Jakob Borovskij. Opera philologica. St. Petersburg: Bibliotheca classica Petropolitana, Dmitry Bulanin, 2009. – P. 642. ISBN 978-5-86007-618-1

The present volume contains an impressive selection of works by an eminent St. Peters¬burg Classical scholar and Neo-Latin poet Jakov M. Borovskij (1896–1994).

Being a connoisseur of ancient Greek and Latin, J. Borovskij, due to the life circumstances as well as to particular qualities of his research behaviour, did not write any monograph. His numerous articles and paragraphs often published in editions difficult of access or of limited circulation had been never previously brought together. The book in question for the first time brings the works of J. Borovskij together and is aimed at demonstration of breadth as well as of profundity of his careful studies. J. Borovskij’s files were handed down by the heirs to Bibliotheca Classica Petropolitana, which enabled the editors to publish some of his manuscripts and to define more exactly some points in the scholar’s previously published works.

The book includes such sections as “Ancient Greek Language and Literature”, “Latin Language and Literature”, (with subsections “Lucretiana” and “Horatiana” emphasizing J. Borovskij’s special interest in these authors), “Classical Education and Spoken Latin”, “Russian Language and Literature”, “History of Philology” (with accounts on J. Borovskij’s teachers, colleagues, and friends). The final part of the book comprises all known to date Latin and ancient Greek poems by J. Borovskij. Some of them had been previously published in “Vox Latina”, “Vita Latina”, “Greece & Rome”, “Atene e Roma”, etc., while the others appear for the first time. Another sec-tion includes selected translations from Lucretius, Propertius, Martial, and others. In the Appen-dix the reader will find an extensive commentary on Plautus’ “Pseudolus”. The index allows assuming that J. Borovskij’s “Opera minora” will hopefully become the scholar’s “Opus magnum”.

The book begins with J. Borovskij’s biography by his pupil Natalia M. Botvinnik (1944–2008) and his full bibliography. The final section includes an article by Alexander K. Gavrilov on the scholar’s literary heritage and accounts by J. Borovskij’s pupils and progenies Alexander I. Zaicev (1926–2000), Alexej I. Scatebranus (Solopov), and Alexander B. Chernjak (the last two are written in Latin).

The volume was prepared by Alexander K. Gavrilov, Vsevolod V. Zelchenko, and Tatiana V. Shaburina (Bibliotheca Classica Petropolitana, St. Petersburg). The editors gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung.