Author Description

This is the second edition of Virgil's works by the German classical philologist Otto Ribbeck, published in Leipzig in 1894-1895. It is solely a work of textual criticism, in which Ribbeck assembled what he believed to be the most reliable edition from different authorities. While it includes no commentary on the text by the editor, it is considered a work of great erudition, demonstrating immense scholarly knowledge of Virgil's work. It consists of four parts published in two volumes. Part 1 contains the Eclogues, a series of ten poems about idyllic rural life which borrows heavily from the Greek poet Theocritus' Idylls; and the Georgics, a poetical treatise in four books on farming and agriculture. Part 2 contains the first half (Books 1-6) of Virgil's great epic poem, the Aeneid, which covers the fall of Troy and Aeneas' journey to Italy.