Medieval textual cultures : agents of transmission, translation and transformation / / edited by Faith Wallis and Robert Wisnovsky

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910821129103321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berlin, [Germany] ; ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : , : De Gruyter, , 2016; ©2016
• ISBN: 3-11-046570-1; 3-11-046730-5
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (224 p.)
• Collana: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -Tension, Transmission, Transformation, , 2196-405X ; ; Volume 6
• Disciplina: 940.1
• Soggetti: Civilization, Medieval; Middle Ages
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Table of Contents -- A note on the forms of personal and institutional names -- Introduction: Agents of Transmission, Translation and Transformation -- Agents and Agencies? The Many Facets of Translation in Byzantine Medicine -- Galenism at the ʿAbbāsid Court -- A New Catalogue of Medieval Translations into Latin of Texts on Astronomy and Astrology -- Bernat Metge and Hasdai Crescas: A Conversation -- Transmitting the Astrolabe: Chaucer, Islamic Astronomy, and the Astrolabic Text -- Literary criticism in the Vulgate Commentary on Ovid’s Metamorphoses -- On the Individuality of the Medieval Translator -- Charles I of Anjou as Initiator of the Liber Continens Translation: Patronage Between Foreign Affairs and Medical Interest -- The Transmission of Azarquiel’s Magic Squares in Latin Europe -- On the Integration of Islamic and Jewish Thought: An Unknown Project Proposal by Shlomo Pines -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Understanding how medieval textual cultures engaged with the heritage of antiquity (transmission and translation) depends on recognizing that reception is a creative cultural act (transformation). These essays focus on the people, societies and institutions who were doing the transmitting, translating, and transforming -- the "agents". ; The subject matter ranges from medicine to astronomy, literature to magic, while the cultural context encompasses Islamic and Jewish societies, as well as Byzantium and the Latin West. What unites these studies is their attention to the methodological and conceptual challenges of thinking about agency. Not every agent acted with an agenda, and agenda were sometimes driven by immediate needs or religious considerations that while compelling to the actors, are more opaque to us. What does it mean to say that a text becomes “available” for transmission or translation? And why do some texts, once transmitted, fail to thrive in their new milieu? This collection thus points toward a more sophisticated “ecology” of transmission, where not only individuals and teams of individuals, but also social spaces and local cultures, act as the agents of cultural creativity.