New AP Vergil textbook

Bolchazy has sent me their latest AP textbooks. Setting my reservations about the AP aside, let's get to the Vergil book.

The new Vergil text is considerably thinner than previous editions, though its title is still every bit as big Vergil's Aeneid: Selected Readings from Books 1, 2, 4, and 6. The book is smaller for good reason, since the grammatical appendix, which should be familiar to those of you who know and love the Pharr Aeneid, is now online. This appendix is a great resource for all Latin students, not just those studying Vergil. It is now searchable and free. Bolchazy scores major points for this.

Previous editions of AP Vergil selections from Bolchazy have been, so far as I can tell, edited and expanded versions of the Pharr Aeneid, which is commendable and useful. This book is a completely new book. Boyd follows Pharr's format, but that is the limit of Pharr's intrusion into the book. Annoyingly this even extends to italicizing words in the poem that are part of the high-frequency list—but Boyd cannot be faulted for following Pharr's lead here. Otherwise, everything else is new.

The introduction is clearly written for AP users, but anyone should get good information out of it. The body of the text is well annotated. The notes in fact go beyond mere grammatical help but veer toward commentary. In fact, at some points it approaches philology. From a note on p. 75:

198. Hic: pronounce hicc (as if from the earlier spelling of the word, hicce).

Right on. This stuff is good for you. In other places Boyd indicates multiple interpretations. Again, p. 75.

solum, līmina: take either as obj. of sacrāverat (200), like ignem, or supply erant.

 I like this too. Language can be ambiguous, sometimes deliberately so. Boyd allows Vergil to be ambiguous, which is one of the joys of reading poetry. I am thrilled to see this built into a student edition. Boyd has also taken the -is accusative endings out for third declension nouns. I cannot say whether this is the right thing to do, but it will make the text more accessible to students. In my estimation, when the author of a book keeps that criterion in mind, the results will justify themselves.

And this book does for AP students, as well as first-time readers of Vergil.