American Journal of Philology

American Journal of Philology
source
Title	American Journal of Philology
Discipline	Philology
Publisher	Johns Hopkins University Press
Country	United States
Frequency	Quarterly
History	1880–present
Issn	0002-9483

American Journal of Philology is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal published by Johns Hopkins University Press devoted to classical studies and related fields. Founded in 1880, it has published scholarship on Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Byzantium, and the reception of classical antiquity across Europe and the Americas. The journal has long engaged with work connected to figures and institutions such as Wilhelm von Humboldt, August Wilhelm Schlegel, E. R. Dodds, Giuseppe Verdi, Thomas Jefferson, and major universities like Harvard University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and University of Pennsylvania.

History

The journal was established in 1880 during a period marked by the expansion of classical philology in the United States, alongside developments at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Yale University, and European centers such as University of Göttingen, University of Leipzig, and University of Berlin. Early editors and contributors included scholars affiliated with Princeton University, Brown University, Cornell University, and University of Chicago, reflecting transatlantic networks that also connected to personalities like Theodor Mommsen, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Richard Jebb. Across the twentieth century, editorial shifts paralleled intellectual currents associated with Homeric scholarship, Latin philology, the rise of textual criticism, and debates tied to figures such as Gilbert Murray, A. E. Housman, T. S. Eliot, and institutions like the British Museum and Vatican Library.

Scope and Editorial Focus

The journal covers philological inquiry into languages and literatures of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Classical reception in Renaissance Italy, and interactions with Byzantine literature, Late Antiquity, Medieval Latin, and the classical tradition in modern contexts such as Naples, Florence, Paris, and London. Articles routinely address textual analysis connected to authors including Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Seneca, Augustine of Hippo, and Proclus. The journal also publishes work on papyrology tied to finds from Oxyrhynchus, Herculaneum, and collections at the British Library, and research engaging inscriptions and epigraphy associated with Athens, Rome, Delphi, and Pompeii.

Publication and Access

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, the journal appears quarterly, with distribution through academic libraries at institutions such as Princeton University Library, Bodleian Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Library of Congress. Back issues are held in repositories including JSTOR collections accessed by students at Columbia University and researchers at University of California, Berkeley and University of Michigan. Special issues have been dedicated to topics intersecting with the work of scholars at Institute for Advanced Study, British Academy, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and conferences like the International Congress of Classical Archaeology.

Editorial Board and Peer Review

The editorial board has historically drawn editors and advisory members from departments at Harvard University, University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford University, Princeton University, University of Toronto, and Oxford. Peer review follows standards comparable to journals published by Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press, employing anonymous referees who are often specialists associated with institutions such as Trinity College Dublin, Heidelberg University, Sorbonne University, and research centres like the American Academy in Rome and the Hellenic Institute.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in major bibliographic services used by scholars at Princeton University, Columbia University, and University of Oxford, including listings in databases maintained by bodies like the Modern Language Association, discipline-focused bibliographies linked to the American Philological Association, and library catalogues at WorldCat, OVID, and national libraries such as the National Library of Medicine and the Library of Congress.

Impact and Reception

Over its history the journal has influenced debates connected to Homeric studies championed by Milman Parry and Albert Lord, to Latin textual criticism advanced by scholars like R. B. Rutherford and D. R. Shackleton Bailey. Reviews and citations appear in venues associated with Classical Philology, Journal of Hellenic Studies, Phoenix (journal), and the proceedings of institutions such as the British School at Rome and École française d'Athènes. Reception has sometimes sparked controversy, for example in discussions involving interpretations by E. R. Dodds, M. L. West, and commentators at conferences in Athens and Rome.

Notable Articles and Contributors

Contributors have included eminent figures from a wide array of universities and research centres: Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, E. R. Dodds, A. E. Housman, T. E. Page, Milman Parry, Albert Lord, M. L. West, Denis Feeney, Edith Hall, Martin West, Richard Jenkyns, Bruno Snell, Eric Havelock, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Georges Dumézil, Bernard Knox, Mary Beard, Paul Cartledge, Edgar Lobel, Silvio Ferri, George Kennedy, R. G. Collingwood, A. H. Coxon, D. R. Shackleton Bailey, J. E. Sandys, Robin Lane Fox, Anthony Grafton, Paul Veyne, John Boardman, Nicholas Hammond, Simon Hornblower, P. E. Easterling, G. E. R. Lloyd, Denys Page, Michael Dewar, H. J. Rose, J. B. Bury, F. C. Conybeare, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, and Kenneth Dover. Landmark articles have treated papyri from Oxyrhynchus Papyri, inscriptions from Delphi, and textual problems in works of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Plato, and Aristotle, often eliciting responses in journals such as Gnomon, Hermes (journal), and Mnemosyne.

Category:Classics journals