Muhaddislerin Metin Tenkidi Yapmadıkları İddiasına Yönelik Bir Eleştiri: Ebû Dâvûd’un Sünen’inde Metin Tenkidi

In the past one hundred years, as textual criticism has become more common in Iran, we have witnessed an increase in the number of textual criticisms of classical works. These editions, except in some cases, are generally a kind of imitation and methodological duplication of the work done by renowned scholars in the field, and do not move beyond the virtual structure of the text in question. One of the main challenges of textual criticism in contemporary Iran is the disregard for the theoretical fundamentals of this field. Underdeveloped theoretical foundations, in most cases, have reduced the edition of Persian texts to a simple and mechanical countermeasure. Considering the necessity of theoretical discourse in the field of textual criticism, this paper tries to explore, explain and critique the teleology of textual criticism in various traditional, modern and postmodern views. Moreover, the relationship between reader comprehension and textual criticism has been criticized as one of the forgotten principles in the theoretical areas of correction. Extended Abstract 1. Introduction Textual criticism has been defined variedly in different eras and civilizations. The kinds of texts, ideologies, worldviews, social structures and scientific movements in different periods of human civilization have resulted in the development of different methods of textual criticism. These methods have been based on users’ understanding, which has been in turn affected by the goals pursued in textual criticism. At least three kinds of teleological viewpoints, developed in classical, modern and postmodern eras, can be traced in textual criticism. In the classical era, the text is considered to be sacred, while in the modern era it is desecrated and examined within the framework of a scientific process. By going beyond textuality, postmodernism seeks to identify factors contributing to the production of the text, no longer finding it to be exclusively formed by the author. 2. Theoretical Framework In the past two centuries, European scholars have tried to replace traditional methods of textual criticism with modern ones. Textual criticism has a thousand-year-old history in the Islamic civilization. In the contemporary era, although many valuable Islamic works have been textually analyzed and emendated, Muslim scholars have been unwilling to join the theoretical discussions on textual criticism, such as the teleology of such an endeavor. Our understanding of the text and the methods we use to reconstruct old and modern texts are directly influenced by the telos followed in the textual analysis of texts. Teleology is the basis of theories of textual criticism and provides the theoretical framework for textual studies. Thus, engagement in such discussions, which have been predominantly overlooked in Iran, can pave the way for theoretical debates on the nature of textual criticism. 3. Methodology In the present study, first the traditional perfectionist attitude toward textual criticism, which is based on the Iranian culture in the Islamic era, is examined. Then, the bases of the modern experimental attitude will be discussed, and finally the pluralistic postmodern viewpoint will be studied. Also, the role of the audience in the teleology of the texts will be analyzed. 4. Findings Traditional scholars have adopted a perfectionist outlook toward textual criticism as a tool for annotating and ornamenting texts. In the modern outlook, which has been influenced by scientific-experimental movements such as Darwinism, the text is regarded as a kind of evolution and attempt is made to trace the possible changes that the text has probably undergone so that its original form is revived. In the postmodern attitude toward textual criticism, a democratic approach is adopted and the text is considered to be the outcome of the contribution of different factors rather than being exclusively created by the author; thus, the postmodern critic tries to offer different accounts of the changes in the text, rather than reverse these changes. 5. Conclusion Our conception of the text and its reconstruction is rooted in the telos resulting from the outlook taken by researchers and manifested through their taste and concerns. Audiences in different eras determine what objectives different texts and textual studies should pursue. However, not all audiences do exert the same influence; “superior audiences” develop new ends for researchers by attaching more importance to specific types of research. By refining their ideological and scientific beliefs, these audiences provide textual researchers with more reasonable ends.

The present thesis intends to be the first critical edition of the commentary on the Satires of Juvenal published by Giorgio Valla (1447-1500) in Venice in 1486. The significance of this commentary that holds many meaningful traces of the corpus of scholia vetustiora on Juvenal under the name of an otherwise unknown Probus, has been recognized by scholars in the last century. The thesis is divided in four sections: introduction, note on text, commentary with apparatus, indexes. The introduction exposes an outline on the juvenalian studies and lectures in the second half of XVth century undertaken by scholars such as Angelo Sabino, Domizio Calderini and Giorgio Merula, focusing on the more significant contributions of the Giorgio Valla's commentary in the textual criticism and exegesis of the Satires. The introduction also includes a brief summing-up of the classical sources, latin and greek, openly mentioned or word-for-word quoted in the commentary. The note on text deals with the editing standards used in this thesis and also contains some marks on the relationship between the lemmas of the commentary and the text of Juvenal whose margins were filled by the commentary, according to an usual typographic dress for scholastic texts, attempting to define which kinds of handwritten sources of the Satires Valla was able to handle with. The third section is the outright commentary (extended on more than 300 pages in modern format) with a textual apparatus arranged in footnotes that also includes some references to classical sources used but not outspoken by the humanist. The thesis is concluded by three different kinds of indexes (index of classical sources, index of variants, index of names) thought as an useful help for scholars who in future will need to consult this commentary.

Reviewed by: The Christian Philosopher Kerry S. Walters The Christian Philosopher, by Cotton Mather; edited by Winton U. Solberg; cxlii & 488 pp. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994, $49.95. Poor Cotton Mather! For well over two centuries now he has been a popular icon of unctuous self-righteousness, superstitious fanaticism, and dogmatic intolerance. Nor has endorsement of this stereotype been confined to casual laypersons who know of Mather only from lurid accounts of Salem witch-hunting. Scholars who ought to know better often buy into it. Perry Miller, the doyen of early American studies, consistently wrote of Mather in a particularly unsympathetic manner. More odious, as Professor Solberg reminds us (p. xciii), was the treatment by historians at a Florida planetarium who in 1982 put together a short film on early European and American doomsday predictors which included segments on Mather the astronomer. When these segments appeared, a projector was programmed to flash the words “Feel Free to Boo and Hiss” on the planetarium’s dome—an invitation which audiences, presumably, gleefully accepted. Mather deserves better than this, and Winton Solberg’s critical edition of The Christian Philosopher goes a long way towards rehabilitating the Puritan divine. Along with recent studies such as Kenneth Murdock’s edition of Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana (1977) and Kenneth Silverman’s masterful The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (1984), Solberg’s study painstakingly presents us with a detailed account of a man who undoubtedly was one of the most important literary figures in early America. Mather published The Christian Philosopher in 1721, seven years before his [End Page 167] death and eight years after being named to the Royal Society of London. The book was both the culmination of a lifetime of learning as well as a calculated effort on Mather’s part to show that his election to the prestigious Royal Society was deserved. The book is the first attempt by an American-born author to take a comprehensive look at the “new learning” associated with that period known since as the Enlightenment. Mather was an omnivorous reader and an equally thorough observer of natural phenomena, and he welcomed the scientific interpretations of reality offered by such savants as Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and John Ray. In the mind of Mather, such explanations posed no challenge to the Christian worldview. On the contrary, he concluded, they supported it by providing clear and indisputable evidence of design in nature. The Christian Philosopher (or, in more contemporary jargon, The Christian Scientist) is Mather’s attempt to defend this thesis. It is an exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting!) compendium of data gleaned from the natural realm which, in Mather’s judgment, irrefutably points to the existence of a grand Designer. Although Mather explicitly claimed that his primary goal in writing the book was to demonstrate that atheism is contrary to reason, he also penned one of the New World’s first systematic Enlightenment documents. One of the difficulties in reading The Christian Philosopher traditionally has been the sheer breadth of learning that went into its composition. Mather cites over four hundred books, includes hundreds of allusions to classical and scriptural sources, and so inundates the reader with evidence in support of his fundamental design argument that it is quite easy to lose one’s way. Professor Solberg has considerably lightened these burdens with his critical edition. He prefaces Mather’s text with a masterful 115-page introduction which places the work in its historical context as well as analyzes its methodology and arguments. Moreover, his edition includes 170 pages of endnotes, biographical notes, biblical references and a recapitulation of Mather’s own sources. Finally, Solberg supplies almost each page of Mather’s text with footnotes that identify literary or scriptural allusions and translate Mather’s liberal use of Greek and Latin quotations. Solberg’s edition of The Christian Philosopher will prove, I’m confident, to be the definitive text. It is an invaluable reference tool for the specialist, but it can also serve as a friendly and intriguing introduction for the layperson. Convinced Puritan-bashers who read this study may still regard Mather’s worldview with distaste, but I suspect that Solberg’s sensitive...

Cristoforo da Fano (1401-1477). a humanist and a friar of the Order of Humiliati, composed a collection of fabulae and other poems, including a 107 line Satyrula in hexameters, dedicated to Giovanni da Sale, an important member of the town council of Brixia. The Satyrula, of which a critical edition, Italian translation and commentary are provided, is preserved in two manuscripts: New Haven, Yale University. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Marston 188 (1st version). the dedicatory copy to Giovanni Barozzi, bishop of Bergamo (1449-1465). and Genova, Bibl. Universitaria. G II 17 (2nd version). The poem deals with the topic of getting married and shows a mixture of biblical, classical and patristic sources, especially Juvenal's Sat. VI and Jerome's Adversu lovinianum.

This thesis constitutes a part of a larger investigation into the history of Law Codification in traditional China. As former research puts tremendous emphasis on proper nouns which are supposed to be chapter headings of Law Codes and takes them as proof for the existence of already lost ancient law codes in case of absence of other direct evidence, in this thesis a reconsideration of those proper nouns will be conducted.The reconsideration first starts with the chapters of the Wei-Lu, which is the first Chinese Law Code for which we have still access to contemporary source material on the compilation process, viz. an excerpt of the preamble. Because of difficulties in interpreting this source there is an old controversy about which of the embedded proper nouns constitute the eighteen chapters of the Code, the number of which is specified in the preamble. This thesis will show that those difficulties stem from the inappropriate import of hypotheses on chaptering from non-contemporary sources (mostly from the Tang) and that these difficulties can be avoided easily by focusing on inherent formal features of the preamble. Next, a reconsideration of the chapters of Han-Lu based on the Wei-Lu preamble will give proof that former knowledge of Han -Lu chapters was misled by later sources, too. The Han-Lu chapters will be reconstructed newly by our insights on the reading of the Wei-Lu preamble, which constitutes the oldest available source on chapters of the Han- Lu as well as on the Wei-Lu, despite of general scholarly negligence of this fact.Finally, an investigation is conducted into the transmission process of Jin-Lu to the Tang, in reply to misleading endeavours of former scholars to extract collateral evidence for particular Wei-Lu chapters from chapters of the Jin-Lu, which is supposed to have been preserved as an original text at least until the Northern Song. It will be shown that the preservation theory is based merely on requotations in encyclopaedias of the Northern Song of quotations of commentaries to the Jin-Lu in encyclopaedias of the Tang. The Jin-Lu Law code itself was scattered and lost during the turbulences at the beginning of the Period of North and South Dynasties. The commentaries, on the other hand, are products of scholarly work on contemporary and recollected ancient legal materials throughout the North and South Period. Partly, they contain private compilations of Law codes of dynasties which, as a well-known fact, never compiled any Law Code.Founded on the results of this inquiry, the author urges for more textual criticism when handling non-contemporary sources which are supposed to contain components of lost ancient Law Codes.

1. Introduction Shekarnameh Ilkhani is a book about training and treatment of wild animals and birds, written by Ali Ibn Mansour Halvani based on several other books like Baznameh and Shekarnameh, especially that of Malekshahi named after Toghan Teimurkhan. This book consists of three main sections. The first section is an introduction which is important for the development of Baznameh and the history of science. The second and third sections are about training and treatment of hunting birds and animals, respectively. Although this book is important for its linguistics, historic and literary aspects, it is neither corrected nor introduced, yet. In this research, the author introduces some versions of this book and examines different aspects of them. 2. Method Firstly, the manuscript of the Shekarnameh Ilkhani was discovered from various manuscripts catalogues. Then, all of the manuscripts were checked in terms of originality and relations and oldness. After that, Astan manuscript was selected as the main manuscript and other manuscripts were compared to Astan. Next, all of the differences among manuscripts were reported in the footnote. Afterwards, the textual criticism was prepared. The final data was gathered using libraries procedure information. This information was analyzed in various aspects. 3. Results and Discussion The word of Baznameh is composed of two parts. The first part is Baz, which means the falcon. The last part of this word is Nameh, which means the book. Since falcons were important for ancestors, the training and treatment of wild birds are usually considered in these types of books. As a result, this book is named Baznameh. Moreover, in Persian language, the synonym of Baznameh is Shekarnameh. There are many other instances of Baznameh in Persian such as Noushirvani Baznameh, Kasri Baznameh, Samanian Baznameh, Mahmoud Ghaznavi Baznameh, Nasavi Baznameh written by Ali Ghoravi, Malekshahi Shekarnameh written by Khajeh Abolhasan Ali Ebne Mohammad Neyshabouri, Ilkhani Shekarnameh written by Ali Ebne Mansour Helvani, Seid Almorad Fi Ghavanin Al Sayyad or Javareh nameh Emamieh written by Khodayar khan Abbasi written by Filot, Baysonghori Baznameh, Altazkareh fi elm Al Bozdareh written by Ali Ebne Zahed Shoushtari written by Mir Hashem Mohaddes, Shahbaz nameh, and Naseri Baznameh written by Teymour Mirza Hesam al dole. The literature review of Shekarnameh is as follows: The Ilkhani Shekarnameh has not been published, yet. However, it has been examined in some studies. Some of these studies are as follows: • Mohammad Taghi Binesh has studied the structure of Ilkhani Shekarnameh in an article titled Baznamehs and Bazyari. • Ali Ghoravi has briefly studied this book in an article titled a brief history of Baznameh and introduction to some Baznamehs. • Parviz Azkaee has briefly introduced this book in an article titled Falconry in Tashayyo cyclopedia. • Sadegh Ayene Vand has mentioned the existence of this book in about three lines in an article titled Alseyd through Malek library version. • Felex Tower has briefly mentioned that the Malekshahi Shekarnameh is a model for Ilkhani Shekarnameh in an article titled the history of natural science in Persian literature. • Mohamad Ali Moulavi has mentioned some references and has introduced this book in Great Encyclopedia of Islam. • Hasan Tajbakhsh has considered this book in medical and dental Based on the text of Shekarnameh Ilkhani, the author of this book is a person named Ali Ebne Mansour Halvani/ Halvaee/ Khavafi. In historical books and biographies, there is no information about him and the only reference for identifying him is Shekarnameh Ilkhani. From the text of this book, it can be concluded that he was an attendant of Tagha Teymourkhan. He had been in charge of Ghushkhaneh. Moreover, he was completing his Shekarnameh druing Khaje Ali Moayyed's era. With reference to the text of this book, surely, it can be said that he was an Esna Ashari Shiae. Similarity among Ilkhani Shekarnameh and other similar books (Baznameh) in Persian literature: With the analysis of the Persian Shekarnameh, it can be concluded that some parts of this Shekarnameh is similar to the following books in terms of the material and spirituality. Some sections of this Shekarnameh are exactly similar to Malekshahi Shekarnameh and Yanal Khalil Tash Baznameh, Kasra Baznamehs and the section of falconry of Jame Ol Olum written by Settini. Moreover, some sections of this book are similar to Nasavi Baznameh in terms of idioms and professional words. This book contains three parts: • An introduction to the history of falconry and reasons beyond writing this book. • About training and treatment of hunting birds. • About training and treatment of hunting animals. 4. Conclusion Shekarnameh Ilkhani is one of the most important books in the 8th century and Ilkhanan dynasty. The text of this Shekarnameh is important for language research especially linguistic studies and studying the special terms which are used in this period of time as well as studying falconry terms. There is no information about Ali Ibn Mansour Halvani in the references. However, by investigating the text of Shekarnameh Ilkhani, we found that he was a Bazdar of Toghaytimur khan and Khajeh Ali Moayyad and that he was Shia. There are six manuscripts of shekarnameh Ilkhani in libraries around the world and the oldest manuscript is in Malek library, numbered 1681. A complete manuscript is also available in Astan Qods Razavi library, numbered 28207. This Shekarnameh contains three parts. The first part is an introduction to the history of falconry till 8th century and reasons beyond writing this book. The second part is about the treatment and training of birds. The last part is about training and treatment of other wild animals. Unfortunately, this book has not been published till now. Because of the importance of this book, it is worthwhile to correct and publish this book via criticism methods based on Astan Qods Razavi manuscripts and compare this manuscript with other manuscripts. Moroever, linguistic features of this work can be used in stylistics and textual studeis of the Persian literature.

Verse Miscellanies Online:A Digital Edition of Seven Printed Poetry Collections from Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England Michelle O'Callaghan (bio) Verse Miscellanies Online—http://versemiscellaniesonline.bodleian.ox.ac.uk—is a searchable critical edition of seven printed verse miscellanies published in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries: Tottel's Miscellany, Handful of Pleasant Delights, Paradise of Dainty Devises, Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, Phoenix Nest, England's Helicon, and A Poetical Rhapsody. The early printed poetry miscellanies helped to establish a vernacular lyric tradition in England and shaped the history of English poetry. In each year of Elizabeth's reign, one miscellany was either printed or reprinted. These verse miscellanies can tell us much about how literary tastes were shaped and changed, the proximity of elite and popular forms, the creative dialogue between music and the lyric, developments in versification and literary conventions, and the growth of the book trade in England. Work on this digital edition began in March 2011 and was funded by a British Academy Research Development Award. The principal investigator on the project is Michelle O'Callaghan, University of Reading, who was assisted by Dr. Alice Eardley (University of Southampton). Verse Miscellanies Online was produced in collaboration with Early English Books Online-Text Creation Partnership, who provided the XML-TEI files of the miscellanies that are the basis of the edition. ProQuest has waived its rights to the EEBO-TCP files on the site to allow full public access. One aim of this digital edition is to extend the capabilities of a pre-existing digital resource. Since the EEBO-TCP files were originally tagged according to older XML-TEIP4 guidelines, it was necessary to convert these files to the current XML-TEIP5 standard; this work was undertaken by James Cummings at Oxford University Computing Services.1 The EEBO-TCP files were then enhanced through further descriptive tagging, the mark-up of typographical features, the addition of explanatory annotations, hyperlinks, and critical apparatus, including glossaries of mythological figures and historical persons, musical settings and ballad tunes, and indexes of authors and first lines. Each poem has been assigned a searchable genre and the rhyme scheme, which have been identified using Steven May and William [End Page 148] Ringler's Elizabethan Poetry: A Bibliography and First-Line Index of English Verse, 1559-1603 (2004). This critical digital edition of early printed editions of poetry is interested in how older editorial print practices are mediated through the new digital technologies, just as manuscript forms and practices were mediated through print technologies in the early printed poetry miscellanies. Verse Miscellanies Online incorporates features, such as annotations, glossaries, information about transmission and reception, which are constitutive of conventional print editions but are now rendered in a digital form on this site. The digital medium has an inherent flexibility that enables users to navigate and manipulate an edition with greater facility than a book in codex form. The insistent intertextuality of these printed miscellanies, as they constantly borrow poems, lines, commonplaces and topoi from each other, is transformed into a hypertextuality in this digital edition through the hyperlinks that allow users to toggle between shared poems and bits of poems—an activity that enhances our understanding of these miscellanies as collections that are built out of other collections, often through the agency of printer-editors. To explore the ways in which a digital edition can function as a "worksite" or an "editing environment," Verse Miscellanies Online hosts an editing tool, the "Commonplacer," which is intended to facilitate engagement with the processes of selection, modification, and compilation involved in editing texts.2 The "Commonplacer" was developed for the project by Miguel Vieira (Department of Digital Humanities at King's College, London), in consultation with Jonathan Gibson (Open University), and uses an open source Javascript HTML editor, TinyMCE. The "Commonplacer" provides a workspace that complements the digital edition. Here, users can compile and edit their own editions, and so create their own digital verse miscellanies that can be made public on the site. Michelle O'Callaghan Michelle O'Callaghan is Professor of Early Modern Literature in the Department of English Literature and director of the Early Modern Research Centre at the University of...

Her metnin anlatmak istediği bir ana fikri ve anlam örgüsü olduğu gibi üretildiği muhitin arka planını yansıtan bir hikayesi de vardır. Bu itibarla metnin cümlelerine önem verildiği kadar satır aralarında gizli bir hazine gibi bekleyen ve ait olduğu dönemi yansıtan kimliğine de dikkat edilmesi gerekir. Böylesine bir yaklaşımın benimsenmesi, bir anlamda metnin ruhunun daha iyi kavranmasına vesile olacaktır. Ayrıca bu yaklaşım, medeniyetimizi inşa eden eserlerin, özellikle de açığa çıkarılmayı bekleyen birçok yazmanın hikayesini, ilim dünyasına kazandırmak açısından büyük bir önem arz etmektedir. Dolayısıyla bu keşif yolunda atılacak her bir adım, medeniyet tarihimizin serencamının anlaşılmasına katkı sağlayacaktır. Bu yazının amacı da 18. yüzyıl Osmanlı ilim muhitine ışık tutabilecek yazma bir risâleyi ele almak suretiyle bu yolda bir adım atmaktır. Borlevî’ye ait İlzâmu’l-muʿânidîn ve ibṭâl-u zaʿmi’l-ḥâsidîn isimli bahse konu risâlenin tahkikli neşrinin yanında tercümesinin yapılması, bu yazının içeriğini ve odak noktasını oluşturmaktadır. Ayrıca mukaddemen vurgulandığı üzere adı geçen risâlenin hikayesine ilişkin genel hatlarıyla bilgi verilmesi ve bu bilgilerin ışığında öz bir değerlendirme çabası esas alınmıştır. Bundan ötesi, okuyucunun fikri yolculuğuna bırakılarak onun, bizatihi metnin kendisi ve tercümesiyle baş başa bırakılması düşünülmüştür. Araştırmaya konu bu risâlenin tercih edilmesinin bir diğer nedeni de kelâm ilminin hem tematik hem de metodolojik açıdan hassas bir konusu olan “ismet-i enbiyâ”ya ilişkin olmasıdır. Zira bu konu, kelâmın vahiy merkezli yapısı ve dahi peygamber kavramının doğası ve buna ilişkin teşekkül ettirilen tasavvurların anlaşılması bakımından son derece anlamlıdır. Risâle gerek etimolojik analizi gerekse de klasik, özellikle de fıkıh kaynaklarından hareketle özlü bir literatür değerlendirmesinden sonra peygamberlerin iğmâdan (baygınlık) korunmuş olup olmadıkları konusunu tartışmaktadır. İğmânın ismet-i enbiyâ bağlamında ele alınıp alınamayacağı sorunsalından hareket eden risâlenin müellifi, mukaddime kısmında bu eseri kaleme alma nedenini açıklamaktadır. Diğer taraftan sonuç başlığı altında da ulaştığı neticeleri dikkat çeken bir şekilde paylaşmaktadır. Her iki bölüm de metnin kimliğini yansıtması açısından, belki de risâlenin en önemli kısımlarıdır. Bu bölümlerde kurulan illiyet bağı ile verilen mesajlar, Osmanlı düşünce tarihinin seyrini derinden etkileyen Kadızâdeliler-Sivâsîler çekişmesi ve bunun sonucunda ortaya çıkan eğilimlere dair değerli ipuçları vermektedir. Bu noktada dikkat çeken ana tema ise kutuplaşma şeklinde seyreden bu çekişmenin doğurduğu marazî durumun aşılması için mutedil bir yolu benimsemenin salık verilmesidir. Sonuç itibarıyla bu risâle, düşünce tarihimizde ciddi bir kırılmanın yaşandığı bir dönemin ilk elden şahidi olması bakımından son derece önemli bir metindir.

Since the collected poems of eleventh- and twelfth-century Persian philosopher Omar Khayyám were first translated into English in 1859 by Patrick Fitzgerald, the Rubáiyát has become one of the most popular books of verse in the world. In addition to English, it has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Urdu, and many other languages. It has been published in numerous editions: precious volumes with bejeweled bindings, artist's books, scholarly and critical editions, forgeries and fake editions, making it a perfect object for both book collectors and lovers of poetry. This comprehensive volume is the first bibliography of Khayyám's classic work since the first Rubáiyát bibliography by A. G. Potter, which was published in 1929.

In Patrice Pavis's La Mise en scène contemporaine: Origines, Tendances, Perspectives, the focus is not so much on the origines as on the tendances and perspectives in the practice and analysis of la mise en scène. Though Pavis does provide a historical account of the rise of the figure of the director from the late nineteenth century onwards, it is primarily to contextualize various definitions of this term mise en scène. In defining the scope of the work, the author states that: ‘on se contentera […] d'observer d'où proviennent le terme et la notion [de la mise en scène], à quoi ils ont servi, et servent encore’ (p.11). In order to do so, thirteen chapters are included, covering such diverse topics as the staging of contemporary and classical works, the actor's physicality and the use of media on stage. Underpinning the book is a reflection about the transfer of the concept of mise en scène to and from different cultures, which is brought to the fore most brilliantly in the chapter on contemporary Korean theatre production. Pavis also explores the differences in French and English terminology and critical approach to theatre study. He comments on the difficulty of finding French equivalents of physical theatre, embodiment and performance studies, and notices different conceptions of stage art as revealed in the usage of the term production compared with mise en scène. Also included in the book are (too?) many performance analyses – the quantity of material commented upon is certainly impressive. Among these, a study of the Théâtre du Soleil's Les Ephémères (2006–8) is of particular note, since there are currently few critical texts that have sought to engage with the company's most recent production. It is regrettable that the reproduction of the photography intended as illustrative material is of poor quality, and that, consequently, the images are not very clear. A more extensive bibliography would also have been useful given the intended audience of (to quote the dustcover) students ‘de cycles L, M et D d’études théâtrales et littéraires ainsi qu'aux professionnels et aux amateurs de la scène'. However, I would nevertheless argue that La Mise en scène contemporaine represents a fascinating analysis and questioning of contemporary theatrical practices. Furthermore, I would suggest that it could provide a useful reading companion to another reflection on contemporary (French) theatre published around the same date, David Bradby's Le Théâtre en France de 1968 à aujourd'hui.

The Commentaries of Ghiberti in the Florentine culture of the Quattrocento. Ghiberti’s Commentaries have so far been little considered in the studies of this artist, but they deserve a closer look in the context of Quattrocento writings. The text presents considerable difficulties both in interpretation and in translation. The author of the present article attempts to deal with some of these difficulties, putting forward some hypotheses about the obscure circumstances in which the text was written, and underlining some other outstanding points. Ghiberti draws attention to the importance of the multi-disciplinarity which is necessary for the training of artists, and also stresses the fact that it is the mastery of theoretical texts on art which distinguishes the artist from the mere artisan-practitioner. Dealing with art history from Antiquity, Ghiberti more or less follows the model of Pliny, paying closer attention to the works which have might actually have been able to see. He attempts to built up a real critical discourse around these works. As for other humanists of his time, classical Antiquity remains for Ghiberti a major reference, both in the writings conserved and in the actual works of art. Ghiberti himself possessed a real private collection of such classical works. As for the contemporary works of his period, Ghiberti paints a broad panorama, based on geographical schools and following a chronological scheme inspired by the notions of the progress, the death and the rebirth of art. He also puts forward some personal preferences, based on the subjective value of the works considered. Ghiberti’s Commentaries also throw much light on the artist’s own career, giving details which are useful for the history of art in general. The Commentaries, however do not represent an autobiography but a critical text mainly devoted to works of art in their material reality.

In the study of classical works, one of the pressing issues pertains to textual criticism which related to the objects of literary source studies such as variants of basic texts, lists, autographs. This aspect provides an opportunity for a more in-depth analysis of the creative history of a specific work and the author’s function in the artistic text as the basis of the plot-mythological dualism, particularly characteristic of early 20th century literature. The article identifies specific issues of textual criticism to the study of Yakut poet Alexei Kulakovsky’s works. The aim is to outline the textual parameters for analyzing the poem “The Shaman’s Dream” and to introduce previously underutilized sources from Kulakovsky’s heritage, including an early version of the main text and publications from 1946, 1978, and 2002. The methodological basis is grounded in research from the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences, representing significant textual discoveries based on the analytical systematization of literary sources. It also draws on the works of Yury Lotman, Valery Tiupa, and Larisa Lun’kova, focusing on structural and semiotic analysis and exploration of literary time and artistic space within literary work. The article is structured in three directions: the main character’s image in the contexts of the “emotional-volitional attitude” (Mikhail Bakhtin) of the author’s principle; an analysis of the poem’s early version; the presentation of observations on editing the poet’s text in publishing his poetry. The study of the presented materials revealed certain aspects of the creative history caused by the author’s editing, specifically a significant change in the main character’s function; and clarified several occurrences of various violations in the logical relationships of the poem’s fragments in the three indicated editions. It is proved that the poem “The Shaman’s Dream” by Alexei Kulakovsky is original not only in its theme and problems, but also in the poet’s talent in finding a significant approach to form and material, in determining within the boundaries of a figurative word the artistic regularity of their elements and the logical interrelation of parts.

Reviewed by: Theios Sophistes: Essays on Flavius Philostratus' Vita Apollonii James A. Francis Kristoffel Demoen and Danny Praet (eds.). Theios Sophistes: Essays on Flavius Philostratus' Vita Apollonii. Mnemosyne Supplements, 305. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Pp. xvi, 405. $200.00. ISBN 978-90-04-17109-1. The Vita Apollonii (VA), Philostratus' lengthy work—whether it is correct to call it a "life" is disputed—on the first-century philosopher cum miracle worker cum mountebank Apollonius of Tyana, has finally come into its own, and with it, Philostratus himself. Once only valued for what light it shed on the historical Jesus and the New Testament, then for "aretology" and the late antique holy man, new literary approaches and broader historical perspectives have begun to demonstrate the value of the VA in its own right. This volume, produced from a four-year research project at the University of Ghent, synopsizes and advances this development. Its fifteen essays, mostly in English and mostly from European scholars both notable and new, derive from a conference sponsored by the project at the Royal Academy in Brussels in 2006. The book is formally divided into two parts, on the literary and philological aspects of the VA and on the historical, religious, and philosophical aspects; this review, however, will discuss the essays along themes that cut across their formal organization. To begin with the fundamentals, Gerard Boter makes the case for a new critical edition of the VA —on which he has embarked—and presents a new stemma codicum. Christopher Jones discusses the evidence for the historical Apollonius and evidence from the letters attributed to him. Specific scenes from the VA are the focus of two essays. Peter Grosshardt studies the visit of Apollonius to the mound of Achilles from a literary perspective, while Jaap-Jan Flinterman focuses on Apollonius' ascension in the context of religious and archaeological evidence. A number of analytical themes echo throughout the essays in this volume. Alain Billaut takes up the fundamental question of whether the VA can be considered a biography. He argues not only that the work sits firmly within the genre but that Philostratus constructs a metabiographical discourse in explicitly commenting on his choices and motivations for what to include in his account. This issue is also pursued by Luc Van der Stockt in comparing Philostratus' work with Plutarch, and by Marc Van Uytfanghe who examines the VA as a hagiographic discourse. As with Billaut, metanarrative is also the focus of Wannes Gyselinck and Kristoffel Demoen, who discuss the complex narration of the VA in their essay. Distinguishing between the author and the narrator's voice in the work, they see a metafictional discourse in which Philostratus plays with the very concept of fiction for his most sophisticated readers. Similarly, Thomas Schirren explores metanarrative irony in the VA, and brings to the fore Philostratus' mastery in creating a polysemic text. This polysemy can be seen in a series of essays that treat the VA from specific, and refreshingly new, perspectives. Moving from narrative to reception studies, Graeme Miles examines Apollonius' portrayal as an interpreter [End Page 382] in the VA, and presents reflections on visuality and the connection between word and image that are both cutting-edge and profound. Ewen Bowie asks what can be learned from studying the quotations and allusions Philostratus uses and offers valuable tables of citations as a prolegomenon to such a study. Equally thought-provoking is Graham Anderson's examination of the VA from the prospective of folklore. John R. Morgan approaches the work from the perspective of the Emesan sun cult, drawing intriguing comparisons to Heliodorus' Aethiopica, while Erkki Koskenniemi examines Apollonius as teacher. Revisiting an old theme with fresh eyes, Danny Praet assays the VA from a philosophical perspective and reaches a conclusion that characterizes much of the work in this volume: "Philostratus did something quite unique in the Vita Apollonii. He wrote a highly sophisticated literary work that functions on different levels simultaneously: it is a remarkable piece of literary entertainment but it is also a work that should be taken very seriously both in the history of philosophy and in the history of literary technique" (320). This volume demonstrates the truth of...

The Greek dossier on St. Christodoulos, founder of the monastery of Patmos (1088), consists of four texts, three vitae and a narrative of a miracle, all written within roughly two centuries after the saint’s death by brethren of his monastic community. They are not only important for the reconstruction of the course of life of one of the most famous Byzantine saints, but they are also a unique source for the political and social history of Byzantium and the Eastern Mediterranean from the late 11th to the 13th century. Despite their great importance, these texts have remained almost unknown until today because they are contained in a 19th century edition that is hardly accessible any more and was intended exclusively for the monks and visitors of the John Prodromos Monastery. The new critical edition, which is accompanied by a critical and exhaustive apparatus of sources as well as an index of personal names and of all passages of previous authors quoted or referred to in the texts, will be appreciated by historians and literary scholars alike. Historians will now have at their disposal an important source for the history of the Comnenian period and beyond, while scholars interested in Byzantine literature will have the opportunity to examine in depth four important and rather complex documents, which offer three different visions of the phenomenon of sanctity in Byzantium at the eve of the Fourth Crusade. The introduction discusses several literary, historical and text-critical aspects of the dossier. Extensive summaries in English make these texts available to a wider audience for the first time.

This paper presents research on sarakata manuscript from the collection of the National Library of the Republic of Indonesia. The Sarakata analyzed in this research is entitled “Surat-Surat dari Aceh” with the code ML 447. This sarakata was written in the 19th century using Jawi script. This sarakata consists of nine letters, but in this study only four sarakatas are analysed, namely sarakata 3, 5, 6, and 7. We chose those sarakatas because it contains historical, economic, political, social, and Islamic law aspects. The method used when transliterating is a critical edition. The structure of the text is examined using ‘guidance of correspondence’ in Kitab Tarasul. When compared with that, the SSA sarakata has only five elements, but it has an element that is not contained in Kitab Tarasul, namely the pledge. The different correspondence formats occured because Aceh has its own Islamic-proprietary-custom. The seal in sarakata (sikureueng seal) is examined using sigillography. Based on a that study, sikureueng seal is ‘the seal used by the Aceh sultans in the establishment of important royal letters containing the name of the ruling sultan’. This seal can consist of nine circles or one circle. The different design and decoration of the seal depict the arts and specific objectives of each king. This usage is examined using the semiosis process by Pierce. The results show that the sikureueng seal is adorned with natural and geometric forms that have their own meanings, such as hope of growth, peace, welfare, life, and longevity.