Classical Philology

Overview

Propylaeum offers several search options for subject information on classical philology: Catalogue entries are searchable for printed monographs and article titles from Germany and abroad. In addition, an electronic document delivery service (copies of essays by e-mail / delivery of books) and lists of recently published literature are available.

The user is furthermore given access to different types of electronic media, such as subject databases, e-journals, freely accessible internet sources on Classical Philology, a document server with the option of publishing monographs and essays free of charge, as well as direct access to digitized historical literature.

Definition of the Subject

In the field of classical studies Classical Philology - in contrast to Classical Archaeology and Pre- and Early History - is concerned primarily with the written legacy of the antique world of the Greek and the Romans. Its main focus is on the language (Greek and Latin) and the surviving fictional and non-fictional texts, among them also subject texts from the fields of historiography, philosophy, rhetoric, geography and medicine, as well as the conditions under which they were written and handed down. In contrast to Ancient History research is rarely carried out on non-literary, non-fictional types of texts, such as e. g. inscriptions and texts embossed on coins. However, what all disciplines have in common is the historical interest in the antique culture of the Greek and the Romans and their reconstruction.

Classical Philology as an independent scholarly discipline developed as early as in pre-Alexandrian times, when first attempts were made at putting the surviving works of the poets on a reliable text foundation and at also interpreting them. The period researched by classical Greek studies extends from the 8^th century BC to the 5^th century AD, that of classical Latin studies from the 3^rd century BC to the 6^th century AD, both disciplines also taking account of the respective history of reception. The geographic area under research encompasses the Greek-Hellenistic Mediterranean koine and the Roman empire with its provinces, thus extends from the Mediterranean to north-western and central Europe.

Classical Philology as a Special Subject Collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich

The resources for the subject area of Classical Philology in Propylaeum are supplied by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich (BSB). The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich (BSB) has been responsible for the special subject collection "Classical Philology, within the field of Classical Studies" since 1949, commissioned by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Its main focus is on acquiring, cataloguing and supplying the relevant information resources from a scholarly perspective as comprehensively as possible, as well as integrating them in a central subject portal.