The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece: A Study of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and Its Development from the Eighth to the Fifth Centuries B.C.

Cloth, dj. 4to. 1990 reissue of the 1961 ed. with corrections and a new supplement by Alan W. Johnston. 481 pp., 80 b&w plates. Errata slip laid in. Significant wear to dj, with one-inch tear at top of front spine joint and smaller tears at corners. Minor shelf wear to boards. Clean internals. This is the only modern work to survey in depth the inscriptions of Greece before 403 BC. Since its first publication in 1961, the body of material available for study has increased substantially, and the size of the Supplement in this reissue is a clear measure of that growth. The new pages are partly the work of Anne Jeffery, and partly that of her pupil Alan Johnston. The original text attempts to reconstruct, for Greek inscriptions from the eighth to the fifth centuries BC, a chronological system (divided tentatively into twenty-five year periods) similar to those already generally accepted for Greek sculpture and pottery. It includes surveys of the origin and dissemination of the alphabet among the city states, the development and content of early inscriptions, and the techniques of the craftsmen, followed by a discussion of the inscriptions of each state. Each section contains a list, with bibliography, of all significant inscriptions, while numerous photographs and facsimiles of the inscriptions provide an important instrument of control. The approach is primarily archaeological, but account is taken also of the many historical, philological, and artistic problems involved. `This is a monumental, an altogether superb, book . It is a book worth waiting for, a major work for reading and for reference, in its field incomparable, and a contribution to the history of our civilization.' Classical World. Revised edition with a supplement by A.W. Johnston.…