Impagination Layout And Materiality Of Writing And Publication

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Impagination – Layout and Materiality of Writing and Publication

Author : Ku-ming (Kevin) Chang
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110698854
Total Pages : 511 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis Impagination – Layout and Materiality of Writing and Publication by : Ku-ming (Kevin) Chang

Download or read book Impagination – Layout and Materiality of Writing and Publication written by Ku-ming (Kevin) Chang and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a comparative study of the practice of impagination across different ages and civilizations. By impagination we mean the act of placing and arranging spatially textual and other information onto a material bearer that could be made of a variety of materials (papyrus, bamboo slips, palm leaf, parchment, paper, and the computer screen). This volume investigates three levels of impagination: what is the page or other unit of the material bearer, what is written or printed on it, and how is writing or print placed on it. It also examines the interrelations of two or all three of these levels. Collectively it examines the material and materiality of the page, the variety of imprints, cultural and historical conventions for impagination, interlinguistic encounters, the control of editors, scribes, publishers and readers over the page, inheritance, borrowing and innovation, economics, aesthetics and socialities of imprints and impagination, and the relationship of impagination to philology. This volume supplements studies on mise en page and layout – an important subject of codicology – first by including non-codex writings, second by taking a closer look at the page or other unit than at the codex (or book), and third by its aspiration to adopt a globally comparative approach. This volume brings together for comparison vast geographical realms of learning, including Europe, China, Tibet, Korea, Japan and the Near Eastern and European communities in which the Hebrew Bible was transmitted. This comparison is significant, for Europe, China, and India all developed great traditions of learning which came into intensive contact. The contributions to this volume are firmly rooted in local cultures and together address global, comparative themes that are significant for multiple disciplines, such as intellectual and cultural history of knowledge (both humanistic and scientific), global history, literary and media studies, aesthetics, and studies of material culture, among other fields.

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts

Author : Marilina Betrò
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3111360806
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (113 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts by : Marilina Betrò

Download or read book The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts written by Marilina Betrò and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-03-04 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written artefacts are traditionally studied because of their content. Material aspects of these artefacts enrich the study of ancient history in many ways. Eleven case studies in five sections on the ancient world, including the Near East, Egypt, the Mediterranean, China and India, demonstrate the impact of a holistic approach that considers materiality and content alike. Following an introductory sketch of relevant research, the first section, 'Methodological Considerations', critically examines the limitations the evidence available imposes on our understanding. 'Early Uses of Writing' addresses material and spatial aspects of inscriptions, and their communicative functions over the textual ones. The third section, 'Material Features', deals with clay, wooden and papyrus manuscripts and demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach. The contributions to 'Co-presence of Written Artefacts' take into account that written artefacts come in clusters. The final section, 'Cultural Encounters', presents studies on the interactions between social strata and ethnic groups, challenging previous ideas. The volume contributes to the comparative study of written artefacts in ancient history, stimulating cross-disciplinary and -cultural research.

The Russian Orthodox Community in Hong Kong

Author : Loretta E. Kim
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793616744
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (936 download)

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Book Synopsis The Russian Orthodox Community in Hong Kong by : Loretta E. Kim

Download or read book The Russian Orthodox Community in Hong Kong written by Loretta E. Kim and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-08-23 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russian Orthodox Christianity is the cornerstone of a diverse cultural community in modern Hong Kong. This book explores the contributions that this group has made to the social landscape of Hong Kong from the British colonial period to the current era of integration into China.

Conservation of Books

Author : Abigail Bainbridge
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000839273
Total Pages : 735 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Conservation of Books by : Abigail Bainbridge

Download or read book Conservation of Books written by Abigail Bainbridge and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-27 with total page 735 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conservation of Books is the highly anticipated reference work on global book structures and their conservation, offering the first modern, comprehensive overview on this subject. The volume takes an international approach to its subject. Written by over 70 specialists in conservation and conservation science based in 19 countries, its 26 chapters cover traditional book structures from around the world, the materials from which they are made and how they degrade, and how to preserve and conserve them. It also examines the theoretical underpinnings of conservation: what and how to treat, and the ethical, cultural, and economic implications of treatment. Technical drawings and photographs illustrate the structures and treatments examined throughout the book. Ultimately, readers gain an in-depth understanding of the materiality of books in numerous global contexts and reflect on the practical considerations involved in their analysis and treatment. Conservation of Books is a quintessential reference work for book conservators and anyone working with books, such as collection managers, librarians, curators, dealers, collectors, historians, and related professionals. It is also an indispensable text for students to complement hands-on training in this field.

Publishing Sacrobosco’s De sphaera in Early Modern Europe

Author : Matteo Valleriani
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030866009
Total Pages : 497 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Publishing Sacrobosco’s De sphaera in Early Modern Europe by : Matteo Valleriani

Download or read book Publishing Sacrobosco’s De sphaera in Early Modern Europe written by Matteo Valleriani and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-05-18 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformations of scientific knowledge in the early modern period. It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera, by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the unique standpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text from manuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platform of scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuring Sacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650, represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmological worldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543. The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced the process of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the material infrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define the premises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.

Using Documents

Author : Gerald Hartung
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110780887
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Using Documents by : Gerald Hartung

Download or read book Using Documents written by Gerald Hartung and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-09-20 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using Documents presents an interdisciplinary discussion of human communication by means of documents, e.g., letters. Cultural scientists, together with researchers from media science and media engineering, analyze questions of document modeling, including a document’s contexts of use, on the basis of cultural theory. The research also concerns the debate on the material turn in the fields of cultural studies and media studies. Looking back on existing work, texts on written communication by the philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel and by an interdisciplinary French group of authors under the pseudonym Roger T. Pédauque are taken as a starting point and presented afresh. A look ahead to the future is also attempted. Whereas the modeling (including technical modeling) of documents has to date largely been limited to the description of output forms and specific content, the foundations are laid here for including documents’ contexts of use in models that are grounded in cultural theory.

Media and the Mind

Author : Matthew Daniel Eddy
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226828352
Total Pages : 531 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Media and the Mind by : Matthew Daniel Eddy

Download or read book Media and the Mind written by Matthew Daniel Eddy and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautifully illustrated argument that reveals notebooks as extraordinary paper machines that transformed knowledge on the page and in the mind. Information is often characterized as facts that float effortlessly across time and space. But before the nineteenth century, information was seen as a process that included a set of skills enacted through media on a daily basis. How, why, and where were these mediated facts and skills learned? Concentrating on manuscripts created by students in Scotland between 1700 and 1830, Matthew Daniel Eddy argues that notebooks functioned as workshops where notekeepers learned to judge the accuracy, utility, and morality of the data they encountered. He shows that, in an age preoccupied with "enlightened" values, the skills and materials required to make and use notebooks were not simply aids to reason—they were part of reason itself. Covering a rich selection of material and visual media ranging from hand-stitched bindings to watercolor paintings, the book problematizes John Locke's comparison of the mind to a blank piece of paper, the tabula rasa. Although one of the most recognizable metaphors of the British Enlightenment, scholars seldom consider why it was so successful for those who used it. Eddy makes a case for using the material culture of early modern manuscripts to expand the meaning of the metaphor in a way that offers a clearer understanding of the direct relationship that existed between thinking and notekeeping. Starting in the home, moving to schools, and then ending with universities, the book explores this argument by reconstructing the relationship between media and the mind from the bottom up.

“Buyurdum ki....” – The Whole World of Ottomanica and Beyond

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004545808
Total Pages : 919 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (45 download)

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Book Synopsis “Buyurdum ki....” – The Whole World of Ottomanica and Beyond by :

Download or read book “Buyurdum ki....” – The Whole World of Ottomanica and Beyond written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-09-04 with total page 919 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is dedicated to Claudia Römer and brings together 33 contributions spanning a period from the 15th to the 20th century and covering the wide range of topics with which the honouree is engaged. The volume is divided into six parts that present current research on language, literature, and style as well as newer approaches and perspectives in dealing with sources and terminologies. Aspects such as conquest, administration, and financing of provinces are found as well as problems of endowments and the circulation of goods in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Another main topic is dedicated to minorities and their role and situation in various provinces and cities of the Ottoman Empire, as represented by various sources. But also topics like conversion, morality and control are illuminated. Finally, the volume provides an insight into the late Ottoman and early republican period, in which some previously unpublished sources (such as travel letters, memoirs) are presented and (re)discussed. The book is not only aimed at scholars and students of the Ottoman Empire; the thematic range is also of interest to linguists, historians, and cultural historians.

融會中國與西方 Bringing Together China and the West

Author : 馬思途Stuart M. McManus
Publisher : The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
ISBN 13 : 9882372619
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (823 download)

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Book Synopsis 融會中國與西方 Bringing Together China and the West by : 馬思途Stuart M. McManus

Download or read book 融會中國與西方 Bringing Together China and the West written by 馬思途Stuart M. McManus and published by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. This book was released on 2023-01-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2023年，香港中文大學迎來六十周年校慶。值此重要時刻，當反思大學使命—「結合傳統與現代，融會中國與西方」的歷史意蘊與時代價值。大學圖書館藉此難得機會，舉辦紀念展覽，展示館藏中日益豐富的西方漢學珍本。本圖錄記錄了展出的藏書，並一一簡述概況，涵蓋從十五至十九世紀中葉的書籍、地圖和手稿。珍藏之中不乏最優秀的早期漢學著作。其中許多作品均由利瑪竇、湯若望等知名耶穌會教士撰寫，他們縱然人數不多，但在深入接觸近代早期中國社會與文化的過程中，一手創立了近代漢學，留下了近距離觀察中國的珍貴記錄。隨著這些傳教士的著作傳回歐洲，關於中國的歐洲書籍愈加準確詳細，歐洲人對中國的了解也與日俱增。本圖錄透過豐富的圖像，以及細緻的介紹和描述，呈現出一幅生動的早期歷史圖景，展現西方對中國持久而深入的興趣和理解，以及中西淵源的交疊與關聯。透過本圖錄，讀者亦可藉此思索如何更好地「結合傳統與現代，融會中國與西方」。 In 2023, The Chinese University of Hong Kong celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of its foundation. This occasion provides a moment for reflection on the historical and contemporary meanings of the university’s mission “to combine tradition with modernity and to bring together China and the West.” To this end, the celebrations include an exhibition of the University Library’s burgeoning collection of Western rare books about China, which is recorded and contextualized in this catalogue. This splendid volume features books, maps, and manuscripts from the fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Among its treasures are some of the very finest works of early Sinology. Many of these were written by celebrated Jesuit missionaries like Matteo Ricci and Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who though few in number almost single-handedly founded modern Sinology through their deep engagement with early modern Chinese society and culture. As the writings of these missionaries percolated back to Europe, knowledge about China grew exponentially as European books about China became more accurate and detailed. Through its extended introduction, images, and descriptions, this catalogue illustrates the dynamic early history of the West’s longstanding and profound interest in China, thereby giving members of the university community and the public at large an opportunity to consider how we might better “combine tradition with modernity and bring together China and the West.”

The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony

Author : Nathan MacDonald
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192543393
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony by : Nathan MacDonald

Download or read book The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony written by Nathan MacDonald and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-23 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the Jerusalem high priests go from being cultic servants in the sixth century BCE to assuming political supremacy at some point during the third or second century? The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony examines how the conditions were created for the priesthood's rise to power by examining the most important ideological texts for the high priests: the description of the wilderness tabernacle and the instructions for the ordination ritual found in the Biblical books of Exodus and Leviticus. Although neglected by many modern readers, who often find them technical and repetitive, the tabernacle accounts excited considerable interest amongst early scribes and readers, as is evidenced by the survival of them in no fewer than four versions. Untangling this intricate compositional history helps shed light on how these chapters in the Pentateuch shaped-and were shaped by-the perception of the priesthood's powers and competencies during the Persian and early Hellenistic periods. The hierarchy that is developed is more nuanced and multifaceted than previously appreciated, with Israelite artisans, community leaders, Levites and women incorporated into a complex vision of society. The ordination ritual was also transformed by scribal elites during the Persian period, appearing in no fewer than five variant forms as the role of the high priesthood and its relationship to other groups was negotiated. Using a broad, plural methodological approach that incorporates insights from sociology, ritual studies, textual and literary criticism, early interpretation, manuscript studies, and philology, Nathan MacDonald's study shines new light on the historical development, theology, and ideology of priestly texts in the Pentateuch.

Handschrift im Druck (ca. 1500–1800)

Author : Sylvia Brockstieger
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3111191648
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (111 download)

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Book Synopsis Handschrift im Druck (ca. 1500–1800) by : Sylvia Brockstieger

Download or read book Handschrift im Druck (ca. 1500–1800) written by Sylvia Brockstieger and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-05-08 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dem Neben- und Miteinander von Hand- und Druckschriftlichkeit in der Frühen Neuzeit bis in die Goethezeit ist in der Forschung bisher nur ungenügend Beachtung geschenkt worden. Der Übergang von der Hand- zur Druckschriftlichkeit ‚nach Gutenberg‘ wird gerne als ein Ablösungsprozess beschrieben; erst in der Zeit um 1800 nehme die Handschrift im Lichte neuer Autorschafts- und Individualitätskonzepte neuen, auratischen Charakter an. Der Band argumentiert in Fallstudien für eine neue Aufmerksamkeit für die zahlreichen Interferenzphänomene von Handschrift und Druck, die die unterschiedlichsten Formen und Funktionen annehmen können. Er fokussiert besonders handschriftliche Interventionen in gedruckten Büchern: Diese brechen den durch den Druck fixierten Text auf, indem sie ihn kommentieren, korrigieren oder erweitern. Sie weisen auf veränderte Gebrauchskontexte, die Flexibilisierung vermeintlich statischer Autorschaftskonzepte und die Dynamik von Korrekturprozessen. Der Band plädiert in der interdisziplinären Zusammenschau von Literatur-, Buch- und Geschichtswissenschaften für einen neuen, materialitätsorientierten Blick auf alte Fragen der Literaturgeschichte des Druckzeitalters.

Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds

Author : Mackenzie Cooley
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000873021
Total Pages : 557 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds by : Mackenzie Cooley

Download or read book Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds written by Mackenzie Cooley and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-09 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays and original visualizations collected in Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds explore the relationships among natural things - ranging from pollen in a gust of wind to a carnivorous pitcher plant to a shell-like skinned armadillo - and the humans enthralled with them. Episodes from 1500 to the early 1900s reveal connected histories across early modern worlds as natural things traveled across the Indian Ocean, the Ottoman Empire, Pacific islands, Southeast Asia, the Spanish Empire, and Western Europe. In distant worlds that were constantly changing with expanding networks of trade, colonial aspirations, and the rise of empiricism, natural things obtained new meanings and became alienated from their origins. Tracing the processes of their displacement, each chapter starts with a piece of original artwork that relies on digital collage to pull image sources out of place and to represent meanings that natural things lost and remade. Accessible and elegant, Natural Things is the first study of its kind to combine original visualizations with the history of science. Museum-goers, scholars, scientists, and students will find new histories of nature and collecting within. Its playful visuality will capture the imagination of non-academic and academic readers alike while reminding us of the alienating capacity of the modern life sciences.

The Materiality of Writing. Manuscript Practices in the Age of Print

Author : Eve Rosenhaft
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789198281958
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (819 download)

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Book Synopsis The Materiality of Writing. Manuscript Practices in the Age of Print by : Eve Rosenhaft

Download or read book The Materiality of Writing. Manuscript Practices in the Age of Print written by Eve Rosenhaft and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We think of the eighteenth century as the heyday of print culture, when the presses drove the ever more rapid circulation of information and argument among ever wider circles of the European population. But it remains the case that well into the nineteenth century all writing was done by hand. In fact the intensification of print culture with the rise of modern commercial society and state systems depended on an ever-increasing output of writing with pen and ink. At the same time, handwriting, and in particular the signature, came to be understood as an index of character ad authenticator if personal intent, whether it appeared on contracts, petitions or letters, or in the guest books and autograph books that recorded friendship. In acknowledgement of this, scholars have begun to focus on the interactions between print and manuscript forms. Studies of the 'reading revolution' have shone a light on marginalia - not simply evidence for reader reactions, but increasingly an object of study in themselves. And research in the history of authorship and publication between 1750 and 1850 is homing in on authorial practices that self-consciously combined manuscript and print forms. It is no longer possible to presume that print and manuscript practices and their persistence can help us to re-vision classical modernity, including the shifting border between the public and the private. This volume brings together new research by cultural historians and literary scholars that allows us to reflect on how a material approach to the uses of the pen might help us to understand the processes through which meaning and modernity were constructed in the long eighteenth century.

From Humanism to the Humanities

Author : Anthony Grafton
Publisher : Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis From Humanism to the Humanities by : Anthony Grafton

Download or read book From Humanism to the Humanities written by Anthony Grafton and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 1986 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Information

Author : Ann Blair
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691179549
Total Pages : 902 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Information by : Ann Blair

Download or read book Information written by Ann Blair and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 902 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Information technology shapes nearly every part of modern life, and debates about information--its meaning, effects, and applications--are central to a range of fields, from economics, technology, and politics to library science, media studies, and cultural studies. This rich, unique resource traces the history of information with an approach designed to draw connections across fields and perspectives, and provide essential context for our current age of information. Clear, accessible, and authoritative, the book opens with a series of articles that provide a narrative history of information from premodern practices to twenty-first-century information culture. This section focuses on major developments in the creation, storage, search, exchange, management, and manipulation of information, as well as the many meanings and uses of information over time. Coverage spans Europe, North America, and many other places and periods, including the medieval Islamic world and early modern East Asia, as well as the emergence of global networks. A second, alphabetical section includes more than 100 concise articles that cover specific concepts (e.g., data, intellectual property, privacy); formats and genres (books, databases, maps, newspapers, scrolls, social media); people (archivists, diplomats and spies, readers, secretaries, teachers); practices (censorship, forecasting, learning, surveilling, translating); processes (digitization, quantification, storage and search); systems (bureaucracy, platforms, telecommunications); technologies (algorithms, cameras, computers), and much more. The book concludes with an informative glossary, defining terms from "analog/digital" to "World Wide Web.""--

Index of Verb Forms in Thucydides

Author : Peter Stork
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004164391
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Index of Verb Forms in Thucydides by : Peter Stork

Download or read book Index of Verb Forms in Thucydides written by Peter Stork and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In providing easy access to the verb system in Thucydides, this index is an invaluable tool for researching the semantics of the verb system in Ancient Greek, on matters of lexicography or morphology, and of aspect/tense, mood and voice.

To Become a God

Author : Michael J. Puett
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 1684170419
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (841 download)

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Book Synopsis To Become a God by : Michael J. Puett

Download or read book To Become a God written by Michael J. Puett and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evidence from Shang oracle bones to memorials submitted to Western Han emperors attests to a long-lasting debate in early China over the proper relationship between humans and gods. One pole of the debate saw the human and divine realms as separate and agonistic and encouraged divination to determine the will of the gods and sacrifices to appease and influence them. The opposite pole saw the two realms as related and claimed that humans could achieve divinity and thus control the cosmos. This wide-ranging book reconstructs this debate and places within their contemporary contexts the rival claims concerning the nature of the cosmos and the spirits, the proper demarcation between the human and the divine realms, and the types of power that humans and spirits can exercise. It is often claimed that the worldview of early China was unproblematically monistic and that hence China had avoided the tensions between gods and humans found in the West. By treating the issues of cosmology, sacrifice, and self-divinization in a historical and comparative framework that attends to the contemporary significance of specific arguments, Michael J. Puett shows that the basic cosmological assumptions of ancient China were the subject of far more debate than is generally thought.