Knowledge of ancient literature must always rest on the standards of editing and criticism of Greek and Latin texts that have come down in a corrupt and sometimes mutilated state. Early in the 19th century great advances were made in this field of classical studies. Angelo Cardinal Mai (1782–1854) published hitherto unknown Greek and Latin texts, including much of Cicero’s De republica, from newly discovered palimpsests. A.I. Bekker, as well as editing many unknown Greek texts in the Paris collections (see above The new German humanism), was able, by use of newly discovered earlier and better manuscripts, to produce better editions of the classical authors than those then current. But the formulation of a technique of systematic recension (i.e., analysis and evaluation of a manuscript tradition) was gradual, with its roots in the 18th century. Such New Testament scholars as J.A. Bengel (1687–1752) had established the principle that the witnesses to a text must be classified and their testimony evaluated according to their textual genealogy. For a time, the perceived barrier between “sacred” and “profane” texts limited the influence of such work on the analysis of “pagan” sources. During the first half of the 19th century the combined efforts of several scholars, notably Ritschl, Jakob Bernays (1824–81), and the Danish Latinist J.N. Madvig (1804–86), evolved the critical method usually associated with the name of Karl Lachmann (1793–1851) because it is most strikingly exemplified in his edition of Lucretius (1850).

The respect felt for Lachmann by such men as his friend and successor, Moritz Haupt, turned into something like critical orthodoxy, however: the new techniques were rigorously applied by less gifted scholars, so that in this department of scholarship some work came to be distinguished by a blind confidence in the so-called scientific method as needing little intelligence in its handling. Madvig had realized the importance, restressed in the mid-20th century, of allowing for inequalities and anomalies in an author’s style; but these warnings were lost on those who, exuberantly confident in their own powers, proceeded to wholesale athetesis, or rejection of works as spurious, based on inconsistencies within a text. It was a similarly rigid insistence on analogical methods of criticism that marred the achievements of even such a great critic as the Dutch C.G. Cobet (1813–89) and so set a bad example to lesser scholars.

Developments in the study of ancient history and philosophy

Corresponding progress was made in the field of ancient history. Barthold Niebuhr, the pioneer in historical source criticism, applied a rational skepticism to ancient legends and traditions; he also promoted the collection of Latin inscriptions. J.G. Droysen (1808–84) wrote notable histories of Alexander the Great and of the Hellenistic Age; in fact, the very concept of a Hellenistic Age was his invention. Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903), starting as a professor of Roman law, made vast contributions to almost every branch of Roman studies, but particularly to the history of law and government and of the administration of the Roman provinces. He took a central part in the systematic collection of Latin inscriptions and was familiar with virtually every text and document relevant to Roman history. Mommsen’s method of studying an entire civilization had influence on historical studies in general far beyond the limits of ancient history; perhaps the most distinguished of his pupils was the great sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920). In the second half of the century, Eduard Meyer (1855–1930), equipped with wide knowledge of Oriental as well as Greek and Latin sources, wrote an important history of the ancient world. Notable histories of Greece were brought out by Georg Busolt (1850–1920) and Karl Julius Beloch (1854–1929).

At the beginning of the 19th century Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), another of the scholars who gave the University of Berlin its special lustre, revitalized the study of Plato. Eduard Zeller (1814–1908) wrote a history of ancient philosophy that has been several times revised and is still useful. Later Hermann Diels (1848–1922) collected the fragments of pre-Socratic philosophers and of the so-called doxographers who preserved much of the evidence for our knowledge of ancient philosophy. The texts relevant to Epicureanism were edited by Hermann Usener (1834–1905), who employed the new methodology of comparative religion to throw much light on the religion of Greece, not disdaining the study of popular culture and of folklore as well; his work was continued by a line of pupils, and he had an important influence on the great art historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929). Late in the century Erwin Rohde (1845–98) wrote Psyche, an important study of Greek beliefs about the soul.

Nations other than Germany made more modest contributions to scholarship, most of them being more concerned with teaching than with research. (For the Italian contribution to papyrology, see below Developments in archaeology and art history.) The literary scholarship of the French, though elegant and polished, was superficial in comparison with that of the Germans. It is significant that the leading Hellenist of France was the German-born Henri Weil (1818–1909). Great figures were exceptional; among them were J.A. Letronne (1787–1848), an archaeologist and epigraphist, and Paul-Émile Littré (1801–81), the famous lexicographer and positivist philosopher whose remarkable translation of Hippocrates originated as a mere side interest of his philosophical vocation.

In England a notable contribution to ancient history and to the study of Plato and Aristotle came from the banker George Grote (1794–1871), who saw antiquity from the viewpoint of modern liberalism and utilitarianism. Later in the century the ancient universities produced a few distinguished scholars: H.A.J. Munro (1819–85) did important work on Catullus and Lucretius; Sir Richard Jebb (1841–1905) wrote a good commentary on the newly discovered Bacchylides and also one on Sophocles, which despite some technical deficiencies is still useful because of the author’s rare feeling for Greek; and Ingram Bywater (1840–1914) contributed significantly to the study of Aristotle’s Ethics and Poetics and acquired rare knowledge of the history of scholarship.

In the United States the leading figure was B.L. Gildersleeve (1831–1924), who insisted that American classical scholars should aim at the highest European standards. Germany was rightly taken as a model, and valuable work was done, especially in grammar, syntax, and linguistics, by such scholars as W.W. Goodwin (1831–1912), J.W. White (1849–1917), and H.W. Smyth (1857–1937). But too often it was not the admirable qualities of the best German scholars but the dryness, pedantry, and verbosity of the worst that were reproduced. This led to a reaction that went too far in the opposite direction and so did considerable damage. In archaeology, however, the vast resources of America were applied with ever-increasing effectiveness.