The publishing house Bibliotheca Classica Petropolitana has published a scientific reference edition Dictionary of St. Petersburg antiquities of the 19th – early 20th centuries: in 3 volumes / A. K. Gavrilov (editor-in-chief) and others; SPb., 2021. ISBN 978-5-4391-0715-5.
This publication offers the reader alphabetical biographies of 250 St. Petersburg scholars, educators, artists, and writers who have contributed to the development of Russian classical studies. The articles are based on the widest possible involvement of the works of the studied specialists, biographical literature about them, and archival materials. Striving for historicism and objectivity, the authors of the articles, who themselves work in various areas of classical studies, show the achievements and miscalculations of their predecessors by comparing the opinions of their contemporaries, refraining from final verdicts. The reference materials that make up the 3rd volume (indexes of names, lists of institutions associated with classical studies, etc.) are designed to help in understanding the historical environment in which the figures included in the Dictionary developed, which contributes to the use of biographies in the study of Russian culture as a whole. Articles are provided with a detailed bibliography. The dictionary includes portraits of scholars.
The book is intended for historians of classics of various profiles, for historians of Russian science, culture, and education, researchers of literature and art dealing with the reception of the ancient heritage, as well as for a wider circle of readers who value the past of Russian, in particular, Petersburg, culture and appreciate the achievements that had place in the period of its most dynamic development.
