scholarly journals The Epic of the Thalamus in Anatomical Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel García-Cabezas ◽  
Isabel Pérez-Santos ◽  
Carmen Cavada

Understanding the origin of Greek and Latin words used as metaphors to label brain structures gives a unique window into how scientific and medical knowledge was produced, preserved, and transmitted through generations. The history of the term thalamus exemplifies the complex historical process that led to the current anatomical terminology. From its first mention by Galen of Pergamon in the 2nd century A.D. to its definitive and current use by Thomas Willis in 1664, the thalamus had an epical journey through 1500 years across Europe, the Middle East, and the North of Africa. The thalamus was confusingly described by Galen, in the Greek language, as a chamber to the brain ventricles. The term thalamus was transferred from Greek to Syriac through the translations of Galen’s books done in Baghdad and also from Syriac to Arabic. Then, it was translated in Europe during the Middle Ages from the Arabic versions of Galen’s books to Latin. Later, during the Early Renaissance, it was translated again to Latin directly from the Greek versions of Galen’s books. Along this epical journey through languages, the term thalamus switched from referring to a hollow structure connected to brain ventricles to naming a solid structure at the rostral end of the brainstem. Finally, the thalamus was translated from Latin to modern languages, where it is used, until today, to name a nuclear complex of subcortical gray matter in the lateral walls of the third ventricle.

1875 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 31-31
Author(s):  
Blackie

The Author showed by a historical review of the fortunes of Greece, through the Middle Ages, and under the successive influences of Turkish conquest and Turkish oppression, how the Greek language had escaped corruption to the degree that would have caused the birth of a new language in the way that Italian and the other Roman languages grew out of Latin. He then analysed the modern language, as it existed in current popular literature before the time of Coraes, that is, from the time of Theodore Ptochoprodromus to nearly the end of the last century, and showed that the losses and curtailments which it had unquestionably suffered in the course of so many centuries, were not such as materially to impair the strength and beauty of the language, which in its present state was partly to be regarded as a living bridge betwixt the present and the past, and as an altogether unique phenomenon in the history of human speech.


Author(s):  
Tanieva Guldona Mamanovna ◽  

In the Middle Ages, Central Asian pilgrims traveled to Mecca in three directions: the North direction ‒ through the Russian Empire, the central direction‒ through the territory of Persia, and the south direction ‒ along roads through India and the Arabian Sea. Therefore, the question of the directions of the Hajj was reflected in the diplomatic correspondence of the Central Asian khanates with Persia, India, the Russian and Ottoman empires тоо. Depending on the political, economic and ideological interests of these states, sometimes pilgrims were given permits to be sent to Mecca through their territories, and sometimes not. The degree of intensity of pilgrimage movements, in most cases, depended on the activities of interstate ambassadors. On the issue of eliminating various prohibitions and obstacles in the movements of pilgrimage roads, the Central Asian ambassadors were active and historical documents reveal these data to us. In this period the Central Asian ambassadors, who were sent to the reception of the governors those neighbor states on other issues, in most cases negotiated precisely on the direction of the Hajj of the Central Asian pilgrims also. One of such far-sighted ambassadors was a rich merchant from Bukhara, who lived in the XVIII c. Ernazar Maksud ogli officially sent several times by the Central Asian rulers to the Russian Empire. In this article analyzes the question of how the problems of the Hajj road were solved at the international diplomatic level by the example of the activities this ambassador. The history of negotiations between Ernazar and the Russian emperors on matters of the northern direction of the Hajj road and their results illuminated on base documents on this issue, which stored in the fund of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AFPRE). The scientific conclusions of this article serve for an extensive study of the issues of diplomatic and economic relations between the Central Asian khanates and the Russian Empire in the XVIII century, revealing the history of the embassy relations of the khanates and the history of the pilgrimage of the Hajj of the Central Asian people and the features of the directions of roads from Central Asia to Mecca.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-150
Author(s):  
Kira L Robison

Abstract The anatomical textbook in the late Middle Ages was one part of a greater pedagogical process that involved students’ seeing, hearing, reading, and eventually knowing information about the human body. By examining the role of the anatomical textbook and accompanying bodily images in anatomical learning, this article illuminates the complexity and self-consciousness of anatomical education in the medieval university, as professors focused on ways to enhance student memory of the material. Traditionally, the history of anatomy has been heavily influenced by the anatomical Renaissance of the late-sixteenth century, highlighting a focus on innovative medical knowledge and the scientific method. However, if we engage a pedagogical lens when looking at these medieval authors, it becomes quickly obvious that the whole point of university medicine was not to explore unknown boundaries and discover new ideas of medicine, but rather to communicate the current and established body of knowledge to those not familiar with it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
pp. 24-33
Author(s):  
Yaroslav Valentinovich Pilipchuk ◽  

This paper is devoted to the history of Wallachians a day knezats in the High Middle Ages. Wallachians mentioned far more often than in the Balkans and north of the Danube by the thirteenth century. Wallachian rebellious were subjects Romaios (Byzantinians), but this does not exclude the situational alliances with Romaios and Wallachian contingents participating in the campaigns of Byzantine army. Formation of political structures the Romanians in regions to the north of the Danube can be dated to the IX-XIII centuries. Making Wallachia as an independent state linked to the crisis in the Golden Horde and the expansion of Hungary to the east. Basarab just completed buissnes of Seneslav. Knezate of Gelou is nothing like Wallachian-Slavic cnezat in Transylvania. Regarding the migration of Wallachians in Muntenia, it was implemented as from the territory of Transylvania, as well as from the territory of the Balkan Peninsula. Key words: cnezates, Wallachians, Wallachia, Vlachs, Muntenia


Author(s):  
Olga A. Zheravina ◽  

The Spanish collection of the Stroganov Library reveals Spain as a country with a rich cultural heritage. The last owner of the family library, G.A. Stroganov, was the Russian ambassador to Spain, and his interest in Spanish subjects was reflected in the book collection. One of the most valuable publications is a series of engraved portraits of outstanding Spaniards, published from 1791 to 1819. As a cultural time-specific project of the Enlightenment era, this series reveals the value priorities of Spanish society, which allows us to understand its socio-cultural guidelines over a long historical period. An impressive share of the persons selected by the Spaniards among their outstanding representatives belongs to university figures. This speaks not only about the influence of the Age of Enlightenment, but also about the rich history of university tradition in Spain. The subject of our study is the figure of the Spanish humanist H. Núñez de Guzman (1475-1553). In his youth, he studied with Nebrija. In the College of St. Clement in Bologna he started studying the culture of classical Greece. After returning to Spain, he studied Hebrew and Arabic in Granada. He was invited by Cisneros to the University of Alcala to work on a project to create a multilingual Bible. At this university, which became an important center of Spanish humanism, he taught rhetoric and Greek. In 1524, he received a chair of Greek at the University of Salamanca, where he also taught Latin, rhetoric, and lectured on the "Natural History" of Pliny. In Salamanca, Núñez published commentaries on the works of Seneca (1529), Mela (1543) and Pliny (1544); he prepared a collection of proverbs in the Castilian language, which was published in 1555. A deep connoisseur of Latin and Greek, Núñez is considered the patriarch of the Spanish Hellenists. They were a cohort of humanists who, on Spanish soil, combined in their worldview the features of the outgoing Middle Ages and the ideas of the Renaissance. Núñez played a significant role in the development of the Greek language as a subject of study in Spanish universities. The Greek language, the knowledge of which nourished and developed humanistic upbringing and education, gets its spread in Spain during the life and activity of Núñez. In the series of portraits of outstanding Spaniards, the portrait of Núñez is placed in the fourteenth notebook, published in 1802.The engraved portrait is made by Esquivel according to the drawing of Engidanos. Núñez is depicted sitting in nature with an open book in his hands. In the biography attached to the portrait, it is noted that "few have more reason to be included in the list of outstanding people than Fernando Núñez de Guzman. His character, his erudition and behavior are an example of the highest honor." Núñez donated his valuable collection of books in Latin and Greek to the University of Salamanca. Núñez remains interesting for researchers today. The image and selfless devotion of the erudite continue to evoke deep respect, and the legacy left – gratitude.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1 and 2) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
V. F. Polcaro ◽  
A. Martocchia

An analysis of the basic cultural, historical and social elements which allowed the re-discovery and transfer of astronomical knowledge from the earlier Middle Ages up to the birth of modern astronomy, is presented in the new book Storia sociale dell’Astronomia. The book describes the main factors which played a role in suppressing or re-awakening interest in astronomical observations and events down the centuries. Among such elements we include: the loss of Greek-language-based knowledge as a vector of scientific knowledge; Christian and Islamic conceptions of Astrology; religious practices connected with observations; the birth of universities; the Protestant paradigm and humanism; the evolution of the social figure of the scientist in the West, from monks to aristocrats, and from Renaissance lords to bourgeois entrepreneurs. We focus attention on the social phenomena which caused the development of Astronomy as a science from the Middle Ages to the Copernican revolution, and claim that the ruling class’s attitude towards science is not only a matter for historical studies, but has much to do with the modern impoverishment and stagnation of Astronomy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 18-37
Author(s):  
Christoph Auffarth

In a history of religion and Europe classical Antiquity is both an example of difference, that is, the polytheistic systems of Greek and Roman religions, and the beginnings of the monotheistic religions, which became the mainstream in medieval and modern Europe. Drawing on the rituals, symbols, and patterns of polytheism as the legacy of the palace cultures in the Ancient Near East and Greece (until 1200 bc), the city-states (poleis) adapted these to non-autocratic societies (polis-religion). In the empires of Hellenism and the Roman Empire itself, religions were not part of a power structure (e.g. a ruler-cult). Rather their urban character allowed a plural neighbourhood, in which the monotheistic religions were well integrated. In late Antiquity a long transformation formed the Middle Ages, when with the rise of Islam the Mediterranean became divided into three parts: the Islamic south, Greek Orthodoxy in the east, and Latin-speaking ‘Europe’ in the north-west.


2020 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-522
Author(s):  
Jacques van Rensch

Abstract In between ‘vandalism’ and ‘la manie de tout conserver’. Limburg’s archives in revolutionary timesThe history of the Dutch province of Limburg during the French period from approximately 1795 to 1815 is more like that of Belgium and the Rhineland than the north of the Netherlands. The province itself, in a border region of the Netherlands, is a creation of the nineteenth century with a very complex geopolitical history going back to the Middle Ages. So Limburg, located at the edge of several countries, is a region which has never received much attention at a national level. The same is true for the Limburg archives of the Ancien Régime. This is of particular note because the Limburg archives contain the oldest original sources in the Netherlands. Despite this, consulting the archives of the Ancien Régime was not attractive to historians until well into the twentieth century. In the past many records of institutions dating to the Middle Ages were deliberately destroyed or lost as a result of war, or taken abroad, or they were accidentally ‘forgotten’ and ended up in the attic. Not unjustly the revolutionary government during the French period has been regarded as bearing directly or indirectly a great responsibility for this loss. But this is not the whole picture, and the account must be more nuanced. Owing to secularization, records from religious orders were lost in the decades leading up to the French period; and after 1815 there was little interest in archives, except perhaps for financial reasons. Documents previously sent for safe-keeping abroad disappeared from circulation. However, sometimes by coincidence, sometimes by the concerted actions of lovers of old documents, a number of extremely important historical documents have been preserved. The largest part of these has over time been acquired by the State Public Record Office of Limburg. As a result of this collecting of archives from abroad, Limburg has a richer collection from this period than is found in the rest of the Netherlands.


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