Author Description

One of the foremost scholars of his day, the German classicist August Böckh (1785-1867) was chosen by the Berlin Academy of Sciences as the first editor of the monumental Corpus inscriptionum graecarum. Before that he had published this groundbreaking edition of the extant works of the Greek poet Pindar (c.522-c.443 BCE) in two volumes, the second being split into two parts. In the first volume Böckh had presented Pindar's victory odes (Epinikia), the only complete surviving works by the poet, alongside his own Latin treatise on metrics and extensive critical notes. In this first part of the second volume, published in 1819, the editor includes a lengthy Latin preface followed by the ancient Greek - primarily Alexandrian - scholia taken from the Codex Vratislaviensis. These commentaries on Pindar's works, by such writers as Aristarchus, Chrysippus, Aristodemus and Didymus, are also accompanied by the editor's notes.