Finding, Inheriting or Borrowing?: The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

410 Pages·2019·5.371 MB·English

by  Jochen Althoff, Dominik Berrens, Tanja Pommerening (eds.)

Jochen Althoff, Dominik Berrens, Tanja Pommerening (eds.)
Finding, Inheriting or Borrowing?
Mainz Historical Cultural Sciences | Volume 39
Editorial
The Mainzer Historische Kulturwissenschaften [Mainz Historical Cultural
Sciences] series publishes the results of research that develops methods and
theories of cultural sciences in connection with empirical research. The central
approach is a historical perspective on cultural sciences, whereby both epochs
and regions can differ widely and be treated in an all-embracing manner from
time to time. Amongst other, the series brings together research approaches in
archaeology, art history, visual studies, literary studies, philosophy, and history,
and is open for contributions on the history of knowledge, political culture, the
history of perceptions, experiences and life-worlds, as well as other fields of
research with a historical cultural scientific orientation.
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come a platform for pioneering works and current discussions in the field of
historical cultural sciences.
The series is edited by the Co-ordinating Committee of the Research Unit His-
torical Cultural Sciences (HKW) at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Jochen Althoff, Dominik Berrens, Tanja Pommerening (eds.)
Finding, Inheriting or Borrowing?
The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge
in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
The print was financed by the Research Unit Historical Cultural Sciences (HKW).

Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 215342465 /
GRK 1876
Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research
Foundation) – 215342465 / GRK 1876
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CONTENT
Preface and Acknowledgements ........................................ 9

The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge
in the Pre-Modern Era ......................................................... 13
JOCHEN ALTHOFF (MAINZ), DOMINIK BERRENS (INNSBRUCK),
TANJA POMMERENING (MAINZ)

SECTION 1:
METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL ASPECTS

Transmitting Symbolic Concepts from the Perspective
of Cultural Cognition – The Acquisition and Transfer
of Folk-biological Knowledge ............................................. 41
ROY ELLEN (KENT)

The Transfer of Knowledge from Mesopotamia
to Egypt ................................................................................ 71
SUSANNE BECK (TÜBINGEN)

Epistemology in the Biblical Tradition –
Judean Knowledge-Building, Scribal Craftsmanship,
and Scribal Culture .............................................................. 99
JEFFREY L. COOLEY (BOSTON)
Bodies of Texts, Bodies of Tradition –
Medical Expertise and Knowledge of the Body among
Rabbinic Jews in Late Antiquity ........................................ 123
LENNART LEHMHAUS (BERLIN)

The Reception and Rejection of “Foreign”
Astronomical Knowledge in Byzantium ............................ 167
ALBERTO BARDI (WASHINGTON, D.C.)

SECTION 2:
OF MAN AND MOON –
KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL MEANING OF THE MOON

“He assigned Him as the Jewel of the night” –
The Knowledge of the Moon in Mesopotamian Texts
of the Late Second and First Millennia BCE ...................... 187
TIM BRANDES (MAINZ)

Shapeshifter –
Knowledge of the Moon in Graeco-Roman Egypt ............. 213
VICTORA ALTMANN-WENDLING (MUNICH)

Concepts Concerning the Moon in Plutarch’s De facie
in orbe lunae – Found, Inherited, or Borrowed Ideas ........ 253
LIBA TAUB (CAMBRIDGE)

Conclusion – Of Moon and Men: Observations about
the Knowledge of the Moon in Antiquity ............................ 279
VICTORIA ALTMANN-WENDLING (MUNICH)
SECTION 3:
THE END OF THE WORLD IN FIRE –
IMAGINATIONS FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES

Know Your Sources Before You Argue – Minucius Felix
and Augustine of Hippo on the Conflagration .................. 289
DOMINIC BÄRSCH (MAINZ/EICHSTÄTT)

The Idea of an Apocalyptic Fire According to the Old
and Middle Iranian Sources ................................................ 313
GÖTZ KÖNIG (BOCHUM)

Poets, Prophets, and Philosophers –
The End of the World According to Otto von Freising ...... 343
DOMINIC BÄRSCH (MAINZ/EICHSTÄTT)

The Ragnarǫk Myth in Scandinavia –
Finding, Inheriting, and Borrowing .................................... 365
JENS PETER SCHJØDT (AARHUS)

Conclusion – The End of the World in Fire ....................... 385
DOMINIC BÄRSCH (MAINZ/EICHSTÄTT) &
DOMINIK BERRENS (INNSBRUCK)

About the Authors ............................................................... 391

Authors and Texts Cited ..................................................... 395

General index ....................................................................... 401