1,721,058 research outputs found
Appunti sulla fortuna del mito troiano: riflessioni a margine di un libro recente
Full text linkStarting from the analysis of Valentina Prosperi’s recent book Omero sconfitto. Ricerche sul mito di Troia dall’Antichità al Rinascimento (Roma 2013), the paper develops some considerations about the current state of research on the reception of the Trojan myth in Western culture. Four main contexts are outlined: the reflections on Greek identity by the intellectuals of the so-called Second Sophistic in the Roman imperial period (1st-3rd century); the cultural shift of Late Antique translators (4th-6th century), and the effects of their peculiar choices on the transmission of ancient texts; the renewed interest in the stories of Troy in the Western Middle Ages, especially in France and Italy, from the 12th to the 14th century; and, finally, the importance of ancient myth and epic poetry for the literary self-consciousness of Italian Renaissance humanists and writers of the Quattrocento and Cinquecento. The author stresses the long-lasting importance of the ancient literary accounts of the Trojan war in shaping the cultural identity of Western civilization, and especially their role as models for the two genres of historiography and fiction, often far more closely interrelated with one another than we expect
Manilio e la teologia del Principato. Per l’interpretazione di Astronomica 1,798-804
No full textAnalisi del ruolo di Manilio come testimone dell’evoluzione delle concezioni astronomiche romane e, insieme, di quelle teologiche
Texts and illustrations in Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, ms. Lat. VIII 22 (2760). The Carolingian star catalogue De signis caeli and its ancient models
No full textThe article deals with the images of constellations depicted in the manuscript Lat. VIII 22 (2760) of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, produced probably in an Anglo-Norman milieu in the last quarter of the 12th century. After a short introduction on the manuscript and the texts it contains, the paper focuses on the illustrations of the Carolingian star catalogue known as De signis caeli, examining their different iconographic traditions as attested in the surviving copies. While the images in the main recension of the star catalogue clearly derive from a late antique archetype (probably the same that was used also for the so-called Aratus Latinus), the Venetian copy belongs to a group of manuscripts with a very different set of illustrations. The author proposes that this second recension is a Carolingian creation, invented between the late 8th and the early 9th century through contamination with the iconographic tradition of Germanicus’ Aratea. In this group of manuscripts, the original late antique set of illustrations was replaced by a new one, in order to give the star catalogue more consistency and to obtain a more effective tool for the study of the constellations
'First-generation diptychs' and the reception of Theodosian court art
No full textThe contribution examines eight late antique ivory diptychs pertaining to the earliest known examples of this category of materials, dated ca. AD 380-400. Iconographic and stylistic analysis, as well as historical considerations, form the basis for a complete reassessment of these objects from the point of view of their date and place of production, as well as their meaning, occasion, and intended audience. When considered within the stylistic development of late Roman art, these diptychs show how the new Theodosian style, created at the imperial court in the East, was received in the West, particularly Italy and the city of Rome, and how it interacted with the local artistic traditions
«Quo nemo insolentius». La ‘superbia’ di Parrasio e l'autoaffermazione dell'artista nella Grecia classica
No full textThrough the analysis of three epigrams attributed to Parrhasius, as well as of further information about this artist found in later authors (Pliny, Athenaeus,
Aelian), the paper tries to reassess the extent of artistic self-representation in classical Greece. The author argues that the epigrams are not a literary falsification: in fact, they fit perfectly into the artistic and philosophical debate of the late 5th cent. BC. Along with other documents preserved in literary sources, the epigrams shed light on the effort made by Greek artists in order to achieve a new social status, better than that of simple ‘manual workers’: Parrhasius represents himself as a refined, educated man, in short as an intellectual; he praises his own achievements in the art of painting, due to a mix of inborn faculties and divine inspiration. The effort of Parrhasius was common to many classical artists, but in the end it proved largely uneffective because of the later predominance of Plato's negative view of art
Tensam non tenuit. Cicerone, Arnobio e il modo di condurre i carri sacri
No full textArnobius nat. 4,31 contains a reference, borrowed from Cicero har. resp. 23, to the tensae, the chariots used in the procession preceding the circus games (pompa circensis) to carry the sacred objects belonging to the statues of the Gods. Both Arnobius’ and Cicero’s passages are corrupt in the manuscript tradition, since the scribes changed the difficult word tensam in the much simpler form terram. Cicero’s text was restored as early as the 16th century by Antonio Agustín, but Arnobius’ was not, since the Christian author has always been thought to have derived his reference from an already corrupt copy of Cicero’s oration. Relying on literary as well as archaeological evidence, the paper argues that the reading terram is illogical and that in the early 4th century, when Arnobius wrote his Adversus nationes, the ancient tensae were still in use for circus processions.
For these reasons neither Arnobius, nor his readers could find the expression terram non tenuit acceptable. The scribal simplification tensam > terram could only take place, in both Cicero’s and Arnobius’ texts, after the word tensam had become no longer understandable, which means not before the 5th century (after the end of pagan processions and cults)
La riscoperta della concorrenza: immagini di rituali e cerimonie nei sarcofagi urbani tardoantichi
No full textThe paper examines the presence of images of public ceremonies in Roman funerary art of the late 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Already in the mid-3rd century the Roman senatorial class had started to enlarge the possibilities of funerary self-representation, by adding to the traditional mythological repertoire depictions of public ceremonies presided over by the deceased as a magistrate. From the late 3rd century, however, the interest in these images, as well as in the old mythological scenes, seems to decline, in favour of a more direct aristocratic self-representation centred on the otium ideology and the related activities (hunting and banquets) taking place in the suburban villae, expressed through a set of standard iconographies. A detailed analysis is devoted to the scene depicting the journey to the villa on board of an open coach, which, although not a public ceremony strictly speaking, was nonetheless important as a means for aristocratic self-representation in the public space of the street. At the same time, the interest for the depiction of ceremonies by late Roman aristocrats shifts decisively towards religious scenes: a small but interesting group of sarcophagus lids are decorated with images of a pompa circensis, featuring ritual objects and statues connected with Rome’s traditional deities or the imperial cult. Through the choice of these themes, these late Roman aristocrats class could celebrate both their evergetic role as financial sponsors of public games and their subscription to a system of values closely linked to the of cial manifestations of pagan religion. The civic self-representation as magistrates is now taken over by members of the equestrian order, who after Diocletian’s administrative reforms are in charge of the main government posts
La Vita di Vincenzo Mirabella linceo
No full textRicostruzione della biografia e della personalità intellettuale di Don Vincenzo Mirabella e Alagona (Siracusa 1570-Modica 1624), linceo dal 1614
Leonzio Meccanico, Trattato della sfera celeste (Sulla costruzione di una sfera aratea). Introduzione, edizione critica, traduzione e commento
No full textIl cielo notturno e le sue costellazioni hanno affascinato l’umanità fin dalle epoche più remote, ed è proprio osservando i movimenti delle stelle che le più antiche civiltà hanno cercato di comprendere il funzionamento della natura e di individuare il posto occupato dall’uomo all’interno del cosmo. Questo volume presenta agli studiosi e agli appassionati un testo finora quasi del tutto sconosciuto, frutto delle riflessioni della scuola di astronomia di Alessandria d’Egitto, il più importante centro della cultura scientifica antica: in esso si descrive il procedimento per fabbricare una sfera celeste, strumento essenziale per lo studio e l’insegnamento dell’astronomia. Il testo originale greco è presentato in una nuova edizione critica, corredata da una traduzione italiana; l’introduzione e il commento consentono anche al lettore meno esperto di orientarsi fra le numerose questioni discusse nel testo e di comprenderlo nel quadro dell’evoluzione del pensiero scientifico antico e medievale
Cronaca dei Lavori del Collegio di Diritto Romano 2014. «Diocleziano: la frontiera giuridica dell’Impero»
No full textResoconto della XII edizione del Collegio di Diritto Romano organizzato dal CEDANT (Centro di studi e ricerche sui Diritti Antichi) a Pavia dal 13 al 31 gennaio 2014.
L’edizione 2014, diretta dai professori Werner Eck e Salvatore Puliatti, ha avuto come tema «Diocleziano: la frontiera giuridica dell’Impero»
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