Best resources published before 1923

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Jonathan Robie
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Best resources published before 1923

Post by Jonathan Robie »

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg ... ght_How-To
Works first published before January 1, 1923 with proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date copyright was first secured. Hence, all works whose copyrights were secured in the US before 1923 are now in the public domain, regardless of where they were published. (This is the rule Project Gutenberg uses most often)

Works published and copyrighted 1923-1977 retain copyright for 95 years. No such works will enter the public domain until 2019 unless one of the other rules applies.
So ... what are the best books published before 1923? Which of these are available online, and which should really be made available?

Seems like Wackernagel's Vorlesungen über Syntax: mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Griechisch, Lateinisch und Deutsch is one thing that really should be scanned. What else?
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Best resources published before 1923

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Also, suppose I went to a really good college or seminary in 1923. What books would I use? Suppose these were the only books available for my education today. How much would we be missing?
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
MAubrey
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Re: Best resources published before 1923

Post by MAubrey »

The third edition of Robertson's big grammar was published in 1919. The fourth edition was little more than a reprint with typo corrections. The adding of appendices ceased at the 3rd edition.

-There's also Basil Gildersleeve's two volumes on Greek syntax.
-Goodwin's Grammar of the Moods and Tenses
-Kuhner-Blass's multi-volume Classical Grammar
-The second edition of Thackeray's translation of Blass's NT grammar (which in my opinion is often perferable to BDF simply because it isn't aiming for the massive amount of abridgement and condensation we find in the later editions and is the edition that fits page number-wise to Robertson's grammar)
-Georg Curtius' book on the Greek verb is very important
-There are also multiple volumes of the American Journal of Philology that are quite useful as well.

I think most of this is available on Google books or archive.org
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Best resources published before 1923

Post by Jonathan Robie »

MAubrey wrote:The third edition of Robertson's big grammar was published in 1919. The fourth edition was little more than a reprint with typo corrections. The adding of appendices ceased at the 3rd edition.
Available here.
MAubrey wrote:-There's also Basil Gildersleeve's two volumes on Greek syntax.
This is now available on Perseus.

At least the first volume is available here. Where is that second volume?

Oddly, nobody has referenced this from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Lanneau_Gildersleeve.
MAubrey wrote:-Goodwin's Grammar of the Moods and Tenses
Also available on Perseus, as well as Google Books.
MAubrey wrote:-Kuhner-Blass's multi-volume Classical Grammar
Three volumes, all available on Perseus:
MAubrey wrote:-The second edition of Thackeray's translation of Blass's NT grammar (which in my opinion is often perferable to BDF simply because it isn't aiming for the massive amount of abridgement and condensation we find in the later editions and is the edition that fits page number-wise to Robertson's grammar)
Available here.
MAubrey wrote:-Georg Curtius' book on the Greek verb is very important
Available here.
MAubrey wrote:-There are also multiple volumes of the American Journal of Philology that are quite useful as well.
Yeah, for instance ...
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Best resources published before 1923

Post by Jonathan Robie »

An excellent overview of Greek Grammars on the Web is available on this page from Marc Huys. It was last updated in 2008, I imagine more resources are available today.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Mark Lightman
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Re: Best resources published before 1923

Post by Mark Lightman »

So ... what are the best books published before 1923?
Okay, I’ll limit myself to 5, in reverse order of greatness.

5. LSJ Abridged
4. LSJ Unabridged, whatever version is closest to the 1923 cut-off.
3. LSJ middle Liddel (yes, I really do think that this Victorian, Goldilocks version, much more user friendly and easier to pick up, is a better book than #4.)
2. Smyth, Greek Grammar
1. Machen, New Testament Greek for Beginners. Except the copyright status of this book, published exactly in 1923, is for some reason in dispute, so I would go instead with, as my number one best book written before 1923:

1. (tie) Francis David Morrice, Stories in Attic Greek, and
1. (tie) W.H.D. Rouse, Greek Boy at Home. Except that both of these books have been reissued by Anne Mahoney with a larger, more readable font, so I would go instead with, as the best book written before 1923:

The lecture notes to the 8th grade Greek class that Carl Conrad took in the Spring of 1919. :D

I believe all these books are available on line.
Mark Lightman
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Re: Best resources published before 1923

Post by Mark Lightman »

Also, suppose I went to a really good college or seminary in 1923. What books would I use? Suppose these were the only books available for my education today. How much would we be missing?
Not much, I think. The NET diglot is awfully good, and Trenchard’s vocab. guide, and of course I would miss my Zondervan Reader’s GNT. Nobody would miss any of the books written ABOUT Greek since 1923.

The main thing you would miss would be the audio-visual stuff, especially Buth and Rico, but I suspect that in those days it would be easier to find people with whom to speak Ancient Greek, so it would be a wash.

Plus, you would not have the Designated Hitter rule to worry about.
MAubrey
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Re: Best resources published before 1923

Post by MAubrey »

Mark Lightman wrote:
So ... what are the best books published before 1923?
Okay, I’ll limit myself to 5, in reverse order of greatness.

5. LSJ Abridged
4. LSJ Unabridged, whatever version is closest to the 1923 cut-off.
3. LSJ middle Liddel (yes, I really do think that this Victorian, Goldilocks version, much more user friendly and easier to pick up, is a better book than #4.)
2. Smyth, Greek Grammar
1. Machen, New Testament Greek for Beginners. Except the copyright status of this book, published exactly in 1923, is for some reason in dispute, so I would go instead with, as my number one best book written before 1923:

1. (tie) Francis David Morrice, Stories in Attic Greek, and
1. (tie) W.H.D. Rouse, Greek Boy at Home. Except that both of these books have been reissued by Anne Mahoney with a larger, more readable font, so I would go instead with, as the best book written before 1923:

The lecture notes to the 8th grade Greek class that Carl Conrad took in the Spring of 1919. :D

I believe all these books are available on line.
For a short introductory grammar, I'd choose something by a classicist or James Hope Moulton's learning grammar over Machen, though I do understand your personal affection for it, even if I most definitely do not share it.

The old editions of LSJ are useful to some extent, but they're highly problematic for the majority of Biblical Greek (i.e. the LXX). LSJ had thoroughly terrible citations for Septuagint words through the 9th edition until the appearance of the 1996 supplement (and even then I'd want the supplement supplemented with Muraoka). There is an older LXX lexicon, but I cannot remember what it's author was off the top of my head.

Also...there's Sophocles' lexicon: http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021609395
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
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