The Classical Tradition

Harvard University Press Reference Library

by Anthony Grafton (Editor), Glenn W. Most (Editor), Salvatore Settis (Editor)

The legacy of ancient Greece and Rome has been imitated, resisted, misunderstood, and reworked by every culture that followed. In this text, articles by a wide range of scholars investigate the afterlife of this rich heritage in the fields of literature, philosophy, politics, architecture, history, art, religion and science.

Genres: History, Reference, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, Ancient History, Art

1067 pages, Hardcover

First published February 21, 2010

About the author

Anthony Thomas Grafton is an American historian of early modern Europe and the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, where he is also the Director the Program in European Cultural Studies. He is also a corresponding fellow of the British Academy and a recipient of the Balzan Prize. From January 2011 to January 2012, he served as the President of the American Historical Association. From 2006 to 2020, Grafton was co-executive editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas.

Reviews

[Daniel Burton-Rose]

I'm almost through the "A"s, and I already feel quantifiably more erudite!

[John Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encyclopedic. Creatively, but occasionally oddly, organized, at least from my probably limited perspective. But great to have around. Reading its entries will lead you off the track of your Classics 101 college course!

[Dave Beeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book aims to provide a reliable and wide-ranging guide to the reception of classical Graeco-Roman antiquity in all its dimensions in later cultures. Understandings and misunderstandings of ancient Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, art, architecture, history, politics, religion, science, and public and private life have shaped the cultures of medieval and modern Europe and of the nations that derived from them -- and they have helped to shape other cultural traditions as well, Jewish, Islamic and Slavic, to name only these. Every domain of post-classical life and thought has been profoundly influenced by ancient models. Well Mission Complete!!! Encyclopedic in size. While it took me over a year to read this tome it was worth it. Contains all sorts of facts that are shaped nicely together to give the subject under discussion a clean line from the ancients through the Dark and Middle Ages to the 19th and 20th centuries.

[Garrett Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasure this book is. So much fascinating detail, so accessibly presented. One of the reviews on the dust cover calls it a "browser's paradise," and it really is. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun just flipping through a book and reading at random. Thanks to this wonderful encyclopedia, it has never been so easy or so enjoyable to follow the tangled threads connecting the classical world to our own.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A box of expensive chocolates - about a thousand chocolates. After several weeks of browsing I feel stuffed, but I'm not stopping.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge and magisterial work cataloguing the aftereffects of the Classical tradition in Western history and beyond!

[Richard Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abundant, enlightening.

[3pipenet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review at Wall Street Journal by Eric Ormbsy: Making it new

Review at three pipe problem by H Niyazi: The Classical Tradition [Harvard University Press]