Collection des universités de France The two first volumes of the Collection des universités de France, bilingual editions of Greek and Latin classics commonly known simply as
Budé after the association, were published in 1920: in the Greek series, the
Hippias Minor of
Plato, translated by
Maurice Croiset, with a yellow cover and the logo of an
aryballos in the form of an owl, representing
Athena's owl, and shortly afterwards in the Latin series, the
De rerum natura of
Lucretius, translated by Alfred Ernout, with a red cover and the logo of the
Capitoline Wolf. The one hundredth book was published in 1931. Fulfilling Vendryes' original wish, the Collection des universités de France publishes scholarly editions in a pocket-sized format. The original (with
critical apparatus) and the French (with footnotes) are on facing pages, right and left respectively. There is a substantial introduction. The text is intended to be based on the oldest version that can be reconstructed from the surviving manuscripts, for which microfilms are used, and the translation "above all to reproduce the movement, color, the tone of the text". Editing and translation are assigned to one or more scholars who are specialists in the author concerned and are subject to careful verification by a third expert. A statement of responsibility appears on the reverse of the title page: "In accordance with the statutes of the
Association Guillaume Budé, this volume has been submitted for approval by the technical commission, which has instructed [name] to revise it and oversee its correction in collaboration with [name]." The volumes are paperbacks, still in the original size, printed on cream wove manufactured especially for the publisher. They were originally sewn but since 1976 have been bound and
cropped. , the two series include more than 800 volumes (a few more Greek than Latin). The current goal of the collection is "to publish everything written in Greek and Latin before the reign of the Emperor Justinian (in the 6th century)". However, Christian writers, although originally fully within the intended range of publications, editorial beginning, are largely left to the
Sources chrétiennes collection of
Éditions du Cerf. Only the literary writings of the
Church Fathers, such as the
Confessions of
Saint Augustine, have been or will be published in the Collection des universités de France. Since 2006, some of the Latin and Greek works have been reprinted without the critical apparatus in the series
Classiques en poche (pocket classics) headed by Hélène Monsacré, with updated translations and where applicable revised texts, for example
Oliver Sers' translation of
Petronius'
Satyricon. === Les Belles Lettres English (
Classical Wisdom Weekly)=== In 2012, Les Belles Lettres English was established in order to create an English newsletter and website called Classical Wisdom Weekly. The website launched on 6 November 2012 and is dedicated to promoting and teaching Ancient Greek and Latin literature. The tagline for Classical Wisdom Weekly is "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Minds".
Other collections There are also bilingual collections on the history of France, classic medieval texts and classics of English literature (including a bilingual edition of the complete works of
Shakespeare) and Chinese Literature. In addition, the company publishes older French authors such as
François de Malherbe. •
Confluents psychanalytiques, launched in 1976. •
Realia, headed by Jean-Noël Robert and launched in 1983, includes his
Les Plaisirs à Rome. •
Bibliothèque chinoise (漢文法譯書庫), headed by
Anne Cheng, Marc Kalinowski and Stephane Feuillas, and launched in 2010. •
Histoire features works by
French historians such as
Pierre Vidal-Naquet and numerous translations of foreign works. •
Science et Humanisme includes editions and translations of scientific texts of the
Renaissance and the
Age of Reason, by authors including
Galileo,
Johannes Kepler,
Campanella and Sir
Isaac Newton. •
La Roue à livres consists of translations of works by ancient and Renaissance authors, but without the original text. •
L’âne d’or features works from the history of ideas, in particular
Immanuel Kant,
Giordano Bruno, astronomy, and the history of medicine. •
Classiques du Nord, headed by
Régis Boyer, publishes translations of Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic literature. •
Guides Belles Lettres des civilisations covers periods and places including
pre-Columbian America,
Viking Iceland, and
Brahmin India. •
Laissez faire, headed by
François Guillaumat, and Bibliothèque classique de la liberté, headed by
Alain Laurent, publish liberal authors such as
Frederic Bastiat,
Yves Guyot and
Benjamin Constant. Les Belles Lettres has also published outside its collections bilingual critical editions of the complete works of
Giordano Bruno and of
Petrarch, and less known writers including
Jean-Edern Hallier,
Philippe Leotard and
Francis Lalanne. == References ==