From Philologie to Weltliterature

Philologie in German (English philoloy; French philologie; Latin philologia ‘love of word’) is defined as the study of language in its historical context. It is considered a part of historical linguistics which traces the development and etymology of words in a language and across languages. John Peile defines philology as follows:
It is the science which teaches us what language is. The philologist deals with the words which make up a language, not merely to learn their meaning, but to find out their history. He pulls them to pieces, just as a botanist dissects flowers, in order that he may discover the parts of which each word is composed and the relation of those parts to each other: then he takes another and yet another language and deals with each in the same way: then by comparing the results he ascertains what is common to these different languages and what is peculiar to one or more: lastly, he tries to find out what the causes are which operate on all these languages, in order that he may understand that unceasing change and development which we may call, figuratively, the life of language. (Peile1988, 5)
In his book, Cours de linguistique générale, Ferdinand de Saussure offers a comprehensive definition of philology.
Language is not the unique object of philology. The task of   philology is above all to establish, interpret, and comment upon texts. This just concern leads philology to concern itself with literary history, customs, institutions, etc. . . . Everywhere it makes use of its own method, which is textual criticism. (qut. in Watkins 1990, 21)