This book presents the first critical edition of the Syncategoreumata by the thirteenth-century philosopher Peter of Spain (Petrus Hispanus Portugalensis), accompanied by a facing-page English translation to make its contents accessible to modern readers. The introduction gives an account of all the manuscripts used for the edition. Extensive indexes have been added to facilitate the reader's orientation in the book. The treatise on syncategorematic words is a detailed discussion on all kinds of linguistic expressions that do not have a complete meaning by themselves, but only in...

Prophets of Old and The Day of the End argues for a historical and literary approach to apocalyptic. It tackles the problem of the origins of early Jewish apocalyptic by describing the correspondences and differences between some so-called protoapocalyptic and apocalyptic texts. The bulk of the book consists of exegetical studies of parts of Zechariah, Deuterozechariah and the Enochic Book of Watchers. Most of these studies offer new interpretations of the examined texts. The framework of the book presents fresh perspectives on apocalyptic. Some parts are more important to the scholar...

These two volumes collect some of the most influential and important scholarly essays by the late Morton Smith (1915-1991), for many years Professor of Ancient History at Columbia University in New York City. Smith was admired and feared for his extraordinary ability to look at familiar texts in unfamiliar ways, to re-open old questions, to pose new questions, and to demolish received truths. He practiced the "hermeneutics of suspicion" to devastating effect. His answers are not always convincing but his questions cannot be ignored.
The essays of Volume I center on the Hebrew Bible ("Old...

This volume contains Hugo Grotius' first work in the field of Church politics, orginally published in 1613. The book was written to defend the policy of the States of Holland, which was being attacked by the orthodox Calvinistic party in the Netherlands. It was written with an eye to foreign Dutch allies, especially King James I. Grotius' Latin text is here edited critically for the first time and provided with an introduction, an English translation and an extensive commentary. In several appendixes, various texts that are important for the background and the reception of the book are...

This study defends a version of epistemological relativism, taking as its point of departure some key arguments from the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein - especially those concerning rule following and forms of life.
An opposition is established between the dominant form of epistemological realism - that which relies upon 'truth-conditions'- and theories in which knowledge and truth are fundamentally dependent upon context. It is argued in Part One that Wittgenstein proves the necessity for a contextual understanding of knowledge. Part Two develops a clearer idea of that context, using...

This study presents the first biography of 'Abd Allāh b. 'Abd al-ḥakam (d. 214/829), an important figure in the nascent Mālikī school, and introduces his compendium of law. The subject of the Arabic text is the law of slavery, and two chapters examine early Mālikī slave law in the context of other Near Eastern legal codes. The narrow focus on Ibn 'Abd al-ḥakam and his Compendium is used to refine the distinction between "organic" and "fixed" editions of early legal texts, and also to argue that these texts can be used to reconstruct the thought of...

This anonymous source publication of a university discussion held in Prague about 1400 provides us with new information about medieval semantics after Peter of Spain and Richard Billingham. The edition is the basis of a partial reconstruction of Thomas of Cleves' "Logica,"

This study offers a new interpretation of the "Book of Natural Things," a major work by Konrad of Megenberg (1309-1374) written in the vernacular around 1350 in Regensburg. For the first time, the work is put into the context of the 14th-century Faculty of Arts. In addition, this interpretation draws on Megenberg's 8-year teaching career as professor of natural philosophy in Paris and his thematically similar writings in Latin. The volume describes Konrad of Megenberg's intellectual profile and analyzes his process of creating a vernacular scientific discourse based on Latin sources. Albert...

This study analyses the complex role played by the concept of a 'veiled truth' (integumentum) in the intellectual culture of the Twelfth Century. Eight chapters examine the concept in theological texts and milieux (e.g. Peter Abelard, Bernard of Clairvaux, Gilbert of Poitiers); in natural philosophy (William of Conches); in literary commentaries and literary theory; in literature (Bernard Silvester, Alan of Lille); and in methodological discussions of the Artes sermocinales and language (John of Salisbury). Key questions implied (and discussed) include: 12th-century reflections on the limits...