Reviewed by: Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to Greek Lexicography Gregory R. Crane John Chadwick. Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to Greek Lexicography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. vi 1 343 pp. Cloth, $85. This books constitutes, as the opening sentence of the introduction states, “the product of a lifetime of Greek studies,” and every Hellenist is aware of John Chadwick’s work on Linear B. Less conspicuous but immensely important have been his lexicographic efforts, the influence that he has had upon the new [End Page 636] supplement to LSJ, and the impact that he promises to have upon the desperately needed revision to the Liddell-Scott Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. His Lexicographica Graeca allows us to assess many of his ideas and reveals to an audience beyond the committees, memos, and private presentations of scholarly production the directions in which he would like future work to proceed. The majority of the book consists of notes and analyses on individual entries in LSJ—one could describe Lexicographica Graeca as a three-hundred-page referee’s report that found its way into print. In many cases, the comments assume that readers will have first familiarized themselves with the LSJ entry. Few without strong lexicographic interests may find this exercise appealing, but anyone seriously concerned with the ways in which we write about Greek language will find plenty to consider in this publication. The thirty-page introduction, however, is well written and engaging, and I imagine that this section of the book will be much photocopied and much more widely read. In itself it is a document of great historical importance and should be scrutinized carefully by any subsequent historian of the study of Greek, for Chadwick articulates a succinct but broad-minded view of where Greek lexicography stands as the twentieth century comes to an end. Yet there is a central irony to this publication. Chadwick’s introduction dwells quite engagingly on the length of his career, but he makes it clear towards the end that he still sees himself as the bright young man who began more than forty years ago to challenge a hidebound establishment. He prophesies “with assurance” (and, it might be added, with obvious relish) “that many of the new ideas to be found in these pages will be attacked and rejected simply because they are not what everyone expects to find” (25). While I can see much that is new and can imagine outraged philologists shaking their heads at Chadwick’s presumption (if anyone of his distinction and seniority can be said to be presumptuous), I find the book itself to be significant precisely because it takes traditional lexicography about as far as it can go. It stands at—and, I suspect, marks—the end of a tradition of lexicographic practice that Liddell and Scott began more than a century and a half ago. All of our assumptions about what a lexicon can and might be must take into account the physical media at our disposal. The limitations and strengths of LSJ are inextricably intermeshed with the limitations and strengths of the printed codex. Chadwick is acutely aware of this: he prints (19) a formula that equates the “efficiency” of a lexicon to “usefulness” divided by “weight”: in other words, a 2 kilogram lexicon is half as efficient as a 1 kilogram lexicon. He agonizes over the fact that any enlargement would have to be justified in terms of the added weight (29). He is not unaware of electronic tools and offers the commonplace assertion (28) that “whatever the future of personal computers, it is hard to imagine that we shall ever be able to dispense with the printed book.” He then goes on to make a subtly perceptive statement: “For most purposes small-scale dictionaries will always be needed” (emphasis mine). The qualification [End Page 637] is significant in that he makes no attempt to argue explicitly for the value of massive print lexicons, instead shifting his ground to much more defensible smaller publications. The codex is a horrible medium for the publication of massive reference works in which readers look up small bits of information at a time and which ought to be updated on a regular basis...
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May 20, 2024
Helena Panczová 
Open Access
