DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56704#0009
FOREWORD
The reader who may find occasion to use this volume, whether in
purposeful or idle perusal, deserves a word of explanation concerning its
nature and history—for this is not a catalogue in the familiär sense. Its
authors would have disclaimed such intentions as exhaustive completeness
or inflexible consistency, which are expected in books of this dass. Rather,
their purpose was to form a substantial working collection of pictures and
texts from which might be written a soundly documented history of mediaeval
astrological imagery. The introductory chapters of this book—and those
of the previous volumes in this series—set forth the broad outlines of such
a history and suggest the direction which further studies might profitably
pursue.
Twenty-five years have elapsed since the second volume appeared. The
long delay was engendered by trying circumstances rather than inherent
complexities of the new material. By 1933 work on the present volume was
already well advanced, but that was in Germany. The years following were
spent in the removal of the Warburg Library from Hamburg and its
resettlement in London. It was during this period that Hans Meier joined
Fritz Saxl in the task of reorganizing and enriching the catalogue. With
World War II the book was all but completely put aside. Hans Meier was
killed in a bombing raid on London in 1941. Unkind fate struck another
tragic blow when Fritz Saxl died in 1948.
The task which feil to the present editor was mainly that of pulling
together loose threads and seeing the volume through the press. The
Catalogue proper remains, essentially, as the authors left it—but for minor
items of descriptive and bibliographical detail. We have printed the
Introduction from Saxl’s typescript—again with small editorial adjustments
and reworking of footnotes. It is regrettable that a book about manuscripts
in English libraries should appear in German. But it was written in that
language and translation would have introduced new possibilities of error
and further delay in a work already long overdue. As for the plates—since
we could discover only fragmentary indications of the authors’ original
intentions, it was decided to form a new selection for this volume. We have
sought to include sufficient illustrations to serve the argument of the
Introduction while at the same time offering an adequate pictorial index to
the catalogue as a whole.
The reader who may find occasion to use this volume, whether in
purposeful or idle perusal, deserves a word of explanation concerning its
nature and history—for this is not a catalogue in the familiär sense. Its
authors would have disclaimed such intentions as exhaustive completeness
or inflexible consistency, which are expected in books of this dass. Rather,
their purpose was to form a substantial working collection of pictures and
texts from which might be written a soundly documented history of mediaeval
astrological imagery. The introductory chapters of this book—and those
of the previous volumes in this series—set forth the broad outlines of such
a history and suggest the direction which further studies might profitably
pursue.
Twenty-five years have elapsed since the second volume appeared. The
long delay was engendered by trying circumstances rather than inherent
complexities of the new material. By 1933 work on the present volume was
already well advanced, but that was in Germany. The years following were
spent in the removal of the Warburg Library from Hamburg and its
resettlement in London. It was during this period that Hans Meier joined
Fritz Saxl in the task of reorganizing and enriching the catalogue. With
World War II the book was all but completely put aside. Hans Meier was
killed in a bombing raid on London in 1941. Unkind fate struck another
tragic blow when Fritz Saxl died in 1948.
The task which feil to the present editor was mainly that of pulling
together loose threads and seeing the volume through the press. The
Catalogue proper remains, essentially, as the authors left it—but for minor
items of descriptive and bibliographical detail. We have printed the
Introduction from Saxl’s typescript—again with small editorial adjustments
and reworking of footnotes. It is regrettable that a book about manuscripts
in English libraries should appear in German. But it was written in that
language and translation would have introduced new possibilities of error
and further delay in a work already long overdue. As for the plates—since
we could discover only fragmentary indications of the authors’ original
intentions, it was decided to form a new selection for this volume. We have
sought to include sufficient illustrations to serve the argument of the
Introduction while at the same time offering an adequate pictorial index to
the catalogue as a whole.