The Center for Hellenic Studies

Collection Areas and Databases

  • Comprehensive coverage for ancient Greek philology (language and literature); ancient Greek history; ancient Greek philosophy; ancient Greek religion; ancient Greek science and medicine; ancient Greek epigraphy; Greek papyrology; ancient Greek numismatics; classical scholarship (Greek).  
  • Selective coverage for Greek palaeography to ca. 430, classical Greek art and architecture; classical Greek archaeology; Latin philology, Etruscan, Italic, and Latin epigraphy; ancient history (Roman Empire); ancient religion (Etruscan, Roman, early Christianity).
  • Major titles for prehistoric archaeology (the Near East, Egypt, Anatolia, the Aegean, mainland Greece); early modern and modern Greece; Etruscan, Italic and Roman archaeology; Etruscan, Italic, Roman art and architecture; Roman numismatics; post 430 CE palaeography (Greek and Latin); history of humanism and the classical tradition; history of science.

Some Basic Greek Texts and Databases

Editions of Greek Texts

  • Text editions, including Teubner, OCT, Budé, and LCL are interfiled with the author entries throughout the PA section. A few Loeb texts are shelved as a separate set. There are occasional Loebs, for example, shelved also in other call number sections such as in B for philosophy, R for medicine, etc., by author (or by title if there is no author). Whereas you can locate volumes in the following series by searching on an individual author, you can also access them as series: 
  • To search for the Greek Teubner texts, type “Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana” in the Advanced Search module in HOLLIS, limiting your search to “Ancient, Greek (to 1453)” under Language, “Library Catalog” in the Search menu and “Ctr for Hellenic Studies” in the drop-down menu.
  • To search for the Greek Budé editions, type (Société d’Edition “Les Belles lettres”) “Collection des universités de France” and “Série grecque” in the Advanced Search module in HOLLIS, limiting your search to “Ancient, Greek (to 1453)” under Language (if you do not specify “Série grecque”), “Library Catalog” in the top Search menu and “Ctr for Hellenic Studies” in the drop-down menu.
  • To search for the Greek OCT, type, “Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca Oxoniensis” in the Advanced Search module in HOLLIS, limiting your search to “Ancient, Greek (to 1453)” under Language, “Library Catalog” in the top Search menu and “Ctr for Hellenic Studies” in the drop-down menu. 
  • To search for the Greek Loebs, type “Loeb Classical Library” in the Advanced Search module in HOLLIS, limiting your search to “Ancient, Greek (to 1453)” under Language, “Library Catalog,” in the top Search menu and “Ctr for Hellenic Studies” in the drop-down menu.”
  • A few of the Mondadori Scrittori greci e latini texts are also available in the CHS library by author, type “Scrittori greci e latini” and Greek in the Advanced Search module in HOLLIS, limiting your search to “Ancient, Greek (to 1453)” under Language, “Library Catalog” in the top Search menu and “Ctr for Hellenic Studies” in the drop-down menu.”
  • Several of the volumes in the Cambridge classical texts and commentaries series are available in the CHS library. Type “Cambridge classical texts and commentaries” in the Advanced Search module in HOLLIS, limiting your search to “Ancient, Greek (to 1453)” under Language, “Library Catalog” in the top Search menu and “Ctr for Hellenic Studies” in the drop-down menu.
  • Many Greek OCT texts are available online through HOLLIS as are several Latin Teubner editions, and some Greek Teubner texts are in HathiTrust linked to in HOLLIS, and all the Loeb Classical Library volumes (though not all individual editions) are available online. 

Direct Links to Select Ancient Greek Databases

Many of the resources below have open access; others, though, require access to the HarvardKey which is given to CHS residential fellows to access resources also off campus (July 1-June 30 of the year of the fellowship). However, one of the privileges of being a CHS reader is that, while on the CHS campus, also readers have access to the e-resources of Harvard University. The resources below are just a few subjectively chosen ones with direct links for ease of access with the acknowledgement that whereas many residential fellows are seasoned researchers and very familiar with the resources below; others that come from smaller institutions or institutions in Europe may be less so. The same holds true for readers. Most of the resources below can also be searched, located, and accessed via HOLLIS if a link goes bad.

  • Athenian Onomasticon
    This useful resource is based on names found in Lexicon of Greek Personal Names II (Attica), Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Inscriptiones Graecae II, and other sources. Open access. 
  • Database of Classical Scholars
    The work on this database was begun by Rebecka Lindau and the late Larissa Bonfante, upon Professor Bonfante’s suggestion, as part of the efforts of the FCLSC in the Society for Classical Studies. It was continued and completed by other members of the committee and is now hosted at Rutgers with Ward W. Briggs, Jr as editor. Scholars’ names are continuously added. Open access.
  • Who’s Who in the Classical World (OUP)
    Useful, but rather scant coverage of women in antiquity (e.g., Telesilla, Erinna, Nossis, Sulpicia, Anyte of Tegea, Vibia Perpetua, Hypatia, and several others are absent) Requires HarvardKey to access off campus.

  • Mirador Viewer
    Enables image annotation and comparison of images from repositories dispersed around the world. Mark Schiefsky, director of CHS, is currently developing a database using Mirador technology to provide access to digitized manuscripts from around the world and to enable searchable annotations, such as metadata and commentary. Open access and source.  
  • Omeka
    Open-source web-based platform to share digital collections and create virtual exhibitions. This is a web publishing, not a textual mining, resource, which can, for example, be used together with Mirador Viewer to improve the visual experience. 
  • Opera Graeca Adnotata
    Under development. Ancient Greek text corpus with annotation and conversion tools. Links to a page with instructions on how to download the corpus and how to create queries of the texts. It is built on an earlier project, the Greek and Latin Dependency Treebank, developed from the Perseus Project. Open access and source. None of these resources, from Perseus and onwards, are user friendly.
  • Pharos
    Open and freely accessible platform allowing for access to photo archive images using linked open data technology and their associated scholarly documentation by converting metadata to CIDOC-CRM ontology. Created by Harvard’s Villa I Tatti, Biblioteca Hertziana, the Frick Library, and others.
  • SEDES: Metrical Position in Greek Epic
    By bridging data science and close reading, this resource demonstrates new ways to understand patterns of meter and meaning in early Greek poetry. Created by Stephen Sansom, residential fellow at the CHS, fall 2024, and assistant professor at Florida State University. Open access. 
  • Transkribus
    Using AI, this resource transforms hard to read handwritten script to text. Much potential for Greek palaeography.  Not open access or source. 
  • Trismegistos
    Under development. Trismegistos is an interdisciplinary portal of papyrological and epigraphical resources pulling data from a number of digitized materials. You can search texts, collections, people, places, words, authors, etc.  Requires HarvardKey to access.

  • Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Montanari)
    Very useful and intuitive. No need to switch to a Greek keyboard as you can use Roman characters when typing your search which are automatically converted to Greek letters. A list comes up as you start typing, which can lead to discoveries of forms and compounds of words. Requires HarvardKey to access off campus. 
  • English Greek Lexicon (Woodhouse)
    Very useful and searchable. Not all vocabulary is covered but sometimes there are words that cannot be found even in Liddell & Scott, i.e., it can sometimes serve as a Greek English lexicon as well. University of Chicago. Open access. 

  • Ancient Philosophy Commons 
    Part of the Digital Commons Network. Contributions by independent scholars, high school teachers, university professors, and others. Interesting reads in many subdisciplines of classical studies (literature, history, art and archaeology, Byzantine and modern Greek, and Indo-European linguistics).  Open access. 

  • Wiley Online Library, Wiley(-Blackwell) Commentaries. 
    To access individual books and chapters, you will need to identify the institution:  Harvard Library. Requires HarvardKey to access off campus. Classical Greek Literature, Classical Greek Culture.

Classical Studies is unique in having bibliographies covering scholarship from the earliest days of printing until today’s l’Année philologique. In the 3rd c. BCE, Callimachus, librarian at the Library of Alexandria, created the Pinakes, which were a sort of bibliographic survey of authors and works held in the library, similar to die Archäologische Bibliographie of the German Archaeological Institute reflecting their library’s holdings. The Pinakes are said to have comprised some 120 books, laying the foundation for later work on the history of Greek literature. 

The word bibliography comes from the Greek βιβλιογραφία (βιβλίον meaning book, tablet, paper — byblos is also the word in Greek for papyrus — and γράφω meaning “I write”) and was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to refer to the copying of books by hand (at this time papyrus scrolls, not yet the parchment codex). In the 12th century, the word began to be used for “the intellectual activity of composing books.” The 17th century saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of a description of books and that is when bibliographies in classics began to be published in earnest. 

The librarian who first introduced an attempt at a comprehensive bibliography in classics was Johannes Albertus Fabricius (1668-1736). His Bibliotheca Graeca (in 12 vols.) and Bibliotheca Latina (in 6 vols.) indexed books from around 1470 through the early 1700s. The Latina was first published in 1697. At that time, as during the Hellenistic period, librarians were both scholars and administrators. Fabricius was born in Leipzig, but spent much of his life in Hamburg, first as librarian and later as professor of ethics and rhetoric at the local Gymnasium.

In those days, the bibliographies looked somewhat different from today, more in the school of Leipzig than the recent Paris counterparts. Classics in Germany traditionally refers to classical philology whereas the French, just like the Americans, tend to be somewhat more liberal in their definition and also include art, archaeology, history, etc.

To the German bibliographers all scholarship would fall under the names of authors and titles, so Thucydides was not chiefly a historian, but a Greek author and his works were studied more for their literary and textual qualities than for their historical details. There was Die Archäologische Bibliographie: Beilage zum Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, i.e., the catalog of the DAI, but it was not published as a separate bibliography containing both monographs and periodicals until 1913. Before that, the catalog edited by August Mau contained only monographs published 1900-1902.

The typical German bibliography of this period, such as those of Fabricius, begins with authors and text editions, translations (versiones) and catalecta (opera minora), and centones popular in late antiquity where authors would take verses from Vergil and assemble them into a literary patchwork to form a new poem, e.g., Proba Falconia’s Cento vergilianus de laudibus Christi.

Another early bibliography was Franz Ludwig Anton Schweiger’s (1803-1872) Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, also covering the beginning of printing to ca. 1820-1830. This is also a “typical” Leipzig publication whose organization is similar: Authors, text editions, Übersetzungen (translations), Erläuterungschriften (commentaries), ältere Erklärer, centones.

A third bibliography which covers some of the same years, but also fills in gaps in Schweiger and Fabricius, is Wilhelm Engelmann’s (1808-1878) Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum. This was later edited by Emil Preuss, which is why it is usually referred to as “Engelmann-Preuss.” Engelmann was a book seller and later printer/publisher. In fact, his bibliography was published by his own printing press in 1853, also in Leipzig. It covers the years 1700-1878 and is divided into authors and titles and editions, translations, criticism, etc.  For example, Bucolica … Appendix Vergiliana – Moretum. Translations – German, English, criticisms (secondary sources).

Now we are at 1878 when we find Rudolf Klussmann’s (1846-1925) Bibliotheca Scriptorum et Graecorum et Latinorum covering 1878-1896. Just like the other Leipzig editions, the organization is virtually identical to that of Engelmann-Preuss, Schweiger, and Fabricius. 

The next bibliography, however, is a French title with quite a different organization. Now we are beginning to discern what later came to be. Scarlat Lambrino’s (1891-1964) Bibliographie de l’antiquité classique covers the years 1896-1914. Lambrino was a Romanian living in Portugal and a professor of classics at the University of Lisbon, so no more (German) booksellers or printers or librarians. It looks very similar to the Année (APh) with journal abbreviations, authors and texts, and subjects.

A contemporary of Lambrino’s (in fact, they both died in 1964) was Jules Marouzeau (1878-1964), the man who founded l’Année philologique. He, just like Lambrino, was a professor of Latin at the Sorbonne. He also edited one of the predecessors to the Année, Dix années de la bibliographie classique, covering the ten years prior to the Année, i.e., 1914-1924. And just like the other two Parisian (Belles Lettres) publications, the organization very much resembles that of the current index with abbreviations, authors, texts, and subject categories — realia, matières et disciplines — such as archaeology (divided into Roman, Greek, Christian, and Byzantine), numismatics, history (Greek, Roman, social, regional, religious, prehistory), philosophy, religion, law, etc. It is difficult to imagine that a 20th century German bibliographer would include a separate section on social history because of their historic emphasis on bibliography and canon.  

This brings us to the contemporary bibliography in classical studies, l’Année philologique. This contemporary index was first published in 1928 and covered the year 1927 and a second volume was published that same year covering the years 1924-1926. This means that the coverage of the index goes back to 1924. There is no longer only one editor, but a team of international scholars under French leadership to cover the numerous contemporary publications. For current bibliographic information in classics, it is recommended that you in addition consult Gnomon and its bibliographische Beilage.    

The organization of Lambrino and Marouzeau’s Dix années continues in l’Année philologique — a table of contents followed by abbreviations of journals, monographic series, and multi-volume sets indexed in each volume. Then follows the citation part beginning with authors and texts, editions and criticism; then subject categories – linguistics, archaeology, epigraphy, history, etc. — followed by indexes to the volumes (this well illustrates both the progress of indexing and how substantive this one has become that it even needs indexes to the index) – ancient name index, geographic index, modern name index, and modern author index.

In 2002, the Année went online with a next to incomprehensible search interface unless you were familiar with the print version. Just like the incunabula imitated manuscripts, the online index imitated the print version. Ancient Authors, Modern Authors, and Subjects and Disciplines constituted separate search fields. In addition, if you were familiar with the print version you would have known to search the ancient authors by their classical Latin name. That is if you tried to search on Livy, you came up with 0 hits. Even Livius resulted in nothing. Liuius, on the other hand, retrieved more than 1,000 hits.  You could not use Aristotle or even Aristoteles, rather Aristoteles Stagirites, which you would have known from the printed index, and you would have had to use the classical Latin form of names, i.e., Vergilius Maro (P.) and not the later spelling Virgilius with an i. It was also a challenge to understand whether you were looking at a book chapter or a journal article. Now we are fostering a new generation of classicists who may not be familiar with the print version, nor with the online version either for that matter, but one that may choose to search Google or other search engines instead. Naturally, you will not be able to assemble a comprehensive or even near-to comprehensive bibliography that way. Using subject bibliographies is still the way to do it. Fortunately, Brepols took over and now the interface and search commands are perfectly self-explanatory. Unfortunately, Brepols is launching a new interface, which, subjectively speaking, seems not to be as intuitive.  

There are many other historic bibliographies such as Ruelle’s Bibliotheca Latina: Bibliographie annuelle des études latines 1904-1906; Jean Cousin, Bibliographie de la langue latine: 1880-1948, 1951; Hübner’s Bibliographie der klassichen Altertumswissenschaft to 1889, etc., to consult as well if you wish to know which editions were published when or which secondary sources of, for example, an ancient Greek author were published before 1924. 

  • Bibliographie de l’Antiquité Classique (1896-1914)
    Scarlat Lambrino.
    Paris: Société d’édition “Les Belles Lettres,” Collection de bibliographie classique 1, 1951- . 1. ptie. Auteurs et textes.
    Full text is available in the Internet Archive; however, establishing an account and login are necessary.
  • Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie (ca. 1500-ca. 1830)
    Franz Ludwig Anton Schweiger.
    Covering the beginning of printing to c. 1830. Overlaps with both Fabricius and Engelmann and fills in gaps between the two. 
    Leipzig: F. Fleischer, 1830-34.
    Sammlungen (collections)
    Centones (Literary Patchwork, Falconia (Faltonia) Proba (Proba Falconia), verses by Vergil put together for a poem centered on Jesus — Cento vergilianus de laudibus Christi). Centones common in late antiquity, collage of verses to form a new work.
    Ältere Erklärer (older commentators)
    Erläuterungschriften (commentaries)
    Übersetzungen (translations)
    Opuscula—opera minora
    Hilftsmittel (handbooks, dictionaries)
    Parts of the book is available in the Internet Archive. Open access. 
  • Bibliotheca Graeca and Bibliotheca Latina (ca. 1480-ca. 1700)
    Johannes Albertus Fabricius.
    Covering the early days of printing to the 1700s in 12 vols. and 6 vols.
    London: Impensis T. Leigh, & D. Midwinter, ad insigne Rosæ Coronatæ in Cœmeterio D. Pauli, 1703.
    Hamburg: sumptu Benjamin Schiller; Leoburgi, typis Pfeifferianis, 1712.
    Versiones-translations
    Catalecta—opera minora
    Full-text of Bibliotheca Graeca is available in HathiTrust.
    Full-text of Bibliotheca Latina is available in HathiTrust.
  • Dyabola
    Used to be the OPAC of the DAI. Now it is owned by a commercial company and covers classical archaeology more broadly. Even though there is much overlap with DAI’s current OPAC, Zenon, there are references not found there. Non-archaeology classicists can sometimes discover history and philology references not found in the APh. HarvardKey needed off campus. 
  • Pinakes / Πίνακες: Textes et manuscrits grecs. 
    Open access. Search for manuscripts by country, city, collection, etc. Useful, though not comprehensive. Should be used together with Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Digital Scriptorium, Gallica (manuscripts in France), Manuscripta Medievalia (manuscripts in Germany), Internet culturale (manuscripts in Italy), Manuscriptorium (EU-project in progress), and catalogs of individual libraries, such as Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Harvard, Byzantine manuscripts at Dumbarton Oaks, the Bodleian at Oxford with many manuscripts having been digitized, also digitized manuscripts at the Vatican, etc. 
    Another interesting manuscript resource in progress is Fragmentarium.ms. Libraries, archives, and individuals can contribute to the description and identification of manuscript leaves and other fragments, and also contribute their own. Edited by William Duba, University of Fribourg. Open access.

  • Chicago Homer
    Contains a few editions of Homer and Hesiod with parallel German and English translations. Open access. 
  • Corpus medicorum graecorum and its supplements
    Several texts from medical authors of antiquity, some also in German translation. Also contains Kühn’s concordance to Galen and Littré’s to Hippocrates (volumes and pages). Check HOLLIS; several pdfs in HathiTrust are linked to in the catalog. The CHS has many volumes also in print. Consult HOLLIS for call numbers. Open access.  
  • HathiTrust
    Contains many older editions and books on classical antiquity. Harvard is a founding and contributing member. Not always the highest quality, but still very useful. Much is open access, but far from everything; however, as Harvard is a major contributor all non-copyrighted content is available. 
  • Homer Multitext Project
    Sample texts and scholia of Venetus A, Homer and the Papyri. Created by Gregory Nagy and the Center for Hellenic Studies. Open access. 
  • Inscriptiones Graecae (IG)
    The electronic version of the print. It is an ongoing project. Documentary texts are continuously added as are German and English translations. Very useful resource of the print corpus of the IG. Open access.
  • Internet Archive
    Contains scans of many older books on classical antiquity. Not always the complete texts. Some materials also require establishing a personal account.
  • Open Greek and Latin
    (First 1K Greek Project, texts between Homer and 250 CE). Harvard is a founding and contributing member. CHS provides student internships and “work on a new commentary environment for close reading.” Offers multiple editions of some texts. Open access. 
  • Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (SEG)
    The SEG collects newly published Greek inscriptions (from archaic texts to the 8th century CE) and presents the Greek texts with an apparatus criticus. It also summarizes new readings, interpretations, and studies of known inscriptions. Requires HarvardKey for off campus access. 
  • Suda Online
    A Byzantine encyclopedia of classical antiquity. Useful with major caveats. Open access.
  • Tesserae (Greek and Latin)
    Useful for intertextual research of select literary authors and titles. Search phrases and lines, forms, lemmata, sounds. Open access.
  • Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG)
    Very useful for morphological and semantic research, lemmatization, statistical information. Contains all ancient Greek literary texts, though using mostly editions out-of-copyright. Requires access to the HarvardKey off campus as well as establishing a personal account and login.

  • Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
    Search database by collection, ruler, denomination, etc. Searches catalogs of public and private collections in Great Britain. Open access.

Local Libraries

There are several excellent libraries in the DC area with larger collections, more space, more staff, and more extensive opening hours than the CHS library. We try to accommodate as many books and users as we can in a library with a distinctive focus on ancient Greece, vanishing space for books, a limited budget, and a small staff.  If the CHS library cannot accommodate all needs, fellows and readers may have to become itinerant scholars. Before setting out on research trips, though, always check each library’s catalog to make sure that it has the books needed and that they are not checked out but available when you arrive.

The institutions below have materials of interest to classicists and others. 

American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
Library catalog: American.edu/library
Visitor services: american.edu/library/services/visitors.cfm  

Catholic University of America 
620 Michigan Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20064
Library catalog: libraries.cua.edu
Visitor services: libraries.cua.edu/welcomvis.cfm   

Dumbarton Oaks
1703 32nd Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Library catalog: library.harvard.edu/ (limit to Dumbarton Oaks as location)
Visitor services: https://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/request-access 

Georgetown University 
37th and O Streets NW, Washington, DC 20057
Library catalog: library.georgetown.eduVisitor services: library.georgetown.edu/policies/borrowing
Must bring government issued ID (passport, driver’s license).

Howard University
500 Howard Place NW, Washington, DC 20059
Library catalog: founders.howard.edu
Visitor services: founders.howard.edu/about/visitors

Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540
Library catalog: catalog.loc.gov
Visitor services (must register in person for a reader library card): loc.gov/rr/readerregistration.html
Readers must submit requests in person for specific items; only the reference rooms have open stacks.

National Gallery of Art
6th and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20565
Library catalog: library.nga.gov
Visitor services: nga.gov/research/library/make-an-appointment.html

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
Natural History Building, 10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20560
Library catalog: library.si.edu/research/search-library-collections
Visitor services: library.si.edu/research/borrowing-access-privileges#Onsite