The Elder Pliny on the Human Animal

The Elder Pliny on the Human Animal PDF Author:
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191518352
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
As a detailed study of the human animal, described by its author as the raison d'etre of nature, Book Seven of the elder Pliny's Natural History is crucial to the understanding of the work as a whole. In addition, however, it provides a valuable insight into the extraordinary complex of ideas and beliefs current in Pliny's era, many of which have resonances for other eras and cultures. The present study includes a substantial introduction examining the background to Pliny's life, thought, and writing, together with a modern English translation, and a detailed commentary which emphasizes the importance of Book Seven as possibly the most fascinating cultural record surviving from early imperial Rome.

The Elder Pliny on the Human Animal

The Elder Pliny on the Human Animal PDF Author:
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191518352
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 536

Get Book Here

Book Description
As a detailed study of the human animal, described by its author as the raison d'etre of nature, Book Seven of the elder Pliny's Natural History is crucial to the understanding of the work as a whole. In addition, however, it provides a valuable insight into the extraordinary complex of ideas and beliefs current in Pliny's era, many of which have resonances for other eras and cultures. The present study includes a substantial introduction examining the background to Pliny's life, thought, and writing, together with a modern English translation, and a detailed commentary which emphasizes the importance of Book Seven as possibly the most fascinating cultural record surviving from early imperial Rome.

Pliny the Elder: The Natural History Book VII (with Book VIII 1-34)

Pliny the Elder: The Natural History Book VII (with Book VIII 1-34) PDF Author: Pliny the Elder
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472521013
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Pliny the Elder's Natural History is a vast encyclopaedia, surveying natural phenomena from cosmology to biology, medicine to magic. Direct observation, informed speculation and common knowledge are combined to present a key snapshot of ancient thought and the Romans' perspective on the world around them. Book VII of The Natural History provides a detailed examination of the human animal and is crucial to understanding the work as a whole. In Pliny's eyes, mankind 'for whose sake nature was created', represents the basis for which the natural world was founded and structured. As a result, the book provides valuable insight into the extraordinary complex of ideas and beliefs that were current in Pliny's era. One of the most interesting transitions of subject in The Natural History is that from man to animals (between Books VII and VIII) and for this reason the section on elephants at the beginning of Book VIII is included here, to show how Pliny moves on to his account of the animal he considers 'nearest to the human disposition'. This edition provides the full Latin text accompanied by commentary notes that provide linguistic help and explanations, plus vocabulary lists of Latin terms and an index of proper names. The in-depth introduction provides valuable details about the work's historical, scientific and literary context, as well as an overview of the work's legacy and reception.

Animals in Greek and Roman Thought

Animals in Greek and Roman Thought PDF Author: Stephen T. Newmyer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136882634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Although reasoned discourse on human-animal relations is often considered a late twentieth-century phenomenon, ethical debate over animals and how humans should treat them can be traced back to the philosophers and literati of the classical world. From Stoic assertions that humans owe nothing to animals that are intellectually foreign to them, to Plutarch's impassioned arguments for animals as sentient and rational beings, it is clear that modern debate owes much to Greco-Roman thought. Animals in Greek and Roman Thought brings together new translations of classical passages which contributed to ancient debate on the nature of animals and their relationship to human beings. The selections chosen come primarily from philosophical and natural historical works, as well as religious, poetic and biographical works. The questions discussed include: Do animals differ from humans intellectually? Were animals created for the use of humankind? Should animals be used for food, sport, or sacrifice? Can animals be our friends? The selections are arranged thematically and, within themes, chronologically. A commentary precedes each excerpt, transliterations of Greek and Latin technical terms are provided, and each entry includes bibliographic suggestions for further reading.

Looking at Animals in Human History

Looking at Animals in Human History PDF Author: Linda Kalof
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781861893345
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Taking in a wide range of visual and textual materials, Linda Kalof in Looking at Animals in Human History unearths many surprising and revealing examples of our depictions of animals.

The Animal and the Human in Ancient and Modern Thought

The Animal and the Human in Ancient and Modern Thought PDF Author: Stephen T. Newmyer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135042845
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Ancient Greeks endeavored to define the human being vis-à-vis other animal species by isolating capacities and endowments which they considered to be unique to humans. This approach toward defining the human being still appears with surprising frequency, in modern philosophical treatises, in modern animal behavioral studies, and in animal rights literature, to argue both for and against the position that human beings are special and unique because of one or another attribute or skill that they are believed to possess. Some of the claims of man’s unique endowments have in recent years become the subject of intensive investigation by cognitive ethologists carried out in non-laboratory contexts. The debate is as lively now as in classical times, and, what is of particular note, the examples and methods of argumentation used to prove one or another position on any issue relating to the unique status of human beings that one encounters in contemporary philosophical or ethological literature frequently recall ancient precedents. This is the first book-length study of the ‘man alone of animals’ topos in classical literature, not restricting its analysis to Greco-Roman claims of man’s intellectual uniqueness, but including classical assertions of man’s physiological and emotional uniqueness. It supplements this analysis of ancient manifestations with an examination of how the commonplace survives and has been restated, transformed, and extended in contemporary ethological literature and in the literature of the animal rights and animal welfare movements. Author Stephen T. Newmyer demonstrates that the anthropocentrism detected in Greek applications of the ‘man alone of animals’ topos is not only alive and well in many facets of the current debate on human-animal relations, but that combating its negative effects is a stated aim of some modern philosophers and activists.

The Elder Pliny on the Human Animal

The Elder Pliny on the Human Animal PDF Author: Pliny (the Elder.)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198150652
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
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Pliny the Elder: Themes and Contexts

Pliny the Elder: Themes and Contexts PDF Author: Roy Gibson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004210075
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Pliny's Naturalis Historia – a brilliant and sophisticated encyclopaedia of the scientific, artistic, philosophical, botanical and zoological riches of the ancient world – has had a long career in the footnotes of historical studies. This is a phenomenon born of the sense that the work was there to consult, or to ‘use’, as a resource to aid investigation of specific technical issues or passages, of Quellenforschung, or of delimited topic areas. The contributors to the present volume both represent and join a new generation of critics who have begun to try to ‘read’ this monumental text, and – by examining the dominant motifs which give shape and order to the work – to construct frameworks within which we may understand and interpret Pliny’s overarching agenda.

Birds, Beasts and Burials: A study of the human-animal relationship in Romano-British St. Albans

Birds, Beasts and Burials: A study of the human-animal relationship in Romano-British St. Albans PDF Author: Brittany Elayne Hill
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784915971
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Birds, Beasts and Burials examines human-animal relationships as found in the mortuary record within the area of Verulamium that is now situated in the modern town of St. Albans.

The Anecdotal Narration and Encyclopedic Thought of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia

The Anecdotal Narration and Encyclopedic Thought of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia PDF Author: Ágnes Darab
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527549585
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, with its varied content, enables and expects the reader to employ a complex interpretative technique. One aspect of Pliny’s diction is that he often interrupts the discussions of topics with digressions and begins to address something that seemingly has nothing to do with the subject. The hypothesis suggested by this book is that these digressions that occur in different places and in great number throughout the text of Naturalis Historia should not be regarded as mistakes fragmenting the encyclopedia’s structure. Most of these digressions are anecdotes. Researching the aetiological anecdotes, and those about the life of animals, famous persons from political or intellectual life, and the most important Greek painters and sculptors requires the application of different perspectives. When we approach anecdotes from the perspective of narrative techniques, the role of the stories as exempla becomes clearer, and its further aspects can be spotted. This book also draws attention to Pliny the writer, an aspect of the text that has been contested until very recently.

Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology

Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology PDF Author: John F. Healy
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 9780198146872
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
The Elder Pliny's Natural History provides a wide-ranging account of human achievement in the arts and sciences in the first century AD. This book re-examines Pliny's work for the first time since the 1920s. Modern experiments, simulating the techniques described by Pliny, and an in-depth study of his development of a technical language, confirm his unique contribution to our knowledge of science in early imperial Rome.