Despite the efforts of modern scholars to explain the origins of science communication as a
social rhetorical and aesthetic phenomenon most researchers approach the popularization of
science from the perspective of present issues thus ignoring its historical roots in classical
culture along with its continuities disruptions and transformations.This volume fills this
research gap with a genealogically reflected introduction into the popularization of science as
a recurrent cultural technique. The category »popular science« is elucidated in
interdisciplinary and diachronic dialogue discussing case studies from all historical
periods.Classicists archaeologists medievalists art historians sociologists and historians
of science provide the first diachronic and multi-layered approach to the rhetoric techniques
aesthetics and societal conditions that have shaped the dissemination and reception of
scientific knowledge.
