Title: Classics from papyrus to the internet : an introduction to transmission and reception /
Authors: Hunt, Jeffrey Michael,; Smith, R. Alden,; Stok, Fabio,
Year: 2017
Subjects: Classical philology History and criticism.; Learning and scholarship History; Communication in learning and scholarship Technological innovations.; Communication and technology History.; Paleography, Greek History.; Manuscripts, Greek (Papyri); Written communication History.
Abstract: Writing down the epic tales of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus in texts that became the Iliad and the Odyssey was a defining moment in the intellectual history of the West, a moment from which many current conventions and attitudes toward books can be traced. But how did texts originally written on papyrus in perhaps the eighth century BC survive across nearly three millennia, so that today people can read them electronically on a smartphone? Classics from Papyrus to the Internet provides a fresh, authoritative overview of the transmission and reception of classical texts from antiquity to the present. The authors begin with a discussion of ancient literacy, book production, papyrology, epigraphy, and scholarship, and then examine how classical texts were transmitted from the medieval period through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to the modern era. They also address the question of reception, looking at how succeeding generations responded to classical texts, preserving some but not others. This sheds light on the origins of numerous scholarly disciplines that continue to shape our understanding of the past, as well as the determined effort required to keep the literary tradition alive. As a resource for students and scholars in fields such as classics, medieval studies, comparative literature, paleography, papyrology, and Egyptology, this book presents and discusses the major reference works and online professional tools for studying literary transmission.
Contents: Writing and literature in antiquity -- Grammar, scholarship, and scribal practice from antiquity to the middle ages -- Classical reception from antiquity to the middle ages -- Classics and humanists -- Classical texts in the age of printing -- Tools for the modern scholar.