What is SAPERE?

Greek and Latin texts of later antiquity have long tended to be overshadowed by the so-called "classical" periods (5th-4th century BC in Greece, 1st century BC-1st century CE in Rome).

Yet the "post-classical" periods have produced a wealth of works in both languages, a not insignificant proportion of which are still of great interest today, dealing as they do with philosophical, ethical and religious questions that are enduringly topical.

The SAPERE series has set itself the task of making precisely such texts accessible in a new form in such a way that they can appeal to an interested educated audience beyond narrow subject boundaries.

In doing so, SAPERE deliberately wants to tie in with all the connotations of the Latin sapere not only the intellectual one, which Kant made the motto of the Enlightenment in his translation of Horace's sapere aude"Have courage to use your own understanding", but also the sensual one of "tasting": SAPERE not least wants to give readers a "taste" of the texts dealt with.

For this reason, the careful scholarly study of the texts is combined with a linguistic presentation that keeps the intellectual-historical relevance in mind and makes the ancient authors understandable as interlocutors who can also provide interesting answers to contemporary questions.

Each volume focuses on a particular text. The author is introduced and the work is introduced. The text-critically examined original text is provided with an easily readable and at the same time as accurate as possible translation as well as annotations.

Each volume features experts from different disciplines - theology, religious studies, philosophy, history, archaeology, ancient and modern philologies, among others - who comment on the work from their respective perspectives in the form of essays, according to the requirements of the text.

Above all, this form of interdisciplinary indexing clearly distinguishes SAPERE from conventional bilingual text editions.

The project was funded by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities until December 2023.

Since 01 January 2023, the project has been based at the SAPERE office at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Bern in office A109.

The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.