The yearbook has the task of applying the fields of literary and scientific history to one another. In doing so, the yearbook reacts to the expansion of problems and methods which have emerged in both disciplines over the last decades. Building on the insight that literary-artistic and (natural)-scientific discourse are not two separate spheres and cannot be properly described separate from one another, the yearbook offers an interdisciplinary discussion forum for the historical analysis of the interactions between the (natural) sciences and literature (studies) in theory development and reflection from the late Middle Ages to the present. One of the topics of the yearbook is the canon of the sciences, which was founded by medieval universities and which in recent times has been expanded to include disciplines such as the natural sciences, psychology, sociology and the science of history. The field of topics chosen for the yearbook reflects a conscious decision to avoid any thematic limitations of these diverse times, disciplines and aspects.

The bilateral cultural centre of Villa Vigoni on Lake Como is dedicated to deepening and exploring German-Italian relations in literature, research, culture and politics, and to this end also organises numerous specialist conferences.The series of publications from Villa Vigoni allows all those interested in the bilateral relations between Germany and Italy to share in the outstanding results of these conferences. The objective is to provide research-based documentation which will help in the processing of the German-Italian cultural tradition and further the cause of bilateral understanding.