Collection Development Policy: Ancient Studies
- Subject Librarian(s):
William Monroe
- Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
Kurt Raaflaub
- Description of the Academic Program
| Home Page
"The Program in Ancient Studies was founded in the late 1970s, when faculty in various academic units sought new ways to foster collaboration and promote the study of ancient civilizations among Brown's students. It is a Program of rich collaboration, critical exploration, and truly interdisciplinary scholarship that seeks to bring together all those at Brown (faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and staff) who are interested in the cultures, religions, and histories of ancient civilizations. Geographically, the "ancient world" represented at Brown comprises early China and India, West Asia (Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and Israel), Egypt, the Mediterranean (especially Greece and Italy), the early Islamic and Byzantine worlds as well as the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations. The faculty involved in Ancient Studies number close to forty, and the academic units involved include the departments of Anthropology, Classics, Comparative Literature, Egyptology, History, History of Art and Architecture, History of Mathematics, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, the Program in Judaic Studies, and the Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World." (From the Program's web-site.) - Overview of the Collection
The Ancient Studies collections support the Program in Ancient Studies, as well as graduate study and research based in several departments and programs throughout the University. The collections include primary and secondary literature on the history and culture of the ancient world, to roughly 500 C.E. The materials collected include current publications in the fields of history, literature, philosophy, art, and music. Publications in major European languages are acquired for the collection, with particular emphasis on English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. Materials in all formats are collected, though the majority of the collection is in printed form.
Brown's collections on the ancient world are among the library's stronger collections. Brown has a long history of teaching the ancient world in several departments, and has had very active faculty members who took an interest in building the collections. We are especially strong in Egyptology, and in Mediterranean archaeology and Classical studies. In addition to collecting editions of primary texts from the ancient world, we try to collect all important secondary literature. We also hold a small collection of cuneiform documents, as well as facsimiles of manuscripts.
- See Library support for External Cluster Review for Humanities
- General Collecting Guidelines
We make an effort to collect all important scholarship on the Ancient world published in English and, to a lesser extent, in other western European languages (especially French, German, Italian, and Spanish). In those areas for which we collect at the research level (see the table below), we try to have the major sources in the original languages, as well as secondary scholarship in relevant modern languages. This is a field in which texts are the major object of scholarship, and it is important to have critical editions, as well as translations, commentaries, concordances and other tools to aid the scholar. More and more of these texts and tools are becoming available in electronic form, and we make every effort to obtain access to them. - Detailed Subject Breakdown
- Specific Collecting Guidelines
- Language: Western European languages, and languages of sources (Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Sumerian, Akkadian, Classical Syriac, Hebrew, Mayan), other languages as appropriate
- Chronological Span: Approximately 500-1500 C.E.
- Geographical Range: Mediterrean Sea, Near East, Egypt, South and East Asia, Pre-Columbian America.
- Types of Material Included: Scholarly monographs and journals, editions and facsimiles of primary sources, facsimiles of manuscripts, some electronic resources (especially digital versions of primary texts), and some films (mostly on DVD). The Music Library also collects scores and recordings of ancient music. Excluded: Textbooks, ephemera
- Language: Western European languages, and languages of sources (Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Sumerian, Akkadian, Classical Syriac, Hebrew, Mayan), other languages as appropriate
- Areas of Distinction
Special strengths are in Egyptology and in archeology of the Mediterranean, as well as in the history of ancient science and mathematics - Special Collections
History of Science collections. David Pingree Collection. - Related Collections
Resources relevant to Ancient Studies are found throughout the library collections. In addition, Brown is a member of the Boston Library Consortium and NERL (Northeast Research Libraries). Among the members of these groups are most of the Ivy League schools, as well as Boston College, Boston University, and Brandeis University, all of which have very strong collections on one or more aspects of the ancient world.
The Library's Special Collections hold many rare books and manuscripts of possible interest for the study of the ancient world, including manuscripts and early printed books, as well as some of the specialized named subject collections (see: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/collatoz/ ). The John Carter Brown Library (also on campus) has some relevant material.