Harvard University officially inaugurated the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library on March 3, 2011, with the Beowulf manuscript, a volume containing two manuscripts of secular Latin poetry, and St. Jerome’s Latin translation of the Pentateuch paired with the 17th century Douay-Reims translation.
The Medieval Library is meant to fill the gap between the Loeb Classical Library and the I. Tatti Renaissance Library. The 512-volume Loeb Library is currently celebrating its 100th anniversary, and the Tatti Library, its 10th.
Harvard University Press will distribute the new series, making “the written achievements of medieval cultures more readily available to scholars and general readers in the English-speaking world.”
Classics Professor Jan M. Ziolkowski, the director of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, initiated the new translation series and expressed hope that it will “foster an environment in which the works can be read and appreciated for their beauty.”
Read the original article in The Harvard Crimson.
I miss all those red and green Loeb Classical Library volumes in the library stacks. To my surprise and delight, many of them are available on Amazon.com, along with a nice introductory volume (shown at left) that contains gems from 33 important texts. I acquired a few of the Latin Loeb Classics in grad school, but coveted the series. The Latin volumes have red covers, and Greek, blue covers. Each volume has the original text and English translation side-by-side on facing pages.
