Early Greek Alchemy Patronage And Innovation In Late Antiquity

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Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity

Author : Olivier Dufault
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781939926135
Total Pages : 168 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity by : Olivier Dufault

Download or read book Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity written by Olivier Dufault and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity provides an example of the innovative power of ancient scholarly patronage by looking at a key moment in the creation of the Greek alchemical tradition. New evidence on scholarly patronage under the Roman empire can be garnered by analyzing the descriptions of learned magoi in several texts from the second to the fourth century CE. Since a common use of the term magos connoted flatterer-like figures (kolakes), it is likely that the figures of "learned sorcerers" found in texts such as Lucian's Philopseudes and the apocryphal Acts of Peter captured the notion that some client scholars exerted undue influence over patrons. The first known author of alchemical commentaries, Zosimus of Panopolis (c. 300 CE), presented himself neither as a magos nor as an alchemist. In his treatises, he rather appears as a Christian scholar and the client of a rich woman named Theosebeia. In three polemical letters to his patroness, Zosimus attempted to discredit rival specialists of alchemy by describing them as magoi and demon-worshippers and by equating their techniques with Egyptian temple practice. In a subtler attempt to edge out his competitors, Zosimus pointed to their limited education and suggested that true alchemy could only be acquired by a meticulous interpretation of Greek alchemical texts. Extant evidence thus suggests that alchemical texts were first introduced among other Greek scholarly traditions when Zosimus annexed Egyptian temple rituals into the ambit of paideia thanks to the support and venue provided by his patroness.

Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity

Author : Olivier Dufault
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1939926122
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (399 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity by : Olivier Dufault

Download or read book Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity written by Olivier Dufault and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity provides an example of the innovative power of ancient scholarly patronage by looking at a key moment in the creation of the Greek alchemical tradition. New evidence on scholarly patronage under the Roman empire can be garnered by analyzing the descriptions of learned magoi in several texts from the second to the fourth century CE. Since a common use of the term magos connoted flatterer-like figures (kolakes), it is likely that the figures of "learned sorcerers" found in texts such as Lucian's Philopseudes and the apocryphal Acts of Peter captured the notion that some client scholars exerted undue influence over patrons. The first known author of alchemical commentaries, Zosimus of Panopolis (c. 300 CE), presented himself neither as a magos nor as an alchemist. In his treatises, he rather appears as a Christian scholar and the client of a rich woman named Theosebeia. In three polemical letters to his patroness, Zosimus attempted to discredit rival specialists of alchemy by describing them as magoi and demon-worshippers and by equating their techniques with Egyptian temple practice. In a subtler attempt to edge out his competitors, Zosimus pointed to their limited education and suggested that true alchemy could only be acquired by a meticulous interpretation of Greek alchemical texts. Extant evidence thus suggests that alchemical texts were first introduced among other Greek scholarly traditions when Zosimus annexed Egyptian temple rituals into the ambit of paideia thanks to the support and venue provided by his patroness.

The First Alchemists

Author : Tobias Churton
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1644116847
Total Pages : 395 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (441 download)

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Book Synopsis The First Alchemists by : Tobias Churton

Download or read book The First Alchemists written by Tobias Churton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the origins and practices of early alchemy • Examines the oldest surviving alchemical texts, the original purpose of the “Royal Art,” and the first alchemists, showing how women dominated early alchemy • Looks at the historical setting for the first alchemists, with detailed accounts of their apparatus, recipes, chemical processes, and the ingredients they used • Reveals how changing the color of materials was more important in early alchemy than transmuting base metals into gold Investigating the origins of alchemy and the legend of the Philosopher’s Stone, Tobias Churton explores the oldest surviving alchemical texts, the original purpose of the “Royal Art,” and the first alchemists themselves. He reveals the theories and philosophies behind the art and how early apparatus and methods were employed by alchemists through the ages. Showing how women dominated early alchemy, Churton looks at the first known alchemist, the Jewess Maria the Prophetess, inventor of the bain marie, still in use worldwide today. He also looks at early alchemist Cleopatra (not the well-known Egyptian queen) and 3rd–4th century Egyptian female artisan Theosebeia, who had a guild of adepts working under her. He examines in depth the work of Zosimos of Panopolis and shows how Zosimos’s historic work inspired the medieval view of alchemy as an initiatory path whose stages follow the transmutation of base metals into gold. Exploring the latest research on early practices in Upper Egypt, the author discusses the political and industrial realities facing the first alchemists. He examines the late antique “Stockholm” and “Leiden” papyri, which offer detailed knowledge of the first known Greco-Egyptian chemical recipes for gold and silver dyes for metal and stone, and purple dyes for wool. He emphasizes how changing color in early alchemy was misinterpreted to imply transmutation of one metal into another. He reveals how the alchemical secrets for working with the “living statues” of the Egyptian temples was jealously guarded by the priesthood and how secrecy helped to reinforce beliefs that alchemical knowledge came from forbidden, celestial sources. He also investigates the mysterious relation between alchemy, spiritual gnosis, Hermeticism, and the Book of Enoch. Revealing the hidden legacy of the early alchemists, Churton shows how their secret workings provided a transmission line for ancient heretical doctrines to survive into the Renaissance and beyond.

The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Philosophy

Author : Mark Edwards
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134855982
Total Pages : 656 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (348 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Philosophy by : Mark Edwards

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Philosophy written by Mark Edwards and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-29 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers the most comprehensive survey available of the philosophical background to the works of early Christian writers and the development of early Christian doctrine. It examines how the same philosophical questions were approached by Christian and pagan thinkers; the philosophical element in Christian doctrines; the interaction of particular philosophies with Christian thought; and the constructive use of existing philosophies by all Christian thinkers of late antiquity. While most studies of ancient Christian writers and the development of early Christian doctrine make some reference to the philosophic background, this is often of an anecdotal character, and does not enable the reader to determine whether the likenesses are deep or superficial, or how pervasively one particular philosopher may have influenced Christian thought. This volume is designed to provide not only a body of facts more compendious than can be found elsewhere, but the contextual information which will enable readers to judge or clarify the statements that they encounter in works of more limited scope. With contributions by an international group of experts in both philosophy and Christian thought, this is an invaluable resource for scholars of early Christianity, Late Antiquity and ancient philosophy alike.

The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies

Author : Christopher Faraone
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472133276
Total Pages : 563 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (721 download)

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Book Synopsis The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies by : Christopher Faraone

Download or read book The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies written by Christopher Faraone and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2022-11-14 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays on the magical handbooks of Greco-Roman Egypt

Christian Intellectuals and the Roman Empire

Author : Jared Secord
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271087641
Total Pages : 124 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Christian Intellectuals and the Roman Empire by : Jared Secord

Download or read book Christian Intellectuals and the Roman Empire written by Jared Secord and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-05-06 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early in the third century, a small group of Greek Christians began to gain prominence and legitimacy as intellectuals in the Roman Empire. Examining the relationship that these thinkers had with the broader Roman intelligentsia, Jared Secord contends that the success of Christian intellectualism during this period had very little to do with Christianity itself. With the recognition that Christian authors were deeply engaged with the norms and realities of Roman intellectual culture, Secord examines the thought of a succession of Christian literati that includes Justin Martyr, Tatian, Julius Africanus, and Origen, comparing each to a diverse selection of his non-Christian contemporaries. Reassessing Justin’s apologetic works, Secord reveals Christian views on martyrdom to be less distinctive than previously believed. He shows that Tatian’s views on Greek culture informed his reception by Christians as a heretic. Finally, he suggests that the successes experienced by Africanus and Origen in the third century emerged as consequences not of any change in attitude toward Christianity by imperial authorities but of a larger shift in intellectual culture and imperial policies under the Severan dynasty. Original and erudite, this volume demonstrates how distorting the myopic focus on Christianity as a religion has been in previous attempts to explain the growth and success of the Christian movement. It will stimulate new research in the study of early Christianity, classical studies, and Roman history.

The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World

Author : Paul Turquand Keyser
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199734143
Total Pages : 1065 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World by : Paul Turquand Keyser

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World written by Paul Turquand Keyser and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 1065 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a focus on science in the ancient societies of Greece and Rome, including glimpses into Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China, 'The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World' offers an in depth synthesis of science and medicine circa 650 BCE to 650 CE. 0The Handbook comprises five sections, each with a specific focus on ancient science and medicine. The Handbook provides through each of its approximately four dozen essays, a synthesis and synopsis of the concepts and models of the various ancient natural sciences, covering the early Greek era through the fall of the Roman Republic, including essays that explore topics such as music theory, ancient philosophers, astrology, and alchemy.

Becoming Gold

Author : Shannon Grimes
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780473407759
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (77 download)

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Book Synopsis Becoming Gold by : Shannon Grimes

Download or read book Becoming Gold written by Shannon Grimes and published by . This book was released on 2018-12-22 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FOREMOST among the alchemists of the Hellenized world, the "divine" Zosimos practiced a sacred art in which metaphysical and metallurgical realities were fundamentally intertwined. Rather than being an exclusive product of Alexandrian syncretism, however, the dual spiritual and material emphasis of this alchemy reveals much deeper roots than expected: roots which extend deep into the religious cultures of the Ancient Near East. Through the methods of "cultural biography" and "thick description," Becoming Gold guides the reader deep into the temple culture of Roman Egypt, where the role of scribal priest intersects explicitly with the metallurgical craft traditions. Going beyond generalizations, Grimes explores the metal-coloring techniques developed in Egyptian polychromic statuary, as well as the rituals of statue animation performed by the priests of the House of Life. In this light, Zosimos is increasingly revealed as a scribal priest responsible for preserving and translating ancient Egyptian metallurgical recipes; a high-ranking goldsmith who oversaw temple statue makers. Against the wider backdrop of late antique religion and philosophy, Grimes also details the fascinating connections between alchemy, theurgy, and gnosticism. Here, Zosimos's spiritual attitudes are explored through the daimonic versus astrological influences upon alchemical operations; meditative practices using mirrors of electrum to attain divine gnosis; and the overarching imperative to transform the bonds of embodiment into vehicles for divinity. Zosimos reveals an alchemy in which spiritual and material realities are ultimately nondual; in which metals becomes living bodies for divine spirits; and in which the immortal soul--luminous and golden--radiates through its material forms.

Performance, Memory, and Processions in Ancient Rome

Author : Jacob A. Latham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316692426
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (166 download)

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Book Synopsis Performance, Memory, and Processions in Ancient Rome by : Jacob A. Latham

Download or read book Performance, Memory, and Processions in Ancient Rome written by Jacob A. Latham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pompa circensis, the procession which preceded the chariot races in the arena, was both a prominent political pageant and a hallowed religious ritual. Traversing a landscape of memory, the procession wove together spaces and institutions, monuments and performers, gods and humans into an image of the city, whose contours shifted as Rome changed. In the late Republic, the parade produced an image of Rome as the senate and the people with their gods - a deeply traditional symbol of the city which was transformed during the empire when an imperial image was built on top of the republican one. In late antiquity, the procession fashioned a multiplicity of Romes: imperial, traditional, and Christian. In this book, Jacob A. Latham explores the webs of symbolic meanings in the play between performance and itinerary, tracing the transformations of the circus procession from the late Republic to late antiquity.

The Traffic in Praise

Author : Leslie Kurke
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1939926009
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (399 download)

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Book Synopsis The Traffic in Praise by : Leslie Kurke

Download or read book The Traffic in Praise written by Leslie Kurke and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint, 2013, with minor corrections, of the edition published in 1991. The corrections constitute revisions of the translations of some of the Greek text; but these do not substantially change the argument of the book.

Greek Satyr Play: Five Studies

Author : Mark Griffith
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1939926041
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (399 download)

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Book Synopsis Greek Satyr Play: Five Studies by : Mark Griffith

Download or read book Greek Satyr Play: Five Studies written by Mark Griffith and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2015 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a new introduction and some revisions, these essays on Classical Greek satyr plays, originally published in various venues between 2002 and 2010, suggest new critical approaches to this important dramatic genre and identify previously neglected dimensions and dynamics within their original Athenian context. Griffith shows that satyr plays, alongside the ludicrous and irresponsible, but harmless, antics of their chorus, presented their audiences with culturally sophisticated narratives of romance, escapist adventure, and musical-choreographic exuberance, amounting to a zparallel universey to that of the accompanying tragedies in the City Dionysia festival. The class oppositions between heroic/divine characters and the rest (choruses, messengers, servants, etc.) that are so integral to Athenian tragedy are shown to be present also, in exaggerated form, in satyr drama, with the satyr chorus occupying a role that also inevitably recalled for the Athenian audiences their own (often foreign-born) slaves. Meanwhile the familiar main characters of tragedy (Heracles, Danae and Perseus, Hermes and Apollo, Achilles, Odysseus, etc.) are re-deployed in an engaging milieu of erotic encounters, miraculous discoveries, guaranteed happy endings, marriages, and painless release from suffering for all, both for the well-behaved heroes and also for the low-life, playful satyrs (the slaves of Dionysus). In their fusion of adventure and romance, fantasy and naïvete, Aphrodite and Dionysus, Athenian satyr plays thus anticipate in many respects, Griffith suggests, the later developments of Greek pastoral and prose romance.

Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes

Author : Warburg Institute
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (117 download)

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Book Synopsis Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes by : Warburg Institute

Download or read book Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes written by Warburg Institute and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Preliminary Studies on the Scholia to Euripides

Author : Donald Mastronarde
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1939926106
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (399 download)

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Book Synopsis Preliminary Studies on the Scholia to Euripides by : Donald Mastronarde

Download or read book Preliminary Studies on the Scholia to Euripides written by Donald Mastronarde and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This work presents five studies that are parerga to the online edition of Euripidean scholia (EuripidesScholia.org), for which the release of a much more complete sample covering Orestes 1-500 is planned for 2018. The first chapter reviews the achievements and shortcomings of previous editions of Euripidean scholia and argues for a more comprehensive treatment of this and similar corpora of scholia and for the importance of glosses. It assesses the few surviving traces in the scholia of views attributed to philologists and commentators working from Hellenistic times to early Byzantium. The second chapter illuminates a genre of annotation termed here "teachers' scholia," prominent in many of the younger manuscripts, but also present to a small degree in the oldest witnesses. Evidence for the teaching of Ioannes Tzetzes related to Euripides is gathered more completely than previously, as is that for Maximus Planudes. The third chapter offers an edition and commentary on a miscellany of teachers' notes on Hecuba first attested in 1287 but clearly copied from an older source, and treats some other unusual notes related to Hecuba carried in Palaeologan sources. The connection of this material with middle Byzantine sources (especially Tzetzes and Eustathius) is assessed. The fourth chapter marshals the evidence for the dating of the Marcianus graecus 471 (M) in the 11th (and not the 12th) century and provides palaeographic and codicological details. The fifth chapter argues that any possibly Planudean connections to Vaticanus graecus 909 (V) are to be found only in the cursive notes added more than a generation after the codex was produced (probably ca. 1250-1280, as proposed by Nigel Wilson). The hands of the two scribes who worked in tandem on V are described, and the distribution of their work documented."--Site web de l'éditeur.

Scale, Space, and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture

Author : Reviel Netz
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108481477
Total Pages : 905 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Scale, Space, and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture by : Reviel Netz

Download or read book Scale, Space, and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture written by Reviel Netz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 905 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of ancient literary culture told through the quantitative facts of canon, geography, and scale.

Greek and Latin Narratives about the Ancient Martyrs

Author : Éric Rebillard
Publisher : Oxford Early Christian Texts
ISBN 13 : 9780198739579
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (395 download)

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Book Synopsis Greek and Latin Narratives about the Ancient Martyrs by : Éric Rebillard

Download or read book Greek and Latin Narratives about the Ancient Martyrs written by Éric Rebillard and published by Oxford Early Christian Texts. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greek and Latin Narratives about the Ancient Martyrs provides a collection, with facing-page translations, of Greek and Latin Christian martyr narratives dating from the first four centuries CE. While Herbert Musurillo's authoritative collection The Acts of the Martyrs (1972) aimed to gatherthe most "authentic" and "reliable" accounts of early Christian martyrdom, Eric Rebillard argues that modern scholarship instead calls for texts which attest to the contexts in which the memories of the martyrs were constructed. As such, this extensive volume provides a textual basis for the studyof martyr narratives without making assumptions about their date of composition or their authenticity. It focuses on the ancient martyrs executed before 260, and examines which of their texts was known to Eusebius or to Augustine. Introductions describe the hagiographical dossier of each martyr withcrucial information about the manuscript tradition of the different texts and provide a terminus ante quem for their composition based only on external evidence.

Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance

Author : Jason König
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107038235
Total Pages : 619 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance by : Jason König

Download or read book Encyclopaedism from Antiquity to the Renaissance written by Jason König and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-17 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction: Jason Konig and Greg Woolf; Part I. Classical Encyclopaedism: 2. Encyclopaedism in the Roman Empire Jason Konig and Greg Woolf; 3. Encyclopaedism in the Alexandrian Library Myrto Hatzimichali; 4. Labores pro bono publico: the burdensome mission of Pliny's Natural History Mary Beagon; 5. Encyclopaedias of virtue? Collections of sayings and stories about wise men in Greek Teresa Morgan; 6. Plutarch's corpus of Quaestiones in the tradition of imperial Greek encyclopaedism Katerina Oikonomopoulou; 7. Artemidorus' Oneirocritica as fragmentary encyclopaedia Daniel Harris-McCoy; 8. Encyclopaedias and autocracy: Justinian's Encyclopaedia of Roman law Jill Harries; 9. Late Latin encyclopaedism: towards a new paradigm of practical knowledge Marco Formisano; Part II. Medieval Encyclopaedism: 10. Byzantine encyclopaedism of the ninth and tenth centuries Paul Magdalino; 11. The imperial systematisation of the past in Constantinople: Constantine VII and his Historical Excerpts Andres Nemeth; 12. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam: Joseph Rhakendys' synopsis of Byzantine learning Erika Gielen; 13. Shifting horizons: the medieval compilation of knowledge as mirror of a changing world Elizabeth Keen; 14. Isidore's Etymologies: on words and things Andrew Merrills; 15. Loose Giblets: encyclopaedic sensibilities of ordinatio and compilatio in later medieval English literary culture and the sad case of Reginald Pecock Ian Johnson; 16. Why was the fourteenth century a century of Arabic encyclopaedism? Elias Muhanna; 17. Opening up a world of knowledge: Mamluk encyclopaedias and their readers Maaike van Berkel; Part III. Renaissance Encyclopaedism: 18. Revisiting Renaissance encyclopaedism Ann Blair; 19. Philosophy and the Renaissance encyclpaedia: some observations D.C. Andersson; 20. Reading 'Pliny's Ape' in the Renaissance: the Polyhistor of Cai++.

Universal Empire

Author : Peter Fibiger Bang
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107022673
Total Pages : 399 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Universal Empire by : Peter Fibiger Bang

Download or read book Universal Empire written by Peter Fibiger Bang and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-16 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the aspiration to universal, imperial rule across Eurasian history from antiquity to the eighteenth century.