Wilhelm von Humboldt: Baskische Schriften

Although Wilhelm von Humboldt has been recognized to be one of the most important forerunners of modern linguistics, most of his manuscripts remained unpublished until Kurt Mueller-Vollmer re-discovered the legacy. The Graz part of the publication project situates itself within a bigger edition project hosted by the Berlin- Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, and in collaboration with the universities of Stanford, Oldenburg, Göttingen, Aachen and Munich. The volume to be published here is the first of three volumes of the Basque section of the new historical critical edition of the linguistic writings of Humboldt. The Basque writings definitly do occupy a special place within Humboldt`s work as they are to be situated in the early period of his linguistic formation and thus Basque language and grammar are very important factors in his own scientific development, with strong impact on all later linguistic ideas. The Basque writings partly remained unpublished until today in the original version, whereas there are texts which have been published in Spanish translation by Basque scholars. This section of the edition thus, among other things, aims at bringing the German-speaking situation to a comparable level of Basque philology. This is necessary, also because the German Humboldt-reception has not discussed the debts of Humboldt to the tradition of Basque grammarians, thus it has remained incomplete in some important respects. The editorial plan of the Basque section follows Humboldts own original ideas about the structure of what he called his `Baskische Monographie` The first volume to be published here contains the early writings which stand in a direct relation to Humboldt`s visit to the Basque country in 1801. These texts are seen in the light of his anthropological research of the 1790`s and introduces the strict connection between his ideas on man (following the political and philosophical tradition) in all his cultural, physical, ethnological, sociological, historical and linguistic aspects and language itself. The Basque writings thus constitute the first concrete realization of Humboldts ideas on man.