Ancient Scholarship and Grammar

Book excerpt: Ancient Greek scholarship is currently in the centre of a multi-faceted and steadily growing research activity. The volume aims at investigating archetypes, concepts and contexts of the ancient philological discipline from a historical, methodological and ideological perspective. It includes 26 contributions by leading scholars divided into four sections: The ancient scholars at work, The ancient grammarians on Greek language and linguistic correctness, Ancient grammar in historical context and Ancient grammar in interdisciplinary context. The period examined coincides with the establishment of scholarship as an autonomous discipline from the 3rd century BC to its peak in the first centuries AD. Archetypes and paradigms of philological activity during the classical era help investigate the origins of ancient scholarship, and the interdisciplinary discourse between scholarship, philosophy of language and rhetoric is illustrated. Thus, the thematic spectrum of the volume stretches from the 4th century BC to the Byzantine era. Apart from the Greek antiquity, central aspects of the Latin grammatical tradition are also being examined.