Unvollendetes: the Oxford Plato lexicon

Whitaker, G. (2007) Unvollendetes: the Oxford Plato lexicon. In: Classical Books: Scholarship and Publishing in Britain since 1800. Series: Bulletin (University of London. Institute Of Classical Studies) Supplement, 101. Institute of Classical Studies.

Abstract

In one obvious sense this paper is a misfit within a book that otherwise charts so much achievement. The unfinished project that it describes occupied the attention of two Scottish professors and, in its later reincarnation, a distinguished German academic, himself subsequently a professor, for a total of thirty-six years. Publishing projects that come to nothing are often at least as interesting as those that come to fruition; they will never be able to claim significance, but they may instead provide mystery or perhaps a salutary lesson. I offer two excuses for unearthing the story of the Plato Lexicon. First, it is reasonably well documented; second, it illustrates a number of features about the history of classical scholarship and publishing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although in one sense the story is incomplete and remains a mystery, the answers to several important questions are clear enough: how and why the project came into being, how it was undertaken, and why it failed.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Whitaker, Mr Graham
• Authors: Whitaker, G.
• Subjects: Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z004 Books. Writing. Paleography; P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
• College/School: University Services > Library and Collection Services > Library; College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Classics
• Publisher: Institute of Classical Studies
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2007 Institute of Classical Studies
• First Published: London