Classics and the Libraries

For practical purposes, material of interest to students of Classics is found in two libraries, Firestone and Marquand/McCormick. The latter has archaeological, art historical and epigraphical materials, along with some duplication of Classics periodicals.

The holdings in Firestone are divided roughly as follows Firestone Floor Plans :

C-floor: history and oddments: by an accident of history, some of the older (and occasionally current) palaeographical and papyrological material is there (call-number: 1012 et seq.). There is occasionally slippage between the LC and Richardson classification systems (see below) and a few books on Greek (DFxxx) and Roman (DGxxx) History can be shelved on this floor. C-floor also has other sections of relevance; bibliographical, including manuscript catalogues 041x; Zxxx, and academic serial publications, Sitzungsberichte etc. (some of these have been transferred to ReCap) O9xx. The microfilm library and reading-room is on C-floor (turn left as you exit the stairwell or two lefts leaving the elevator).

B-floor is given almost entirely over to modem literature, including comparative linguistics.

A-floor is the social science floor and contains the reserve room (A-7-F): books on reserve on this floor are mainly for undergraduate courses. For Classics graduate courses, faculty ordinarily use shelves in the Palaeography room (3-13-G) (to the right of the door as you enter). The reserve room also contains current non-classical journals arranged on the shelves in alphabetic order. Some Classics books on Politics (Jxxx), Law (Kxxx) and other Social Sciences (Hxxx) are found on this floor.

Floor 1 has the main reference room (which, for Classical things, you will use infrequently) and work stations with printers.

Floor 2 is mostly administrative.

Floor 3 has Classics, Philosophy and Religion: The last two disciplines have one room each and Classics has three study rooms (3-11/12/13-G): locations of things in the library are determined by 3 items of information in the call no. charts: the first number/letter tells you the floor; the combination of the next number and letter gives you an intersection. The Classics study rooms are kept locked. The location of books in the rooms is roughly based on all things Greek (3-11-G), all things Latin (3-12-G + current periodicals), and general Classics, Epigraphy, Palaeography, and Papyrology (3-13-G).

Firestone uses two classification systems (call no. systems): Richardson (developed for Princeton), in which the call numbers are all numeric and Library of Congress (LC), in which one-three letters come first. Holdings in the three areas of floor 3 are represented in two collections. Some years ago, the department agreed to LC for Classics books with the proviso that a separate physical location for these books be set up contiguous to the Richardson collection: the books are now labeled (Clas) Bxxx, Cxxx, and so on, and are found in the stacks opposite the Classics study rooms on floor 3.

In this form of reference, the first two or three numbers (Richardson) or letters (Library of Congress) denote the subject-rubric (e.g. 04 = reference, 102 = epigraphy, numismatics, palaeography, and xx.xx are substitutes for numbers (e.g. in 2681, 26 stands for Greek authors, 81 for Homer). SCG, SCL, SC, and SCP are designated location codes for books in the Classics study rooms; SP is the code for the Philosophy study room (3-7-J); SREL for the Religion study room (3-11-D); SH for the History study room (C-5-L), etc. Other Location Codes.

The arrangement of the Richardson collection is as follows (25xx.xxx): periodicals, Festschriften, collected writings of scholars, reference works, Ancient Greek general Literature, Greek collected authors in alphabetic order, Latin general Literature, Latin collected authors in alphabetic order, Ancient Religion, and Ancient History. There is a small collection of medieval Latin at the end of the Latin authors. Most modern Greek material is on the B-floor (PAxxx), and medieval Latin is all over the place. Byzantine history is on C-floor (l4xx.xx; DFxx).

There is a separate Mycenaean collection (Mycen) and Indo-European collection (Indo) at 3-11-F. Call-numbers prefixed with T or SCT refer to a collection of doctoral dissertations/monographs; this is kept in an annex library: books can be ordered from an annex (annex A=Forrestal, for our purposes) through the Main Catalog or the Library's Web Page.

Classics Study Rooms (SCG, SCL, SC, SCP)

SCG -- "Greek Room" (3-11-G):

Greek authors, 255x; 256x etc.

Greek history, 295x, etc.

SCL -- "Latin Room" (3-12-G):

Latin authors, 28xx; 29xx

ANRW

Roman history, 295x, etc.

SC and SCP -- "Paleography Room" (3-13-G):

dictionaries, lO2xxx

reference works, O4xx2

other reference, grammar, linguistics, 25xx

epigraphical and papyrological corpora

The current order of books in the study rooms is based on both the Richardson order and LC (Bxx, Dxx, and so on).

Notate bene: A key for the study rooms can be obtained from the Access/Carrel office, Floor 1, to the right of the Rare Books room: $10 deposit required.

Incidental information: the library of the Princeton Theological Seminary (Mercer Street) can be useful, and it is worthwhile to check the Seminary bookstore.

You can obtain items via interlibrary loan or Borrow Direct, recall a book charged to another patron. or get a book from an annex library by bringing up the library’s Web page (http://library.princeton.edu/) [or by going to the University’s Web page, http://www.princeton.edu/main/ [and clicking on Library in the column of orange rubrics on the left].

Some important Classics databases include:

Main index to all aspects of classical studies, including language, literature, history, art, archaeology, law, science, philosophy. Indexes monographs, journal articles, Festschriften, conference proceedings, published doctoral theses, book reviews. Covers all of the regions of the Roman Empire. ONLINE.

PHI

Thesuarus Linguae Graecae (TLG)

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL)

The most comprehensive Latin dictionary, covering all extant Latin texts from antiquity to approximately 600 CE. Includes the etymology of each Latin word and its development in the Romance languages.

Access: Requires Internet Explorer on a Windows PC. Must have administrator rights to install the required plugin, which will download automatically on the first access. More information. CD-ROM.

Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL2)

Contains the full text--minus forewords, textual apparatus, and indices--of editions of texts from the Latin series of Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum. The electronic version, BTL-2, comprises classical Latin literature in almost its entirety for the period up to the second century, together with important non-Christian authors from the second century to the Carolingian Renaissance. It also includes the complete corpus of the series 'Grammatici Latini' and of Servius Grammaticus. CD-ROM.

Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Jacoby)

Collection of and commentary on the fragments of 856 Greek historians whose works have survived only in fragmentary form. Includes over 12,000 fragments from sources going up to the Byzantine period. CD-ROM.