Incipitque Semper

We take this opportunity to thank Philip Vogt and Ivan Grabovac, who at various times during the past year served as editorial assistants to this issue. Our thanks are also due, as ever, to the expert and patient supervision of Kathleen Onofrio at the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Conferences

The graduate students of the Department of German at the Johns Hopkins University have organized an international and interdisciplinary conference scheduled for March 4-7 under the title “Theology and Criticism, Literature and the Sacred.” Professor Renate Schlesier of the University of Paderborn will be the keynote speaker. She will also participate in a round-table discussion with Professor Walter Burkert, who will be visiting the Hopkins Department of Classics and whose Creation of the Sacred has just appeared in an English translation from the Harvard University Press. Panelists have been invited to submit papers on a wide range of topics, including the following general areas: Exegesis and Criticism: Theological Models of Reading; Secularization and Theory; Sexuality, Gender, and the Question of the Sacred; Critical Time: Sacred Temporality; Theocracy and the Politics of Theological Criticism; Sacred Space. The central idea of the conference is to facilitate a dialogue between panel participants and senior moderators of the discussions.

The organizers of the conference are Marion Picker and Jocelyn Holland. Inquiries may be directed to the former at the Department of German, 245 Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218; phone: 410/516-7508; fax: 410/516-7212; e-mail: mpl7@jhunix.hef.jhu.edu.

The Eastern Division of the American Society for Aesthetics will hold its annual meeting in Baltimore at Towson University on March 18-20. The theme of the conference is “Aesthetics and Cultural Studies.” Information about the program can be obtained from Carol Gould, Department of Philosophy, Florida Atlantic University, P.O. Box 3091, Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991; e-mail: cgould@fau.edu.

The Humanities Center at the Johns Hopkins University will be sponsoring a symposium to honor Nancy Struever on the occasion of her retirement; this will be followed by a Festschrift volume. The topic of the conference, scheduled for March 26-27, will be the works and influence of Jakob Burckhardt. Among those participating will be Salvatore Camporeale (Florence), Lionel Gossman (Princeton), and Julia Lupton (UC-Irvine).

Inquiries about the Symposium may be directed to Nancy Tierney, Humanities Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218; phone: 410/516-7619; fax: 410/516-4897; e-mail: .tierney.n@jhu.edu.

Benchmarks

The appearance of the Fall 1998 catalogue from the St. Augustine’s Press is an impressive reminder of the vital role played today by independent scholarly presses. In an age when many of our leading university presses are driven by financial and marketing considerations, it is heartening to see the niche that an independent publisher can establish with a strong editorial policy and a sharp eye for quality titles. The St. Augustine’s Press, under the dedicated editorship of Bruce Fingerhut, was incorporated in December 1996 to publish works in philosophy and theology, both significant reprints and new monographs. The Press also distributes related titles from Dumb Ox Books and The Saint Austin Press.

In his mission statement, Fingerhut, who for the preceding six years ran Books in Philosophy, the largest mail-order book catalogue in the world, made some unusual guarantees to potential authors. During a period when the shelf-life of many scholarly publications is shorter than that in retail food marketing, perhaps the most striking of these guarantees is the following: New titles that we publish will remain in print. To this assurance, Fingerhut adds a corollary: All works will continue to be advertised and promoted—not just during their first season. Other guarantees stem from his determination to make smallness a virtue; thus he assures authors that all manuscripts with be edited personally by the director (who has twenty-four years of editorial experience) or by someone equally conversant in philosophy. He also pledges that “everyone who works for the Press will know every author,” that authors will never be shuffled around or kept waiting on hold. Finally, Fingerhut makes some claims, clearly born out by the Press’s...