The Inscriptiones Graecae (IG), Latin for Greek inscriptions, is an academic project originally begun by the Prussian Academy of Science, and today continued by its successor organisation, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Its aim is to collect and publish all known ancient inscriptions from the mainland and islands of Greece.
The project was designed as a continuation of the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum (Corpus of Greek Inscriptions, abbreviated CIG) published by August Böckh between 1825 and 1860, and as a parallel to the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Corpus of Latin Inscriptions) founded by Theodor Mommsen in 1847. From 1860 to 1902, it was directed by Adolf Kirchhoff. From 1902 to 1931, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was in control of the project; he reorganised and re-energised the IG, turning it into one of the most important series for the publication of source material in Classical studies.
After the Second World War, the project suffered from a lack of financial and public support. It came to a temporary halt in 1972, but was revived by the newly reformed Berlin-Brandenburg Academy in 1994.
So far, 49 fascicles have been published, some of them in several editions. The preparation of each individual volume is entrusted to external scholars, though the Berlin Academy retains the final editing rights. The Academy also maintains a collection of "squeezes" (paper copies) of Greek inscriptions. The project is currently directed by Peter Funke. Editors of previous volumes include Wilhelm Dittenberger, Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen, Johannes Kirchner and Günther Klaffenbach.
All editorial texts are published in Latin, a fact that is occasionally criticised due to limited use of Latin and hence the extra effort required for both writers and editors. The inscriptions were published without translation, but German translations for all volumes since 2012 are available on the IG website.
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Aulus Gellius was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his Attic Nights, a commonplace book, or compilation of notes on grammar, philosophy, history, antiquarianism, and other subjects, preserving fragments of the works of many authors who might otherwise be unknown today.
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Conrad Dasypodius was a professor of mathematics in Strasbourg, Alsace. He was born in Frauenfeld, Thurgau, Switzerland. His first name was also rendered as Konrad or Conradus or Cunradus, and his last name has been alternatively stated as Rauchfuss, Rauchfuß, and Hasenfratz. He was the son of Petrus Dasypodius, a humanist and lexicographer.
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Wilhelm (William) Dittenberger was a German philologist in classical epigraphy.
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