Ancient medical texts, modern reading problems

The word tradition has a very specific meaning in linguistics: the passing down of a text, which may have been completed or corrected by different copyists at different times, when the concept of authorship was not the same as it is today. When reading an ancient text the word tradition must be in the reader's mind. To discuss one of the problems an ancient text poses to its modern readers, this work deals with one of the first printed medical texts in Portuguese, the Regimento proueytoso contra ha pestenença, and draws a parallel between it and two related texts, A moche profitable treatise against the pestilence, and the Recopilaçam das cousas que conuem guardar se no modo de preseruar à Cidade de Lixboa E os sãos, & curar os que esteuerem enfermos de Peste. The problems which arise out of the textual structure of those books show how difficult is to establish a tradition of another type, the medical tradition. The linguistic study of the innumerable medieval plague treatises may throw light on the continuities and on the disruptions of the so-called hippocratic-galenical medical tradition.

'The house of books': libraries and archives in Ancient Egypt

In 1957, John Sperry Jr. published an article in Libri entitled “Egyptian libraries: a survey of the evidence.” Some 55 years on, this article revisits the subject, taking into account research undertaken in the field of Egyptology over the last half a century. Based on an extended essay written for the online Certificate in Egyptology course at the University of Manchester, this article considers the evidence for the existence of “institutional” (that is, created for the use and functioning of the state) libraries and archives in Ancient Egypt throughout the dynastic period (c.3500−30 B.C.); their history, purpose and, to some extent, their administration. It also considers an aspect not explored in Sperry’s article, that of “private” libraries in Ancient Egypt (texts collected by an individual for their own personal use). Whilst estimated literacy levels within the general population precluded the widespread collection of texts for personal edification, there is evidence to suggest that private libraries were present in Ancient Egypt. The article concludes with a brief assessment of the legacy of these ancient libraries and their influence on the creation of the Library of Alexandria, in both its ancient and modern manifestations.

Tacitus' Germania and the Jesuit Relations: Intertextuality in the Transatlantic World of the Early Jesuits in New France.

The first Europeans who wrote about the Indigenous people of the newly discovered Americas, not only used medieval, but also classical literature as a tool of reference to describe 'otherness.' As true humanists, the French Jesuits who arrived in the New World were deeply influenced by their classical education and, as claimed by Grafton, reverted to ancient ethnographic texts, like Tacitus' Germania, to support their analyse of the Indigenous people they encountered. Books talk to books. Inspired by Germania, the early French Jesuits managed to convey to their readers a subtle critique of their own civilization, enhancing, like Tacitus, the virtuous aspect of the so-called barbarians they described while illustrating the corruption of their respective civilized worlds. This thesis suggests that the essence of Tacitus' work is definitively present in Pierre Biard's letters and his Relation. His testimonies illustrate the connection the early French Jesuits had with the humanist thought of their time.

'Greek' and 'Roman' in Latin Medical Texts. Studies in Cultural Change and Exchange in Ancient Medicine : [Proceedings of the 10th International Conference "Ancient Latin Medical Texts", Lausanne, 2010, November 3rd-6th November]

Latin medical texts transmit medical theories and practices that originated mainly in Greece. This interaction took place through juxtaposition, assimilation and transformation of ideas. 'Greek' and 'Roman' in Latin Medical Texts studies the ways in which this cultural interaction influenced the development of the medical profession and the growth of knowledge of human and animal bodies, and especially how it provided the foundations for innovations in the areas of anatomy, pathology and pharmacology, from the earliest Latin medical texts until well into the medieval world.

Body, Disease and Treatment in a Changing World. Latin texts and contexts in ancient and medieval medicine (Proceedings of the ninth International Conference «Ancient Latin Medical Texts», Hulme Hall, University of Manchester, 5th-8th September 2007),

This volume reflects a variegated and fruitful dialogue between classical and medieval philologists and historians of science, philosophy, literature and language as well as of medicine - the diverse range of interests that the history of medicine in the Graeco-Roman world and the medieval West continues to stimulate and draw on. A recurrent theme is the transformation of medical knowledge in different languages, literary forms and cultural milieux. Several papers concern editorial work in progress on unpublished texts, available only in manuscript or early printed editions. Ce recueil met en dialogue des spécialistes des textes médicaux latins de l'Antiquité et du Moyen Âge. Certaines analyses adoptent une approche sociolinguistique, d'autres s'intéressent à des questions de transmission et de réception, d'autres enfin livrent des études sur le lexique médical. Mais toutes concourent à éclairer une histoire culturelle de la médecine qui s'inscrit dans un monde en mutation. With a preface by D. R. Langslow, and contributions by M. Baldin, J. P. Barragán Nieto, P. P. Conde Parrado, D. Crismani, M. Cronier, C. de la Rosa Cubo, A. Ferraces Rodríguez, K.-D. Fischer, P. Gaillard-Seux, A. García González, V. Gitton-Ripoll, G. Haverling, F. Le Blay, B. Maire, G. Marasco, A. I. Martín Ferreira, I. Mazzini, F. Messina, Ph. Mudry, V. Nutton, M. Pardon-Labonnelie, R. Passarella, M. J. Pérez Ibáñez, S. Sconocchia, A. M. Urso, M. E. Vázquez Buján, and H. von Staden.

An historical Greek grammar, chiefly of the Attic dialect as written and spoken from classical antiquity down to the present time : founded upon the ancient texts, inscriptions, papyri and present popular Greek /

"Principal modern works consulted": p. xxiii-xxxii.

The triple cord or a treatise prouing the truth of the roman religion by sacred scriptures taken in the literall sense : expounded by ancient fathers : interpreted by Protestant writers. With a discouery of sundry subtile sleights vsed by Protestants, for euading the force of strongest arguments, taken from cleerest texts of the foresaid scriptures ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Narrativity in Biblical and Related Texts - La narrativité dans la Bible et les textes apparentés

Seventeen innovative studies are collected in this volume which has been produced under the aegis of the Centre for Biblical Studies, University of Manchester, and L'Institut des sciences bibliques, Université de Lausanne. The majority of the studies engage with narrative through providing insightful working examples. Building on the many contributions of recent narratological research, for the most part the studies in this collection avoid the technical language of narratology as they present fresh insights at many levels. Some essays focus more on the implied author, some on the implied reader or hearer, and some on the way particular messages are constructed; some of the studies consider how author, message and reader are all interconnected. There are several creative proposals for refining genre definition, from law and wisdom to gospel and apocryphal writings. Some studies highlight the way in which narratives can contain ethical, religious, and cultural messages. Sensitivity to narrative is also shown by some contributors to expose in intruing ways the redactional processes behind the final form of texts. Students of narrative in the ancient world will find much to consider in this book, and others engaged with literary studies more generally will discover that scholars of the worlds of the Bible and Late Antiquity have much to offer them.

Eros in the Physics of Ancient Stoicism (Why did Chrysippus think of a cosmogonal fellatio?)

The aim of this article is to show not only what is the role played by eros in the Physics of the Ancient Stoicism but also to discover the meaning of the allegorical fellatio, a cosmogonal fellatio, which was introduced by Chrysippus in his Erotic Letters. The meaning of this intellectual boldness becomes quite clear if the texts are analyzed in accordance with the allegorical interpretation developed by the Stoics and when we also analyze the enodatio nominum of the word stóma.

Heb 5.7, Jesus' Prayer on the Mount of Olives and Jewish Christianity: Hearing Early Christian Voices in Canonical and Apocryphal Texts

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) The book of Hebrews has often been the Cinderella of the New Testament, overlooked and marginalized; and yet it is one of the most interesting and theologically significant books in the New Testament. A Cloud of Witness examines the theology of the book in the light of its ancient historical context. There are chapters devoted to the structure of Hebrews, the person of Jesus Christ, Hebrews within the context of Second Temple Judaism and the Greco-Roman empire and the role of Hebrews in early Christian thought.

New legal texts from the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana

Several previously unnoticed texts concerning ancient lawcourts can be found in the Colloquia of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana, a set of bilingual dialogues composed for language learners during the Roman empire. The texts describe court cases, both criminal and civil; their writers probably taught in law schools between the second and fourth centuries ad. Editions, translations, and summary information about these texts are provided.

Columnar translation: an ancient interpretive tool that the Romans gave the Greeks

Among the more peculiar literary papyri uncovered in the past century are numerous bilingual texts of Virgil and Cicero, with the Latin original and a Greek translation arranged in distinctive narrow columns. These materials, variously classified as texts with translations or as glossaries, were evidently used by Greek-speaking students when they first started to read Latin literature. They thus provide a unique window into the experience of the first of many groups of non-native Latin speakers to struggle with reading the classics of Latin literature.