Book Series
- Open Book Classics vol. 14
- ISSN Print: 2054-216X
- ISSN Digital: 2054-2178
Copyright
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing; Hugh Barr Nisbet; Rosamond McKitterick; Roger Paulin; George Pliotis; Michael Squire;ISBN
Language
- English
- German
THEMA
- QDTN
- DSA
- JBCC9
- QDHM
- DB
BISAC
- PHI001000
- PHI009000
- ART015060
- LIT004170
- HIS002010
Keywords
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- German Enlightenment
- eighteenth-century aesthetics
- literary theory
- translation
Laokoon, or: On the Limits of Painting and Poetry
(with notes and Paralipomena)
- Hugh Barr Nisbet (translator)
- Rosamond McKitterick (editor)
- Roger Paulin (editor)
- George Pliotis (editor)
- Michael Squire (editor)
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Laokoon, or: On the Boundaries of Painting and Poetry (1766) remains a foundational work in aesthetics, exploring the relationship between visual and verbal modes of representation. In this classic study, Lessing distinguishes the ‘arts of space’ from the ‘arts of time’, offering a nuanced account of how painting and poetry engage perception, emotion, and imagination. His richly digressive reflections on sensory experience, grounded in a historically informed reading of ancient Graeco-Roman art and literature, continue to shape debates on the limits and powers of artistic media.
Developed through discussions with Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Nicolai, Laokoon evolved over several drafts. The Paralipomena—fragments and extrapolations of Lessing’s later thoughts, published posthumously—trace the further refinement of his aesthetic theory.
This volume presents a new English translation of Laokoon and the first English translation of the Paralipomena, both by the late H. B. Nisbet, the distinguished scholar of the German Enlightenment. Nisbet’s translation, recovered from his papers and prepared for publication by his colleagues, is accompanied by contextual materials reflecting his lifelong engagement with Lessing, Kant, Hegel, and Herder.
This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of aesthetics, art history, literary theory, Enlightenment studies, classics, media studies, and the history of ideas.
Contributors
Hugh Barr Nisbet
(translator)Rosamond McKitterick
(editor)Rosamond Deborah McKitterick (born 31 May 1949) is an English medieval historian. She is an expert on the Frankish kingdoms in the eighth and ninth centuries AD, who uses palaeographical and manuscript studies to illuminate aspects of the political, cultural, intellectual, religious, and social history of the Early Middle Ages. From 1999 until 2016 she was Professor of Medieval History and director of research at the University of Cambridge. She is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Professor Emerita of Medieval History in the University of Cambridge
Roger Paulin
(editor)Roger Paulin took his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1965 and his Cambridge Litt. D. in 1987. He taught at Birmingham and Bristol before coming to Cambridge in 1974 as a University Lecturer and Fellow of Trinity. From 1987 to 1989 he was Henry Simon Professor of German in the University of Manchester. From 1989 to 2005 he was Schröder Professor of German in Cambridge and is a Fellow of Trinity. From 1989 to 1996 he was Head of Department. He retired in 2005. He received a Humboldtpreis in 2002. In 2011 he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz.
George Pliotis
(editor)George Pliotis received his PhD in Classics (specialising in Latin Literature) from the University of Cambridge, where he continues to teach a wide variety of papers in Latin Language and Literature.
Michael Squire
(editor)Michael Squire is Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College. His research interests include Greek and Roman material and visual culture, the history of aesthetics, the interrelations between words and images and the reception of classical forms.