Leuven University Press open access monographs relating to Antiquity

In addition to its open access journal Humanistica Lovaniensia Journal of Neo Latin Studies, Leuven University Press has the following open access monographs relating to Antiquity.

Essays on Plato’s Epistemology

Franco Trabattoni

Format: Monograph - free ebook
336 pages
ISBN: 9789461661951
Publication: March 21, 2016
Series: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy - Series 1 53

Through a careful survey of several significant Platonic texts, mainly focussing on the nature of knowledge, Essays on Plato’s Epistemology offers the reader a fresh and promising approach to Plato’s philosophy as a whole. From the very earliest reception of Plato’s philosophy, there has been a conflict between a dogmatic and a sceptical interpretation of his work and thought. Moreover, the two sides are often associated, respectively, with a metaphysical and an anti-metaphysical approach. This book, continuing a line of thought that is nowadays strongly present in the secondary literature – and also followed by the author in over thirty years of research –, maintains that a third way of thinking is required. Against the widespread view that an anti-dogmatic philosophy must go together with an anti-metaphysical stance, Trabattoni shows that for Plato, on the contrary, a sober and reasonable assessment of both the powers and limits of human reason relies on a proper metaphysical outlook.

Beyond Provenance: New Approaches to Interpreting the Chemistry of Archaeological Copper Alloys

Edited by Mark Pollard

Format: Edited volume - free ebook - PDF
234 pages
ISBN: 9789461662668
Publication: November 20, 2018
Series: Studies in Archaeological Sciences 6

For the last 180 years, scientists have been attempting to determine the ‘provenance’ (geological source) of the copper used in Bronze Age artefacts. However, despite advances in analytical technologies, the theoretical approach has remained virtually unchanged over this period, with the interpretative methodology only changing to accommodate the increasing capacity of computers. This book represents a concerted effort to think about the composition of Bronze Age metal as the product of human intentionality as well as of geology. It considers the trace element composition of the metal, the alloying elements, and the lead isotopic composition, showing how a combination of these aspects, along with archaeological context and typology, can reveal much more about the life history of such artefacts, expanding considerably upon the rather limited ambition of knowing where the ore was extracted.
Beyond Provenance serves as a ‘how-to handbook’ for those wishing to look for evidence of human intentionality in the chemical patterning observed in bronzes.

Glass Making in the Greco-Roman World: Results of the ARCHGLASS project

Edited by Patrick Degryse

Format: Edited volume - free ebook
ISBN: 9789461661579
Publication: January 28, 2015
Series: Studies in Archaeological Sciences 4

 This book presents a reconstruction of the Hellenistic-Roman glass industry from the point of view of raw material procurement. Within the ERC funded ARCHGLASS project, the authors of this work developed new geochemical techniques to provenance primary glass making. They investigated both production and consumer sites of glass, and identified suitable mineral resources for glass making through geological prospecting. Because the source of the raw materials used in the manufacturing of natron glass can be determined, new insights in the trade of this material are revealed. While eastern Mediterranean glass factories were active throughout the Hellenistic to early Islamic period, western Mediterranean and possibly Italian and North African sources also supplied the Mediterranean world with raw glass in early Roman times. By combining archaeological and scientific data, the authors develop new interdisciplinary techniques for an innovative archaeological interpretation of glass trade in the Hellenistic-Roman world, highlighting the development of glass as an economic material.

Aristotle's Animals in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Guy Guldentops and Carlos Steel

Format: Edited volume - free ebook
Size: 240 × 160 mm
409 pages
ISBN: 9789061869733
Publication: October 18, 1999
Series: Mediaevalia Lovaniensia - Series 1-Studia 27

Aristotle's zoological writings with their wealth of detailed investigations on diverse species of animals have fascinated medieval and Renaissance culture. This volume explores how these texts have been read in various traditions (Arabic, Hebrew, Latin), and how they have been incorporated in different genres (in philosophical and scientific treatises, in florilegia and encyclopedias, in theological symbolism, in moral allegories, and in manuscript illustrations).
This multidisciplinary and multilinguistic approach highlights substantial aspects of Aristotle's animals.

 Mediaeval Antiquity
Andries Welkenhuysen

Format: Edited volume - free ebook
Size: 240 × 160 mm
ISBN: 9789061866930
Publication: January 1, 1995
Series: Mediaevalia Lovaniensia - Series 1-Studia 24

The contributions here assembled originate from papers read to the colloquium on Mediaeval Antiquity which was organized, from 28 to 30 May 1990, by the 'Instituut voor Middeleeuwse studies' at KU Leuven.

 Zénon, un homme d'affaires grec à l'ombre des pyramides

W. Clarysse and K. Vandorpe

Format: Monograph - free ebook
Size: 250 × 175 mm
ISBN: 9789061866749
Publication: January 1, 1995
Series: Ancorae - Steunpunten voor Studie en Onderwijs 14

Epharmostos à son frère, salut. La lettre que tu as écrite à Ménon a été dévorée par les souris. Tu ferais bien d'écrire d'urgence...".
Ce petit billet grec est écrit sur papyrus et est adressé à l'homme d'affaires Zénon. De tels messages amusants rendent la papyrologie - ou la science qui a pour objet les textes sur papyrus - tellement fascinante. Contrairement aux historiens antiques, témoins des grands événements, les papyrus sont les meilleures sources de la vie quotidienne, exhumés par milliers aux confins du désert égyptien.
Le livret, abondamment illustré, est une initiation au métier du papyrologue, à travers l'étude des archives de Zénon, un ensemble de près de deux mille papyrus, presque tous écrits en grec.

The Bible and Medieval Culture

Edited by Willem Lourdaux

Format: Edited volume - free ebook
Size: 240 × 160 mm
ISBN: 9789061860891
Publication: January 1, 1984
Series: Mediaevalia Lovaniensia - Series 1-Studia 7

From May 16th to 19th 1977, philologist, historians, sociologists, philosophers and theologians gathered in Louvain, to attend the Vllth International Colloquium organized by the 'Instituut voor Middeleeuwse Studies' of the 'Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven', to discuss and investigate the influence of the Bible on medieval culture.
It is indisputable that medieval society in its various aspects was deeply penetrated and strongly influenced by the Bible. Many important studies have already been published on this subject, but the organizers of the Colloquium recognized that much further work was still required, and focussed attention on three fundamental problems, to which the attention of participants was directed.
Firstly, some centuries passed before the Bible was translated into vernacular languages, as a result of the Church's policy that the Bible should only be read in one of the 'sacred languages' - Hebrew, Greek or Latin. The vulgate version for Western christendom was St Jerome's Latin translation, but a stimulus and demand gradually grew for vernacular translations. In the course of the 9th century, the Frankish Otfrid of Weissenburg raised the significant question
whether the language of the Franks was indeed to trivial or inferior that it was worthless or useless for speaking to God. But the Church was reluctant to permit the Bible to be translated into the common tongues, through fear of the confusion and uncertainty which might result for uneducated people.
Nevertheless, and secondly, in spite of many obstacles, such translations in fact appeared, principally in German, Anglo-Saxon, French and Dutch.
And thirtly, in consequence of these developments, the Bible impacted a specific outlook to medieval society, and the translators recorded in their versions the contemporary customs and habits of their people. The Bible translations created a new vocabulary, and the translators used their own language and idioms to render the Bible stories more lively and comprehensible.
The various contributions to the International Colloquium dealt with these three themes, as well as other aspects of medieval life on which the Bible left its mark.