Scale, Space and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture

A history of ancient literary culture told through the quantitative facts of canon, geography, and scale.

List of contents

Acknowledgments; General introduction; Part I. Canon: 1. Canon: the evidence; 2. Canon in practice: the polis of letters; Part II. Space: 3. Space, the setting: the making of an Athens-against-Alexandria Mediterranean; 4. Space in action: when worlds diverge; Part III. Scale: 5. A quantitative model of ancient literary culture; 6. Scale in action: stability and its end; Coda to the book; Bibliography; Index.

About the author

Reviel Netz is the Patrick Suppes Professor of Greek Mathematics and Astronomy at Stanford University, California. He is a prolific author in many fields, from verse through literary theory to modern environmental history, and his core field is the history of the ancient exact sciences. He has pursued a more cultural, cognitive and literary approach to the history of science and has published a series of studies, beginning with The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics (Cambridge, 1999). He is also the translator and editor of the Cambridge editions of the works of Archimedes, two volumes of which have been published to date, and one of the main contributors to the study of the Archimedes Palimpsest, on which he co-authored (with William Noel) The Archimedes Codex (2007), which has been translated into eighteen languages.

Summary

How many authors were there in antiquity? Where did they work? How was the 'canon' made? This book provides an account of ancient culture in terms of such quantifiable questions. The end result explains why the Greeks were unique in creating a culture based on pluralistic debate.

Product details

• Authors: Reviel Netz, Reviel (Stanford University Netz, Netz Reviel
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2019
• EAN: 9781108481472
• ISBN: 978-1-108-48147-2
• No. of pages: 902
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: antiquity to present day; HISTORY / Ancient / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literature: history & criticism, Ancient History, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Literature: history and criticism, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500