From: Brett Paatsch (bpaatsch@bigpond.net.au)
Date: Wed Sep 10 2003 - 23:31:44 MDT
Amara Graps writes:
> Discovered something...
>
> Brett Paatsch:
>
> >How far did you get towards concluding there might
> > actually have been such a book?
>
> I think a trip to the National Library in Naples is in my
> future
>
> from:
>
http://www.oup.co.uk/academic/humanities/classical_studies/viewpoint/janko/
>
>
> Richard Janko on Philodemus
>
> Understanding one of the richest periods in the history of human thought
>
> <begin quote>
>
> .....
> While I was there, I looked at a few other manuscripts in the
> collection. Many were very extensive indeed-and completely
> unpublished. Looking at one which was full of quotations of Greek
> poetry, I said to one of the local scholars that he ought to publish
> it. He said he was too busy with other papyri, and I had to confess
> that I was also. But this made me aware of how much remains to be
> done, even in the absence of finds of more texts from resumed
> excavations at Herculaneum.
> ....
> Richard Janko
>
> <end quote>
Gee. Its pretty amazing, to me anyway, that *any* manuscripts of
Aristotle or Plato in existence anywhere would not by now have
been deemed worthy of someone's translation efforts.
Almost scary in a way. I think we (humans) often assume that
things that would be of interest to ourselves (and presumably
at least a bunch of others) will get translated by someone if we
don't do it. {I don't qualify in this case though, as alas, everything
except English is "all Greek to me"}. I await developments
in language translation software with some enthusiasm and hope
to order my Babel fish early.
Scary that so much, so worth doing, can be left undone after so
many generations. Makes boredom almost look like a sin.
Carpe diem, I guess.
Regards,
Brett
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