In the Wake of the Compendia

Infrastructural Contexts and the Licensing of Empiricism in Ancient and Medieval Mesopotamia

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Contributor(s)
Cale Johnson, J. (editor)
Collection
European Research Council (ERC)
Language
English
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Abstract
In the Wake of the Compendia examines the composition of technical literature in the ancient Semitic-speaking world. Compendia on astrology, magic, medicine, lexicography, and alchemy were composed in several languages and relate to earlier Mesopotamian models. This volume offers new perspectives on the early history of these compendia and their subsequent transmission into later post-cuneiform compilations, curricula, and scholarly writings.
URI
https://doab-dev.siscern.org/handle/20.500.12854/185185
Keywords
early scientific thought; compilation and redaction in the ancient world; infrastructural compendia; empiricism; thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHG Middle Eastern history; thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRR Other religions and spiritual beliefs::QRRT Indigenous, ethnic and folk religions and spiritual beliefs::QRRT1 Indigenous religions, spiritual beliefs and mythologies of the Americas
DOI
10.1515/9781501502507
ISBN
9781501510762; 9781501502521
Publisher
De Gruyter
Publisher website
http://www.degruyter.com/
Publication date and place
2015
Grantor
Pages
336

Chapters in this book

  • Chapter Depersonalized Case Histories in the Babylonian Therapeutic Compendia
    Cale Johnson, J. (2015)
    Standard histories of medicine identify Hippocratic texts such as Epidemics as the earliest medical case histories in human history. In contrast to the Hippocratic case histories, it is often stated that Babylonian medicine ...
  • Chapter ‘Tested’ Remedies in Mesopotamian Medical Texts
    Steinert, Ulrike; Cale Johnson, J. (2015)
    This contribution investigates the phraseology of descriptions of efficacy (efficacy phrases) in Mesopotamian medical texts, concentrating on the qualification latku ‘tested, tried, proven’, which implies that knowledge ...
  • Chapter Encyclopaedias and Commentaries
    Markham, J. Geller; Johnson, J. Cale (2015)
    This paper looks at how empirical knowledge was assembled and interpreted in Babylonian academies and investigates two Neo-Assyrian plant lists: KADP 2 and KADP 4. These two lists are not simple collections of scholastic ...

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