The Continuation of F. Jacoby's "Die Fragmente der griechischer Historiker"

Project description:

F. Jacoby's Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker is a collection of and commentary on the fragments of ancient historiographical writing in Greek. The work is an indispensable tool for all scholars studying Antiquity, given the great preponderance of writings which have not been preserved over those that have withstood the test of time (the so-called "shipwreck" of ancient historiography and, for that matter, ancient literature in general). Monumental though the collection is in its present state, it was nevertheless unfinished at the time of its creator's death in 1959.

Jacoby managed to complete the first three parts out the six he had planned, namely (I) Genealogy and Mythography, (II) Zeitgeschichte (Jacoby's idiosyncratic term for the most prominent genre, viz. political-military history), and (III) Horography and Ethnography. The research unit Ancient History is one of the founding members of an international project aiming to realize the publication of part IV of FGrHist, which is to contain biography and antiquarian writings. Until his retirement the project was coordinated by Guido Schepens. This task has now been taken over by Stefan Schorn.

Other collaborating universities are: Aachen, Berlin (Freie Universität and Humboldt Universität), Bielefeld, Bologna, Erfurt, Gießen, Graz, Harvard, Università Cattolica di Milano, Köln, Oxford, Pisa, Texas Christian University.

The fragments to be dealt with in FGrHist IV will be arranged under the following headings:

• IV A. Biography - Section Editor: G. Schepens (Leuven) (until 2010), S. Schorn (Leuven)
• IV B. History of Literature, Music, Art and Culture (and related genres)
• IV B 1. History of Literature and Music; Section Editor: E. Krummen (Graz)
• IV C. Politeiai, Nomoi, Nomima, On Cities, On Islands, Ktiseis, Aitia (and related genres)
• IV C 1. Politeiai, Nomoi and Nomima; Section Editor: S. Schorn (Leuven)
• IV C 2. On Cities, On Islands, Ktiseis, Aitia (and related genres); Section Editor: D. Engels (Bruxelles)
• IV C 3. Kallimachos, Section Editor: M. Asper (HU Berlin)
• IV D. History of Religion and Cult; Section Editor: D. Obbink (Oxford)
• IV E. Paradoxography; Section Editor: S. Schorn (Leuven)
• IV F: Collections, Anthologies and Hypomnemata (and related genres)

At this writing three fascicles have been edited by G. Schepens and published courtesy of the Brill Academic Publishers: IVA 1 (by J. Bollansée, J. Engels, G. Schepens and E. Theys, Leiden - Boston - Köln 1998, xxiv + 394 p.), IVA 3 (by J. Bollansée, Leiden - Boston - Köln 1999, xxxi + 631 p.) and IVA 7 (by J. Radicke, Leiden - Boston - Köln 1999, xxv + 492 p.). The next fascicle to appear is IVA 4, scheduled for 2011 (ed. by J. Engels, with contributions by J. Engels and S. Schorn)

These volumes are also accessible online on www.brillonline.nl. In order to make the results of the research available as soon as possible to the scholarly community, it has been recently arranged with Brill that when the work on one author has been finished, edition and commentary will be published in advance on the Brill online platform. As soon as all contributions to a volume are completed the printed volume will appear.

The publication of Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker Part V (Geography) is coordinated by chief editor Hans-Joachim Gehrke (Freiburg).

For more information:

• G. Schepens, Jacoby's FGrHist: Problems, Methods, Prospects, in: G.W. Most (ed.), Collecting Fragments. Fragmente sammeln, Göttingen 1996, p. 144-172.
• The Prolegomena by G. Schepens in FGrHist IVA 1, p. vii-xxi. 
• www.brillonline.nl

Contact:

Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Stefan Schorn