Category: Other blogs

Translating from Arabic into Latin in Medieval Spain

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A really important blog post at Quodlibeta on a very neglected subject: how did Arabic scientific knowledge get into circulation in Latin in the Middle Ages?  Read it for yourself.  I have asked for a bibliography, as I certainly want to know more!

Readers of this blog will recall my posts on Galen and Hunain ibn Ishaq; how Greek scientific knowledge got into Arabic, by means of Christian translators, first into Syriac by people like Sergius of Reshaina and Job of Edessa, and then in the 10th century across into Arabic by people like Hunain ibn Ishaq.  But the Quodlibeta post continues this, in asking what happened next!

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Chrysostom on marriage

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An intelligent, discreet, and pious young woman is worth more than all the money in the world. Tell her that you love her more than your own life, because this present life is nothing, and that your only hope is that the two of you pass through this life in such a way that, in the world to come, you will be united in perfect love.

H/t Mike Aquilina. 

— from Homily 20 on Ephesians 5:22-33, on page 61 of the little St. Vladimir’s book On Marriage and Family Life. (On Google Books).

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John Lamoreaux’s Adventures in Christian Arabic

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Let’s give a warm welcome to a new blogger, John Lamoreaux, who has just created his own site at johnlamoreaux.org, and started a blog (although I think he ought to use WordPress for the blog bit, so that he gets all the links etc).

John works in the neglected field of Christian literature in the Arabic language.  This contains translations of all sorts of things which have not survived in the original, as well as interesting historical texts.  There’s no proper handbook to the field in English — the only real handbook, Georg Graf’s Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, in 5 volumes, being in German.

Anyone working in the field is breaking new ground. 

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Archimedes fire-mirror gets an early bath

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Jona Lendering points out that the common story that Archimedes used mirrors to set fire to Roman galleys rests on, erm, no historical source earlier than half a millennium later.  He lists the data and concludes the whole story is a legend.  Very interesting indeed, and highlights the need to tabulate the data before evaluating it.

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Two maps of ancient Antioch

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Whenever I read a fantasy novel, I love to see a map.  Likewise I love to see maps of ancient cities.  In a way, the latter are like the former, except that they once actually existed.  Imagine entering the city, and walking along the main street!

Chris Ecclestone has posted two maps of ancient Antioch here.  Somehow this makes his excellent Antioch site much clearer.  I hope that he will make  a permanent link to them from the top of his site.

I notice outside the walls the shrine of St. Babylas, which caused Julian the Apostate so much upset when he tried to restore the oracle at Daphne.

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Tebtunis temple library

Posted on by Roger Pearse

This blog reports a publication (offline – these papyrologists really don’t get it, do they?) of some narrative texts from the temple in ancient Tebtunis in Egypt.  Look at the contents!

The book presents ten narrative texts written in the demotic script and preserved in papyri from the Tebtunis temple library (1st/2nd century AD).

Eight of the texts are historical narratives which focus on the first millennium BC. Four concern prince Inaros, who rebelled against the Assyrian domination of Egypt in the 7th century, and his clan. One is about Inaros himself, while the other three take place after his death. Two other narratives mention Necho I and II of the Saite Period. The story about Necho II is particularly noteworthy, since it refers to the king as Nechepsos and for the first time provides us with the identity behind this name. Nechepsos is well attested as a sage king in Greek literary tradition, above all in relation to astrology. Of the two final historical narratives, one belongs to the cycle of stories about the Heliopolitan priesthood and the other concerns the Persian occupation of Egypt in the 5th or 4th century. The volume further includes a prophecy that forms the continuation of Nectanebo’s Dream, known from the Greek translation by Apollonios, and a new version of the mythological Contendings of Horus and Seth. Apart from a translation of the prophecy, none of the papyri have previously been published.

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Evidence for Allectus

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The ever-interesting Adrian Murdoch draws attention to the PLRE life of the Usurper Emperor-of-Britain Allectus, which he gives as follows:

Allectus: Augustus (in Britain) 293-296. Rationalis summae rei of Carausius 293: qui (Allectus) cum eius (Carausii) permissu summae rei praeesset Aur. Vict. Caes. 39.41. After Carausius had ruled for seven years Allectus murdered him and took his place, but three years later was defeated and killed by the PPO Asclepiodotus 3 serving under Constantius Aur. Vict. Caes. 39-40-2, Eutrop. IX22, Oros. VIII 25.6, cf Pan. Lat IV 12.15-16.

The list of authorities for our knowledge of a man who ruled part of the Roman Empire for 3 years, between 293-296 AD caught my eye.  We have:

  • Aurelius Victor
  • Eutropius
  • Orosius

and maybe a reference in the Panegryrici Latini.  That’s it; three references, a century later, and all probably based on a single now lost source.  There are coins as well, of course.

I have remarked before on the readiness with which the naive tend to expect contemporary evidence for ancient events.  This is an example of what we really can expect.

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Manuscript digitisation gathers pace

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Jim Davila’s excellent PaleoJudaica blog highlights a number of interesting non-Jewish items this week.  I don’t seem to be able to link to his individual posts, so here are some excerpts.

The Cologne Manichaean codex is a tiny parchment codex from middle Egypt, containing an account of the youth of Mani.  Digitising it and placing it online is such an excellent idea.  This is where the internet scores.  Suddenly people can SEE the thing!  I wonder if an English translation of the text is around, tho?

Jim has posted on this before and links to other posts.  It seems that the mass of Syriac manuscripts in Kerala are to be photographed.  Let us hope they go online!  But the easy availability of digital cameras makes digitisation simple.  Well done, the Kerala clergymen who seem to be leading this one.  They’re also trying to encourage interest in Syriac.

  • PHILIP JENKINS’S BOOK, The Lost History of Christianity, is reviewed by Brother Jeffrey Gros, F.S.C. in the Catholic Review Online.

This is a book that discusses Oriental Christianity, and which has been criticised to me for being too Christian, and not Christian enough.  I’m going to have a read once the paperback comes out here.  Anything which will increase the number of people interested in the obscure Syriac and Arabic Christianity must be a good thing.

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