Since the dawn of humanity, people have developed concepts about themselves and the natural world in which they live. This volume aims at investigating the construction and transfer of such concepts between and within various ancient and medieval cultures. The single contributions try to answer questions concerning the sources of knowledge, the strategies of transfer and legitimation as well as the conceptual changes over time and space. After a comprehensive introduction, the volume is divided into three parts: The contributions of the first section treat various theoretical and methodological aspects. Two additional thematic sections deal with a special field of knowledge, i.e. concepts of the moon and of the end of the world in fire.
Author(s): Jochen Althoff, Dominik Berrens, Tanja Pommerening (eds.)
Series: Mainzer Historische Kulturwissenschaften, 39
Publisher: Transcript Verlag
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 409
City: Bielefeld
Preface and Acknowledgements 9
The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge in the Pre-Modern Era / JOCHEN ALTHOFF (MAINZ), DOMINIK BERRENS (INNSBRUCK), TANJA POMMERENING (MAINZ) 13
SECTION 1: METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL ASPECTS
Transmitting Symbolic Concepts from the Perspective of Cultural Cognition – The Acquisition and Transfer of Folk-biological Knowledge / ROY ELLEN (KENT) 41
The Transfer of Knowledge from Mesopotamia to Egypt / SUSANNE BECK (TÜBINGEN) 71
Epistemology in the Biblical Tradition – Judean Knowledge-Building, Scribal Craftsmanship, and Scribal Culture / JEFFREY L. COOLEY (BOSTON) 99
Bodies of Texts, Bodies of Tradition – Medical Expertise and Knowledge of the Body among Rabbinic Jews in Late Antiquity / LENNART LEHMHAUS (BERLIN) 123
The Reception and Rejection of 'Foreign' Astronomical Knowledge in Byzantium / ALBERTO BARDI (WASHINGTON, D.C.) 167
SECTION 2: OF MAN AND MOON – KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL MEANING OF THE MOON
'He assigned Him as the Jewel of the night' – The Knowledge of the Moon in Mesopotamian Texts of the Late Second and First Millennia BCE / TIM BRANDES (MAINZ) 187
Shapeshifter – Knowledge of the Moon in Graeco-Roman Egypt / VICTORA ALTMANN-WENDLING (MUNICH) 213
Concepts Concerning the Moon in Plutarch’s 'De facie in orbe lunae' – Found, Inherited, or Borrowed Ideas / LIBA TAUB (CAMBRIDGE) 253
Conclusion – Of Moon and Men: Observations about the Knowledge of the Moon in Antiquity / VICTORIA ALTMANN-WENDLING (MUNICH) 279
SECTION 3: THE END OF THE WORLD IN FIRE – IMAGINATIONS FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES
Know Your Sources Before You Argue – Minucius Felix and Augustine of Hippo on the Conflagration / DOMINIC BÄRSCH (MAINZ/EICHSTÄTT) 289
The Idea of an Apocalyptic Fire According to the Old and Middle Iranian Sources / GÖTZ KÖNIG (BOCHUM) 313
Poets, Prophets, and Philosophers – The End of the World According to Otto von Freising / DOMINIC BÄRSCH (MAINZ/EICHSTÄTT) 343
The Ragnarǫk Myth in Scandinavia – Finding, Inheriting, and Borrowing / JENS PETER SCHJØDT (AARHUS) 365
Conclusion – The End of the World in Fire / DOMINIC BÄRSCH (MAINZ/EICHSTÄTT) & DOMINIK BERRENS (INNSBRUCK) 385
About the Authors 391
Authors and Texts Cited 395
General index 401
