A study of the life and works of Athanasius Kircher, "Germanus incredibilis" : with a selection of his unpublished correspondence and an annotated translation of his autobiography...
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Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit in 17th-century Rome, was an enigma. Intensely pious and a prolific author, he was also a polymath fascinated with everything from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the tiny creatures in his microscope. His correspondence with popes, princes and priests was a window into the restless energy of the period. It showed first-hand the seventeenth-century's struggle for knowledge in astronomy, microscopy, geology, chemistry, musicology, Egyptology, horology... The list goes on. Kircher's books reflect the mind-set of 17th-century scholars - endless curiosity and a substantial larding of naiveté: Kircher scorned alchemy as the wishful thinking of charlatans, yet believed in dragons. His life and correspondence provide a key to the transition from the Middle Ages to a new scientific age. This book, though unpublished, has been long quoted and referred to. Awaited by scholars and specialists of Kircher, it is finally available with this edition.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216327 :
1871-1405 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A seventeenth-century odyssey in East Central Europe : the life of Jakab Harsanyi Nagy /
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In A Seventeenth-Century Odyssey Gábor Kármán reconstructs the life story of a lesser-known Hungarian orientalist, Jakab Harsányi Nagy. The discussion of his activities as a school teacher in Transylvania, as a diplomat and interpreter at the Sublime Porte, as a secretary of a Moldavian voivode in exile, as well as a court councillor of Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector of Brandenburg not only sheds light upon the extraordinarily versatile career of this individual, but also on the variety of circles in which he lived. Gábor Kármán also gives the first historical analysis of Harsányi's contribution to Turkish studies, the Colloquia Familiaria Turcico-latina (1672).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004306813 :
2405-4488 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Khulāṣat al-ashʿār wa-zubdat al-afkār. Volume 6.1 : Bakhsh-i Kāshān /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The work by Mīr Taqī al-Dīn Kāshānī (alive in 1016/1607) published here is an important example of this. It consists of an introduction, four divisions, and an epilogue ( khātima ), six volumes in all. From among these volumes, the epilogue listing some 394 poets from specific cities and regions in the Persianate world, many of whom were contemporaries of the author, is of special interest. Having met with many of them on his literary travels, their biographies contain a lot of information on the social and cultural climate of the time, besides new poets and poems. This volume: 6.1, Kashan.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404670
9789646781979
Khulāṣat al-ashʿār wa-zubdat al-afkār. Volume 6.9 : Bakhsh-i Shīrāz wa nawāḥi-yi ān /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The work by Mīr Taqī al-Dīn Kāshānī (alive in 1016/1607) published here is an important example of this. It consists of an introduction, four divisions, and an epilogue ( khātima ), six volumes in all. From among these volumes, the epilogue listing some 394 poets from specific cities and regions in the Persianate world, many of whom were contemporaries of the author, is of special interest. Having met with many of them on his literary travels, their biographies contain a lot of information on the social and cultural climate of the time, besides new poets and poems. This volume: 6.9, Shiraz.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404922
9786002030719
Khulāṣat al-ashʿār wa-zubdat al-afkār. Volume 6.2 : Bakhsh-i Iṣfahān /
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In Persian literature, tadhkira ('note', 'memorandum') works are for the most part collections of biographies of poets, combined with selections from their writings. The earliest such work is Dawlatshāh Samarqandī's Tadhkirat al-shuʿarāʾ (completed in 892/1487), which set a standard for posterity. The tadhkira genre was especially popular in the 10th/16th century and following. The work by Mīr Taqī al-Dīn Kāshānī (alive in 1016/1607) published here is an important example of this. It consists of an introduction, four divisions, and an epilogue ( khātima ), six volumes in all. From among these volumes, the epilogue listing some 394 poets from specific cities and regions in the Persianate world, many of whom were contemporaries of the author, is of special interest. Having met with many of them on his literary travels, their biographies contain a lot of information on the social and cultural climate of the time, besides new poets and poems. This volume: 6.2, Isfahan.
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1 online resource. :
9789004404694
9789648700312
Doubt, scholarship and society in 17th century central Sudanic Africa /
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The seventeenth century was a period of major social change in central sudanic Africa. Islam spread from royal courts to rural communities, leading to new identities, new boundaries and new tasks for experts of the religion. Addressing these issues, the Bornu scholar Muḥammad al-Wālī acquired an exceptional reputation. Dorrit van Dalen 's study places him within his intellectual environment, and portrays him as responding to the concerns of ordinary Muslims. It shows that scholars on the geographical margins of the Muslim world participated in the debates in the centres of Muslim learning of the time, but on their own terms. Al-Wālī's work also sheds light on a century in the Islamic history of West Africa that has until now received little attention.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004324480 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Johann Ernst Gerhard (1621-1668) : The Life and Work of a Seventeenth-Century Orientalist /
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In this biography of Johann Ernst Gerhard (1621-1668) Asaph Ben-Tov offers a study of a now forgotten yet unusually well documented seventeenth-century orientalist. Gerhard, the son of the famous Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard, is not a towering figure but rather a fascinating representative of the academic culture of his day, especially of seventeenth-century oriental studies. His extant Nachlass allows a close scrutiny of the life and work of an early modern scholar, focussing on his training, travels, the ambitious Harmonia linguarum orientalium (1647) and other works, and the interests he fostered as a professor of history and theology in Jena. It aims to shed light on the broad and understudied field of oriental studies in seventeenth-century Germany.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004466463
9789004466449