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 21 contains the March and June issues for 1820.

Part XLI. Mystical Poetry of the Persians; Oxford prize poem; Remarks on the pyramid of Cephrenes; Miscellanea classica; The opinion of the ancient Hebrews; Arabian story; On the science of the Egyptians and Chaldeans; The description of ardent fever given by Aretaeus; Letters on the ancient British language of Cornwall; Bibliography; Dissertation historique sur Macrobe; The new edition of Stephens' Greek Thesaurus; Corrections in Wakefield's Lucretius; Greek ode; The invention of printing with moveable types; Parallel passages; Adversaria literaria; On the origin of the heathen mythology; Stanleii notae quaedam in Callimachum; Literary intelligence; Notes to correspondents; Part XLII. On the Instruction and Civilisation of Modern Greece; Remarks on a hieroglyph; The immortality of the soul; On the origin of the drama; Ancient British language of Cornwall; Translation and observations on an ode of Horace; Some emendations on Aristotle; Cambridge prize Latin essay; The sentences of Sextus Pythagoricus; Leake's Researches in Greece; Miscellanea classica; Corrections in the common translation of the New Testament; Dr Symmons's translation of the Aeneis of Virgil; Aristotle's famous definition of tragedy; Oxford prize poem for 1806; The Arabic manuscript describing the death of Mungo Park; Bibliography; On the origin, progress, prevalence, and decline of idolatry; Mr Bellamy's new translation of the Bible; Illustration of Jonah, ii, 2; Euripidou Medea; Letter to Dr Dee; Adversaria literaria; Notice of Dobree's Porsoni Aristophanica; Literary intelligence; Notes to correspondents.

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.