Introduction: the material turn in the study of ancient texts

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsgre

G. Kotzé, C. Locatell, and J. Messara (eds), Ancient Texts and Modern Readers: Studies in Ancient Hebrew Linguistics and Bible Translation. Studia Semitica Neerlandica, 71. Leiden: Brill, 2019

The chapters in this volume address a variety of topics that pertain to modern readers’ understanding of ancient texts, as well as tools or resources that can facilitate contemporary audiences’ interpretation of these ancient writings, and their language. In this regard, they celebrate the contributions of Christo H.J. van der Merwe to the interrelated fields of ancient Hebrew linguistics, biblical interpretation, and Bible translation. Christo is professor of Hebrew language, literature, and translation studies in the department of Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. In the con- text of this department, ancient languages and cultures are studied not only for their own sake, but also for the relevance they hold for contemporary communities (especially, but not exclusively, in South Africa). This approach raises important and interesting challenges for research on, and teaching of, ancient languages and cultures. Two separate, but related questions with which the department is confronted require continual rethinking. These are, first, how best to understand what ancient cultural artifacts, such as literary and documentary writings, visual media (e.g., statues, stelae, stamp and cylinder seals, reliefs, etc.), and the material culture unearthed by archaeologists, communicate about the ideas, worldviews, customs, behaviour, beliefs, convictions, and living conditions of ancient peoples, and, second, how to most effectively communicate this knowledge to modern audiences and help them to acquire the requisite critical skills to interpret the primary sources in a responsible and an accountable manner. https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004402911/BP000001.xml

Exemplaria Classica, 2019

Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 2011

Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures, 2012

This article describes a new method of scholarly investigation developed for studying the history of complex codices united by a common subject-a type of codices now dubbed 'thematic books,' as presented in a 2016 publication. The first part describes the fundamental concepts, based on the codicology of complex manuscripts. It takes into consideration the materiality, the content and the structure of the codices, as they are found today, in order to reconstruct the various configurations in which their constitutive units once circulated, and evaluate the relevance of each configuration as a thematic book. In the second part, the method is applied to the category of byzantine anti-Jewish codices. Questions concerning the analysis of individual Production Units are discussed first, followed by questions linked to the relation between the various Production Units in the same codex. This article describes a new method of scholarly investigation developed for studying the history of complex codices united by a common subject-a type of codices now dubbed 'thematic books.' Discussed in a 2016 publication, 1 this method was developed while applying the principles of codicology of complex manuscripts to the study of byzantine anti-Jewish codices. Firstly, prolonged work on the manuscript transmission of Adversus Iudaeos works revealed codices largely dedicated to this kind of polemics, combined with the fact this type of book had not yet been studied in a book-historical perspective. || 1 Andrist 2016. This book is the result of research generously funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, to whom I extend my kindest thanks. I would also like to thank the editors of the present volume, particularly Alessandro Bausi and Marilena Maniaci, who also closely followed the development of this text, and Michael Friedrich for stimulating exchanges on the concepts presented here. My gratitude also goes to the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) in Hamburg for funding the translation of this text, originally written in French, to Saskia Dirkse and Roderick Saxey for translating it with competence and care and to James Rumball for carefully revising the last version; I alone am responsible for any errors that remain. I would like finally to thank Martin Wallraff and my colleagues in the ParaTexBib project for their moral and intellectual support.

This text has a complex scholarly history. Although it has never been published, it has in fact been subject to proper scholarly peer review. It started out as Chapter 1 in my manuscript for what ultimately became my book The Domus Aurea and the Roman Architectural Revolution, (Cambridge University Press, 2003). The title below was simply the title for Chapter 1, with the elimination of "Chapter 1" being the only modification throughout this text. The MS, including this chapter, passed CUP peer review, passed muster with the NYC office of CUP and was then sent to the CUP syndicate in Cambridge for final approval. Their acceptance of the project, including this chapter, stipulated a substantial reduction in overall wording and illustration, however. To meet the required standard, this chapter on literary sources was deleted entirely, and it has sat in my computer as a relic ever since. Posting this text here does not in any way represent an imprimatur of approval by CUP for this stand-alone publication. The text is posted here entirely on my initiative, on the hope that someone in the field might find it useful. Since my own scholarly focus has shifted to Pompeii in the meantime, I have not given this text any thought or editing since 2003. As with houses for sale, used cars and fine critters at the local Humane Society, it is provided "As Is", for anyone to whom it may appeal.-LFB.

2014

Studia Graeco-Arabica, 2013

the Magna Moralia (1260 b 30-1207 b 19) and the second from the Eudemian Ethics (1246 b 37-1248 b 11). The latter was originally part of a larger extract from book VIII of the Eudemian Ethics, which included the chapter on kalokagathia (1248 b 11-1249 b 25). According to Cordonier and Steel, Moerbeke was the translator also of this second extract. Besides, they compare Moerbeke's selective translation of the Magna Moralia (1260 b 30-1207 b 19) with Bartholomaeus of Messina's complete version of the same work. Their conclusion is that Moerbeke's translation was not a revision of that of Bartholomaeus of Messina, but a new one. The last two contributions in the volume are devoted by G.A. Kiraz and P. Tombeur to the advanced digital tools for the editions of Ancient and Medieval texts. G. Kiraz presents the MultiLingual Scholar Tm , a DOS-based web processor for the edition of Syriac texts and gives three examples of its usage during the 1990s (p. 447-61). P. Tombeur in Édition critique et moyens informatiques: une édition assistée, 'armée' (p. 463-91) presents the state of the art with respect to the work of critical editions assisted by the text processing system. The Letter before the Spirit is a useful volume for scholars of many di erent elds. It makes clear that there is still a lot of work to be done in editing ancient and medieval texts in order to gain a deeper understanding of the development of philosophical and scienti c thought. CMB P. Adamson (ed.), In the Age of Averroes in the Sixth/Twelfth Century,

The Classical Review, 2015