The Shelves · Miscellaneous writings

Art of Grammar

Τέχνη γραμματική

Known · Probablein Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

◇ Doubted: the attribution is disputed; the attribution is uncertain. Only the opening sections may go back to Dionysius (c. 170-90 BCE); the rest is often dated to the 3rd-4th century CE.

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Miscellaneous writings

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

Attributed to Dionysius Thrax

c. 170–90 BCE. Pupil of Aristarchus who left Alexandria for Rhodes after 145 BCE. The short Art of Grammar under his name, the first Greek grammar and the model of European grammars for some fifteen centuries, is his at least in its opening; whether the rest is later is debated.

Art of Grammar

Τέχνη γραμματική

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

◇ Doubted: the attribution is disputed; the attribution is uncertain. Only the opening sections may go back to Dionysius (c. 170-90 BCE); the rest is often dated to the 3rd-4th century CE.

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives whole

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Probable

Probably held in the Library. Dionysius trained under Aristarchus in Alexandria but taught on Rhodes; the later parts of the Art were composed elsewhere.

In the cupboard: no source names the Alexandrian copy, but its scholars' use of it makes one very likely.

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III · In the show

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IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (2)
  • Art of Grammar 1 (definition of grammar)
  • Scholia to Dionysius Thrax (doubts on authorship)
Modern scholarship (3)
  • V. Di Benedetto, 'Dionisio Trace e la Techne a lui attribuita', Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 27 (1958): 169-210 and 28 (1959): 87-118.
  • J. Lallot, La grammaire de Denys le Thrace, 2nd ed. (Paris: CNRS, 1998).
  • E. Dickey, Ancient Greek Scholarship (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

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Beside it in the cupboard