Catalogue of the Virgil Collection: a progress report

Between July 2 and August 21, Professor Craig Kallendorf of Texas A&M University spent nearly every weekday in the Dulles Reading Room examining the Library’s collection of editions of Virgil, the core of which was donated in 1896 by Junius Spencer Morgan, Class of 1888. Morgan regularly added to the collection until his death in 1932. The Library adds to the collection to this day. Kallendorf is preparing a detailed printed catalogue of the collection, the first such since 1956. Each entry gives not only a physical description but also particulars about text and commentary as well as notes, such as details about each book’s former owners. Building on work Kallendorf started nearly eight years ago, he examined more than 700 early printed books, consisting of several dozen 15th century printings, hundreds of editions of the complete works, many finely illustrated, together with numerous translations into English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Romansch, and Hungarian. Kallendorf expects the manuscript of his catalogue to be ready for his publisher, Oak Knoll Press, about the middle of 2008. His research was supported in part by a grant from the Davies Project.


Junius S. Morgan


Craig Kallendorf