Georgics: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Georgics, credited to Virgil, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Georgics by Virgil. (Translated by Harriet Waters Preston.) Read in English by Lucy Kempton; Cavaet; Shreya Sethi; KevinB; Phil Schempf Virgil's Georgics are the second of the three major poetic works ascribed to the poet. It was published probably around 29 BC and, as the name suggests, the subject of the poem is agriculture. Divided into four books, it is also the shortest of Virgil's main poetry, with only 2188 hexametric verses. The poem draws on a variety of prior sources and has influenced many later authors from antiquity to the present. - Summary by Leni

Recording facts

• Recording title: Georgics
• Author credits: Virgil
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 14
• Listed recording duration: 2:51:43

Catalogue topics

• agriculture
• beekeeping
• husbandry

Track guide

1. 01 - Book 1, Part 1:The Invocation; Spring Ploughing; Treatment of the Land; Irrigation; The Beginnings of Agriculture — 11:35
2. 02 - Book 1, Part 2: Tools and Tasks; Ancient Maxims; Star-Lore; Appropriate Times for Tasks — 10:03
3. 03 - Book 1, Part 3: Storms; The Worship Of Ceres; Weather Signs; The Portents At Julius Caesar’s Death; A Prayer for Augustus’s Success — 18:39
4. 04 - Book 2, Part 1: Methods of Propagation; The Labour Required; Treatment Of Individual Species; The Effects of Climate and Location; A Celebration of Italy — 14:08
5. 05 - Book 2, Part 2: The Nature of Various Soils; The Recognition of Soil Types; Planting A Vineyard — 13:12
6. 06 - Book 2, Part 3: Care of The Vineyard; A Wealth of Trees And Plants; The Joys Of The True Life — 14:43
7. 07 - Book 3, Part 1: Introduction; Breeding Stock — 9:18
8. 08 - Book 3, Part 2: Care of the Sire and Dam; Care of Calves and Foals; The Dangers of Desire — 11:40
9. 09 - Book 3, Part 3: The Care of Sheep and Goats; The Herdsmen of Africa and Scythia; Tending the Flocks — 10:53
10. 10 - Book 3, Part 4: The Treatment of Diseases; The Plague — 9:04
11. 11 - Book 4, Part 1: Introduction; Location and Maintenance of the Apiary; The Fighting Swarms; The Surrounding Garden — 12:39
12. 12 - Book 4, Part 2: The Nature and Qualities of Bees; Gathering The Honey; Disease in Bees; Autogenesis of Bees — 13:40
13. 13 - Book 4, Part 3: Aristaeus And His Mother Cyrene; The Capture of Proteus — 11:51
14. 14 - Book 4, Part 4: Orpheus and Eurydice; Aristaeus Sacrifices to Orpheus; Virgil’s Envoi — 10:18

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.