1 option
Technical ekphrasis in Greek and Roman science and literature : the written machine between Alexandria and Rome / Courtney Roby.
EBSCOhost Academic eBook Collection (North America) Available online
EBSCOhost Academic eBook Collection (North America)- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Roby, Courtney, 1978- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Ekphrasis.
- Rhetoric, Ancient.
- Literature and science--Greece.
- Literature and science--Rome.
- Science--Greece--History--To 1500.
- Science--Rome--History--To 1500.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (ix, 336 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
- Other Title:
- Technical Ekphrasis in Greek & Roman Science & Literature
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2016.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- Ekphrasis is familiar as a rhetorical tool for inducing enargeia, the vivid sense that a reader or listener is actually in the presence of the objects described. This book focuses on the ekphrastic techniques used in ancient Greek and Roman literature to describe technological artifacts. Since the literary discourse on technology extended beyond technical texts, this book explores 'technical ekphrasis' in a wide range of genres, including history, poetry, and philosophy as well as mechanical, scientific, and mathematical works. Technical authors like Philo of Byzantium, Vitruvius, Hero of Alexandria, and Claudius Ptolemy are put into dialogue with close contemporaries in other genres, like Diodorus Siculus, Cicero, Ovid, and Aelius Theon. The treatment of 'technical ekphrasis' here covers the techniques of description, the interaction of verbal and visual elements, the role of instructions, and the balance between describing the artifact's material qualities and the other bodies of knowledge it evokes.
- Contents:
- Introduction: the written machine
- Genres: texts and artifacts
- Cultural contexts
- Ekphrastic complex
- Diagram and artifact
- Description and instruction
- Knowledge and artifact
- Conclusion: the limits of description.
- Notes:
- Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 08 Mar 2016).
- Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
- ISBN:
- 1-316-53052-3
- 1-316-53220-8
- 1-316-53268-2
- 1-316-53244-5
- 1-316-53364-6
- 1-139-92484-2
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.