The impossible request: Loeb Library

alanleerosenaur said:

While it would no doubt be the most expensive package Logos has or will ever put together (10g plus?) I would love to have access to these works. Even if Logos can do some type of package where they offer the library and then allow us to select 20-100 for each package. Again, I am sure that is a pipe dream. But couldn't hurt to ask.

I remember reading somewhere that one
of the long range goals of Logos is to have most every theological
work in print available in Libronix format one day (or at least
scanned into books.logos.com / www.seminarylibrary.com ).

So while it may not entirely be an
impossible request, it may be quite some time.

IF exclusive rights could be secured to publish the whole thing, maybe LOGOS could expand the company with a new dedicated staff to publish the set by subscription. (Kinda like the Franklin Mint Book of the Month deal.)

This could be extremely profitable if LOGOS version 4.0 could export it to KIndle & other readers. Then on every college campus in the world you would hear the LOGOS start-up sound.[:)]

Here was my suggestion two months ago re the Loeb Library:

And please not the complete set as a one-off purchase. That would bankrupt most of us, maybe even Logos, and take forever to produce.

May I suggest publishing them in single volumes in PrePub over a number of years. They could be published over, say, 20 years. They could be published alphabetically. There is something there for everyone, because the Greek/Latin and English texts are interleaved. Make them interlinear, if you like, though I prefer interleaved, as you can follow the text more easily that way. If Latin or Greek is not your thing then you can read only the English translation.

Imagine reading Loeb books on an iPad. What a joy! 

Thomas Black said:

But do you want the old "Doctored" versions of Aristophones or do you want the new and more accurate translations?

The Greek text has not changed. I haven't looked at the Loeb editions of Aristophenes for over 40 years, so I'm not aware of the new, "undoctored" versions, though even then stage productions of some plays, left little to the imagination. (As far as costumes  and acting were concerned.)

Bob

Thanks for the response. Loeb in a complete set would be unaffordable for the vast majority of those would would really use it. Another thought would be the fact that, as Loeb covers such a vast area of academic disciplines, virtually no one except classicists would want to own it all. In the light of that consideration I think that the best solution would be to publish in bits – perhaps one author, say Quintilian's Institutiones Oratoriae,  which is multiple volumes, as one release. Some authors, like Aristotle, have a larger repertoire than others, so they might be issued by subject groupings. 

I think that your suggestion to try some of the PD volumes as PrePubs or Community Pricing which have not been supplanted is a good one. It allows you to get a feel for what might be quite an eclectic market. Might I suggest that some of the works on rhetoric (Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, etc.) would find a ready market among NT scholars and others, as they have a direct application to New Testament studies.

Thanks again.

Every blessing

Alan

Bob,

I would be interested in just about any of the Loeb volumes. I would definitely be interested in those in the Public Domain, including those which have been "supplanted". Sometimes, and in some places, the newer translations are not necessarily better.

I would begin with Plato! Appian's history (Dio Cassius and Herodotus too) would be great. Xenophon would be wonderful.  BUT Plutarch, please give me Plutarch - unmatched in terms of vocabulary wrt the Pastoral Epistles......

Bob,

I too, would like to see all the Loeb public domain books offered as a set, including the replaced volumes. But I don't think community pricing is the best way to go, I would like to see a prepub price that reflects more closely how many people would likely sign up for it, so it can go into production in a reasonable amount of time.

Bob Pritchett said:

We've tried to get rights to do the Loeb Library in the past, but have been unsuccessful. 

We generally do things in complete sets, but I suppose if there was interest we could do just the public domain volumes of Loeb.

Should we only do PD volumes not already supplanted by a newer edition?

Should we pre-pub them one volume at a time, or in groups, either of Book 1/2/3, etc. (when Loeb split an author over multiple volumes) or even by some larger grouping? (Larger collections get a better discount.)

Any recommendations on priority?

Publish them by author, not the complete set nor individual books.

How about every volume in the PD on community pricing as an individual book. Then your users can let you know which ones they want.