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Paper has become the most common writing material worldwide in the course of a two millennia history. This study provides a magisterial synthesis of recent scholarship and original insights into the origins of papermaking and its subsequent history in imperial China, including a wide range of archaeological evidence and literary sources. The volume introduces the materials and technologies of paper production and presents the cultural history of paper in traditional China. A comprehensive survey of literary sources on the production and use of paper is undertaken starting with the ongoing debate about the origin and genesis of paper, which was fuelled by recent archaeological discoveries of paper or proto-paper from the last two centuries BCE. In addition to its having become a popular writing material produced in many different qualities for both handwriting and printing, it also served as a material for wrapping or decorating, money and numerous uses in everyday life, such as umbrellas, windows, clothing, wallpapers, curtains and kites. Precious paper contributed to the aesthetics of calligraphy and painting, catering to the taste of the educated elite and artists.

'Kreativität des Christentums'bezeichnet die innovative Kraft der christlichen Religion, sowohl die eigene Erscheinungsform als auch die soziokulturelle Umwelt umzubilden. Dies gelingt durch eine ästhetische wie ethische Transzendierung der Gegenwart, in welcher Wahrnehmung und Gestaltung der Welt so miteinander verbunden werden, dass sich daraus ein produktiver Weltbezug entwickelt. In den klassischen Studien zur Kulturbedeutung des Christentums von Ernst Troeltsch findet eine solchen Theorie der Kreativität des Christentums ihren Ausgangs- und Bezugspunkt.

Die Zeit vom 11. bis 15. Jahrhundert wird in der Forschung als lang gestreckter Siegeszug des Papiers in Europa beschrieben. Als Konsens gilt, dass der neue Beschreibstoff angesichts seiner Preisvorteile und der Verfügbarkeit seiner Rohstoffe nicht nur das zuvor dominierende Pergament verdrängte, sondern auch die entscheidende Voraussetzung für den rapiden Anstieg an Schriftlichkeit im Spätmittelalter war. Für diese linearen Fortschrittsthesen fehlen jedoch weitgehend empirische Studien, welche die Ausbreitung des Papiergebrauchs in geographischer wie in sozialer Hinsicht nachvollziehen. Der vorliegende Sammelband thematisiert einerseits die mittelalterliche Papierproduktion und den europaweiten Handel mit der neuen Ware am Beispiel von ausgewählten Mühlenrevieren in Italien, Südwestdeutschland und Belgien. Andererseits rückt er die Frage nach der Papierverwendung und damit zugleich den jahrhundertelangen parallelen Gebrauch des älteren Pergaments ins Zentrum: Die Beiträge fokussieren Fallbeispiele sowohl aus dem Bereich der Administration als auch der Buchkultur. Neue Wege geht der Band mit der interdisziplinären Kooperation von Historikern, Buchwissenschaftlern, Archäologen, Archivaren, Restauratoren und Handpapiermachern.

Slaves were property of their dominus, objects rather than persons, without rights: These are some components of our basic knowledge about Roman slavery. But Roman slavery was more diverse than we might assume from the standard wording about servile legal status. Numerous inscriptions as well as literary and legal sources reveal clear differences in the social structure of Roman slavery. There were numerous groups and professions who shared the status of being unfree while inhabiting very different worlds. The papers in this volume pose the question of whether and how legal texts reflected such social differences within the Roman servile community. Did the legal system reinscribe social differences, and if so, in what shape? Were exceptions created only in individual cases, or did the legal system generate privileges for particular groups of slaves? Did it reinforce and even promote social differentiation? All papers probe neuralgic points that are apt to challenge the homogeneous image of Roman slave law. They show that this law was a good deal more colourful than historical research has so far assumed. The authors'primary concern is to make this legal diversity accessible to historical scholarship.

Migrations and population dynamics are considered very problematic topics in the fields of ancient studies. Recent scholarship in (pre)historical population has generated new impulses by using scientific approaches using radiogenic and stable isotopes, and palaeogenetics, as well as computer simulation. As a result, the state of migration research has undergone rapid change. Several research groups presented papers at aconference held in Berlin in 2010, addressing specific historical aspects of population dynamics and migration, with no chronological or geographical restrictions, in the light of cutting-edge bio-archaeological research. This volume, divided into three larger thematic sections (isotope analysis, population genetics, and modelling and computer simulation), presents experiences and insights about methodological approaches, research results and prospects for future research in this area in a varied collection of papers. Scholars from widely diverse scientific disciplines present their approaches, findings and interpretations to an audience far broader than the circles of the individual disciplines.

This volume originates from an international conference (Oxford University, 2007). Texts address plaster casts and related themes from antiquity to the present day, and from Egypt to America, Mexico and New Zealand. They are of interest to classical archaeologists, art historians, the history of collecting, curators, conservators, collectors and artists. Articles explore the functions, status and reception of plaster casts in artists'workshops and in private and public collections, as well as hands-on issues, such as the making, trading, display and conservation of plaster casts. Case-studies on artists'use of material and technique include ancient Roman copyists, Renaissance sculptors and painters, Dutch 17th-century workshops, Canova, Boccioni and others. A second theme is the role of plaster casts in the history of collecting from the Renaissance to the present day.Several papers address the dissemination of visual ideas, models and ideals through the medium. Papers on modern and contemporary art illuminate the changing uses and semantic values of plaster casts in this period. Amongst the types of casts discussed are artists'models and final works as well as casts after antiquities, including sculpture, architecture and gems (dactyliothecae). The volume demonstrates the richness of the field, both in terms of the material itself and modern scholarship concerned with it. Conceived as a handbook for students, academics, curators and collectors, the text will form a standard work on the role of plaster casts in the history of Western sculpture.

This volume presents a collection of original papers at the intersection of philosophy, the history of science, cultural and theatrical studies. Based on a series of case studies on the 17th century, it contributes to an understanding of the role played by instruments at the interface of science and art. The papers pursue the hypothesis that the development and construction of instruments make a substantive contribution to the opening of new fields of knowledge, the development of new cultural practices, but also to the delineation of particular genres, methods, and disciplines. This perspective leads the authors to reflect anew on what actually defines an instrument and to develop a series of basic questions to determine what an instrument is - which actions does the instrument incorporate? – which actions does the instrument make possible? - when do the objects of examination themselves become instruments? – what skills are required to use an instrument, which skills does it produce? With its combination of new theoretical models and historical case studies, its detailed demonstration of the mutual influence of art and science with the instrument as the point of intersection, this volume enters new territory. It is of great value for all those interested in the history of our perception of instruments. Besides the editors, the authors of the papers are: Jörg Jochen Berns, Olaf Breidbach, Georges Didi-Huberman, Peter Galison, Sybille Krämer, Dieter Mersch, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, and Otto Sibum.

The nucleus of society is situated at the local level: in the village, the neighborhood, the city district. This is where a community first develops collective rules that are intended to ensure its continued existence. The contributors look at such configurations in geographical areas and time periods that lie outside of the modern Western world with its particular development of society and statehood: in Antiquity and in the Global South of the present. Here states tend to be weak, with obvious challenges and opportunities for local communities. How does governance in this context work? Scholars from various disciplines (Classics, Theology, Political Science, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Human Geography, Sinology) analyze different kinds of local arrangements in case studies, and they do so with a comparative approach. The sixteen papers examine the scope and spatial contingency of forms of self-governance; its legitimization and the collective identity of the groups behind them; the relations to different levels of state governance as well as to other local groups. Overall, this volume makes an interdisciplinary contribution to a better understanding of fundamental elements of local governance and statehood.

This volume examines the antagonism between tradition and innovation in the Middle Ages. There were lines of thought which presume adherence to authoritative examples, but also believe in the purposefulness of history, in that, starting from an original state, there is a succession of redemptive actions, threats of danger and promises of happiness, and at times even the expectation of an ideal final state. New processes, new skills, new knowledge, new ethical attitudes and new forms of co-existence are seen as representing progressive steps which do not cease in the present and are directed towards the promise of future happiness. This view was, however, confronted with those which bemoaned change as a deviation from past ideals and as a decline, and which held that the present and future could only be improved through recourse to tried and tested states legitimised through tradition. There was, therefore, the legitimation through tradition, but at the same time there was a commitment to innovation, which was judged to be an improvement. The image of dwarves who stand on the shoulders of giants, but are thus able to see farther, demonstrates the dichotomous attitude of the Middle Ages. The volume presents papers from a variety of disciplines involved in medieval studies. The papers focus on views of time and change, technological invention, the accumulation of goods and profit, reform and innovation in communities and the state, the increase in knowledge, innovation in art and literature, and the possibilities and boundaries of progress in human knowledge.

The volume Church as Politeia comprises fifteen papers which were presented at a German-British Research Colloquium of the Becket Institute in Oxford. In these papers the political self-understanding of Christianity is analyzed in its historical development from various denominational perspectives. The authors of these contributions are theologians, lawyers, philosophers and historians from Germany and Great Britain.

For over ten years now, the interdisciplinary research group Nomen et Gens has been examining the mutual dependence of personal names and group memberships. The papers collected in this volume are the results of the 3rd international colloquium in March 2002, which was organised in conjunction with the German Historical Institute in Paris and the Paderborn Institute for Interdisciplinary Research into the Middle Ages and their Influence (IEMAN). The political unification of large parts of Central and Western Europe by the Franks and the multiplicity of further imperial formations led to the contact and mutual influencing of varied languages, institutions and traditions. In their papers, linguists, historians and archaeologists from different countries examine the sustained processes of synthesis for European culture in the late Classical Age and Early Middle Ages, which they characterise as being of long duration, multi-layered and diverse.

This volume is a comparative study of the practice of impagination across different ages and civilizations. By impagination we mean the act of placing and arranging spatially textual and other information onto a material bearer that could be made of a variety of materials (papyrus, bamboo slips, palm leaf, parchment, paper, and the computer screen). This volume investigates three levels of impagination: what is the page or other unit of the material bearer, what is written or printed on it, and how is writing or print placed on it. It also examines the interrelations of two or all three of these levels. Collectively it examines the material and materiality of the page, the variety of imprints, cultural and historical conventions for impagination, interlinguistic encounters, the control of editors, scribes, publishers and readers over the page, inheritance, borrowing and innovation, economics, aesthetics and socialities of imprints and impagination, and the relationship of impagination to philology. This volume supplements studies on mise en page and layout – an important subject of codicology – first by including non-codex writings, second by taking a closer look at the page or other unit than at the codex (or book), and third by its aspiration to adopt a globally comparative approach. This volume brings together for comparison vast geographical realms of learning, including Europe, China, Tibet, Korea, Japan and the Near Eastern and European communities in which the Hebrew Bible was transmitted. This comparison is significant, for Europe, China, and India all developed great traditions of learning which came into intensive contact. The contributions to this volume are firmly rooted in local cultures and together address global, comparative themes that are significant for multiple disciplines, such as intellectual and cultural history of knowledge (both humanistic and scientific), global history, literary and media studies, aesthetics, and studies of material culture, among other fields.

History and memory rank as central themes in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. As one of the last philosophers of the 19th century, Nietzsche naturally belongs to the so-called ‘historical century'. The contentious exchange with the past and with antiquity – as much as the mechanisms, the dangers, and the lessons of memory and tradition – are continually examined and stand in close relationship with Nietzsche's vision of life and his project of human development. As Jacob Burckhardt once wrote of the cultural critique to his Basel colleague:'Fundamentally, you are always teaching history'(9/13/1882). Following Burckhardt's judgment, the contributors focus on the analysis of core questions in the philosophies of history and memory, and their respective convergence in the thought of Nietzsche. The epistemological relevance of these central concepts will be thematized alongside those concerning tradition, and education. The discussion of these rich themes unifies a broad spectrum of questions, ranging from cultural memory to contemporary philosophy of mind. The contributions are revised versions of selected papers presented at the 2018 conference of the annual meeting of the Nietzsche Society in Naumburg.

This collection of papers explores the facets of gender and sex in history, language and society of Altaic cultures, reflecting the unique interdisciplinary approach of the PIAC. It examines the position of women in contemporary Central Asia at large, the expression of gender in linguistic terms in Mongolian, Manju, Tibetan and Turkic languages, and gender aspects presented in historical literary monuments as well as in contemporary sources.

Manichaeism is a world religion that was widespread between Europe and China in various periods between the 3rd and 12th/13th centuries. Some 100 years ago the original literature of the Manicheans was rediscovered in Central Asia. These sources led scholars to realize that here, under the influence of other religions (above all Buddhism), special syncretic forms of the religion had arisen which could only be studied on an interdisciplinary basis. This volume contains the papers of an international workshop held by Turcologists and Iranianists (Göttingen Academy of Sciences, March 4-5, 2010) on the history of the genres and works of the literature of Central Asian Manichaeism.

The Villa of the Papyri is a unique archaeological site and has been very influential in the field of classical studies. The papyri (the only intact library to survive from Greco-Roman antiquity) and bronze sculptures found in the villa have contributed to our knowledge of the ancient world and the villa has become for us the “ideal model” of Roman luxury villa culture.This volume brings together papers delivered by experts in various fields addressing the cultural significance of this ancient site in its contemporary Roman context as well as its cultural reception from its discovery over two hundred and fifty years ago to the most recent excavations in the late twentieth century. They also explore the ways in which digital archaeology can assist our efforts to understand and investigate ancient sites. Topics treated include the Villa's architecture, decoration, and content (i.e., wall-paintings, sculptures, and papyri); their reception since the 18th century; and the current state of knowledge based on the recent partial excavations in the Villa, presented here in English for the first time. Furthermore, the use of digital models of the Villa that incorporate the data from the new excavations and a discussion on the ways in which such models may be used for educational and research purposes are also presented.

This volume commemorates the 65th birthday of William Vernon Harris (on September 13, 2003), when a group of his former students agreed to honor him with a collection of essays that would represent the wide variety of interests and influences of our advisor and friend. The fifteen papers in fact range chronologically from the first Olympics to late antiquity and discuss various questions of imperialism, law, economy, and religion in the ancient Mediterranean world. The essays share a social historical perspective from which they challenge as many commonly accepted notions in ancient history. The contributors acknowledge their intellectual debt to the formative scholarly acumen of William V. Harris, which adds up to the'tall order'of engaging with his work.

The linguistic and cultural relations between the North Germanic and the Alemannic tribes are a controversial area of research with a long tradition. This interdisciplinary collection of papers takes account of both linguistic and onomasiological aspects and archaeological and runic viewpoints. New perspectives result for the academic discourse in historical linguistic research and in ancient studies.

Germania inferior, province between the civilizations: Celtic periphery, immigration area for the Germanic tribes, Roman dominion. The South fertile and rich in raw materials, the North barren and inhospitable. Roman cities and native settlements, villas and farms; too Roman for the Germanic inhabitants, too Germanic for the Romans. Who did actually inhabit the province? To what social conditions did the regional environment give rise? What economic exchange was there between town and country, between the native inhabitants, the Romans and the free Germanic peoples? Archaeologists and historians now have more sophisticated tools and can provide new, more precise answers to these questions. The North of the province in particular has been explored more thoroughly, and the results of that research form the basis of this volume. The papers resultet from a colloquium with German and Dutch archaeologists and historians. They draw up an account of the current state of the art and show the perspective for future research.

Deutet die zunehmende Ausweitung und Verflechtung deutschsprachiger Erinnerungsnarrative auf eine Aufsplitterung des Kollektivs hin, oder signalisiert sie vielmehr die Entstehung einer neuen, transnationalen und transkulturellen Form von Gemeinschaft? Inwiefern vermag die kritische Perspektivierung der Vergangenheit, die in den untersuchten Werken zu verzeichnen ist, über Erinnerungskonkurrenzen und Opferwettbewerb hinauszuführen und einem „solidarischen'Erinnern Raum zu machen? Diesen Fragen geht der Band nach, indem er die Herausforderungen beleuchtet, die neuere Werke der Kunst und Literatur an die Erinnerungskultur stellen. Kreisten die Untersuchungen zum Holocaust-Gedächtnis in der deutschen Literatur lange Zeit ausschließlich um die Gegenüberstellung von Tätern und Opfern und um die Frage der Schuld, so sind heute neue Begrifflichkeiten und Denkmodelle notwendig. Über das titelgebende, von Marianne Hirsch entwickelte Konzept der postmemory hinaus werden Ansätze aus der neueren Gedächtnisforschung sowie aus den Bereichen Traumaforschung, Holocaust studies und postcolonial studies diskutiert. Als hilfreich erweisen sich insbesondere die von Michael Rothberg geprägten Begriffe multidirectional memory und implicated subject, die Überlegungen von Astrid Erll und Ann Rigney zum Themenkomplex mediation / remediation sowie die vielfältigen Arbeiten Aleida Assmanns.

En 2021, cinco de las siete repúblicas centroamericanas celebraron el bicentenario de su independencia de la Corona española ocurrida en 1821. ¿Cómo se ha desarrollado Centroamérica durante los últimos dos siglos? ¿Qué lecciones se pueden aprender de la historia de Centroamérica? El libro ofrece una revisión profunda e interdisciplinaria de esta región entre el siglo XIX y XIX. Los artículos se basan en fuentes nuevas provenientes de diferentes archivos, y de una pluralidad de métodos de investigación que hacen posible una reflexión crítica de la historiografía tradicional. Esto significa incluir visiones, motivaciones y perspectivas centroamericanas frente a aquellos cambios que trascienden sus efectos en las sociedades actuales de la región. Las contribuciones de autores de América Latina y la región euroatlántica ponen el énfasis en la perspectiva de procesos transnacionales que representan el cambio epistemológico para una mayor compresión de Centroamérica.

This book provides an overview of social life in ancient Mesopotamia, bringing together leading experts to survey key social domains of daily life as well as major non-dominant social groups. It serves as a point of entry to the current research in this field.

This book examines and contextualizes Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad Ghazzālī's (d. 505/1111) fierce response to antinomian and freethinking currents in twelfth-century Persia. Seyed-Gohrab offers a translation of Ghazzālī's treatise on antinomians, and one of his religious rulings (fatwa) on the topic. Both were written after Ghazzālī's intellectual crisis in 488/1095, when he voluntarily withdrew from his position as a Professor at the prestigious Niẓāmiyya College in Baghdad. He determined to live an ascetic life, devoting all his attention to God. In this period, Ghazzālī wrote his masterpieces in Arabic and Persian. Seyed-Gohrab shows that these two less-known works shed new light on the motivation for Ghazzālī's major works. The book depicts Ghazzālī's Persian intellectual context, and the tumultuous political period in which a strong literary and Sufi antinomian trend emerged from the social periphery to become central to literary activities at the Saljuq court. The book also treats Ghazzālī's Persian poetry, offering original insights into Ghazzālī's contemporary, the celebrated polymath ʿUmar Khayyām (d. about 525/1131), whose transgressive quatrains are interpreted as a response to a suffocating religious context.

In occasione delle giornate di Studi Italo-Tedeschi, nate dalla collaborazione tra l'Università di Bonn e l'Università di Firenze, si è tenuto il convegno internazionale Identità e Alterità – Identität und Alterität. Nella presente raccolta di saggi in lingua italiana e tedesca si propone di esplorare il tema e di rivisitare opere del canone letterario di diverse epoche in un'ottica transculturale e interdisciplinare. Come si possono reinterpretare autori e autrici appartenenti al canone alla luce del tema dell'identità e dell'alterità? Il volume si pone l'obiettivo di rispondere a tale quesito principalmente con contributi dall'approccio filologico letterario a cui si aggiungono saggi di linguistica e di storia dell'arte.

The future has become a problem for the present. Almost every critical issue is now understood and experienced through the prism of the future since this is the primary focus for the playing out of crises. Senses of the Future offers a wide-ranging discussion of theories of the future. It covers the main ideas of the future in modern thought and explores how we should view the future today in light of a plurality of very different and conflicting visions. The key contribution of this book is to bring together the different approaches with an account that is grounded in sociological and philosophical analysis as opposed to visions of the future that are inspired by extreme visions of catastrophe or approaches that see the future as only the continuation of the present. Given a revival of apocalyptical visions of the ‘end times'and dystopian views of the future of human societies, there is urgent need for a new approach on how we should imagine the future. The author explores the future as a field of tensions that is revealed in narratives, utopian desires, hope, imaginaries, and social struggles concerning the potential possibilities of the present: the future does not just arrive; it has to be fought for. This book is an important contribution to a critical sociology of the future. It is both a work of reconstruction and critique grounded in a historical and philosophical hermeneutics of the future. Table of Contents Chapter OneIntroduction: Conflicting Visions of the FutureContested Visions of the Future TodayReturn to the FutureOutline of the ChaptersReferences Chapter TwoWhen is the Future? The Problem of Time and the Human ConditionTime in the Physical World: Lessons from PhysicsHas the Future already Begun? Time and HistoryTime, Life, and the Human Condition: Biology, Evolution, and CultureConclusionReferences Chapter ThreeLessons from the Past: What Does the Past Tell Us about the Future?The Future in the PastFailed Societies and Civilizational CollapseCatastrophes and HistoryConclusionReferences Chapter FourModernity and the Concept of the Future: Utopia, Progress, and ProphecyThe Future as ExpectationThe Future as an Imaginary and the Emergence of UtopianismThe Future as PossibilityThe Future as ExperienceConclusionReferences Chapter FiveIdeas of the Future in the Twentieth Century: Futurism, Modernism, Sociology, and Political TheoryNew Political Ideas of the Future after 1945Responses to the Future: From Fear of the Future to FuturologySociological Theory and the FutureConclusion: The New Sociology of the FutureReferences Chapter SixCritical Theory and the Future: The Sources of TranscendenceThe Intellectual Origins of Critical Theory: A Brief OutlineThe Idea of the Future in the Critical Theory of the Early Frankfurt SchoolHabermas and the Communication ParadigmThe Responsibility Paradigm and Cosmopolitanism: Jonas and ApelCritical Cosmopolitanism and the Idea of the FutureConclusion: Cultural Models and the Future as PossibilityReferences Chapter SevenConclusion: In The Shadow of the FutureDo We Need a Theory of the Future?Are we already in a New Historical Era?AI and a Posthuman FutureStruggles for the FutureReferences Index

Inwiefern ist Corneilles Theater Theater der Entscheidung? In sechs Fallanalysen untersucht Christian Reidenbachs Studie die kanonischen Bühnendichtungen der Jahre 1636 bis 1643 nach den Verfahren der Ideengeschichte: Materialreiche Bezüge ins politische Denken der Zeit machen in den Dramentexten das dezisionistische Leitmotiv einer Entscheidung in kontingenter Ausgangslage sichtbar. Nachweisbar wird dabei, dass im Medium des Stücks die Handlungsmacht des Herrschers mit jener des Helden und des Dichters in spannungsvolle Konkurrenz tritt; Figuren wie Rodrigue, Horace und Polyeucte entfalten ihre außerordentliche Entscheidungskompetenz nur vorübergehend in einem Gefüge vielfältiger Souveränitätsansprüche und gehen schließlich in den Vergesellschaftungsdynamiken eines neuen Staates auf, der die Züge des Absolutismus trägt. Während die Forschung zum französischen Klassizismus mehrheitlich auf den heroischen Corneille ausgerichtet bleibt, begreift Gesten der Entscheidung sein Theater als Wirkungsfeld jener Geistesströmungen und Institutionen, durch deren Zusammenspiel die jeweilige neuzeitliche Gestalt von Untertan, von Schriftsteller und Staatsperson überhaupt erst modelliert wird.

The essays examine how the study of facial features or expressions as indicative of character or ethnicity, has evolved from the crossroad of magic, religion and primitive medicine to present-day cultural concern for wellness and beauty. In this context, the discoveries of cranio-facial neurophysiology and psychology and the practice of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery have a centuries-old relationship with physiognomy. As the study of outward appearances evolved from its classical roots and self-representations through 18th- and 19th-century adaptations in fiction and travelogues, it gradually became a scientific discipline. Along the way, physiognomy was associated with phrenology and craniology and promoted eugenic policies. Tainted with racial bigotry and biological determinism, it was trapped within questions of delinquency, monstrosity and posthumanism. Throughout its history, physiognomy played both positive and negative roles in the evolution of significant aspects of the socio-cultural order in the West that merit update and in-depth study. The contributions follow a chronological and intertwining sequence to encompass physiognomic expressions in art, literature, spirituality, science, philosophy and cultural studies.

The present book addresses the background, rationale, general structure, and particular aims and arguments characterizing our third and last volume about'humor'and'cruelty'. A guiding foray is provided into the vast expert literature that can be retrieved in the Western humanities and social sciences on these two terms. Pivotal thinkers and crucial notions are duly identified, highlighted, and examined. Apposite subsidiary references are also included, especially with regard to psychodynamics and clinical psychology, existentialism, feminism, liberalism, Marxism, and representative recent studies in the philosophy of humor and its cognates. The stage is thus set for the exploration and assessment of the conflicts between humor and cruelty unfolding in Part 2 of Volume 3. Being the philosophical terminus of our entire research project, Volume 3 counterbalances, complements, and, occasionally, complexifies the numerous forms of mutual cooperation between humor and cruelty that the preceding Volume 2 had unearthed and discussed.'Like Aristotle and Dewey, Arnarsson and Baruchello do not define their terms at the outset, but instead they relentlessly pursue the meanings of two ordinary words that everyone vaguely understads to arrive at a critical insight into the concepts these words represent, which are both disparate and interrelated.'- Richard Marc Rubin, President, George Santayana Society

Part 2 of Volume 3 addresses in detail the conflicts between humor and cruelty, i.e., how cruelty can be unleashed against humor and, conversely, humor can be utilized against cruelty. Potent enmities to mirth and jollity are retrieved from a variety of socio-historical contexts, ranging from Europe's medieval monasteries to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre. Special attention is paid to the cruel humor and humorous cruelty arising thereof, insofar as such phenomena can reveal critical aspects of today's neoliberal socio-economic order. In parallel, settings where humor has been used as an instrument to cope with suffered cruelty, whether natural or human in origin, are also retrieved and discussed. These also vary greatly and encompass domains such as hospital wards, 20th-century Jewish ghettoes, and contemporary funeral homes. A set of concluding reflections is then offered on the psychological, theological, ethical, and metaphysical roots of humor—and its cruel rejection.'Like Aristotle and Dewey, Arnarsson and Baruchello do not define their terms at the outset, but instead they relentlessly pursue the meanings of two ordinary words that everyone vaguely understads to arrive at a critical insight into the concepts these words represent, which are both disparate and interrelated.'- Richard Marc Rubin, President, George Santayana Society

Persian Arabesques is an unpublished chapter in the history of Russian diplomacy as told by one of its most brilliant protagonists, Ivan J. Korostovetz (1862–1933). After his successes both at the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905, where he served as secretary of the Russian-Japanese Conference, and at the Friendship Treaty with Mongolia, which he signed in 1912, Korostovetz describes in detail his memories of the last events of his diplomatic career. From 1913 to 1918, when he fled into exile to avoid imprisonment, he served mainly in Persia, for example as Russian Minister Plenipotentiary (1913–1915). As an important historical primary source, the memoirs describe not only current political events, but also various local customs and manners. Topics range from history and geography to regional religions and Byzantine-Persian literature.

The importance and primary role of the site of Tell Fekheriye (Syria) has always been emphasized in the research history of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology. As known from excavations and written sources, the site was an important centre in the Mittani and the Middle Assyrian periods. However, a systematic study and analysis of the pottery has never been accomplished, although the material offers a local and regional perspective on the ceramic production of a Late Bronze Age urban centre. This book fills this gap, offering an insight into the pottery from the site. The material provides a crucial set of data from Northern Mesopotamia, shedding new light on the Late Bronze Age, and in the phase of power alternation between the Mittani Kingdom and the Middle Assyrian state. This work illustrates the chrono-typological changes in the ceramic assemblages and provides an analysis of the functions related to the ceramic vessels, in context with other findings (sealings). In the end, the analysis of ceramic material as a starting point leads the reader to the investigation of topics related to society and social behaviours, economy, and political assets and administration in this urban centre for roughly 300 years of its history.

The present collection of essays are published in honor of the distinguished historian of mathematics Professor Emeritus Jesper Lützen. In a career that spans more than four decades, Professor Lützen's scholarly contributions have enhanced our understanding of the history, development, and organization of mathematics. The essays cover a broad range of areas connected to Professor Lützen's work. In addition to this noteworthy scholarship, Professor Lützen has always been an exemplary colleague, providing support to peers as well as new faculty and graduate students. We dedicate this Festschrift to Professor Lützen—as a scholarly role model, mentor, colleague, and friend.

Die 1694 und 1737 inaugurierten Universitäten in Halle und Göttingen gelten in der Forschung als Aufklärungsuniversitäten. Damit geht zum einen die Vorstellung einher, dass sich diese Universitäten in ihrer Struktur, ihrer Lehre und ihrer wissenschaftlichen Ausstrahlung deutlich von den übrigen Universitäten des Alten Reiches unterschieden hätten. Zum anderen werden beide Universitäten gerne aufeinander bezogen, gilt Göttingen als ideeller Nachfolger Halles, auch in der Funktion als Leuchtturm eines aufgeklärten Gelehrtenideals. Im Sammelband werden diese Annahmen auf den Prüfstand gestellt und kritisch erörtert. Dabei geht es erstens um die Frage, inwiefern sich an den Aufklärungsuniversitäten institutionelle Neuerungen ausmachen lassen, die es erlauben, sie als „Reformuniversitäten'zu benennen. Zweitens geht es um das inhaltliche Profil dieser Universitäten in Forschung und Lehre und um die Frage, ob hier neue Formen der Wissensgenerierung zu beobachten sind. Drittens geht es um die Medien, mit denen das Bild von den Aufklärungsuniversitäten zeitgenössisch propagiert und verbreitet worden ist. Und viertens geht es um das Verhältnis der Universitäten Halle und Göttingen zu einander – sei es bei der Frage, inwiefern Göttingen nach dem Vorbild Halles konzipiert worden ist, sei es bei der Beschreibung des besonderen Konkurrenzverhältnisses beider Universitäten.

Im Zuge des ‚material turn‘ in den Geisteswissenschaften wurden Objekte in das Zentrum des Forschungsinteresses gerückt und die herausragende Bedeutung der Sachkultur für die europäische Kulturgeschichte herausgearbeitet. Daran anschließend präsentiert der vorliegende Band erste Ergebnisse zu objektbezogener Sprache in den Wissenschaften aus einer interdisziplinären Perspektive ((Wissenschafts- und Medizin-)Geschichte, Literaturwissenschaft und Sprachwissenschaft). Das Innovationspotential der hier versammelten Beiträge liegt dabei in der disziplinären Horizonterweiterung. Disziplinen, die schon immer einen genuinen Objektbezug aufweisen – wie die Kunstgeschichte – und Fächer, die sich schon lange mit Fragen der Materialität beschäftigen – wie die Geschichtswissenschaft, Literaturwissenschaft und Medizingeschichte berücksichtigen hier noch stärker sprachliche Aspekte – und die Sprachwissenschaft, die bisher sehr verhalten auf die Impulse aus den Kulturwissenschaften reagiert hat, öffnet sich für objektbezogene Fragestellungen. Es wird deutlich, dass es sich um ein bisher unzureichend beleuchtetes Forschungsfeld handelt, das zur weiteren Beschäftigung einlädt.

This volume offers a new critical edition with facing English translation and a detailed study of the medieval manual of dietetics Occitan Health Advice dating from the 13th century and probably compiled in the milieu of Montpellier's university. This Advice on health and well-being is a unique example of medical writing: composed in Occitan (formerly called Old Provençal), the vernacular language of southern France; it provided a wealth of medical information and guidance for a literate nonspecialist reader interested in a healthful life. This Advice will interest medical historians, literary scholars, and linguists, as well as readers curious about the Middle Ages, for all of whom it provides invaluable information on medieval daily life, dietary regimen, and healthy habits.

Das Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens (AGB) ist eine zentrale wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für die Buch- und Buchhandelsgeschichte. Das Publikationsprofil des AGB bilden Abhandlungen, Editionen und Berichte zu allen Themen der buchhistorischen Forschung im deutschsprachigen Bereich und darüber hinaus. Dazu gehören medien-, kultur-, sozial- und geistesgeschichtliche wie auch technikgeschichtliche Perspektiven.

This book offers the first in-depth study of Attic funerary monuments during the geometric, archaic, and classical period. The analysis of forms, images and inscriptions shows, from an anthropological perspective, the Athenian attitude towards death in its fundamental difference to Christian occidental views. The book, which was originally published in German, is revised.

Although it is fashionable among modernists to claim that globalism emerged only since ca. 1800, the opposite can well be documented through careful comparative and transdisciplinary studies, as this volume demonstrates, offering a wide range of innovative perspectives on often neglected literary, philosophical, historical, or medical documents. Texts, images, ideas, knowledge, and objects migrated throughout the world already in the pre-modern world, even if the quantitative level compared to the modern world might have been different. In fact, by means of translations and trade, for instance, global connections were established and maintained over the centuries. Archetypal motifs developed in many literatures indicate how much pre-modern people actually shared. But we also discover hard-core facts of global economic exchange, import of exotic medicine, and, on another level, intensive intellectual debates on religious issues. Literary evidence serves best to expose the extent to which contacts with people in foreign countries were imaginable, often desirable, and at times feared, of course. The pre-modern world was much more on the move and reached out to distant lands out of curiosity, economic interests, and political and military concerns. Diplomats crisscrossed the continents, and artists, poets, and craftsmen traveled widely. We can identify, for instance, both the Vikings and the Arabs as global players long before the rise of modern globalism, so this volume promises to rewrite many of our traditional notions about pre-modern worldviews, economic conditions, and the literary sharing on a global level, as perhaps best expressed by the genre of the fable.

In 1583 the Italian botanist and physician Andrea Cesalpino (1524–1603) published De Plantis Libri XVI, made of 16 books (libri), considered to be the first treatise where botany is treated independently from medicine. In so doing, he broke with a long tradition inherited in Western science from Antiquity and perpetuated during the Middle Age through the early Renaissance. De Plantis lays the foundations of scientific systematics through a new focus on plant morphology and natural similarities and became a milestone in the history of Western botany. It is a precious testimony to the evolution of botanical and physiological knowledge in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and illustrates the role of Aristotelian philosophy in 16th-century knowledge. The volume includes an introductory essay about Cesalpino's philosophy and botany, a critical edition of the Latin text, a translation, a commentary, and indexes. It should interest scholars in Renaissance studies, historians, and philosophers of science and medicine, as well as botanists and plant scientists curious about the history of plant sciences.

Mass Protests in Iran: From Resistance to Overthrow explores the various waves of protests in Iran over the past 44 years, surveying their causes, consequences, and outcomes. The author argues that the regime and its support base of fundamentalist groups constitute a minority in Iran and lack legitimacy, and thus the regime uses repression and violence to secure its rule. The result is a pre-revolutionary situation and a shifting political landscape of overthrows, constant mass protests and mass repression. Kazemzadeh's analysis highlights the factors that would assist the fundamentalist regime in succeeding in suppressing these protests, and the factors that would assist the Iranian people in defeating the fundamentalist regime.Written in an accessible style, this timely book offers a much-needed contribution to the literature on Iranian politics. It will be of interest to students and scholars, as well as policy makers, interested in Middle Eastern studies, social movements, protest movements, political science and sociology.

This book provides a broad picture of Sri Lanka's on-going political and economic crisis as the culmination of several centuries of colonial and neo-colonial developments. The book presents the Sri Lankan crisis as an exemplification of a broader global existential crisis facing more and more debt trapped countries, especially in the post-colonial Global South. The book's in-depth case study raises important questions pertaining to sovereignty and political and economic democracy in Sri Lanka and the world at large. The book also explores the emergence of the crisis in the context of the accelerating geopolitical conflict between China and the USA in the Indian Ocean. It ponders if the debt crisis, economic collapse and political destabilization in Sri Lanka were intentionally precipitated to the advantage of the Quadrilateral Alliance (USA, India, Australia and Japan). Moving beyond geopolitical rivalry, the book juxtaposes Sri Lanka's political-economic crisis with the broader ecological crisis of climate change and sea-level rise. The book concludes with a consideration of the ethical dilemmas behind the debt and survival crisis in Sri Lanka and across the world. It points out a range of social movements and initiatives in Sri Lanka and the Global South which subscribe to collective and ecological alternatives and a Middle Path of sustainability and social justice.

Emotions such as guilt, shame, and remorse are often invoked to justify coming to terms with historical crimes. Taking the Algerian War in France and the genocide of the OvaHerero and Nama in Germany as examples, this book analyzes how emotions are discursively produced in postcolonial memory politics and how these enable or prevent a recognition of the'suffering of the Other'.

Mannheim und Dresden sind seit ihrer Gründung durch die Dynamiken des Wassers geprägt. Vor allem die zyklisch auftretenden Hochwasser führen zu Gefährdungen. Im kurzen 20. Jahrhundert existierte ein konstanter Umgang damit innerhalb der Städte. Die Studie fokussiert diese Bewältigungsstrategien, die unter dem Einfluss lokalspezifischer Faktoren wie der Stadtentwicklung sowie übergeordneten politischen und wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen standen.

In the pre-modern times, while medicine was still relying on classical authorities on herbal remedies, a new engagement with the plant world emerged. This volume follows intertwined strands in the study of plants, examining newly introduced species that captured physicians'curiosity, expanded their therapeutic arsenal, and challenged their long-held medical theories. The development of herbaria, the creation of botanical gardens, and the inspection of plants contributed to a new understanding of the vegetal world. Increased attention to plants led to account for their therapeutic virtues, to test and produce new drugs, to recognize the physical properties of plants, and to develop a new plant science and medicine.

The Unknown History of Jewish Women—On Learning and Illiteracy: On Slavery and Liberty is a comprehensive study on the history of Jewish women, which discusses their absence from the Jewish Hebrew library of the'People of the Book'and interprets their social condition in relation to their imposed ignorance and exclusion from public literacy.The book begins with a chapter on communal education for Jewish boys, which was compulsory and free of charge for the first ten years in all traditional Jewish communities. The discussion continues with the striking absence of any communal Jewish education for girls until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the implications of this fact for twentieth-century immigration to Israel (1949-1959)The following chapters discuss the social, cultural and legal contexts of this reality of female illiteracy in the Jewish community—a community that placed a supreme value on male education. The discussion focuses on the patriarchal order and the postulations, rules, norms, sanctions and mythologies that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, laid the religious foundations of this discriminatory reality.

Medical Humanities may be broadly conceptualized as a discipline wherein medicine and its specialties intersect with those of the humanities and social sciences. As such it is a hybrid area of study where the impact of disease and healing science on culture is assessed and expressed in the particular language of the disciplines concerned with the human experience. However, as much as at first sight this definition appears to be clear, it does not reflect how the interaction of medicine with the humanities has evolved to become a separate field of study. In this publication we have explored, through the analysis of a group of selected multidisciplinary essays, the dynamics of this process. The essays predominantly address the interaction of literature, philosophy, art, art history, ethics, and education with medicine and its specialties from the classical period to the present. Particular attention has been given to the Medieval, Early Modern, and Enlightenment periods. To avoid a rigid compartmentalization of the book based on individual fields of study we opted for a fluid division into multidisciplinary sections, reflective of the complex interactions of the included works with medicine.

The recent years have seen an upswing in studies of women in the ancient Near East and related areas. This volume, which is the result of a Danish-Japanese collaboration, seeks to highlight women as actors within the sphere of the religious. In ancient Mesopotamia and other ancient civilizations, religious beliefs and practices permeated all aspects of society, and for this reason it is not possible to completely dissociate religion from politics, economy, or literature. Thus, the goal is to shift the perspective by highlighting the different ways in which the agency of women can be traced in the historical (and archaeological) record. This perspectival shift can be seen in studies of elite women, who actively contributed to (religious) gift-giving or participated in temple economies, or through showing the limits of elite women's agency in relation to diplomatic marriages. Additionally, several contributions examine the roles of women as religious officials and the language, worship, or invocation of goddesses. This volume does not aim at completeness but seeks to highlight points for further research and new perspectives.

Seitdem Bernhard Salin vor über 100 Jahren die frühmittelalterliche Tierornamentik der Germanen in drei zeitlich aufeinander folgende Stile I-III unterteilte, wird bis heute die Entstehung, Entwicklung und Bedeutung des germanischen Tierstils II kontrovers diskutiert. Neben der Beschreibung und Definition wurden dabei immer wieder drei Hauptfragen gestellt, nämlich zunächst nach der Herkunft (dem Entstehungsgebiet), der Chronologie (dem Entstehungszeitraum) und nach den möglichen „Bildbotschaften'der Motive. Grund sich mit dem Tierstil II zu befassen ist nicht nur der ästhetische Reiz dieser zumeist symmetrisch verschlungenen Ornamente, die zum Enträtseln und Erkennen der darin versteckten Figuren auffordern, sondern auch die erstaunliche weite räumliche und schnelle Verbreitung innerhalb weniger Jahrzehnte dieses Stils von Skandinavien bis Norditalien. Hinzu kommt, dass Tierstil II fast ausschließlich in Gebieten gefunden wurde, in denen eine germanischsprachige Bevölkerung siedelte. Dies wirft nicht nur die Frage auf, wie und warum sich dieser Stil so schnell über weite Gebiete Europas verbreiten konnte, sondern auch warum dies offenbar nur in Gebieten mit germanischsprachiger Bevölkerung stattfand.

Im Fokus dieser komparativen Arbeit stehen die ersten russischen politisch-eschatologischen Herrschaftsvorstellungen, die an der Schwelle zur Neuzeit entstanden. Der Autor zeigt, wie solche Vorstellungen in der Moskauer Rus'zum Zweck der Herrschaftslegitimation herangezogen wurden und worin Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede in der Aktualisierung dieses Gedankenguts im Land der Rjurikiden im Vergleich zu den anderen christlichen Reichen bestanden. Die vergleichende Perspektive auf die politische Eschatologie ermöglicht es, eine Brücke zwischen den west- und osteuropäischen Endzeitvorstellungen zu schlagen und dadurch die Geschichte der Moskauer Rus'als Teil der Geschichte des christlichen Europa zu verstehen.

Das Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens (AGB) ist eine zentrale wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für die Buch- und Buchhandelsgeschichte. Das Publikationsprofil des AGB bilden Abhandlungen, Editionen und Berichte zu allen Themen der buchhistorischen Forschung im deutschsprachigen Bereich und darüber hinaus. Dazu gehören medien-, kultur-, sozial- und geistesgeschichtliche wie auch technikgeschichtliche Perspektiven.