Jacoby Online

Brill's New Jacoby Online (first edition) has now been completed. In November 2024, the final BNJO-entry went live. We congratulate General Editor Ian Worthington with this achievement. For an interview with the editor, please click here. The BNJ2 (second edition), Part IV, and Part V are still work in progress and are updated twice a year.
Jacoby Online is a digital edition of fragments and testimonia of Greek historians, and other authors from antiquity, published on Brill's dedicated platform Scholarly Editions. Although the works of these historians are now lost, we still have passages in the form of citations and paraphrases in ancient texts that are preserved.
Jacoby Online is anchored in the work of Felix Jacoby, who started the work of collecting fragments and writing commentaries. To his Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker I-III (1923-1959) two new editions are added, Brill's New Jacoby (2006-2024, now completed) and Brill's New Jacoby - Second Edition (2016-), both edited by Ian Worthington.
Felix Jacoby himself was unable to finish the collection, but in the 1990s, the work on Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker resumed, resulting in FGrHist Part IV, currently edited by Stefan Schorn, and FGrHist Part V, currently edited by Hans-Joachim Gehrke and Felix K. Maier.

Together, these editions form a monumental scholarly accomplishment and an indispensable resource for anyone interested in ancient history and historiography.

The expected completion dates of the different parts and editions of Jacoby Online is as follows:

1. Felix Jacoby’s seminal Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker: Parts I-III (complete)
2. Brill’s New Jacoby (BNJ), a thoroughly revised English edition of Felix Jacoby’s Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker: Parts I-III (completed in November 2024)
3. Brill’s New Jacoby – Second Edition (BNJ2), a revised edition of Brill’s New Jacoby (BNJ), now with apparatus criticus, as well as updated bibliographies and revised commentaries (launched in 2016; estimated date of completion: 2030)
4. Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker Part IV: Biography and Antiquarian Literature (FGrH IV), a continuation of Felix Jacoby’s work including original Greek texts with translations and commentaries (estimated date of completion: 2030)
5. Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker Part V: Geography (FGrH V), a continuation of Felix Jacoby’s work including original Greek texts with translations and commentary (estimated date of completion: 2028)

Jacoby Online is updated twice a year.
Jacoby Online is available on Brill's platform Scholarly Editions, in a completely new design, and with enhanced search options throughout the entire publication. Brill's Scholarly Editions is designed to provide an uninterrupted reading experience and to display parallel texts side by side.


1. Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker Parts I - III is Felix Jacoby's monumental critical edition of 856 Greek historians whose work is preserved incompletely, i.e. in fragments. Felix Jacoby collected these fragments and edited them, adding biographical testimonies and extensive commentaries.
- The original standard work
- Fully searchable with easy links to the new editions and translations and commentaries in Brill’s New Jacoby

2. Brill’s New Jacoby (BNJ)
General Editor: Ian Worthington (Macquarie University, Sydney)
Brill's New Jacoby is a fully-revised and enlarged edition of Jacoby’s Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker I-III, providing new texts of the ancient authors in many instances as well as several new authors and many new fragments of existing authors that were either unknown to Jacoby or excluded by him. Especially important is that for the first time ever commentaries are provided on the final 248 authors in FGrHist I-III, which Jacoby was unable to prepare before his death. In addition, and also for the first time, BNJ presents facing English translations of all the testimonia and fragments, new, critical commentaries on all the testimony and fragments, and a brief encyclopedia-style entry about each historian’s life and works, with a select bibliography.
• New English translations of all testimonia and fragments
• New introductions to the Historians
• New critical commentaries
• New bibliographies
• 248 new historians (planned by Jacoby but never completed)
• 15% new content added twice a year

3. Brill’s New Jacoby, Second Edition (BNJ2)
General Editor: Ian Worthington (Macquarie University, Sydney)
BNJ2 was launched in October 2016 and is a revised and enlarged edition of Brill’s New Jacoby. New additions include an apparatus criticus and a discussion of the provenance of each fragment where relevant, as well as revised commentaries on the ancient authors in BNJ and updated bibliographies, all of which set BNJ2 significantly apart from the previous edition.
Like Brill’s New Jacoby, this revised edition has texts and historians not included in Jacoby’s Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker I-III. It provides English translations to all testimonia and fragments, critical commentaries, and a brief encyclopedia-style entry about the historian’s life and works, with a select bibliography.

Brill's New Jacoby, Second Edition is a work-in-progress with publication of the last historian scheduled for 2030.

4. Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker Part IV: Biography and Antiquarian Literature
General Editor: Stefan Schorn (KU Leuven)
Part IV: Biography and Antiquarian Literature of Felix Jacoby’s original planned work Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker started in the 1990’s, and will ultimately consist of 27 book volumes presenting the original Greek texts with completely new translations and extensive commentaries by a team of international experts.
• Completely NEW material
• Original critical Greek texts with translations and commentaries
• New authors edited online since 2013
• New print volumes are being written and added to Jacoby Online starting in 2017
• A projected total 27 “volumes” are planned over the next 10-15 years

5. Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker Part V: Die Geographen
General Editors: Hans-Joachim Gehrke and Felix Maier (University of Freiburg), in collaboration with Veronica Bucciantini
Part V: Die Geographen offers work that was left uncompleted by Jacoby and contains completely new material giving the original Greek texts with translations and commentaries. This project is expected to be completed in 2021 and will consist of the fragments and testimonia of 96 Greek historians.
• Original Greek texts with translations and commentaries
• First instalment was published in 2011


Print Options
Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker I-III is available as a complete set, and as individual volumes. Part IV and Part V will be published in print too. The first three volumes have been published in the 1990s and four others have been published in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 respectively. For more information on the print volumes, please view www.brill.com/fgh

Brill’s New Jacoby, first and second edition, will not be published in print.