A New Journal: Contents, Methods, Perspectives

This is the inaugural issue of History of Classical Scholarship (HCS), a new online Open Access journal entirely devoted to the study of the scholarship on the Greek and Roman world. The history of classical scholarship is a thriving field, which has a complex and lively background, and has gained further momentum in the last few decades. Its subject matter is technically demanding, formidably diverse, inspiring and unsettling, infuriating and humbling. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, it appears to us to be especially topical in at least three respects: its contents, its methods, and its perspectives. Knowing the history of the scholarly debates on a specific problem remains the most effective way of coming to grips with its intellectual potential and historiographical significance. Understanding the genesis and development of the academic disciplines related to the study of the ancient world is essential if one is to grasp the structural rules of current research and to assess its credibility and traction.