L’Année philologique

In the early 1960s Juliette Ernst, directrice of ’Année Philologique, sought to expand her team of collaborators, which was supported by the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, in order to keep abreast of the growth of scholarship in classical studies and related fields. When the CNRS refused to add collaboration on the French side, she decided to look for help from her international contacts. She sought advice from Berthe Marti, a close friend from their years of graduate study at the Sorbonne, and was encouraged to consider establishing an American office in the Department of Classics. Marti had joined the faculty at UNC in 1963 and was aware that T. R. S. Broughton, her former colleague at Bryn Mawr, was also interested in UNC. Ernst broached the subject with Broughton by letter while he was still at Bryn Mawr. Broughton drew up letters of support and submitted them to Ullman for inclusion in an application for funding.

Meanwhile, at UNC, Chairman Albert Suskin, with the encouragement of B. L. Ullman, arranged for the initial financing of the office, with a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. Although Suskin and Ullman died in 1965, the American office was able to proceed under the direction of Broughton. Fortunately, the newly established National Endowment for the Humanities provided funding for the American office for many years. The office began operations in the fall of 1965, under Broughton’s direction and with Will W. DeGrummond as chief collaborator. It was responsible for collecting and summarizing books and articles from the United States, Great Britain, and present and former members of the British Commonwealth. Subsequently,  in 1974, a German office of L’Année philologique was established at Heidelberg. George Kennedy assumed the directorship of the American office in 1968, with William West as chief collaborator. West had been hired in the Department in 1966 and served as director of the American Office from 1974 to 1987, succeeded by Laurence Stephens from 1988 to 1991, and Lisa Carson from 1992 to the present. In 2005 the American office, sponsored by the American Philological Association, moved to the University of Cincinnati. After five years at the University of Cincinnati, the American office relocated once more, this time to Duke, where it currently resides.

From its beginning, the director and staff of the American office were aware of the need to utilize modern technology to keep pace with the steady increase in classical scholarship and, to this end, were assisted by David W. Packard, who joined the department in 1975. Computerization continued steadily.  In 1987, an arrangement was made with the Paris office whereby L’Année philologique would be made available online for volumes which had been published three years before the latest print volume, and, as the result of continuing developments, summaries of articles are now provided electronically for virtually all articles, from 1927 to the present.