This study examines ancient dialogue as a genre, and its 17 essays explore the relationship between its form, content, and function, with a focus on the literary aspects of dialogue. The contributions address the development of the genre over time as well as the formal aspects of dialogue.

This is the first edition of Conrad Celtis' (1459-1508) AGermania generalisA to appear with translation and a critical commentary. The text is important for the major import it had on the discourse about the German nation and the attempt to define that concept in historical and geographic terms. The first part reviews the forms in which the text has been handed down and studies the history and transmission of the extant versions, thus preparing the way for the presentation of the present edition proper. The second part is largely made up of studies on Celtis' conception of Germany, exploring the sources of this central topic in Celtis' oeuvre and highlighting its crucial aspects with a detailed interpretation of AGermania generalisA itself.

The cultural history of a city between the Late Middle Ages and the Thirty Years WarThis book contains 19 essays on the cultural history of Augsburg in the 15th and 16th centuries. During this period Augsburg was one of the cities in Germany in which humanism and the art of the Renaissance found their earliest and most intensive reception. In line with new approaches to cultural history and the concept of humanism, the book illuminates the reception of the two paradigms as phenomena which were evident in the entire culture of the city. Taken together, the findings of this study present for the first time a complete panorama of Augsburg culture in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The period from the 5th to the 7th century AD was characterised by far-reaching structural changes that affected the entire west of the Roman Empire. This process used to be regarded by scholars aspart of the dissolution of Roman order, but in current discussions it is nowexamined more critically. The contributions to this volume of conference papers combine approaches from history and literature studies in order to review the changing forms and fields of the establishment of collective identities, and to analyse them in their mutual relationships.