Pietro Bembo on Etna

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Generational Differences ◽  
Mount Etna ◽  
Latin Text ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Pietro Bembo ◽  
History Of ◽  
Father And Son

This book is centered on the Venetian humanist Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), on his stay in Sicily in 1492–4 to study the ancient Greek language under the Byzantine émigré Constantine Lascaris, and above all on his ascent of Mount Etna in 1493. The more particular focus of this study is on the imaginative capacities that crucially shape Bembo’s elegantly crafted account, in Latin, of his Etna adventure in his so-called De Aetna, published at the Aldine Press in Venice in 1496. This work is cast in the form of a dialogue that takes place between the young Bembo and his father, Bernardo (himself a prominent Venetian statesman with strong humanist involvements), after Pietro’s return to Venice from Sicily in 1494. But De Aetna offers much more than a one-dimensional account of the facts, sights, and findings of Pietro’s climb. Three mutually informing features that are critical to the artistic originality of De Aetna receive detailed treatment in this study: (i) the stimulus that Pietro drew from the complex history of Mount Etna as treated in the Greco-Roman literary tradition from Pindar onward; (ii) the striking novelty of De Aetna’s status as the first Latin text produced at the nascent Aldine Press in the prototype of what modern typography knows as Bembo typeface; and (iii) Pietro’s ingenious deployment of Etna as a powerful, multivalent symbol that simultaneously reflects the diverse characterizations of, and the generational differences between, father and son in the course of their dialogical exchanges within De Aetna.

scholarly journals The value of the national language of science (part no. 1)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-208
Author(s):  
Oleg A. Donskikh
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
National Language ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Language Of Science ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Languages ◽  
Fully Functioning ◽  
Science Part

The article examines the history of the formation of several languages of science – Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Arabic and Latin - relating to the material of four languages and corresponding cultures. Several considerations are given in favor of the need to preserve the national languages of science. The stages of formation of languages of science in the system of culture are traced. There are two types of languages that are used by scientific communities: 1) languages that are rooted in the national culture and remain firmly linked with the natural language community; 2) languages that are reserved for performing a certain function, while in parallel, national languages are fully functioning in society. The first type includes the Greek and Arabic, the scientific languages of the second type are Sanskrit and Latin. The key role of the humanitarian, in particular poetic, philological and philosophical culture for the formation of the language of science is shown. Based on the material of the Ancient Greek language, the stages of its development over several centuries are traced, which resulted in such linguistic tools that allowed not only to use abstract conceptual concepts, but also to organize the vocabulary hierarchically, and this as a result allowed to form any needed generic chains. The importance of the appearance of impersonal texts that comes with collections of written documents alienated from a particular teacher is emphasized.

Greek Prehistory Through the Bronze Age

Classics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Burke
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
History Of ◽  
Epic Poems ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Of Greece

The history of archaeology of Greece as we know it today begins with prehistoric investigations that took place in the 19th century. Early excavations by Heinrich Schliemann, Arthur Evans, and Wilhelm Dörpfeld, along with Greek colleagues like Christos Tsountas, Panagiotis Stamatakis, Valerios Stais, and Antonios Keramopoulos laid the foundation for systematic, stratigraphic excavations. Research was heavily directed by ancient Greek texts, primarily the epic poems of Homer. Efforts to find archaeological truth to the legendary tales of the ancient heroes continue to be problematic, but, to a degree, early excavations revealed a rich and fascinating period of Greece’s development. Although the archaeological discoveries of Greek prehistory date to an age centuries older than Homer, the discoveries shed light on a vast, rich archaeological history, one upon which the Homeric tales were, at least partially, based. Early discoveries of prehistoric texts, especially on Crete with scripts in Hieroglyphic Minoan, Linear A (non-Greek), and Linear B (Greek), along with the enigmatic Phaistos disc, have expanded our understanding of the history of the Greek language and Greek people.

Paradoxography

2018 ◽  
pp. 430-444
Author(s):  
Klaus Geus ◽  
Colin Guthrie King
Keyword(s):  
Literary Field ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Ancient Science ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
History Of

The chapter explores the ancient Greek and Roman literature on wonders, “paradoxical” objects and events in the natural (and human) worlds, things that are strange but true. The main source for this literature was not observation or experience, but other literature. The chapter describes the genesis and development of the genre and defines its common characteristics; introduces its main authors; and explains its importance for the history of ancient science. Paradoxographical texts have been characterized variously as: (1) lists of facts which are considered wondrous, or (2) a sensationalist and consumer-oriented type of writing, or (3) the second-rate extracts from proper historical and scientific authors. Paradoxography was a thriving literary field from Early Hellenistic times, throughout the Greco-Roman era, and into Byzantine times.

Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Ancient Science ◽  
Classical World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
The Many ◽  
Reading Key

The book offers 50 essays introducing, surveying, summarizing, and analyzing the many sciences of the classical world, that is, ancient Greek and Roman worlds. The opening section offers 10 essays on mathematics, astronomy, and medicine in other ancient cultures that may have either influenced the Greek world or else served as informative alternative accounts of ancient science. There is a brief section on Greek science of the 6th through 4th centuries bce, then a long section on Greek science of the Hellenistic era, the period in which ancient Greek science was most active. The Greco-Roman era, that is the early Roman Empire, is treated in a fourth section, and the final section addresses the sciences of Late Antiquity, or Early Byzantine, period, the 4th through 7th centuries ce. Throughout, the volume insists on the close integration of the ancient sciences with one another and on the consequent necessity to study them as a whole, not in isolation. Sciences elsewhere neglected or excluded are here included as first-class citizens, such as alchemy, astrology, paradoxography, pharmacy, and physiognomy. The essays invite readers to study these fascinating disciplines, and in many cases offer new interpretations and syntheses. Each essay includes a bibliography supporting its content and providing further reading. Key figures in the history of ancient science, Pythagoras with Plato, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and Ptolemy, each receive their own essay.

List of Officers and Members

1880 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. T. Newton
Keyword(s):  
Greek Language ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Opening Up

I have been called upon to take the chair at this first meeting of the Society which professes to have for its object the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Now by Hellenic Studies we do not mean merely the study of Greek texts, grammars, and lexicons. It is generally acknowledged that, besides the printed texts of the ancient Greek authors, and the commentaries of the scholiasts on these texts, many other sources of Hellenic Study are opening up every day. The monuments of the Greeks, their architecture, sculpture, and other material remains, deserve our study not less than the texts of the classics, and we must bear in mind that the history of the Hellenic language itself may be traced for at least twenty-five centuries, and that between the Greek speech of the present day, and the first utterances of the early Greek poets, there is a connection which, though not obvious to the common observer, may be as clearly demonstrated by science as the connection between the flora of the geologist and the living flora of the botanist of to-day. In order to trace out this connection, we must not regard the language of the ancient Greeks alone; we must study the Byzantine literature, as well as the Greek language still current in the mouths of the peasants, and we must also study their existing manners and customs. The space of time, therefore, over which our Hellenic Studies may range, may be computed as about twenty-five centuries, or perhaps something more. The province of this Society has next to be limited geographically. After much consideration I have come to the conclusion that our proper geographical limitation is that which has been followed in the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum of Böckh. In that great work he includes Greek inscriptions, wherever they may be found, not only in Hellas itself, but outside the Mediterranean, and beyond the Pillars of Hercules. And therefore I think that as we study Greek inscriptions wherever they are found, whether in Greece, Italy, Sicily, or elsewhere, so we may study the Greek monuments and language wherever these are to be met with. Now as to the chronological range of our subject, I have already said that it extends over at least twenty-five centuries. It will be convenient to consider this space of time as divided into three periods. There will be first the Ancient period, terminating with the downfall of paganism; then the Byzantine period down to the taking of Constantinople in 1453; and then what I will call the Neo-Hellenic period.

scholarly journals Teaching Modern Greek to Classicists

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-139
Author(s):  
Jerneja Kavčič ◽  
Brian Daniel Joseph ◽  
Christopher Brown
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
History Of ◽  
Carry Over ◽  
The 19Th Century

The ideology of decline is a part of the history of the study and characterization of the Greek language from the Hellenistic period and the Roman Atticist movement right up to the emergence of katharevousa in the 19th century and the resulting modern diglossia. It is also clear, however, that there is an overwhelming presence of Ancient Greek vocabulary and forms in the modern language. Our position is that the recognition of such phenomena can provide a tool for introducing classicists to the modern language, a view that has various intellectual predecessors (e.g., Albert Thumb, Nicholas Bachtin, George Thomson, and Robert Browning). We thus propose a model for the teaching of Modern Greek to classicists that starts with words that we refer to as carry-overs. These are words that can be used in the modern language without requiring any explanation of pronunciation rules concerning Modern Greek spelling or of differences in meaning in comparison to their ancient predecessors (e.g., κακός ‘bad’, μικρός ‘small’, νέος ‘new’, μέλι ‘honey’, πίνετε ‘you drink’). Our data show that a beginners’ textbook of Ancient Greek may contain as many as a few hundred carry-over words, their exact number depending on the variety of the Erasmian pronunciation that is adopted in the teaching practice. However, the teaching of Modern Greek to classicists should also take into account lexical phenomena such as Ancient-Modern Greek false friends, as well as Modern Greek words that correspond to their ancient Greek predecessors only in terms of their written forms and meanings.

scholarly journals ABOUT THE SEQUENCE OF CREATION OF PLATO’S WORKS AS HIS PROGRESSIVE ASCENT TO THE APEX OF TRANSCENDENTAL THOUGHT

2018 ◽  
pp. 458-475
Author(s):  
Vyacheslav M. Meshkov
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Existential Analysis ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
Research Task ◽  
History Of

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to study the actual problem of the creative heritage of Plato’s historical interrelation of his works as they are created. Unfortunately, this work of paramount importance in the study of Platonism is still largely not completed. Materials and methods. The author used the methods of historical and logical, empirical and theoretical, as well as thematic and existential analysis. The method of considering the material developed by Karl Marx in the dialectical interrelation of the historical and logical aspects of its construction essentially helps in the affairs of historical reconstruction. Discussion. The peculiarity of the epistemological situation in which Plato remained was expressed in the fact that he was forced to proceed practically from a pure empirical language of observation. Therefore, in his philosophical studies, he had to display remarkable constructive abilities to create complex abstract-theoretical constructs from a poor arsenal of verbal means of the emerging secular ancient Greek language. In the history of world philosophy, I do not know a deeper and more productive philosopher in this regard. In working with Plato’s texts these points should be monitored. With the help of a thematic approach, an opportunity has been opened to study the formation and development of the main themes and concepts of Plato’s philosophy, developed in his dialogues, and build them in the appropriate sequence of their creation. Since the works of the great Athenian sage are to a considerable extent confessional in nature, the analysis of the existential component presented in them greatly helped to solve the research task. The Results of the Study. Using the above methods allowed us to build a fairly reasonable and productive version of the historical sequence of the creation of works of Plato. Keywords: transcendental discourse, transcendental philosophy, patriarch of western philosophy, true being, transcendental being, writer-philosopher.

scholarly journals Lingua e letteratura (neo)greca a Ca’ Foscari: 1868-2018

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Carpinato
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
The Political ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

The essay aims to outline the history of the teaching of Modern Greek at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice: it started with its foundation in 1868, with Costantino Triantafillis, and was interrupted for more than a century from 1890. This paper also deals with the history of the discipline from 1868 until today, with an eye on the connection with the political and cultural life of the country and on the relationship with other disciplines (such as Ancient Greek language and literature and Byzantine civilization). After an interval of a century classes of Modern Greek started up again at Ca’ Foscari in 1994-95 thanks to the teaching of Lucia Marcheselli Loukas. Since 1998 the teaching has been revived with a tenured professor and, in the last twenty years, it has trained graduate students and young scholars who today play a cultural and linguistic role of mediation between Italy and Greece.

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