Durand Collection

About 4000 books, mostly published in France in the 19th and early 20th century. Also contains a number of German and Italian works and a few English titles. The strength is in editions of Latin and Greek classical texts and books on ancient history, archaeology, literary criticism, philology and art.

Key items in the collection

The Durand Collection comprises about 4000 volumes, mostly published in France in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It also contains a number of German and Italian works and a few English titles. The great strength of the collection is in editions of Latin and Greek classical texts. There are also a large number of books on ancient history, archaeology, literary criticism, philology and art:

About René Durand

René Durand (1864–1962) was born at Perrusse, Haute-Marne, France, and was educated at the lycée de Chaumont, the lycée Louis-Le Grand in Paris and l’École normale supérieure. He taught Latin at the University of Dijon (1886–87), the University of Lyon (1887–98), l’École normale supérieure (1898–1904) and the Sorbonne (1904–32).

Durand was esteemed as an outstanding teacher and Latinist, as well as a master of ancient Greek and Old French. However, he published almost nothing apart from an occasional review. As one of his colleagues wrote:

Ce savant qui connaissait à fond la langue et la literature latines, n’a pas écrit de these et il n’a presque rien publié, parce qu’il s’est adonné à la passion d’enseigneur et de renseigner.

He devoted a great deal of his time to revising editions of classical texts prepared for the collection Guillaume Budé. He also revised the Dictionnaire latin-français compiled by F. Gaffiot (1934).

Background to the collection

The Durand Collection was purchased from the booksellers Stechert-Hafner of New York in 1963.

The books in the Durand Collection have been catalogued individually and integrated in the general collection. A list of the titles can be found on the acquisition file.

This guide was prepared using these references:

Page published: 19 Jul 2011

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