The author´s name is associated with concepts of originality and legal codification. These conditions of reading change if the name of the author is unknown. The contributions of this volume, written from a perspective of literary, legal and religious studies, explore the intentions that were pursued in the past by publishing texts anonymously. The relationship between anonymity and authorship is discussed in a fundamental way, and anonymity is reconstructed as a concrete historical situation of texts and as a condition for their meaning and function.Stephan Pabst, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena.