1. The Culture of the Written Word

The article is devoted to ekphrasis, its historical and literary evolution, as well as aspects of its stylistic, cultural, and ideological origins. The research is based on the versatile collection of The Theory and History of Ekphrasis [Teoriya i istoriya ekfrasisa], which contains a number of previously little known texts and theories on ekphrasis, developed in regions with different ethnic and cultural characteristics. The author spares no effort in the examination of this monograph and, using the observations made by various scholars, discerns a similar development process of cross-cultural and cross-aesthetic transformations and transpositions, which, however, adopts divergent paths. Transpositions, the author suggests, occur in the model of a text awaiting a pictorial interpretation. The article concentrates on the ways to present an image anticipated in a written word, and to generate a new text, whose subject and content draw not only on poeticized observations of the source material, but also on metapoetic tales about its creators.

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Spreading the Written Word through Images: The Circulation of The Pilgrim’s Progress via its Illustrations

XVII-XVIII ◽

10.3406/xvii.2010.2490 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 223-246

Author(s):

Nathalie Collé-Bak

Keyword(s):

Pilgrim's Progress ◽

Written Word

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Keeping a Firm and Certain Faith in the Inspired Word

10.1093/oso/9780190882181.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Theodore G. Van Raalte

Keyword(s):

Medieval History ◽

Word Of God ◽

History Of ◽

Written Word ◽

Hypothetical Syllogism

This chapter surveys all of De Verbo Dei Scripto (i.e., Concerning the Written Word of God) in some detail. Significant translated sections are provided. The careful structure followed by Chandieu in this treatise of 1580 will be utilized by him in five further “theological and scholastic” treatises of that decade, and thus this structure is uniquely important. Besides Chandieu’s close adherence throughout to this intricate disputational structure, one also notices his predominant use of the hypothetical syllogism. While the disputational structure is a finely honed arrangement that very likely grows out of classroom disputations with their long medieval history (to be examined in chapter 8), the use of hypothetical syllogisms is a highly unusual element in Chandieu’s works that will be set within the history of the hypothetical syllogistic to determine how “Aristotelian” was its use (in chapter 9).

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Writing and Ritual in Deuteronomy 28

10.1093/oso/9780198810933.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Laura Quick

Keyword(s):

Ad Hoc ◽

Comparative Method ◽

Literary Texts ◽

History Of ◽

Important Means ◽

Written Word ◽

Ritual Process ◽

Different Cultures ◽

Ritual Context

This chapter argue that ritual behaviours might be just as good a source as literary texts for the diffusion of traditional cursing and treaty material across different cultures in the ancient Near East. In particular, the role of ad hoc oral Targum in the ritual process could have been an important means by which traditions were shared between different language communities. Recognition of the ritual context of this material also provides insights for the comparative method, the dating and authorship of Deuteronomy 28, and the subversive impetus thought to have stood behind its composition. Ultimately, the function of the written word in a largely oral world is shown to be fundamental to understanding the composition, function and the early history of the curses in the book of Deuteronomy.

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Recording Epigraphic Sources as Part of Artworks

The Oxford Handbook of Egyptian Epigraphy and Paleography ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190604653.013.18 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 128-144

Author(s):

Gabriele Pieke

Keyword(s):

Original Artwork ◽

Art History ◽

Historical Analysis ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Ancient Egypt ◽

Historical Study ◽

Data Set ◽

Line Drawings ◽

Color Data ◽

Written Word

Art history has its own demands for recording visual representations. Objectivity and authenticity are the twin pillars of recording artistic data. As such, techniques relevant to epigraphic study, such as making line drawings, may not always be the best approach to an art historical study, which addresses, for example, questions about natural context and materiality of the artwork, the semantic, syntactic, and chronological relation between image and text, work procedures, work zones, and workshop traditions, and interactions with formal structures and beholders. Issues critical to collecting data for an art historical analysis include recording all relevant information without overcrowding the data set, creating neutral (i.e., not subjective) photographic images, collecting accurate color data, and, most critically, firsthand empirical study of the original artwork. A call for greater communication in Egyptology between epigraphy/palaeography and art history is reinforced by drawing attention to images as tools of communication and the close connection between the written word and figural art in ancient Egypt.

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