Philologists

For the Swedish orientalist and Greek philologist Jakob Jonas Bjornstahl - the first known Scandinavian traveler to visit Greece, in 1779 - Thessaly and the Vale of Tempe in the winter felt just like home. And in 1878, Finnish architect, writer and artist Jac Ahrenberg was surprised to find that Athens reminded him of cities back in his own country in many ways.

A first edition of ?The Hobbit? accompanied by a handwritten note in Elvish by British author J.R.R. Tolkien was sold by Sotheby?s at auction on June 4 for 187,000 euros.

The book was a gift from the author and is dedicated to Miss Katherine (?Kitty?) Kilbride, one of his first students at Leeds University in the 1920s.