Abstract
<jats:p>“Each one can now be seen as the centre, or none at all” – that is the social lesson that Bertolt Brecht has his Galileo Galilei draw from the Copernican turn away from the Ptolemaic worldview. In his reading of Brecht’s Galileo, Freddie Rokem reminds us of this, and thus of that secret agreement between past generations and our present, which is the philologist’s highest duty, that of translation. Translated into our present day, one might write: No kings! But also no first or last word, no origin and no foundation. It is not such secure knowledge that interests him, but rather the principle of change, the continuous work on the ever-new view of the familiar. This Liber Amicorum is conceived as both a tribute to and an extension of Freddie Rokem’s intellectual legacy, highlighting the many dialogical dimensions of his work.</jats:p>