B. furnishes an interesting archival project about a little known Classicist, the Swedish doctor Johan Hedenborg, and the epigraphical data he compiled in a massive three-volume manuscript that was ultimately never published. Hedenborg's manuscript consisted of an unruly compendium of all things Levantine observed during the course of the doctor's decades-long voyages to the region. Hedenborg finished his manuscript, ‘Geschichte der Insel Rhodos von der Urzeit bis auf die heutigen Tage’, in 1854, but the work languished in obscurity until an Italian aristocrat, seeking documentation for the Order of St John, purchased it from Hedenborg's widow in 1896. Noticing Hedenborg's careful drawings of inscribed ancient Greek altars, stelai, votives and tombs, he gave that portion of the material to an ambitious Italian scholar, Angelo Scrinzi, who selected 46 of the more than 300 inscriptions in the manuscript for publication. Scrinzi did this in part to call attention to the fact that the celebrated epigraphist, Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen, had published his monumental work on Aegean epigraphy, IG XII, 1, in complete ignorance of the existence of the manuscript. B.’s autopsy of the history of Hedenborg's manuscript lends an illuminating glimpse into the sometimes disorderly manner in which early epigraphical publications – tomes we regard as canonical – came into being. Gaining access to the manuscript in 2009, B. came to realise that 59 of the inscriptions recorded by Hedenborg still remained unpublished, along with 160 Rhodian amphora stamps. In addition, Hedenborg's precisely drawn illustrations enabled B. to correct and/or emend several of the inscribed texts that had been published. B. salvages the contents of Hedenborg's forgotten manuscript by organising the material into catalogues, complete with concordances to published versions, indexes for search purposes, invaluable reproductions of Hedenborg's transcribed texts and drawings of the inscribed elements themselves. Though limited in some ways (the drawings were not scaled, and the letter sizes of the inscriptions not recorded), the illustrations are otherwise remarkably precise and recognisable as archaeological materials. Benefiting from Hedenborg's keen eye for detail and his obviously well-trained medical hand, the illustrations form an essential component to the archive. Relying on these as well as on Hedenborg's overlooked findspots, B. informs the compendium with a fresh, yet critical evaluation of epigraphical texts from Rhodes, some published, others forgotten.

Obtaining his medical degree in 1822, Hedenborg's extraordinary transition from medical doctor to archaeological explorer began when he obtained a position at the Swedish and Norwegian Embassy in Constantinople in 1825. His job enabled him to criss-cross the Ottoman Empire for nearly four decades, travelling extensively throughout the Eastern Mediterranean (including Egypt, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Sudan, Cyprus and the Aegean coast of Turkey). His voyages inevitably and repeatedly passed through Rhodes, where he and his family came to feel at home and established a domicile. All along the way he collected an eclectic range of observations and records, at one and the same time biological, geological, archaeological and ethnographical. Obtaining the rank of professor in Sweden in 1832, he immediately relocated to the Swedish consulate in Alexandria, Egypt. However, after falling seriously ill in 1859, he relocated his family to Rhodes. The move was not without incident. His transport vessel went down at sea, taking with it 21 cases of his personal effects, and when he finally did make it to Rhodes, he learned to his chagrin that his house had been looted by his caretaker. Bailed out again by the Swedish crown, he was appointed Swedish vice consul at Rhodes in 1861. Two years later a devastating earthquake compelled him to abandon the island for Italy, where he died in Florence in 1865. Throughout his travels he meticulously recorded flora, fauna, costume and archaeological remains, publishing two short books in the process. This preliminary success inspired him to compile his manuscript on the history of Rhodes, assembling some 300 inscriptions, and hundreds of examples of ceramic materials into a massive, if inchoate, three-volume work, intended as the most up-to-date publication for the island. The work was lavishly illustrated with some 40 plates of drawings of Rhodian antiquities. To demonstrate the value of these plates, B. compares a few of Hedenborg's drawings with the actual surviving altars at Rhodes. The photographs demonstrate Hedenborg's remarkable accuracy in drawing and transcription. Of the 301 Rhodian inscriptions in the manuscript B. was able to verify that 51 had never been published. These form the bulk of his new catalogue. Addressing Hedenborg's reproductions of 160 hitherto unpublished Rhodian amphora stamps, B. not only edits this trove of material, but he also demonstrates a relationship between the demotics and months of the years recorded on some of the handles with those Hedenborg recorded on roof tiles. This seemingly indicates that the stamps pertain to the production process itself, something many specialists have long suspected.

B.’s catalogue of inscriptions contains either the previously unpublished texts of Hedenborg's manuscript (mostly short burial epitaphs or fragmentary texts) or revised texts of published inscriptions for which the manuscript revealed the need for emendation. Some of the more notable texts to be found in B.’s catalogue include no. 2, a dedication by the city of Rhodes honouring two Termessian officers for leading troops to the defence of Stratoniceia in Caria during the First Mithridatic War (88 bc). Inscription no. 8 makes mentions of family relatives of the Stoic philosopher Panaetius; nos 21 and 27 furnish epitaphs for foreigners originating from Aetolia and Histria. The most significant inscription undoubtedly is no. 59, published earlier as IG XII, 1, 25, concerning the identity of the temple complex of Apollo Pythios on the Rhodian acropolis, for which the Italian excavations revealed minimal trace. Based on details in Hedenborg's manuscript, B. argues convincingly that the temple was indeed dedicated to Apollo Pythios and not Helios. B. demonstrates repeatedly that Hedenborg's manuscript contains far better descriptions of findspots than IG XII, 1, not to mention, better descriptions (and illustrations) of the inscribed monuments themselves. His short catalogues, well organised with concordances and indexes, furnish an important, and perhaps sobering, supplement to existing epigraphic publications for the island of Rhodes.