The Classical Journal

A precursor of modern academic journals, this quarterly periodical, published between 1810 and 1829 and now reissued in forty volumes, was founded and edited by Abraham John Valpy (1787–1854). Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Valpy established himself in London as an editor and publisher, primarily of classical texts. Edmund Henry Barker (1788–1839), who had studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, became a contributor and then co-editor of this journal, which fuelled a scholarly feud with the editors of the Museum criticum (1813–26), a rival periodical (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Although its coverage overlapped with that of its competitor, the Classical Journal also included general literary and antiquarian articles as well as Oxford and Cambridge prize poems and examination papers. It remains a valuable resource, illuminating the development of nineteenth-century classical scholarship and academic journals. Volume 20 contains the September and December issues for 1819.

Part XXXIX. The Story of the Trojan Horse; Miscellanea classica; Life of Heyne; On the science of the Egyptians and Chaldeans; Introduction to the critical study and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures; An essay on moods; On the antiquity of alchymy; In Euripidem commentarii; Bibliography of the middle of the 17th century; Cambridge prize poems for 1817; Dissertation historique sur Macrobe; Lacrymae elegiacae; An essay on the Greek pastoral poets; Oratio a Hermanno; De ostracismo Atheniensium; Letters on the ancient British language of Cornwall; Notices of foreign works on oriental literature; On the 'tau', or crux ansata; Thoughts on a revision of the translation of the Old Testament; Notice of Brunck on Sophocles; Greek pastoral poetry; Advesaria literaria; Notice of Mr Bellamy's Anti-Deist; Bibliography; Literary intelligence; Notes to correspondents; Part XL. Thoughts on a Revision of the Translation of the Old Testament; The description of ardent fever given by Aretaeus; The composition of Greek indexes; Letters on the ancient British language of Cornwall; In Euripidem commentarii; Boissonade's Animadversiones; On the polite literature or belles lettres of Holland; Error of Mr Mathias noticed; Biblical criticism; On the coincidence between the belts of the planet Jupiter and the fabulous bonds of Jupiter the Demiurgus; Oxford prize essay for 1819; Classical criticism; Miscellanea classica; Eastern antiquities; On a character given of Dr Bentley; Cambridge prize poem for 1805; Prologue and epilogue to the Adelphi of Terence; Adversaria literaria; Bibliography; Adam's elegy on the death of Abel; Literary intelligence; Index to the first forty numbers of the Classical Journal.

This influential periodical, published 1810-29 and reissued here in forty volumes, was edited by the classical scholar and London publisher Abraham John Valpy (1787-1854). Later co-edited by Edmund Henry Barker (1788-1839), it was a rival to the Cambridge-based Museum criticum and a precursor of modern academic journals.