This volume deals with the important Herculanean and philosophical studies of the great Viennese Hellenist Theodor Gomperz. The introduction presents both a concise biography of Gomperz and a careful discussion of his work on the Herculanean Papyri of Epicurus and Philodemus. Gomperz's essays, reprinted for the first time, are collected here in a photomechanical reprint and furnished with a new pagination. To respect the historical character of the collection no updating of the articles has been attempted. An Index of the Herculanean Papyri and a Concordance complete the book. Der Gedanke,...

Le systeme de l'Incanto des galees du marche a Venise offers the first complete analysis of the medieval Venetian system of auctioning (Incanto) the state-owned galleys for commercial use. The Incanti (auction records) reveal a pattern of progressive intervention by the state in sea-trading and the evolution of a corpus of statutes governing private navigation. The work traces the growth and interdependency of the 8 state shipping lines. By establishing the infrastructure necessary for international commerce, the state (or rather the patriciate) enabled the involvement in trade -- in...

Prolegomena deals with the introductory and hermeneutic sections of a wide range of commentaries and studies on philosophical, scientific, biblical and other ancient authors. Special attention is given to unclearness as a stimulus for interpretation. New light is shed on the Life of an author (e.g. Plotinus') as a preliminary to the study of his works, and on the part played by the idea that life and doctrine should agree with each other. The results obtained by the study of the practices as well as the avowed principles of ancient scholars and commentators among other things...

This is the first to appear of the projected volumes of commentary to accompany the texts and translations on Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought and Influence, edited by W.W. Fortenbaugh and others ("FHSG" (Philosophia Antiqua 54); Leiden, Brill, 1992). It covers the ancient secondary evidence for Theophrastus' views on physiology, zoology and botany; the transmission, reliability and doctrinal content of the reports in the text-and-translation volume are all discussed in detail, and general overviews are provided. The commentary is an indispensable...

Polyhistor is a state-of-the-art collection of articles in the study of the history of ancient philosophy, and is presented by colleagues and friends to Jaap Mansfeld in honour of his sixtieth birthday. It frequently concentrates on the subjects in which the honorand has made important discoveries. The volume concludes with a complete bibliography of Jaap Mansfeld's scholarly work so far.

This volume examines the transmission of biblical pseudepigraphic literature and motifs from their largely Jewish cultural contexts in Palestine to developing gnostic milieux of Syria and Mesopotamia, particularly that one lying behind the birth and growth of Manichaeism. It surveys biblical pseudepigraphic literary activity in the late antique Near East, devoting special attention to revelatory works attributed to the five biblical forefathers who are cited in the Cologne Mani Codex: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Shem, and Enoch. The author provides a philological, literary, and...

This is the first comprehensive study on Mary Magdalene in those second and third century Gnostic texts in which Jesus' most famous female follower gains a prominent position.
Special attention is paid to the way Mary is presented in relation to other disciples, and to how her portrait pertains to gender imagery used in the writings. Detailed text analyses, based on a careful philological study, show that no uniform picture and use of the figure of Mary can be traced. Contrary to a common supposition, the book also demonstrates that the positive view of Mary displayed in the texts does not...

Modern interpretation of the Manichaean religious tradition requires a firm foundation in the sober and meticulous reconstruction of highly fragmentary sources. The studies collected in this volume contribute to such a foundation by bringing new primary texts to the public for the first time, extracting new data from previously known sources, and defining and delimiting important but previously neglected sets of material. The studies are authored by an international group of leading scholars in the fields of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies, comparative religion, early...