Artes and the Emergence of a Scientific Culture in the Early Roman - Empir

"The first full-scale account of the Latin technical treatises called artes, arguing that their flourishing in the early Roman Empire represents the emergence and development of a uniquely Roman scientific culture. Discusses the artes on architecture, agriculture, land-surveying, medicine, and the art of war without assuming specialist knowledge"--

List of contents

Introduction. The idea of the artes; Part I: 1. The scientific premises for the imperial artes: a view from the late Republic; 2. Society, politics, and specialized knowledge in the early Roman empire: the artes and their authors; Part II: 3. The architectonic ars of architecture: explanation and method in Vitruvius' De architectura; 4. Columella and the new Roman agronomy: the art of agriculture and knowledge of nature in Res rustica; Part III: 5. Making a Roman ars of medicine: observation, explanation, and judgement in Celsus' De medicina; Part IV: 6. The character and growth of the Latin art of war: from ars to exempla; 7. The emergence of an ars mensoria: Frontinus and Hyginus on the historical realities and theoretical ideals of Roman land-surveying; Conclusion.

About the author

JAMES L. ZAINALDIN is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt University. He has published on the scientific and technical traditions of Greece and Rome; ancient philosophy; Latin literature, especially of the Roman Empire; and comparative Greco-Roman/Chinese studies. His first book (2020) was a study of the agricultural writings of the Roman author Gargilius Martialis for Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries.

Product details

• Authors: James L Zainaldin, James L. Zainaldin, James L. (Vanderbilt University Zainaldin
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2025
• EAN: 9781009501637
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0950163-7
• No. of pages: 474
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > General, dictionaries; European History, HISTORY / Ancient / General, Classical texts, Ancient World, History of engineering and technology, History of engineering & technology, Agricultural science, European history: the Romans, Ancient Greek and Roman literature