In ever-larger sections devoted to documentation, historical-critical editions have increasingly focused on the material and medial components of a text through descriptions and illustrations of textual media. The collected essays in this volume use theoretical arguments and case examples to illustrate the potential benefits that accrue to literary interpretation from careful attention to the materiality and mediality of texts.

As a continuation of the first and second volumes of the series, this volume focuses on editors in the field of new German studies in a scholarly context. The scholarly-biographical perspective offers new insights into the origin and development of an edition or an edition process. The book discusses the professional institutionalization of a scholar, his/her position in literary studies (e.g. if he/she belongs to a school ), and then goes on to explore the general circumstances of the times or other biographical relationships. Editors from the beginning of the 19th century to the late 20th century serve as examples."

The volume indicates cardinal theoretical and practical concerns conducive to an awareness of the specific factors involved in producing scholarly editions of literary works in modern German. It contains (either in full or as extracts) editors' prefaces, articles, and monographs dating from the period between the 18th century and 1970. As such it provides a documentary overview of the history of scholarly editions of works in modern German. An Introduction indicates the way in which these documents coalesce to provide a representative outline of the historical development in this field.

The volume assembles papers delivered at the ninth international symposium of the German Studies Work Group on the Scholarly Editing of Texts, which took place in conjunction with the Work Group on Philosophical Editions and the Group of Independent Research Institutes within the German Musicological Society at the Technical University in Aachen from 20 to 23 February 2002. Three categories and concepts central to editing work - author, authorization, authenticity - are explored for the significance they have for different editorial procedures and their mutual relations to one another. The exploration encompasses theoretical and methodological papers concerned with the superordinate connections obtaining within this conceptual field, papers discussing individual aspects of the conceptual field, and case studies pertaining to individual texts or authors.