Early Closures Week Beginning 19th December

Please be aware that in the week leading to Christmas there are the following changes to library closing times.

Tuesday 20th December: the library is closing at 5pm for a private function

Friday 23rd December: the library will close at 5:30pm

There are no late evenings this week, as term has ended, so on all other days (excluding the above) the library will close at 6pm.

We will re-open on Tuesday 3rd January.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the library team!

Library system downtime on 16th August

Please note that on Tuesday 16th August the library’s circulation system and online catalogue will be unavailable due to system upgrades. This is for the installation of a new Library Management System and Catalogue.

This means that books will have to be issued manually. Any books returned will be kept aside and checked in the following morning.

While the catalogue is offline, you can search using COPAC or Search25.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this will cause and thank you for your patience.

(This will also affect Senate House Library and other SAS libraries.)

See notice on Senate House Library website for more details

Happy International Cat Day!

Greek: αἴλουρος; αἰέλουρος;

Latin: f(a)eles; f(a)elis, cat(t)us (late)

 

Cats in antiquity were likely to be feral, attracted to the large mouse and rat populations which thrived on grain stores, and later, cities. In Egypt, the cat was domesticated by 2000 BC, and the domestic cat did not evolve from the European wildcat, but from the Egyptian and Libyan wildcat. Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians loved their cats and often embalmed them (2.66f.). Cats travelled to other countries from Egypt, often as ship's cats, and by Roman times domesticated cats were common.

 

Source:

Kitchell (2014), Animals in the Ancient World from A to Z, pages 24-25.

X 152G KIT http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b3321558~S7

 

Mosaic from Pompeii showing cat with bird, ducks and fish (Image 1830 from Imago database)

 

See also: 



Donalson (1999), The domestic cat in Roman civilization
152G DON http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2640782~S7

Engels (1999), Classical cats: the rise and fall of the sacred cat
152G ENG http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2625041~S7

Kalof (ed.) (2007), A cultural history of animals in antiquity
152G KAL http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b3118857~S7

And for a bit of fun:

Seuss (2000), Cattus petasatus : The cat in the hat in Latin 
qui libellus est a Doctore Seuss, primo anglice compositus, at nunc (quod vix credas) in sermonem latinum a Guenevera Tunberg et Terentio Tunberg conversus!
206C SEU http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2696947~S7

Female authors in antiquity

You may have seen this post going around earlier this week, detailing an impressive list of female authors from antiquity:

https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2016/08/01/an-impressive-list-of-female-authors-from-antiquity/

If, like a certain library trainee, you are intrigued by this and would like to find out more about classical women authors, here are some suggestions on where to start:

Greene (ed.) (2015), Women poets in ancient Greece and Rome
Class mark: 99A.1 GRE http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2970719~S7

Plant (ed.), (2004), Women writers of ancient Greece and Rome: an anthology
Class mark: 96.1 http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2762892~S7

 

Balmer (1996), Classical women poets
Class mark: 96.1 http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2430842~S7

Snyder (1989), The woman and the lyre: women writers in classical Greece and Rome
Class mark: 99A.1 http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2468798~S7

Lefkowitz; Fant (2016), Women's life in Greece and Rome : a source book in translation (Fourth Edition) - especially Chapter 1 "Women's Voices - Female Poets"
Class mark: 152J.1 LEF http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b3358357~S7

Latin:

Churchill; Brown; Jeffrey (eds.) (2002), Women writing Latin: from Roman antiquity to early modern Europe (3 vols.)
Class mark: 99G CHU  http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2771297~S7

Stevenson (2005), Women Latin poets: language, gender, and authority, from antiquity to the eighteenth century
Class mark: 99J STE http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b3119922~S7

Greek:

De Martino (2006), Poetesse greche
Class mark: 97.1 http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2946720~S7

Rayor (1991), Sappho's lyre: archaic lyric and women poets of ancient Greece
Class mark: 97.38 RAY http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2111174~S7

Philosophy:

Waithe (ed.) (1987), A history of women philosophers: Vol. 1. Ancient women philosophers, 600 B.C.-500 A.D.
Class mark: 123E WAI http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2489001~S7

Pomeroy (2013), Pythagorean women: their history and writings
Class mark: 123J POM http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b3291485~S7

 

Letters:

Bagnall; Cribiore (2006), Women's letters from ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800
Class mark: 101H BAG http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2956012~S7

Beatrix Potter's archaeological paintings

Beatrix Potter was born in London 150 years ago today. Did you know that before she became the celebrated children's author and illustrator, she developed her skills as an artist by making studies of archaeological finds?

 

Her watercolours include Roman and post-Roman finds from the Bucklersbury excavations of 1872-3 (adjacent to Mansion House, City of London), and from Pickle Herring Street in Southwark. The drawings are impressive in their detail and accuracy, as well as beauty, and it is clear to see how these studies helped the young Beatrix Potter develop into the skilled illustrator of Peter Rabbit and so many other beloved characters.

A comparative study of nails, 1895 (Jay; Hall, inside cover image)

 

Roman archaeological finds, including rings, needles, spoons, a chain and a comb, 1895 (Barnard p.63)

Roman leather shoe, 1895 (Barnard p.65)

 



Jay, E; Hall, J, The tale of London past : Beatrix Potter's archaeological paintings, from the Armitt Collection, Ambleside (London, 1990)
http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2642384~S7
Barnard, B, 'Before Peter Rabbit' The Independent magazine (27.10.1990) 112 pp.62-65
http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2493164~S7

See also:
http://armitt.com/armitt_website/beatrix-potter/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/beatrix-potter-collections/

Logging in to your library account

If you are having trouble logging in to your account to renew your library books, it may be because you are using an old link to the catalogue page.

Please update any bookmarks you have saved to the catalogue page to the correct address:

http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/search~S7

The link to the log in page is:

http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/patroninfo

 

Change to payments for the library

All payments to the Joint Library (e.g. for postal loans and scanning requests) should now be made out to:

The Hellenic and Roman Library

(not Roman Society - Joint Library, as previously).
Thank you!