About us

HISTORY

The Bibliotheca Classica, a classics reference library, was founded in the year 1993 in St. Petersburg as a new independent research center. Its founder is Alexander Gavrilov, who in 1993 received the New Europe Prize, which was established by six American and European Institutes for Advanced Study:

WHAT IS BICL AFTER THESE YEARS?

St. Petersburg has many libraries, but the Bibliotheca Classica is the first to have books on classics on open shelves for quick reference and easy access. Here scholars can find the most important Greek and Latin texts, dictionaries, and other works of reference as well as books covering numerous aspects of classical research. Since its foundation the library has acquired through gifts and purchased approximately 30 000 volumes. It maintains contacts with foreign scholars and institutions, and it welcomes and supports younger students of antiquity by organizing seminars, lectures, an introductory course in classical bibliography for students of the Department of classics of St. Petersburg State University, and round-table discussions.

PUBLICATIONS

The Bibliotheca Classica publishes a biannual classical journal, ‘Hyperboreus’. Articles in European languages widely used in academic activities are accepted. Since 1994 to date 21 volumes have appeared. The distributor is C.H. Beck Publishing House in Munich. Other publications of BiCL is ‘The Ancient World and Us’ (1997, 2000, 2003, 2012, 2014), which is in Russian (the last three issues have an English summary), and ‘Abaris’ (the Magazine of Friends of Gymnasium сlassicum Petropolitanum), which was published in 2000-2008. In 2004 the Bibliotheca Classica together with St. Petersburg Institute for History has published ‘Corpus inscriptionum regni Bosporani: Album imaginum (CIRB-album)’ which is an album of illustrations to the Corpus inscriptionum regni Bosporani (CIRB). Moscow–Leningrad, 1965.

AMICI BIBLIOTHECAE CLASSICAE

The BiCL is supported by ‘Amici Bibliothecae Classicae’, an international committee based earlier in Bern and now in Berlin. The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as well as Seminar fur Klassische Phililogie at Freie Universitat Berlin has given, and continues to give, valuable logistic assistance.

GYMNASIUM CLASSICUM PETROPOLITANUM

The Bibliotheca Classica is closely connected with the first St. Petersburg Classical High School (Gymnasium Classicum Petropolitanum) in which it is housed.