Bibliotheca Teubneriana

Bibliotheca Teubneriana
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The Bibliotheca Teubneriana, or Teubner editions of Greek and Latin texts, comprise the most thorough modern
collection ever published of ancient (and some medieval) Greco-Roman literature. The series, whose full name is the
Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana, consists of critical editions by leading scholars
(now always with a full critical apparatus on each page, although during the nineteenth century some editiones
minores were published either without critical apparatuses or with abbreviated textual appendices).
Teubneriana is an abbreviation used to denote mainly a single volume of the series (fully: editio Teubneriana),
rarely the whole collection; correspondingly, Oxoniensis is used with reference to the Scriptorum Classicorum
Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, mentioned above as Oxford Classical Texts.
Today, the only comparable publishing ventures, producing authoritative scholarly reference editions of numerous
ancient authors, are the Oxford Classical Texts and the Collection Bud (whose volumes also include facing-page
French translations with notes). (The Loeb Classical Library, with facing-page English translations and notes, aims
at a more general audience.)

History of the series

In 1811, Benedictus Gotthelf Teubner (1784-1856) refounded in his own name a printing operation he had directed
since 1806, the Weinedelsche Buchdruckerei, giving rise to the Leipzig publishing house of B.G. Teubner (its
imprint, in Latin, in aedibus B.G. Teubneri). The volumes of the Bibliotheca Teubneriana began to appear in 1849.
Although today Teubner editions are relatively expensive (as are European-produced scholarly books in general),
they were originally introduced to fill the need, then unmet, for low-priced but high-quality editions.
Prior to the introduction of the Teubner series, accurate editions of antique authors could only be purchased by
libraries and rich private scholars because of their expense. Students and other individuals of modest means had to
rely on editions which were affordable but also filled with errors. To satisfy the need for accurate and affordable
editions Teubner introduced the Bibliotheca Teubneriana.
In the 19th century, Teubner offered both affordable editiones maiores (with a full critical apparatus) for scholars,
and low-priced editiones minores (without critical apparatuses or with abbreviated textual appendices) for students.
Eventually, editiones minores were dropped from the series and Teubner began to offer only scholarly reference
editions of ancient authors.
During the period between the end of World War II and German reunification, the publishing house of B.G. Teubner
split into two firms, one in Leipzig in East Germany, and one in Stuttgart in West Germany. Both offered volumes in
the Bibliotheca Teubneriana.
After the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany, B.G. Teubner was also reunited and subsequently
consolidated its headquarters at Wiesbaden.
In late 1999, B.G. Teubner Verlag announced their intention to concentrate on scientific and technical publishing.
All their Classical Studies titles, including the Biblotheca Teubneriana, were sold to K.G. Saur, a publisher based in
Munich. Although new volumes began to appear with the imprint in aedibus K.G. Saur, the name of the series
remained unchanged.
In 2006, the publishing firm of Walter de Gruyter acquired K.G. Saur and their entire publishing range, including the
Bibliotheca Teubneriana. Since January 2007, the Bibliotheca Teubneriana is being exclusively published by Walter

Bibliotheca Teubneriana
de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG. As of 1 May 2007, the new North American distributor of titles from the Bibliotheca
Teubneriana is Walter de Gruyter, Inc.

Greek Type in Teubner Editions

While the typography of the Greek Teubners has been subject to innovations over the years, an overview of the
whole series shows a great deal of consistency. The old-fashioned, cursive font used (with small variations) in most
of the existing volumes is instantly recognized by classicists and strongly associated with Teubner.[1]

Original "Teubner" Font

This type was in regular use at least from the 1870s to the 1970s, for verse and prose texts. In older (e.g.,
nineteenth-century) Teubners, several old-fashioned features of the type (almost crabbed by the Porsonian standard
more familiar in the English-speaking world) are still found which would later be smoothed away, for example,
omega with bent-in ends, medial sigma that is not completely closed, and phi with a bent stem.
Upright Variant
Teubner used an upright type, designed to match the original cursive type, in some editions. In the example shown,
the cursive type is still used in the critical apparatus. In other editions (for example, Aristotelis Athenaion politeia,
ed. M. Chambers, Leipzig, 1986), this upright font is used throughout.
Digital Descendants
Beginning in the 1990s, the digital production of books has been marked by new digital fonts, sometimes based on
Teubner's older traditions. In the 1990s, individual editions of Euripides' tragedies were digitally typeset in a font
apparently based on the original Teubner cursive. There have also been recent innovations in upright type. One of
these, which may be seen in Bernab's edition of the Orphica, seems likely to be the current standard for new
Teubners from K.G. Saur.

Griechische Antiqua
Some Teubner Greek editions made a bold typographic departure from the tradition outlined above. E.J. Kenney
considered this twentieth-century experiment to be a refreshing break from the Porsonian norm, and emblematic of
the best kind of modernist simplicity and directness:
More recently there has been a welcome and long overdue return to the older and purer models. The
pleasing modification of M.E. Pinder's "Griechische Antiqua" used by Teubner in some of their editions
represents a lost opportunity, having been regrettably abandoned in favour of the "dull and lumpish"
fount (Victor Scholderer's words) that is still the uniform of the series.[2]
Kenney referred to Bruno Snell's Bacchylides edition of 1934; closely comparable is the Philodemus example
illustrated here. A slightly less radical version of this font (notably without lunate sigma) was used in some later
Teubner editions (and in non-Teubner publications such as Rahlfs' Septuaginta of 1935), and M.L. West's recent
edition of the Iliad uses a digital font that seems closer to this type than to the main Teubner tradition.

Bibliotheca Teubneriana

Notes
[1] Davies, Martin. "Book, Printed." The Classical Tradition, eds. Anthony Grafton, Glenn Most, Salvatore Settis. Harvard: 2010.
[2] E.J. Kenney, "From script to print," in Greek Scripts: An illustrated introduction, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, 2001, p. 69.

External links
Listing of titles (http://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/36366) from the publisher, K.G. Saur.
A Teubner a Day (http://ateubneraday.blogspot.com/) - links to digital copies of volumes in the public domain.

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Bibliotheca Teubneriana Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=594863571 Contributors: Akhilleus, Anaxial, Andrew Dalby, CBM, Carcharoth, ChrisCork, Dthomsen8, El Roih,
Graham87, Itsmejudith, JESL2, Josef Serf, K.C. Tang, Magrios, Omnipaedista, Sokratka, THB, Tbhotch, The Sage of Stamford, Tirkfl, Ufinne, Uoeia, Wareh, Werieth, Wikibelgiaan, 8
anonymous edits

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