Description
Book SynopsisThe relationship between theory and practice, in other words between norms indicated in a text and their extra-textual application, is one of the most fascinating issues in the history and theory of science. Yet this aspect has often been taken for granted and never explored in depth. The essays contained in this volume provide a complex and nuanced discussion of this relationship as it emerges in ancient Greek and Roman culture in a number of fields, such as agriculture, architecture, the art of love, astronomy, ethics, mechanics, medicine, pharmacology. The main focus is on the textuality of processes of the transmission of knowledge and its application in various fields. Given that a text always contains complex and destabilising aspects that cannot be reduced to the specific subject matter it discusses, to what extent can and do ancient texts support extra-textual applicability?
Table of Contents1. From words to acts? Philip van der Eijk and Marco Formisano; 2. The poetics of knowledge Marco Formisano; 3. Machines on paper: from words to acts in ancient mechanics Markus Asper; 4. Si quis voluerit: Vitruvius on architecture as 'the art of the possible' Elisa Romano; 5. Caesar's Rhine bridge and its feasibility in Giovanni Giocondo's Expositio pontis Ronny Kaiser; 6. From words to acts: on the applicability of Hippocratic therapy Pilar Pérez Cañizares; 7. Naso magister erat – sed cui bono? On not taking the poet's teaching seriously Alison Sharrock; 8. From technē to kakotechnia: use and abuse of ancient cosmetic texts Laurence Totelin; 9. From discourses to handbook: the Encheiridion of Epictetus as a practical guide to life Gerard Boter; 10. The problem of practical applicability in Ptolemy's Geography Klaus Geus; 11. Living according to the seasons – the power of parapēgmata Gerd Grasshoff; 12. Auctoritas in the garden: Columella's poetic strategy in De re rustica 10 Christiane Reitz; 13. The generous text: animal intuition, human knowledge, and written transmission in Pliny's books on medicine Brooke Holmes; 14. From descriptions to acts: the paradoxical animals of the ancients from a cognitive perspective Pietro Li Causi.
