Michael M. Isermann: Preface [ix-xxix]
–– I. ON THE METHOD OF HISTORIOGRAPHY:
Bacon on Language - We on Bacon [3-15] / Schemata der Historiographie. Ein Traktat [16-28] / Die Historiographie als Aufforderung zum kritischen Anachronismus [29-42]
–– II. ON THE ROYAL SOCIETY AND THE PLAIN STYLE DEBATE:
Against Uncertainties and Vanity. Stylistic Deliberations in 17th-Century Scientific Writings [45-56] / The Royal Society and the Plain Style Debate [57-67] / Mit den gemeinen Leuten - der Aufbruch der Royal Society zu einer neuen Wissenschaftssprache [68-86]
–– III. ON ONOMASIOLOGY:
Onomasiological Dictionaries (900-1700). Their Tradition and their Linguistic Status [89-101] / Die semantische Komponente der Universalsprache von John Wilkins [102-122] / A Plea for Onomasiology [123-133]
–– IV. ON COMENIUS:
Der Orbis sensualium pictus und die mittelalterliche Tradition des Lehrens fremder Sprachen [137-158] / Picturae sunt totius mundi icones. Some Deliberations on Lexicography, ars memorativa, and the Orbis sensualium pictus [159-171] / Johann Joachim Becher. A Little Known Opponent of Comenius' Theory of Language and Language Learning [172-184]
–– V. ON THE EVALUATION OF LANGUAGES:
On Calling Languages 'Foreign' [187-200] / Good Language - Bad Language. Some Case Studies on the Criteria of Linguistic Evaluation in Three Centuries [201-218] / Some Yardsticks of Language Evaluation 1600-1800 (English and German) [219-246] / The Germans on English. Towards a Historiographical Treatment of Language Evaluation, 17th to 19th Centuries [247-269]
–– VI. ON VARIOUS TOPICS:
ON SEMIOTICS: Semiotics Narrated: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose [274-290] / Reality, the Museum, and the Catalogue. A Semiotic Interpretation of Early German Texts of Museology [291-300]
ON LINGUISTICS AND NATIONAL(SOCIAL)ISM: "Das Glockenspiel des Ablauts". National Tones in German Linguistic Publications between 1914 and 1945 [302-318] / Linguistics and the Third Reich [319-332]
– Selected List of Publications on the History of Linguistic Ideas 1984-2001 [333-343] – References [345-374] – Index nominum [375-390]