About the journal
Revista Tycho

About the journal

Tycho is named after a young classicist, Tycho von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, son of U. v. Wilamowitz and grandson of Th. Mommsen. Tycho belonged to an illustrious lineage of scholars yet his career was truncated at the age of twenty-eight by the difficult moment of history he had to live in 15 October 1914. Ernst Kapp, his college-mate and friend wrote in the prologue of his posthumously published Doctoral dissertation (which meant an important turn for the studies of Sophocles) the following eloquent excerpt:

        • Tycho v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff ist, 28 Jahre alt, in der Nacht vom 14. zum 15. Oktober bei den schweren Kämpfen vor Iwangorod als Führer einer Feldwache in siegreicher Verteidigung gefallen. Von dem vorliegenden Buch, das eigentlich seine Doktorarbeit darstellt, erschien seinerzeit im Druck nur das erste Kapitel (...). Der ausdrückliche Wunsch meines Freundes, der wohl darauf vertraute, daß er mich während unserer gemeinsamen Studienjahre und auch später an seinen Gedanken und Plänen hatte teilnehmen lassen, ich möchte mich, wenn er fallen sollte, seines Buches annehmen, mußte mich bestimmen, die Bewältigung der schweren Aufgabe zu versuchen, die eine gewandtere Hand verlangt hätte. Ernst Kapp, "Vorwort", Die dramatische Technik des Sophokles von Tycho von Wilamotwitz-Moellendorff, Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1917.
          Tycho v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff died in combat at the age of twenty-eight the night between 14 and 15 October in a vanguard detachment in a victorious defence during the hard combats at Iwangorod. Only the first chapter of this book, which is the result of his doctoral dissertation, was ever published (...) The expressed wishes of my friend were that if he ever died in combat I, who was his confident in college and with whom he had shared his thoughts and plans for the future, I should remain in charge of his book, in charge of the fulfilment of the arduous work that a more skilful pen should have finished.

The journal Tycho comes out in a difficult moment for young researchers and academics who devote years of dedication and study to researching in the field of classics and its reception.

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