Ilias, vol. I: Rhapsodiae I-XII

This major new two-volume edition of the Iliad replaces that of Arthur Ludwich (1902-07). Martin West makes use of some 1500 papyri of the poem, more than half of them unpublished. He has also collected a huge number of testimonia (16,311 for Volume 1), all cited below the text, and has made fresh collations of the twelve most important medieval manuscripts. The evidence of the work of the ancient critics has been carefully sifted, judicious use has been made of modern linguistic scholarship, and the whole text has been subjected to thorough scrutiny. The Praefatio offers a succinct survey of the history of the text from its first writing down to the Middle Ages; it also contains a long section on orthographical matters. The second volume, which is expected to appear in 2000, will contain an Index nominum.