Old World Lexicon

The Lexicon of the Old World (LAW) is an ancient scholarly specialist lexicon first published in 1965 .

history

The Lexicon of the Old World saw itself in the tradition of the Reallexikon des classical antiquity for grammar schools founded by Friedrich Lübker , the 8th edition of which was last published in 1914 by the publisher BG Teubner in Leipzig and had long been out of print . Although there was a detailed encyclopedia called Pauly-Wissowa , which was on the one hand still in the making, on the other hand not suitable for non-specialist people and students, and finally, due to its size and price, could hardly be found in private households. In order to close this gap, the Lexicon of the Old World was created at the suggestion of Artemis-Verlag and its director Bruno Mariacher since the summer of 1961. The lexicon should initially be aimed primarily at the readers of the publisher's " Library of the Old World " series. The editing of the work was done by Klaus Bartels and Ludwig Huber . From the beginning, the work was designed in such a way that it was not only dedicated to Greco-Roman antiquity . Articles on the ancient Orient and early Christianity should also be included in addition to the canonical lemmas that were already canonical . Modern terms were also included and the new state of research was taken into account. In addition to articles on literature, philosophy, political and cultural history, religion, law, art, economics, technology and traffic, this also meant taking into account the history and aftermath of ancient art and the history of classical studies .

Since the lexicon was to appear in only one volume, the articles had to be kept brief. In addition to brief individual articles, overview articles were also written. Particular attention was paid to the visual representation. Photographs were dispensed with and mainly maps and illustrations that could depict structural problems or certain shapes (such as Greek vases) and schematic drawings were created. All maps were redrawn under the supervision of the ancient historian Hatto H. Schmitt . The appendix contains a list of ancient portraits, a nomenclature of Greek and Latin manuscripts and papyri , a list of recent excavations, tables of weights and measures and a selection of winged words .

The lexicon, published in 1965, is dedicated to the early deceased ancient historian Jacques Moreau. Despite the recent construction of the Wall in 1961, East German specialists such as Hans-Joachim Diesner , Werner Krenkel and Otto Luschnat were also able to contribute to the lexicon.

In the 1970s, the Old World Lexicon served as the basis for the dtv Ancient World Lexicon , which was divided into thematic sub-series. In 1990 there was a new edition of the Lexikon der Alten Welt in three volumes. In 1995 Weltbild-Verlag published it again in a three-volume special edition.

The lexicon is now largely out of date. There are also newer small and medium-sized encyclopedias such as the Little or the New Pauly . Even so, it still provides a useful first overview of questions about antiquity .

Editorial Board

To make the work easier, no individual editors were appointed, but an editorial board whose members each covered one or more subject areas. The editors were:

• Carl Andresen (Ancient Christianity; Church History; Theology and Spiritual History; Art)
• Hartmut Erbse (Greek literary history; mythology, metrics; rhetoric; tradition)
• Olof Gigon (philosophy, education, mathematics; natural sciences; medicine; Greek and Roman history of religion)
• Karl Schefold (Greek and Roman archeology; Archeological topography; Orient and antiquity; Crete-Mycenae; Etruscans)
• Karl Friedrich Stroheker (Ancient history and cultural history; historical topography; numismatics; epigraphy; chronology; economy and traffic; law)
• Ernst Zinn (Roman literary history)
• Jacques Moreau (Ancient History), died in 1961

Other employees

A. Adam Karlhans Abel Michael von Albrecht Bernard Andreae Carl Andresen Ernst Badian Jan Nicolaas Bakhuizen van den Brink DM Balme J. Barns H. Baumgarten Erich Bayer Carl Becker Heinz Bellen Gerhard Bendz Ernst Berger Ludwig Berger-Haas I. Beyer Erwin Bielefeld

Emilie Boer Eva-Maria Bossert Horst Braunert Franz Brunhölzl K. Brunner Vincent Buchheit Edmund Buchner Karl Büchner Winfried Buehler Erich Burck Walter Burkert Hubert Cancik Karl Christ Carl Joachim Classen Ch. M. Danoff Albrecht Dihle Rudolf Fellmann Franz Fischer Matthias Gelzer

Pierre Grimal Fritz Gschnitzer Rudolf Hanslik Wolfgang Helck Helene Homeyer Hildebrecht Hommel Peter Hommel Barthel Hrouda Hans-Georg Kolbe Bernhard Kytzler Siegfried Lauffer Adolf Lippold Franz Georg Maier Jochen Martin Christian Meier Ernst Meyer Hans J. Nissen Thomas Pekáry

Viktor Pöschl Karl Preisendanz Helmut Rix Wolfgang Röllig Ingeborg Scheibler Wolfgang Schiering Jakob Seibert Hellmut Sichtermann Jens E. Skydsgaard Bruno Snell Johannes Straub Wilfried Strothmann Dieter Timpe Hildegard Temporini Jürgen Wiesner Otto Wilhelm von Vacano Emil Vogt Hans Julius Wolff Peter Zazoff

expenditure

• Old World Lexicon. Artemis, Zurich, Stuttgart 1965
• dtv lexicon of antiquity. 13 volumes, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1969–1971
• Lexicon of the Old World , 3 volumes, Artemis, Zurich, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7608-1034-9 (unchanged reprint of the one-volume edition from 1965). Reprint Augsburg 1994.

credentials

1. ↑ The article is largely based on the editorial of the work and the work itself.