Bibliographical Scrupulousness and Philological Zeal: Conrad Gessner Working on the editio princeps of ‘Ad se ipsum’

The article concerns the history of the first edition of Greek text of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (1559), printed together with its Latin translation and commentary by Wilhelm Xylander. The Zurich philologist and naturalist Conrad Gessner documented it meticulously from its earliest steps in his Neo-Latin bibliographic handbooks, as well as other printed works and letters, meanwhile contributing somehow to its realization. The controversial issue of Gessner’s and Xylander’s role in the establishing of the text of editio princeps, and thus its attribution, is discussed in detail. The other question under consideration is how Gessner imagined the interaction of humanist philology and bibliography, which had to direct literary history in the age of printed word. Taking into account this particular case of Gessner’s bibliographic and philological inquiry, the author attempts to consider his Bibliotheca universalis not only as seminal compilative and critical work, but also as important means of communication and (self-)stimulation.

The Spatial History of Revelation in Carl Ritter’s Erdkunde (1817–59)

Traditional theological concepts, including revelation, shaped academic disciplines as they emerged in nineteenth-century Germany. The first university professor of geography, Carl Ritter, crafted an intriguing spatial history of revelation in his masterful Earth Science in Relation to Nature and the History of Man (1817–1859). The teleological bent of Ritter’s geography and his commitment to intelligent design have encouraged most commentators to regard Ritter as a late manifestation of physicotheology. However, this long-standing explanation of a crucial geographer’s religious platform misconstrues the field’s theological commitments. Physicotheology suffered irreversible losses in the German states in the late eighteenth century. Ritter’s adherence to primordial revelation and biblical literalism typify the religious awakening of the Napoleonic period more than enlightened rationalism. He is best understood as a geographer of religion, dedicated to evangelical missions and intrigued by how the Earth’s features shaped the spread and transformation of religious ideas and practices, including Buddhism.

Reading (?) Vives in Sixteenth-Century Russia

This article provides an annotated edition, along with an English translation, of a relatively neglected sixteenth-century Russian text claimed to be a response to Juan Luis Vives’s renowned commentary on Augustine’s De civitate Dei. The Words against Juan Luis Vives was composed by Maximus the Greek, who was a central figure in Russian culture during the first half of the sixteenth century. As this article demonstrates, Maximus’ text serves as a revealing summary of what constituted the negative attitude towards Renaissance thought at the Muscovite court. This article also investigates the grounds on which Maximus based his critical remarks; there is a strong argument to assume that Maximus had never, in fact, read Vives’s commentary on Augustine.