Introduction

This is in no sense a bibliography of Virgil. Apart from the lists given in general classical bibliographies (especially of course Marouzeau’s L’Année philologique) Virgil has been particularly well served recently by G. E. Duckworth’s two bibliographical surveys, and by R. G. Austin’s ‘Bibliography of Virgil’. My aim here is to try to give in modern terms a general survey of the nature and importance of Virgil’s poetry, based on a broad and selective consideration of recent important work of a critical kind. The reader must be warned that the literary judgements made are essentially subjective: the intention is not to give a tabulated list of views, but to endeavour to present a personal synthesis. Two important forthcoming books which I have not been able to include should be mentioned here: K. Quinn’s Virgil’s Aeneid; a Critical Description (Routledge); and the volume on Virgil in Dudley and Dorey’s series Studies in Latin Literature and Its Influence (Routledge).