Monday, February 13, 2023
No Harmless Drudge
Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, "Brief Mention," American Journal of Philology 26.2 (1905) 237-243 (at 237):
See also F.R.D. Goodyear, The Annals of Tacitus. Books 1-6 Edited with Commentary, Vol. 1: Annals 1.1–54 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), p. 15, n. 1:
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A good index, certainly an exhaustive index, insures the compiler, if not immortality, at least a life as long as that of the study indexed, and as every scholar wishes to be remembered, it is strange that more indexes are not forthcoming. The path of the index-maker is not a primrose path, but it leads to the goal more surely than many more ambitious ascents. No 'harmless drudge' is the index-maker, but rather the begetter of many doctoral dissertations and the saviour of many a doctorand.By index here Gildersleeve means an index verborum such as Frank Louis Van Cleef, Index Antiphonteus (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1895).
See also F.R.D. Goodyear, The Annals of Tacitus. Books 1-6 Edited with Commentary, Vol. 1: Annals 1.1–54 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), p. 15, n. 1:
There is much in Gerber-Greef with which one may disagree. Naturally so, for it is a scholarly work and full of controversial opinions. I esteem it the more every time I look at the wretched computerized products which now masquerade as lexica and concordances.I wonder if Goodyear had in mind David Packard's Concordance to Livy.
