Download 7 Wonders-class 3

CLAS 1120Q / ARCH 1707 THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD MWF 12 – 12:50 p.m. Rhode Island Hall 108 Prof. John Cherry

Class 3 September 14, 2015 LISTS

9th-century AD manuscript (codex) now in Heidelberg Philo of Byzantium (ca. 280-220 BC): engineer and writer, lived in Alexandria Seven Wonders probably written by a man of the same name in 4th-5th century AD

Jorge Luis Borges and the wonder of lists

In the Chinese encyclopedia known as the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor (b) embalmed (c) tame (d) suckling pigs (e) sirens (f) fabulous (g) stray dogs (h) included in the present classification (i) frenzied (j) innumerable (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush (l) et cetera (m) having just broken the water pitcher (n) that from a long way off look like flies

Sumerian Lexical Lists

Cuneiform writing (Latin: cuneus (wedge)

BM 116625: proto-cuneiform lexical list from Jemdet Nasr

Mycenaean (Greek) Palaces 14th-13th centuries BC

List-making in Linear B script, an early form of the Greek language

A Mycenaean Greek Linear B tablet listing sheep and goats

Linear B “page” tablets — lists summarizing other shorter (disposable) lists

Cities of the Delian League …which by the 430s BC were paying annual tribute to Athens — recorded on the “Tribute Lists”

Athens

Delos

The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens

The Athenian Tribute Lists Mid-5th century B.C.

Modern-day Alexandria-by-Egypt

Alexander’s role in the growth of libraries and the circulation of texts Aristotle the polymath: political science ethics music medicine astrononomy optics magnets forms of rhetoric forms of poetry experimental zoology visitors at Delphi commentary on Homer

…teaches Alexander, gives him a lasting interest in Greek literature (especially Homer)

Alexander founds Alexandria in Egypt

(by Raphael, 1511) …teaches pupils such as Theophrastus, interested in systematization of knowledge

Masses of botanical, zoological, and geographical data brought back from the Eastern expedition

The Great Library at Alexandria established under Ptolemy I

RESULT: In the Hellenistic world… — possession of books and fine libraries became a matter of prestige — keen competition to get copies of books (e.g., by confiscation at Alexandria!) — knowledge began to be classified and catalogued (as in modern libraries)

A rival library set up at Pergamum in western Asia Minor

Ancient writing materials

Classical-era bookroll or scroll — Papyrus, used for long works, such as literary texts or government records

The codex — usually on parchment. Replaces the bookroll in late antiquity. Strongly associated with Christian writings.

The Byzantine-era bookroll (4th-7th centuries AD) was written and read vertically

The Library at Alexandria

The old…

…and the new (2001)

How to find that darn scroll? Make a list of them!

How to order such a list?

• Location of the scroll within the library • Date of acquisition of the scroll • Language in which written • Author • Title • Genre (e.g., drama, poetry, history, oratory)

Head Librarian Callimachus, author of the (now lost) A Collection of Wonders in Lands Throughout the World, developed what is usually regarded as the first library catalog

Qualities of Lists

• Is the list fixed in number (David Letterman’s Top 10), or indefinitely extendable? • What gives coherence to the list? • How is the list ordered? — by time (a king-list, a genealogy) — by order of alleged significance — by priority of importance (e.g. a to-do list) — by geography (e.g. places on a pilgrimage route, taxable towns) — what else?