Research into ancient scholarship had long wanted as complete as possible a critical edition of early Greek natural philosophers. As the title Traditio Praesocratica indicates, the aim of this new edition of individual volumes is not to reconstruct connections between works, but rather to document the transmission of early Greek philosophy, as preserved in the traditions of the various classical and late antique philosophical schools, in chronological order. This includes the Latin and Syro-Arabian traditions up to the early medieval period. The original texts are presented together with a German translation, supplemented where necessary with an introduction and notes. A detailed introduction is dedicated to the doxographic peculiarities for the Pre-Socratic concerned.
It is planned to publish a revised edition with English translations some two or three years later entitled Traditio Praesocratica. Textual evidence on early Greek philosophy and its continuation. Parallel to the volumes on individual philosophers, the series Studia Praesocratica will present commentaries, monographs and edited volumes on early Greek philosophy and its doxography.