Computers and classical literature: 1971–1972

Abstract

During the past year, the use of computers in the study of Greek and Latin literature has continued a steady growth. Trends and events since the last article in this series' are mentioned here. Bibliographical details are generally omitted because of their availability in Computers and the Humanities and in Calculi, a bimonthly newsletter specifically about the use of computers in classical studies edited by the author at Dartmouth College. Also omitted are references to work in Greek and Roman archaeology. Concordances continue to be a major objective; they generally are in the standard key-word-in-context form. Most often, these are unlemmatized, with the words arranged according to the forms actually in the text rather than under the headings in a dictionary. Indeed, it seems that the process of lemmatization can greatly delay the appearance of a concordance, and there are grounds for questioning whether the added convenience of having all the forms of words such as sum in one place outweighs the problems caused by delayed publication. Henrik Holmboe is producing concordances to the individual plays of Aeschylus; four had appeared at the time this article was being written, and the remaining three can be expected in a short time. All words have been included, arranged with the key word in the center of the page and a full-sentence context. The printing was done by plates prepared on an output device equipped with a special Selectric-like Greek typing element, and all accents and breathing marks are included. Hopefully, it will be possible, when a planned combined concordance to all the plays is published, to take account of the changes in a new Oxford Classical Text of Aeschylus reportedly being prepared. A concordance, prepared by Andrew Q. Morton and others, to the Johannine epistles has been published as the third volume in the series entitled The Computer Bible, and a word index to Plautus' Amphitruo compiled by Alfred Maniet and Annette Paquet is likewise available. A series of concordances to patristic and late classical texts has been announced by a committee headed by John Strugnell, Andover-Harvard Theological Library, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. A second series, to medieval Latin texts, is accepting subscriptions, and one volume, on Raoul de Saint-Trond, has appeared; inquiries should be addressed to Paul Tombeur, Centre de Traitement Electronique des Documents (CETEDOC), Universit6 Catholique de Louvain, Tiensevest 156, B-3000 Louvain, Belgium.