History of Classical Philology

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The history of Classical Philology has a long tradition that dates back to the times of the Greeks and continues through ancient Rome, the Middle Ages and modern times to the present. The Classics includes both the Latin and ancient Greek literature. Ancient history and archeology emerged from classical philology.

Greece

The tradition of working on literary texts began as early as Theagenes of Rhegion in the 6th century BC. BC He collected biographical data on Homer and interpreted his texts. In the 4th century BC BC and 3rd century BC Several text editions were then produced to ensure the continued transmission of Greek epics and dramas. Attempts were also made to correct possible errors in the text.

From these origins emerged in the 3rd century BC. In Alexandria philology as a separate scientific discipline. The Museion was founded under the first Ptolomian king . Scriptures have been collected here for the purpose of preserving and explaining them. The scholars endeavored to restore the original text. Verses believed to be false have been marked but left in the text. Even then, the final decision was made by the reader himself.

Important scholars of Alexandria were Zenodotos of Ephesus , Callimachus of Cyrene, Apollonios Rhodios , Eratosthenes of Cyrene , Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace .

In Pergamon at the beginning of the 2nd century BC Founded a school by King Attalus I and a library by his successor Eumenes II (approx. 197–158 BC) . This was in competition with Alexandria. The Krates von Mallos , Alexander Polyhistor and Apollodor von Pergamon worked in Pergamon .

Rome

Philology in Rome began in the 2nd century BC. The first philologists in Rome are Lucius Accius and Lucius Aelius Stilo . Stilo was a teacher of Varros and Ciceros . Varro had a lasting influence on Roman literary history and grammar. First, the authenticity of the surviving texts was checked, the scholars wrote grammatical and literary works and established the technical terminology. In the 1st century AD, the work became more systematic, manuals and school materials were the result. The works of the classical authors have been edited and commented on. In the following century the ancient Latin authors also received attention.

The philologists of the 4th and 5th centuries AD remained authoritative for both late antiquity and the Middle Ages. This is how Aelius Donatus created the defining grammar. Boethius was the last philologist in Rome who also had extensive knowledge of the Greek language and literature.

middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, only the Latin scripts were used in Western Europe for historical reasons and the resulting development. The Carolingian Renaissance sparked a new interest in the Latin language, but the Greek language remained largely unpopulated in Western Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages, Latin remained a cross-border connecting element for the Church. New manuscripts were produced and collected in monastery schools and libraries, but no philological activity in the academic sense took place. With the development of scholasticism in the High Middle Ages, a certain scientific approach also found its way, the focus of which was no longer just the study of the Church Fathers and the history of the saints, but was primarily oriented towards the writings of Aristotle , which were translated from Arabic into Latin .

Modern times

Modern times brought forth a new generation of philologists with Italian humanism in the early 14th century. The scholars admired the beauty of language and style of language. They collected the texts from monasteries and brought them back into circulation with new manuscripts. Francesco Petrarca tried to get a reliable text with different manuscripts. Together with Poggio Bracciolini he discovered half of all of Cicero's texts known today.

Greek literature also received attention again. Angelo Poliziano was the first to master the ancient Greek language so perfectly that he wrote poems in this language himself. The beginnings of archeology are also based on this time. In addition, the Latin, which served as the language of the scholars of the time, was brought into line with the Latin of the classics.

The advent of the printing press prevented the texts from being further contaminated by copying errors. At the end of the 15th century, greater efforts were made to obtain high-quality texts through textual criticism. From around 1530 to 1700, French and Dutch philologists in particular stood out. After that, Richard Bentley shone in England as an outstanding text critic. His successors also did a great job checking the authenticity of the texts. With Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Friedrich August Wolf , Neohellenism was founded in the 18th century . The German philologists, including August Wilhelm von Schlegel , Friedrich Schleiermacher , August Boeckh and Karl Lachmann , remained decisive for science until the 20th century. The climax of the German research within the meaning of historical positivism formed Theodor Mommsen , Eduard Schwartz and Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff . In the 20th century, research was evenly distributed among universities across Europe and America.

See also

literature

Prosopographic lexicons, studies and aids to classical philologists see the list of classical philologists # literature .

bibliography

  • William M. Calder III: An introductory bibliography to the history of classical scholarship chiefly in the XIXth and XXth centuries. Olms, Hildesheim 1992.

Monographs

  • Graziano Arrighetti et al. (Ed.): La filologia greca e latina nel secolo XX. Atti del Congresso Internazionale, Roma, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, September 17-21, 1984. Giardini, Pisa 1989 (Biblioteca di Studi Antichi 56).
  • Victor Bers , Gregory Nagy (Ed.): The Classics in East Europe. Essays on the Survival of a Humanistic Tradition. From the End of World War II to the Present. Worcester, Mass. 1996 (American Philological Association Pamphlet Series).
  • Conrad Bursian : Contributions to the history of classical studies in the Middle Ages. In: Session reports of the Philosophical-Philological and Historical Class of the KB Academy of Sciences in Munich. Vol. 3, 1873, ZDB -ID 961259-2 , pp. 458-518, digital version (PDF; 2.8 MB) .
  • Conrad Bursian: History of Classical Philology in Germany from the Beginnings to the Present (= History of Science in Germany. Modern Times. 19, ZDB -ID 1016690-7 ). Half 1–2 (= 2 volumes). Oldenbourg, Munich et al. 1883, digitized 1st half , digitized 2nd half .
  • William M. Calder III : Men in Their Books: Studies in the Modern History of Classical Scholarship. Edited by John P. Harris and R. Scott Smith. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1998 (Spudasmata, Volume 67). - Review by Robert Todd, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1999-04-25 .
  • Hellmut Flashar , Karlfried founder , Axel Horstmann (ed.): Philology and hermeneutics in the 19th century. On the history and methodology of the humanities . Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1979.
  • Ingo Gildenhard , Martin Ruehl (Eds.): Out of Arcadia: Classics and Politics in Germany in the Age of Burckhardt, Nietzsche and Wilamowitz. (BICS, Suppl. 79). Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, London 2003, ISBN 0-900587-90-3 . –Rez. Hugh Lloyd-Jones , Bryn Mawr Classical Review 02/43/2004 .
  • Anthony Grafton : Forgers and Critics. Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
  • Anthony Grafton: Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in the Age of Science, 1450-1800 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).
  • Anthony Grafton: Commerce with the Classics: Ancient Books and Renaissance Readers (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997).
  • Anthony Grafton: The Footnote: A Curious History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
    • German translation: The tragic origins of the German footnote . Munich: dtv 1998. ISBN 3-423-30668-8 .
  • Anthony Grafton: Worlds Made by Words (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009). - Rez. Véronique Krings, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.09.32 .
  • Alfred Gudeman : Outline of the history of classical philology . Berlin 1909 (reprint Darmstadt 1967).
  • Pascale Hummel : Histoire de l'histoire de la philologie: étude d'un genre épistémologique et bibliographique. Librairie Droz, Genève 2000 (Histoire des idées et critique littéraire, Volume 385), (excerpts online) at Google Books . - (Like a 'meta-study')
  • Ada Hentschke , Ulrich Muhlack : Introduction to the history of classical philology . Darmstadt 1972.
  • Karl R. Krierer, Ina Friedmann (Ed.): Networks of Classical Studies in the 19th Century. Contributions from the conference from 30.-31. May 2014 at the University of Vienna. Phoibos Verlag, Vienna 2016.
  • Diego Lanza , Gherardo Ugolini: Storia della filologia classica. Studi Superiori, 1041. Rome 2016.
  • Franco Montanari , Stephanos Matthaios , Antonios Rengakos (eds.): Brill's Companion to Ancient Greek Scholarship. 2 volumes. Brill, Leiden 2015, table of contents .
  • Franco Montanari (ed.): La philologie grecque à l'époque hellénistique et romaine . Sept exposés suivis de discussions par Nicholas J. Richardson, Jean Irigoin , Herwig Maehler , Renzo Tosi, Graziano Arrighetti , DM Schenkeveld, Carl Joachim Classen . Entretiens préparés et présidés par Franco Montanari, Vandoeuvres - Genève 16-21 août 1993 (Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique. Publiés par Olivier Reverdin and Bernard Grange. Tome XL). Genève-Vandoeuvres 1994.
  • Rudolf Pfeiffer : History of Classical Scholarship. From the beginnings to the end of the Hellenistic age. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1968. Repr. 1978. ISBN 0-19-814342-7 .
    • German translation: history of classical philology. From the beginning to the end of Hellenism . Beck, Munich 1970, 2nd, through. 1978 edition. ISBN 3-406-03751-8 .
  • Rudolf Pfeiffer: History of Classical Scholarship. From 1300 to 1850 . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1976. Repr. 1978. ISBN 0-19-814364-8 .
    • German translation: The classical philology from Petrarch to Mommsen . Beck, Munich 1982. ISBN 3-406-08411-7 .
  • Olivier Reverdin : Les Ètudes Classiques aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Leur place dans l'histoire des idées. Fondation Hardt, Vandoeuvres-Genève 1980 (Entretiens sur l'Antiquité classique, t. XXVI).
  • Leighton Durham Reynolds , Nigel Guy Wilson : Scribes and Scholars. A guide to the transmission of Greek and Latin Literature . Oxford, 3rd ed. 1991; 2nd edition 1974.
  • John Edwin Sandys : A history of classical scholarship. 3 volumes, Yale University Press 1903, 1908, Volume 1, Archives , Volume 2, Archives , Volume 3, Archives
  • Christopher Stray : Classics transformed: schools, universities, and society in England, 1830–1960. Clarendon Press, 1998. - Review by Robert B. Todd, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 98.6.16 .
  • James Turner: Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2014. - Review by Geoffrey Galt Harpham, in: Times Higher Education , September 4, 2014, (online) .
  • Cornelia Wegeler: "... we say from the international scholarly republic". Classical Studies and National Socialism. The Göttingen Institute for Classical Studies 1921–1962. Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1996. - Review by Albrecht Dihle, in: Göttingische Gelehre Anzeige 249, 1997, pp. 227–244; see. ders., Federal Republic of Germany. Greek philology. In: Graziano Arrighetti et al. (Ed.): La filologia greca e latina nel secolo XX. Atti del Congresso Internazionale, Roma, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, September 17-21, 1984. Giardini, Pisa 1989 (Biblioteca di Studi Antichi 56), vol. 2, pp. 1019-1042.
  • Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff : History of Philology . 1921; Neudr. Teubner, Stuttgart [a. a.] 1998. ISBN 3-519-07253-X .