In the wake of the compendia : infrastructural contexts and the licensing of empiricism in ancient and medieval Mesopotamia / edited by J. Cale Johnson.

Date:
[2015]
  • Books

About this work

Description

"In the Wake of the Compendia examines the composition of technical literature in the ancient Semitic-speaking world. Compendia on astrology, magic, medicine, lexicography, and alchemy were composed in several languages and relate to earlier Mesopotamian models. This volume offers new perspectives on the early history of these compendia and their subsequent transmission into later post-cuneiform compilations, curricula, and scholarly writings"-- Provided by publisher.

Publication/Creation

Boston : De Gruyter, [2015].

Physical description

x, 326 pages : black and white illustrations ; 25 cm.

Contents

Introduction: "Infrastructural compendia" and the licensing of empiricism in Mesopotamian technical literature / J. Cale Johnson -- Part A. The infrastructural compendium -- Encyclopaedias and commentaries / M.J. Geller -- Compendia and procedures in the Mesopotamian astral sciences / Mathieu Ossendrijver -- Listenwissenschaft and the encyclopedic hermeneutics of knowledge in Talmud and Midrash / Lennart Lehmhaus -- Part B. Licensing empiricism : replication and authority in Mesopotamian technical literature -- "Tested" remedies in Mesopotamian medical texts : a label for efficacy based on empirical observation? / Ulrike Steinert -- Theory and practice in the Syriac Book of Medicines : the empirical basis for the persistence of Near Eastern medical lore / Siam Bhayro -- The "science of properties" and its transmission / Lucia Raggetti -- Between demonology and hagiology : the Slavonic rendering of the Semitic Magical Historiola of the Child-Stealing Witch / Florentina Badalanova Geller -- Part C. The two paradigms : towards a new textual criticism for Mesopotamian technical compendia -- The Babylonians and the rational : reasoning in cuneiform scribal scholarship / Francesca Rochberg -- Phenomena in writing : creating and interpreting variants of the diagnostic series Sa-Gig / John Z. Wee -- Depersonalized case histories in the Babylonian therapeutic compendia / J. Cale Johnson -- Source index -- Subject index -- Author index.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    AB.294.AA1-3
    Open shelves

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Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9781501510762
  • 1501510762