Customer Reviews

Attic Letter-Cutters of 229 to 86 B.C. (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

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This 291 page book (with an additional 29 B&W plates) is a sturdy volume. Also 41 or so "plates" are included in the main body. The plates are not on glossy paper, and are not suitable for critical analyses (though several are very useful!). The paper is acid-free, and the volume is glue-injected bound, no nice signature binding here. Though it does lay open when in the middle areas. The page sizes are the common 6" x 9", small for many of the images! He does carefully examine some 40 inscriptions and gives useful information concerning each.

This is very original work (though others have made earlier attempts) at organizing and examining the various "letter-cutters" styles and idioms. The selection of stone inscriptions is not very broad, (most from the Athenian agora). The texts have often been nicely transcribed in a fine Greek font. All texts are properly identified, and the book has a nice index of Greek names, and a general index -- but no index of Greek words seen in the various inscriptions.

Tracy gives some solid evidence for dating techniques for this period of inscriptions. He meticulously notes the "letter-cutters" idiosyncrases, and presents his results in a reference like format. That is -- he uses extensive cross-references to other inscriptions in the work. One of his conclusions is that some of the inscriptions studied have no true matches, most are unique (concerning the period of 155 to 86 B.C.). On pages 223 - 236 he gives out some professional insights learned, and explains why so many UNIQUE inscriptions appear in that era (155-86 B.C.).

This text can serve as a reference book on the hands (styles) of Attic inscriptions. And is most likely one of the best available! Personally, I wish that the "plates" were much finer, and could then be used to actually and carefully examine Tracy's research -- glossy 5" x 7" color plates would have been ideal, but then we would be paying several hundred dollars for this work. Yet such an original reference work should demand such quality, making it a true resource and reference work on these inscriptions. Useful also in CONJUNCTION with Tracy's other works. A fine tool, and useful primarily for specialists who work with the texts of Greek inscriptions. A good primer if you plan to visit Greece and actually examine inscriptions!! Gary S. Dykes, currently at -- galerenee@onemain.com