Renowned philosopher Kurt Flasch offers a full-scale reappraisal of the life and legacy of Meister Eckhart, the medieval German theologian, philosopher, and alleged mystic who was active during the Avignon Papacy of the fourteenth century and was tried for heresy by Pope John XXII. Disputing his subject's frequent characterization as a hero of a modern, syncretic spirituality, Flasch attempts to free Eckhart from the "Mystical Flood" by inviting his readers to think along with Eckhart in a careful rereading of his Latin and German works. This fascinating study makes a powerful case for Eckhart's position as an important philosopher of the time rather than a mystic and casts new light on an important figure of the Middle Ages whose ideas attracted considerable attention from such diverse modern thinkers as Schopenhauer, Vivekananda, Suzuki, Fromm, and Derrida.

In 1350, the Italian humanist and poet Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) decided to form a collection of all his correspondence. The letters deal with multifatious topics, switch between narration and instruction, and the personal and the general, and are addressed to various of his learned friends and contemporaries. They are a treasure trove for the history of ideas. This is the first complete German-language edition of the famous 24 books of the Epistolae familiares; they have been translated from the Latin by Prof. Berthe Widmer, an acknowledged authority on Petrarch. The translation is accompanied by a detailed commentary on the texts, giving factual information on aspects which are largely unknown today, for example on persons, authors and places mentioned. Access to the letters is further facilitated by an annotated index of the addresses and an overview of the contents of the letters. A detailed introduction locates the letters in the context of Petrarch's complete works and his age. The letters represent a most important document in the history of literature and are of inestimable value for all literary scholars and for historians and historians of philosophy.

Der Kulturhistoriker Erich Auerbach (1892-1957) zAhlt zu den bedeutendsten Kulturwissenschaftlern und Romanisten des 20. Jahrhunderts. Wie viele andere bedeutende Gelehrte emigrierte er frA1/4h aus Deutschland, um der Verfolgung durch die Nationalsozialisten zu entgehen. Bereits 1929 erschien sein Buch zu Dante, das trotz des etwas komplizierten Titels einen runden GesamtA1/4berblick A1/4ber das dichterische Schaffen des italienischen Nationaldichters gibt. Auerbach spA1/4rte in der GAttlichen KomAdie, Dantes Hauptwerk, viele Realismen auf. RA1/4ckbezA1/4ge auf die Welt des Irdischen bleiben auch im Grauen der HAlle, in der Hoffnung des Fegefeuers und in der religiAsen Ekstase des Paradieses deutlich. Dante schildert beispielsweise viele Zeitgenossen und ihre SA1/4nden, die dann entsprechend gebA1/4At werden. Bei Auerbach wird das Universum Dantes eindrucksvoll lebendig.