Old World Library
The Library of the Old World was a renowned series of books by Artemis Verlag that was published in its original form from 1947 to around 1990. The aim of the series was to present the broadest possible spectrum of ancient literature. In addition to the accompanying research volumes, there were four sub-series, also color-coded by the bindings: the Greek series (white canvas covers); the Roman series (red canvas covers); the series “The old Orient” (sand-colored canvas covers) and the series “Antiquity and Christianity” (green canvas covers). In the earlier years of the series, in addition to the canvas, there was also the variant of a full parchment cover for special editions. The format and design of the bindings was based on the famous English Loeb Classical Library (whose almost 100-year popularity is due not least to the fact that the handy volumes fit into the jacket pocket of every educated reader). A total of around 140 volumes have been published that have not yet been cataloged in a standardized way. In the Greek, Roman and Christian series, individual editions were also published in two languages. Some volumes in the library were later republished in the Tusculum Collection , which Artemis took over from Heimeran Verlag in the late 1970s . So there is some overlap between the two rows.
The Artemis publishing house, which today belongs to the publishing house de Gruyter , still has volumes under the title “Library of the Old World”. However, these are only inexpensive, mostly paperback (blue-red) reprints of the old editions without the series-typical binding (see above) and cover (illustrated; white), which have not been used since the early 1990s.
Historiography in the Library of the Old World
Many important works of ancient historiography were edited in German exclusively in the library of the Old World, B. Polybios , Cassius Dio , the Historia Augusta , Ammianus Marcellinus , Pompeius Trogus , Orosius and many more. There were also editions of the masterpieces of ancient historiography from Herodotus and Thucydides to Sallust , Livy and Suetonius . The "great Greeks and Romans", the important collection of double biographies of Plutarch , appeared in a complete six-volume edition.
Philosophy in the Library of the Old World
In addition to pre-Socratics , representatives of the Stoa , Epicureanism and many more, the Library of the Old World published multi-volume editions of the works of Plato , Aristotle and Augustine . Famous is the nine-volume total edition of Plato by Olof Gigon (in the translation by Rudolf Rufener ), which is divided as follows: early dialogues; Works of ascension; Master dialogues; Late dialogues (2 volumes); The State; The laws; The real letters; Lexicon of names and terms.
Classical Literature in the Library of the Old World
Numerous editions of classical literature that are still popular today and widely distributed as paperback editions first appeared in the Library of the Old World. In addition to Aeschylus ("Complete Tragedies and Fragments", 1952); Sophocles ("Tragedies", 1968); Euripides ("The Tragedies and Fragments", 2 vols., 1958 and 1968) and much more. there was the only complete German edition of Aristophanes' comedies in the Greek series (initially in a two-volume, then, from 1968, in an extensive one-volume edition), which is now in great demand on the antiquarian book market.
Ancient Egypt in the Library of the Old World
Many of the later popular and frequently reprinted volumes of text on ancient Egypt were first published in the library of the ancient world, such as the "Egyptian Religion" in 4 volumes (1956–1960); the " Egyptian Book of the Dead " (1979); "The Egyptian Underworld Books" (1972) and "Egyptian Hymns and Prayers" (1975). The well-known Egyptologist Jan Assmann compiled the "Egyptian Hymns" and thus created a kind of Egyptian psalter that contains numerous first prints. The volume closes with an unabridged translation of the famous Nile hymn by the poet Cheti. It is also noteworthy that from Munich Egyptologists Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing published anthology "Egyptian wisdom" (1955), which is provided with an introduction to source statements and the complete translation of important papyri of wisdom literature contains what some amazing parallels with wisdom texts and the Book of Ruth in Old Testament exhibit.
Texts of Early Christianity in the Library of the Old World
In addition to the major works of Augustine, Artemis-Verlag also published texts that were previously difficult to access in the Library of the Old World, such as a volume "Christian Platonism" with texts by the late antique philosopher Marius Victorinus , two volumes "Texts of early monasticism" (contained therein is the German translation of the famous "Vita Columbani", which describes the life of the Irish-Gaelic missionary Columban in the Merovingian Franconian Empire), as well as a three-volume text edition of the " Gnosis ", which is reprinted to this day and is considered a standard work.
See also
literature
- Ancient world literature. An almanac for the publication of the 125th volume in the series "The Library of the Old World" . Edited by Liselotte Rüegg. Artemis, Zurich 1979.