Lucretius /
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Lucretius' De rerum natura , written around 55 BCE, ranks among the most influential texts in Roman literature. The poet's vision of a world made of atoms, his mockery of the fear of death and the gods, and fervent advocacy of the mortality of the soul over many centuries incensed his critics on one hand, and on the other earned him a devoted following. This volume provides an introduction to the oldest completely preserved Latin didactic poem and to the most important research questions concerned with the text.
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1 online resource :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004539037
9789004539044
ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī: The Indian Books : A new edition of the Arabic text and first-time English translation /
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ʿAlī ibn Sahl aṭ-Ṭabarī's Indian Books, completed in Samarra in 850 CE, offer a unique, interpretative summary of Ayurvedic medicine, as he understood it on the basis of now lost Arabic translations from Sanskrit.
ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī's Indian Books , completed in the year 850 CE as an appendix to his medico-philosophical chef-d'œuvre "Paradise of Wisdom", belong to the most remarkable texts in Arabic scientific literature. The Indian Books offer a unique, interpretative summary of the main tenets of Ayurvedic medicine, as understood by Arabic-speaking scholars on the basis of now lost translations from Sanskrit. The present book centres around a critical edition and annotated translation of this crucial text, framed by a detailed introduction and extensive glossaries of terms. Ṭabarī's learned exposé of Ayurveda also throws a more nuanced light on the allegedly uncontested supremacy of Greek humoralism in 9th-century Arabic medicine.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004523302
9789004523296
Failed Historical Scientific Instruments /
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Can a scientific instrument be regarded as a failure? Why and how? By shedding light on the complexity of these questions, the volume marks a step forward in the way historical scientific instruments can be analysed and displayed. The essays show how diverse failures can be, and how the assessment of scientific devices may change over time - some surprisingly becoming more successful. In addition to studies of how technical features led to failure, the authors examine the roles played by social bias and behaviour, commercial and economic circumstances, and political factors.
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1 online resource (272 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004689107
Earthly Adams and Pious Philosophers : A Theological Anthropological Lens to the Sixteenth-Century Astronomical Revolution /
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Focusing on the works of a select group of Lutheran astronomers in the Wittenberg sphere of influence, Earthly Adams and Pious Philosophers establishes a theological anthropological blueprint that echoed in their contributions to the sixteenth-century astronomical revolution. In challenging canonical cosmology and its Scholastic advocates, Georg Joachim Rheticus, Tycho Brahe, and Caspar Peucer invoked intellectual piety and a pessimist epistemology tailored to Luther's understanding of man after the Fall. The fruitful ignorance to which they submitted can be seen as part of a larger view of the self and the world, the astronomer, the academic scholar and the university, that was essentially theologically informed.
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1 online resource (225 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004387751
Das frühe Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum (RAC) und der Nationalsozialismus /
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Obwohl das »Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum« (RAC) in jeder Universitätsbibliothek, in jedem altertumswissenschaftlichen Institut und auch in manchem Privathaushalt steht, hat es 75 Jahre gedauert, bis Spuren der NS-Ideologie in den ersten beiden Bänden und die nach 1945 andauernde Beteiligung von Autoren, die schon im »Dritten Reich« antijüdische Propaganda betrieben, zur Sprache kamen. Lange jedoch galt das RAC als Werk, das im humanistischen Sinn als Frucht eines Zusammenwachsens von griechisch-römischen und christlichen Traditionen verstanden wurde. Dieses Buch untersucht systematisch den Verdacht einer ideologischen und institutionellen Nähe der frühen RAC-Bände zum Nationalsozialismus. Die Beiträge stützen sich zum großen Teil auf die bislang unveröffentlicht gebliebenen Archivalien des Franz Joseph Dölger-Instituts. Während einige Beiträge eine Gesamtinterpretation vorlegen, untersuchen andere ideologische Verquickungen einzelner Autoren und deren Artikel sowie die Redaktion des RAC und deren Verbindung mit ähnlich ausgerichteten Wissenschaftsprojekten. . See Less
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1 online resource (390 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9783657790296
Astrologers at Work : Essays on the Practices and Techniques of Astrology in Memory of Helena Avelar /
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Astrologers at Work brings together fourteen scholars to explore the history of astrological practice, focusing on techniques, doctrines, and methods of interpretation across cultures and centuries. Originating from the Tools of the Art conference, organised by the Astra Project in memory of Helena Avelar, this volume highlights astrology's technical and intellectual dimensions, placing it at the heart of pre-modern science and culture. Through detailed studies of charts, doctrines, and practices, it reveals the central role astrology played in shaping ideas about nature, knowledge, and fate. This work is a vital contribution to the history of science, culture, and ideas.
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1 online resource (480 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004745322
Fish on Paper: Ichthyology and the Disciplining of Natural History (1680-1820) /
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This book offers the first contextualised approach to how the study of fish took shape as a distinct field of knowledge in the eighteenth century. This field was called ichthyology. In placing the many and varied contributors to early modern natural history into this historical narrative, this volume demonstrates how the world underwater was a shared site of investigation. Through analysing the practices that were central to natural history, it shows how the development of a classificatory method resulted in a disciplining of natural history that established the ichthyologist as the authoritative knower of fish. Drawing on unique, previously unexplored material from libraries, archives, and museums, this study examines how this emphasis on classification directed the ways in which fish were preserved as specimens, in texts and in images. The epilogue reflects on how these historical sources shed light on the past occurrence of species and how this can inform ecological research.
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1 online resource (268 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004549500
Cartesian Imagery : Picturing Philosophy in the Early Modern Age /
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Cartesian Imagery is the first collection of essays entirely devoted to the role of images in Cartesian philosophy and science. Its seventeen chapters study a wealth of sources from across the most disparate disciplines - from printed treatises on astronomy to anatomical sketches, from students' notebooks to board games. It investigates how images shaped the development of Descartes's ideas and their creative reception and distortion among supporters and detractors alike, thereby giving rise to new visual languages and representation practices. Lavishly illustrated with three-hundred figures, the collection offers new, unexpected insights into early modern intellectual history. Contributors are: Ilaria Ampollini, Delphine Bellis, Jip van Besouw, Erik-Jan Bos, Davide Cellamare, Maria Conforti, Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis, Mihnea Dobre, Gary Hatfield, Eric Jorink, Christoph Lüthy, Gideon Manning, Mattia Mantovani, Carla Rita Palmerino, Isabelle Pantin, David Rabouin, Christoph Sander, Luca Tonetti, and Wouter de Vries.
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1 online resource (720 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004732254