Wiederentdeckt! Basilius Amerbach erforscht das Theater von Augusta Raurica

From 1588 to 1591, the Basel jurist Basilius Amerbach documented the remains of the Roman theater at Augst (BL), which had been uncovered only a few years earlier. In collaboration with the painter Hans Bock the Elder, he surveyed, studied and described the ancient ruins and drew up various floor plans of the once imposing structure. The resulting extensive collection of manuscripts, plans and drawings has been in the possession of the University Library of Basel since 1661. It clearly surpasses other records from this early phase of archaeological fieldwork in scope and content quality. The volume edited by Thomas Hufschmid and Barbara Pfäffli brings together selected thematic contributions on Basilius Amerbach's unique documentation. Experts from the fields of history, archaeology, surveying, and manuscript studies shed light on the period in which the volume was created; they paint a picture of the protagonists involved and take a critical look at the reception of the documents by subsequent generations of researchers. A catalog of selected sheets from Amerbach's records illustrates this unique testimony to the history of science with large-format images.