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DoctorBadger
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best edition of aeneid

Post by DoctorBadger »

Hi, I want to read Virgil soon? Can anyone suggest a good publisher? The Maclardy edition on amazon seems good. I would prefer footnotes rather than notes hidden later on in the book (why?) and more the merrier, scansion, and the whole thing, not just one book or two. Also a kindle edition with footnotes, would be good too.

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seneca2008
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by seneca2008 »

It’s difficult to know what to recommend as I don’t know what your proficiency in Latin is. I guess that if you are looking at Maclardy you are a beginner. This seems to be an inter linear translation which in my opinion will be a positive hindrance to your learning anything about Virgil. There are threads on Textkit on inter linears which debate their supposed merits and considerable defects. Read carefully and at your peril.

Pharr is one possibility https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aeneid-Bks-1-6 ... way&sr=8-1 as are the focus commentaries https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aeneid-1-6-Foc ... =8-1-fkmr0

Pharr is probably available second hand.

More advanced are the series by Austen eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aeneid-Bk-1-Vi ... 0198720343

There are also individual book commentaries in the Cambridge green and yellow series but these are more suited to more advanced undergraduate study.

This might prove helpful too http://vergil.classics.upenn.edu/
Persuade tibi hoc sic esse, ut scribo: quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per neglegentiam fit. Et si volueris attendere, maxima pars vitae elabitur male agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus.

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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Page, if you can find a copy:

http://dcc.dickinson.edu/aeneid-vergil-books-i-vi

Also Bennet and Greenough if you can find them. The commentary is stashed after the text in both, but they offer magnificent help for beginning and intermediate readers, not only grammar and syntax hints, but literary devices, background, cross references to Homer and other ancient literature.

Hey! There are a few copies available on Amazon (I found mine by haunting used bookstores and through the Philadelphia Classical Society yearly book give-away at our annual professional meeting).

https://www.amazon.com/Virgils-Aeneid-C ... B00404X87Y

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Greenough+Vi ... nb_sb_noss

All of the above only cover Books 1-6, because these or selections thereof are the most frequently read in school settings. With Greenough though you also get "other Latin poets..." :) along with Vergil...
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Cuncta mortalia incerta...

donhamiltontx
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by donhamiltontx »

Barry Hofstetter wrote: Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:31 pm Page, if you can find a copy:

http://dcc.dickinson.edu/aeneid-vergil-books-i-vi

Also Bennet and Greenough if you can find them. The commentary is stashed after the text in both
If you download the Page, you can print the poem separately from the commendary, if that's more convenient. You can also use a razor blade or box cutter in a hardbound copy to separate the commentary from the text for convenience as well. This goes too much against the grain for some, perhaps.

scotistic
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by scotistic »

Barry Hofstetter wrote: Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:31 pm Page, if you can find a copy:

http://dcc.dickinson.edu/aeneid-vergil-books-i-vi

Also Bennet and Greenough if you can find them. The commentary is stashed after the text in both, but they offer magnificent help for beginning and intermediate readers, not only grammar and syntax hints, but literary devices, background, cross references to Homer and other ancient literature.

Hey! There are a few copies available on Amazon (I found mine by haunting used bookstores and through the Philadelphia Classical Society yearly book give-away at our annual professional meeting).

https://www.amazon.com/Virgils-Aeneid-C ... B00404X87Y

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Greenough+Vi ... nb_sb_noss

All of the above only cover Books 1-6, because these or selections thereof are the most frequently read in school settings. With Greenough though you also get "other Latin poets..." :) along with Vergil...
Page covers all of Virgil in three volumes, Eclogues and Georgics in one, Aeneid I-VI in another, VII-XII in a third. I found them all in different used bookstores, old red Macmillans.

I used an interlinear when I was pretty new to Latin, then Pharr's Aeneid I-VI text later, then all three Page volumes later still. I got a lot out of all of them. I'm reading through the Aeneid again right now, but straight out of the OCT.

DoctorBadger
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by DoctorBadger »

Thanks for the advice. I myself am a fan of limited inter linear, maybe just one book or two to know I'm not missing anything. But I can't bear endless page turning.
I think inter linear can stop one's mind getting into the abstract yet literal state of mind so welcome when getting into a text.

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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by Aetos »

If you want to go just one step beyond interlinears, there's Charles Knapp's Virgil . It's available on the archive.org site. I happen to have it in my library and was leafing through it the other day and thought this would be good for someone's first attempt at Virgil. The commentary is in a split page format (text on top, notes on the bottom)so you don't have to flip pages. He's even marked the entire text with macrons for the long vowels (although you shouldn't get too attached to them! It's rare to find them in the advanced textbooks and I don't think you'll ever see them in any scholar's edition) . Page's commentary is undoubtedly superior, but this may be more convenient for you. Here's a link :
https://archive.org/details/aeneidvergilboo00knapgoog

DoctorBadger
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by DoctorBadger »

DoctorBadger wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 5:12 pm Thanks for the advice. I myself am a fan of limited inter linear, maybe just one book or two to know I'm not missing anything. But I can't bear endless page turning.
I think inter linear can stop one's mind getting into the abstract yet literal state of mind so welcome when getting into a text.
Just wanted to say how much I agree with this. It's a state of mind. And abstract yet literal sums it up nicely.
Your mind relaxes, and it just comes. In some respect Latin is less word centric, sometimes whole phrases seem like one word.

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Dante
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by Dante »

I like the Williams commentaries (in two volumes) published by Bristol Classical Press. But try to find a used copy, the new reprints apparently are messed up (see the comments on the Amazon page)

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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by mwh »

I'd say the best edition is Mynors' OCT. But maybe that's not what you mean by "edition."

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Dante
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by Dante »

If you have a public library card number you can log on to the Oxford Scholarly Editions website where they have the Mynors edition and many commentaries. You can have the OCT text in one pane, a commentary in another pane and notes in a third, all hyperlinked to each other.

DoctorBadger
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Re: best edition of aeneid

Post by DoctorBadger »

hi, I have decided I want the pharr or focus aeneids., with commentary but with no interlinear or scansion. I would like to know if they leave enough space between lines to add scansion? up till now I have printed off plain text with macrons in .txt format and referred to commentary and scansion online, but having one book would be great.
so to sum up: I would like enough space for scansion, and commentary, word by word would be ok ( but can get a bit silly) so at least the mildly difficult stuff. oh and macrons would be essential.
I am a beginner after all.
commentary on the same page and hard back would be nice too.
any advice?

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