'Prejudices, falsifications and inadequacies have resulted in an almost total lack of a definitive, responsable evaluation of Callimachus. The critical position of modern scholarship with regard to this key poet is one of chaos: every article, survey or handbook presents a different picture. And this is especially true on the most important subject of all in Callimachus, the dispute over literary principles which affected almost every aspect of his poetry. In addition to the material to be found in the poems preserved in the regular manuscript tradition, the papyri have brought to light a great amount of new material on this subject, and yet, with an almost frivolous abandonment of their responsabilities, modern scholars have failed to produce a single detailed examination of the relevant texts with a view to discovering what the literary dispute was about, how important it was, and how influential it was. (...) It is the literary dispute which is the central theme of this essay. My interest was drawn to it in the course of research for a commentary on Callimachus' fifth Hymn to be presented as a Ph.D. thesis. My purpose is not to offer comprehensive solutions to any of the problems: this essay is intended only as a preliminary study, in which I have attempted to outline very briefly what I consider to be the main problems which need to be tackled for a new evaluation of the Hellenistic period, the methods which might be used to approach them, and a few suggestions as to where some of the answers may lie.' (ANTHONY W. BULLOCH in The Preface, pp.IV-V). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott.