Pentekontaetia: the Virgil Society, 1943-1993

Blandford, D. W. 1993. Pentekontaetia: the Virgil Society, 1943-1993. London: The Virgil Society.

Google has kindly agreed to make the Pentekontaetia, the history of the first 50 years of the Virgil Society, open access.

THE Virgil Society was founded in 1943, and its first President, the poet T.S. Eliot, delivered What is a Classic? as his Presidential Address in the following year. The purpose of the Society was and remains to unite all those who cherish the central educational tradition of Western Europe. Of that tradition Virgil is the symbol. Membership is open to all those who are in sympathy, whether they read Latin or not.

There are normally five or six meetings each year in London, held on Saturday afternoons in Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. 

The speakers include both amateur and professional scholars, many of them Virgilians of international repute. Lectures are followed by refreshments, giving an opportunity to meet the speaker and other members of the Society.