Terminologies present various challenges to their inventors and to their users, ranging from epistemic adequacy over linguistic concerns to matters of strategy and group construction. With respect to historical terminologies, however, research has been dominated by linguistic approaches. Breaking new ground, Coming to Terms collects eleven articles that combine an interest in the history of knowledge, mostly ancient Greek, with research on scientific terminologies. They all share an interest in terminological practices, that is, questions such as how and when to coin a term and then what to do with it. Among the fields discussed are astronomy, the Roman surveyors, Aristotelian science, Renaissance and modern biology, contemporary medicine, ancient Chinese philosophy, 20th-century physics, and colonial linguistics. Confronting ancient with modern terminologies, the collection intends to test integrative interpretive approaches. Thus, the collection documents how rich ancient (and modern) terminologies are and shows that they are, beyond lexicography, worth being studied per se.

Who is afraid of case literature? In an influential article ("Thinking in Cases", 1996), John Forrester made a case for studying case literature more seriously, exemplifying his points, mostly, with casuistic traditions of law. Unlike in modern literatures, case collections make up a significant portion of ancient literary traditions, such as Mesopotamian, Greek, and Chinese, mostly in medical and forensic contexts. The genre of cases, however, has usually not been studied in its own right by modern scholars. Due to its pervasiveness, case literature lends itself to comparative studies to which this volume intends to make a contribution. While cases often present truly fascinating epistemic puzzles, in addition they offer aesthetically pleasing reading experiences, due to their narrative character. Therefore, the case, understood as a knowledge-transmitting narrative about particulars, allows for both epistemic and aesthetic approaches. This volume presents seven substantial studies of cases and case literature: Topics touched upon are ancient Greek medical, forensic, philosophical and mathematical cases, medical cases from imperial China, and 20th-century American medical case writing. The collection hopes to offer a pilot of what to do with and how to think about cases.

Scientific and technological texts have not played a significant role in modern literary criticism. This applies to Classics, too, despite the fact that a large part of the field's extant texts deal with questions of medicine, mathematics, and natural philosophy. Focusing mostly on medical and mathematical texts, this collection aims at approaching ancient Greek science and its texts from the cross-disciplinary perspective of authorship. Among the questions addressed are: What is a scientific author? In what respect does scientific writing differ from 'literary' writing? How does the author present himself as an authoritative figure through his text? What strategies of trust do these authors employ? These and related questions cannot be discussed within the typical boundaries of modern academic disciplines, thus most of the sixteen authors, many of them leading experts in the fields of ancient science, bring a comparative perspective to their subjects. As a result, the collection not only offers a new approach to this vast area of ancient literature, thus effectively discovering new possibilities for literary criticism, it also reflects on our current forms of scientific and scholarly written communication.

Das Buch Jesus Sirach stellt eine gewaltige Synthese weisheitlicher, kultischer, prophetischer, rechtlicher und historiographischer Traditionen des antiken Israel und des frühen Judentums dar. Um 180 v.Chr. in Jerusalem als Lehrbuch verfasst, verbindet sein auf Hebräisch schreibender Autor das jüdische Gesetz mit der kosmischen Weisheit und formuliert Maximen zum gelingenden Leben in der vielfältigen Welt des Hellenismus. Der vorliegende Band präsentiert alle bis heute bekannten hebräischen Fragmente dieses Buchs samt deutscher Übersetzung sowie ausgewählte Texte der um 120 v.Chr. in Alexandria erstellten griechischen Übertragung. Einzelne Essays führen in die literarischen und kulturellen Kontexte des Sirachbuchs ein, beleuchten zentrale in ihm behandelte Themen wie die rechte Lebensführung, die Gerechtigkeit Gottes, die Bedeutung des Gebets oder die Auslegung der heiligen Schriften Israels und skizzieren exemplarisch die Rolle dieses jüdischen Werkes in der christlichen Frömmigkeitsgeschichte.

English summary: In 1911, the Rostock born classical philologist John Geffcken (1861-1935) founded the "Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften" (library of classical studies). The series, which remains active to this day, is the most long standing German book series in classical philology and archeology and is still being published by Universitatsverlag Winter, just as it was one hundred years ago. On this occasion and as part of their annual "Jahresgaben"-offer, the publisher is making available a reprint of the first volume of the "Bibliothek," Edmund Hoppe's 1911 treatise "Mathematik und Astronomie im klassischen Altertum" (mathematics and astronomy in classical antiquity), published in two volumes; this volume is the first of the two. German description: 1911 begrundete der Rostocker Klassische Philologe Johannes Geffcken (1861-1935) die "Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften." Sie ist die die alteste deutsche, noch bestehende Buchreihe der klassisch-philologischen Altertumswissenschaft und erscheint heute wie vor einhundert Jahren im Universitatsverlag Winter. Aus diesem Anlass wird der erste Band der "Bibliothek," Edmund Hoppes 1911 erschienene Abhandlung "Mathematik und Astronomie im klassischen Altertum," im Rahmen der Jahresgaben des Verlags, aufgeteilt in zwei Teilbande, noch einmal vorgelegt. Der Experimentalphysiker und Wissenschaftshistoriker Edmund Hoppe (1854-1928) unterrichtete vierzig Jahre lang als Gymnasialprofessor in Hamburg und lehrte nach seiner Emeritierung Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften an der Universitat Gottingen.