Tracy, Stephen V., 1941-

Stephen Victor Tracy (born 1941) is an American scholar of Classics specializing in ancient Greek Epigraphy. Inscriptions are one of the most important classes of primary evidence that comes down to us from antiquity. Tracy is best known for devising a method for recognizing the work of individual inscribers. It was long thought that the intractability of the medium (hammer and chisel on marble) made this impossible. But by treating the inscribed letters as a kind of handwriting he has been able to establish careers for many cutters, to join discrete fragments, to date inscriptions more accurately than in the past, and often thereby make it possible to reach a new understanding of historical events.