Editing Loeb Classical Library (section)

==History==
Under the inspiration drawn from the book series specializing in publishing classical texts exclusively in the original languages, such as the [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana]], established in 1849 or the [[Oxford Classical Texts]] book series, founded in 1894,<ref>[https://search.worldcat.org/title/8420743 Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca Oxoniensis. 1894-.]</ref> <!-- Current citation is unreliable: reinstate if better source found and from [[:fr:Ambroise Firmin Didot]]'s mid-19th century effort to publish a canon of ancient Greek literature in Latin translations,<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/latin/comments/16x3ouz/bilingual_edition_of_greek_classical_texts/ bilingual edition of Greek classical texts.]</ref>--> the Loeb Classical Library was conceived and initially funded by the Jewish-German-American banker and philanthropist [[James Loeb]] (1867–1933). The first volumes were edited by [[Thomas Ethelbert Page]], [[W. H. D. Rouse]], and [[Edward Capps]], and published by [[Heinemann (publisher)|William Heinemann, Ltd.]] (London) in 1912, already in their distinctive green (for Greek text) and red (for Latin) hardcover bindings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=CAPPS, Edward|url=https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/8593-capps-edward|access-date=2021-05-06|website=dbcs.rutgers.edu}}</ref> Since then scores of new titles have been added, and the earliest translations have been revised several times. In recent years, this has included the removal of [[bowdlerize|bowdlerization]] from earlier editions, which often reversed the gender of the subjects of romantic interest to disguise [[homosexual]] references or (in the case of early editions of [[Longus]]'s ''[[Daphnis and Chloe]]'') translated sexually explicit passages from the Ancient Greek into Latin, rather than English.<ref>{{cite web |title=The New Translations |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/loeb/translations.html |website=Loeb Classical Library |quote=A footnote then gave in Latin the real meaning of the Greek line. |access-date=30 August 2020}}</ref>

Since 1934, the library has been co-published with [[Harvard University]].<ref name="Hall1986">{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Max|title=Harvard University Press: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=13EU0-KyL18C&pg=PA64|access-date=1 January 2013|year=1986|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674380806|pages=64–}}</ref> Profit from the editions continues to fund graduate student fellowships at [[Harvard University]].

The Loebs have only a minimal [[critical apparatus]], when compared to other publications of the text. They are intended for the amateur reader of Greek or Latin, and are so nearly ubiquitous as to be instantly recognizable.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2006/08/found_in_translation.html|title=Found in Translation|last=Wilson|first=Emily|date=August 15, 2006|work=Slate|access-date=July 4, 2018|language=en-US|issn=1091-2339}}</ref>

In 1917 [[Virginia Woolf]] wrote (in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]''):

{{quote|The Loeb Library, with its Greek or Latin on one side of the page and its English on the other, came as a gift of freedom. ... The existence of the amateur was recognised by the publication of this Library, and to a great extent made respectable. ... The difficulty of Greek is not sufficiently dwelt upon, chiefly perhaps because the sirens who lure us to these perilous waters are generally scholars [who] have forgotten ... what those difficulties are. But for the ordinary amateur they are very real and very great; and we shall do well to recognise the fact and to make up our minds that we shall never be independent of our Loeb.<ref>{{cite magazine
| last        = Woolf
| first       = Virginia
| date        = 24 May 1917
| title       = 'The Perfect Language.' Review of vol. 2 of [[Greek Anthology|The Greek Anthology]], tr. W. R. Paton (Loeb Classical Library, Heinemann, 1917)
| magazine    = [[The Times Literary Supplement]]
| issue       = 801
| location    = London
| page        = 7
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Woolf|first=Virginia|title=The Essays of Virginia Woolf|volume=2|editor=Andrew McNeillie|publisher=The Hogarth Press|location=London|year=1987|pages=114–119}}</ref>
}}

Harvard University assumed complete responsibility for the series in 1989 and in recent years four or five new or re-edited volumes have been published annually.

In 2001, Harvard University Press began issuing a second series of books with a similar format. [[The I Tatti Renaissance Library]] presents key Renaissance works in Latin with a facing English translation; it is bound similarly to the Loeb Classics, but in a larger format and with blue covers. A third series, the [[Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library]], was introduced in 2010 covering works in Byzantine Greek, Medieval Latin, and Old English. Volumes have the same format as the I Tatti series, but with a brown cover. The [[Clay Sanskrit Library]], bound in teal cloth, was also modeled on the Loeb Classical Library.

As the command of Latin among generalist historians and archaeologists shrank in the course of the 20th century, professionals came increasingly to rely on these texts designed for amateurs. As [[Birgitta Hoffmann]] remarked in 2001 of [[Agricola (book)|Tacitus' ''Agricola'']], "Unfortunately the first thing that happens in bilingual versions like the Loebs is that most of this [[Critical apparatus|apparatus]] vanishes and, if you use a translation, there is usually no way of knowing that there were problems with the text in the first place."<ref>Birgitta Hoffmann, [http://www.theromangaskproject.org/?page_id=317 "Archaeology versus Tacitus' "Agricola": a first-century worst-case scenario"] given to the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference, (Dublin) 15 December 2001.</ref>

In 2014, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation and Harvard University Press launched the digital Loeb Classical Library, which they described as "an interconnected, fully searchable, perpetually growing, virtual library of all that is important in Greek and Latin literature."<ref>[http://harvardmagazine.com/2014/09/loeb-classical-library-1-0 Loeb Classical Library 1.0], Francesca Annicchiarico, ''Harvard Magazine'', September–October 2014</ref><ref>[http://www.loebclassics.com/page/aboutloeb About the Library {{!}} Loeb Classical Library]</ref>