Early Sources Research Articles

Sentius Saturninus and the Roman Invasion of Britain

Our fullest account, indeed the only account of any length, of the Roman invasion of Britain in a.d. 43 appears in the Roman History of Cassius Dio, composed from earlier sources in the third century. Not surprisingly, this is taken as providing a narrative framework for the events of the invasion. However, Dio's account omits or is unclear about even major matters of importance: in recent years, for example, there has been a debate over whether the army commanded by Aulus Plautius actually landed in Kent or in Sussex. A brief notice of the invasion appears in the Breviarium of the fourth-century writer Eutropius. The significance of what Eutropius wrote is examined below and its importance for the strategy of the invasion is assessed.

The game of leaves: an inquiry into the origin of Chinese playing cards

A passion for card games, like a delight in drinking tea, is something which nowadays unites China with the rest of the world; and, as with tea drinking, many have surmised that the pastime of playing cards arose in China and spread westwards. I begin this study with a consideration of the rules of card games, and suggest that the rules themselves may offer, in some cases, evidence of transmission from East to West. To those interested in past cultural contacts, this suggestion in itself illustrates the value of trying to reconstruct the regulations of early games long forgotten, quite apart from the value of such research to sinologists. But it is not just the rules of play which need to be considered in such a context. The format of the playing card as a physical object that is small, portable and suited to mass production has prompted the thought that cards may have been one of the easiest samples of Chinese printing technique to pass between East and West. For this reason, the main focus of my study in reconstruction is on a pastime, theyezi xi(game of leaves), which dates to about the same time as our earliest sources on the origins of printing, but which eventually died out, to be superseded by other amusements. Are the surviving materials sufficient to confirm or deny existing speculations about its form? And if this was not a card game, when precisely did such games develop? But before considering such sinological questions, let us start closer to home.

The Chinese for ‘Confucius’ confirmed

In February 1999 I published a review article in the Bulletin (62/1) pointing to the difficulties encountered in trying to confirm the derivation of the Latin term ‘ Confucius’ from its supposed Chinese original, ‘ Kong Fuzi’. Briefly, the only general lexicographer to cite the Chinese term from premodern materials, Morohashi Tetsuji, does no more than quote a memorial inscription from the early nineteenth century, long after the Jesuit coinage of the Latin term, for a Mongol period figure from amongst the descendants of Confucius. Other earlier sources on this figure do not confirm the usage ‘ Kong Fuzi’ in his memorial materials, but only the more usual‘ Kong Zi’. Consequently, my own speculation was that ‘ Kong Fuzi’ could have represented a deliberate barbarism on the part of the nineteenth-century author, Cai Jinquan. The expression ‘Kong Fuzi’, therefore, remained unattested before the Jesuits, raising the suspicion that it might even be a back-formation from Latin rather than genuinely Chinese.

Aristotle: Form, function, and comparative anatomy

Aristotle: Form, function, and comparative anatomy

De quelques conventions picturales : Le char et ses représentations aux Ve-IVe siècles avant notre ère

Alain Thote : On Pictural Conventions. The Representations of Chariots in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C. In China, the first pictorial scenes appeared in the Fifth century B.C. They were made by inlaying or engraving the surface of bronze vessels, or were painted on lacquer. With these different methods the artists equally produced schematic images. Some of the images show chariots, the representation of which raises many difficulties. In this case study, this writer will try to show that the pictorial conventions used by the artists changed suddenly between the Fifth and the Fourth centuries B.C. While free from technical constraints, painting would at the same time acquire its independence and become an artistic expression per se. The first images of chariots lack consistency, since they were conceived to reconcile different viewpoints that could not match together. In fact, these first images of chariots were produced with conventions that remind us of the iconic nature of the graphical sign used during the Shang and the Western Zhou periods to designate the Chinese character che. An even earlier source would be the rock engravings drawn by the peoples of Central Asia. This steppe connection is not so surprising, since the chariot was borrowed by Shang people around 1200 B.C. as a result of long distance exchanges with the Central Asian populations. By the Fourth century B.C., these early conventions were abandoned quite suddenly. The artists began to explore new ways of representation, creating images that were close to what they saw with their eyes. They tried to set a natural environment. Furthermore, they focused on what was essential to the interpretation of the images, leaving aside all superfluous details, and finally they dared to superimpose objects or even people to provide depth. A narrative structure appeared at the same time, accompanied with lighter compositions. The new conventions adopted by the artists produced much more «readable» images and stimulated the birth of painting as a fine art.

The Jews in Medieval Normandy: A Social and Intellectual History

Introduction 1. The earliest sources 2. Extent and antiquity of Jewish settlement in Normandy 3. From Robert of Normandy until the First Crusade 4. The Jewish quarter of Rouen in the twelfth century 5. School and community in the reign of Henry I and Angevin times 6. Masters of the law in the mid-twelfth century 7. Abraham Ibn Ezra and his literary activities in Normandy 8. Disciples of the masters: Rouennaise scholars during the reign of Henry II Plantagenet 9. The civil status of the Jews from Henry II to John Lackland 10. The Tosafists 11. From the last years of Philip Augustus to the reign of Louis IX 12. The final decades Appendices Bibliography.

Alchemy vs. chemistry: the etymological origins of a historiographic mistake.

The parallel usage of the two terms "alchemy" and "chemistry" by seventeenth-century writers has engendered considerable confusion among historians of science. Many historians have succumbed to the temptation of assuming that the early modern term "chemistry" referred to something like the modern discipline, while supposing that "alchemy" pertained to a different set of practices and beliefs, predominantly the art of transmuting base metals into gold. This paper provides the first exhaustive analysis of the two terms and their interlinguistic cognates in the seventeenth century. It demonstrates that the intentional partition of the two terms with the restriction of alchemy to the sense of metallic transmutation was not widely accepted until the end of the seventeenth century, if even then. The major figure in the restriction of meaning, Nicholas Lemery, built on a spurious interpretation of the Arabic definite article al, which he inherited from earlier sources in the chemical textbook tradition. In order to curtail the tradition of anachronism and distortion engendered by the selective use of the terms "alchemy" and "chemistry" by historians, the authors conclude by suggesting a return to seventeenth-century terminology for discussing the different aspects of the early modern discipline "chymistry."

An Ancient Jewish-Christian Source on the History of Christianity: Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 1. 27-71 (review)

Reviewed by: An Ancient Jewish-Christian Source on the History of Christianity: Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions Lawrence E. Frizzell F. Stanley Jones. An Ancient Jewish-Christian Source on the History of Christianity: Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 1. 27–71. Texts and Translations’ Christian Apocrypha Series. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Pp. xiii + 208. $39.95. The Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions and Homilies bear witness to an early Christian novel describing Clement of Rome’s conversion to Christian faith, his travels with St. Peter and his discovery of lost members of his family. Do these texts, which share much material in common, depend on an earlier “Basic Writing?” How do they relate to other sources for the history of the early Church? F. Stanley Jones offers a thorough review of scholarship over the past century and a half, with critical remarks that evaluate the debate. Thus he lays the foundation for his own work. Versions survive in Syriac and in Latin (the work of Rufinus of Aquileia about 406), with fragments of the original Greek and in an Armenian translation. Jones renders an important service by translating the Syriac of Recognitions 1:27–71 for the first time and placing it in parallel with his rendering of the Latin, as well as the Armenian fragments. This covers 57 pages of careful work. But why were the original texts not included in a series of appendices? The presence of these materials would have allowed the historian or theologian to use this work more effectively. The second contribution of this book is a 44 page chapter on the “isolation of the source material.” Here Jones interacts with other scholars as he looks for signs of the redactor’s touch and then postulates that a “Basic Writing” can be extracted from the extant sources. He discusses quotations of the Pseudo-Clementine texts in the Chronicon Paschale, the Panarion of Epiphanius, and the Apostolic Constitutions. Again it would have been helpful to include the original of these passages. The relationship of the Clementine stories to the Book of Jubilees, the New Testament, and the passages of Hegesippus preserved by Eusebius is reviewed as well. Currently scholars agree that Hegesippus and Recognitions 1.27–72 depend on an earlier source or tradition rather than one drawing directly from the other. Jones would be happy however, to make this section of Recognitions derive from Hegesippus (142–45). How do the sources of Recognitions 1. 27–71 relate to “The Ascents of [End Page 288] James” mentioned by Epiphanius? Common themes are found elsewhere in early Jewish Christian sources and differences make contact unlikely. However, Jones finds links with the extant citations from the Gospel of the Ebionites and Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho (148–50). Jones posits an original structure for the Basic Writing (150–55) and, in a brief concluding chapter, he builds on his theory that the original narrator in the source is Matthew. Thus he presents traditions that might claim an antiquity equal to the Pauline letters. “This study has unearthed the thoughts and struggles of at least one of these Jewish Christians” (of the late second century) (168). The traditions include a development of the Jubilees story about Abraham as an astrologer, a concern for the Land of Israel, an understanding of Jesus’ death as a sacrifice and its effect on Temple worship, the destruction of the Temple and the wretched lot of Jews thereafter. Each of these topics receives only a sketchy treatment in this investigation. There is an extensive bibliography and fine indices (passages from ancient literature, modern authors and subjects). Lawrence E. Frizzell Seton Hall University South Orange, New Jersey Copyright © 1997 The Johns Hopkins University Press

When is a harp a panpipe?

From the Archaic period to the sixth century A.D., as well as in later Byzantine lexica, we find numerous instances of the word TTTJKTIS as the name of a musical instrument. It occurs in some 78 passages:1 enough, one might suppose, to establish its meaning beyond peradventure. Yet of all ancient instrument names, this one proves to be the most Protean. In the earlier sources it designates a harp. Later it is applied to other types of stringed instrument, both to lyres and to lutes. But it does not remain confined to the chordophone category, for in the Imperial period it frequently signifies a panpipe. As no complete collection and analysis of the evidence has ever been made, I have thought it worth while to undertake one.

Stewart Pollens. The Early Piano-forte. (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 158 pls. + xx + 297 pp. $ 84.95.

REVIEWS 1269 material for comparative analysis. Also the discussion of older mathemat- ical sources is marginal. By contrast, Bonker frequently cites twentieth-cen- tury mathematical literature; however, most of these references are too short and enigmatic to be of any help. Bru- no's alleged anticipations of modern science are either too arbitrary (regard- ing the unity of method on 68 and 249) or not argued for (e.g. the relation with Leibniz in chap. 8). Surprisingly the author seems unacquainted with P. Rossi’s Clavis universalis and with S. R.icci's studies on the reception of Bru- no in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, the initial claim regarding Bruno's contribution to the development of mathematics — that it consisted of an essential impulse to- wards the analysis of the scope of ma- thematical logic through the attempt to assess the premises of mathematical thought and to understand the divine unity with mathematical means — re- mains unwarranted. LEEN Smturr University of Rome “La Sapienzaq Stewart Polleru. The Early Piano- forte. (Cambridge Musical Texts and Monographs.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 158 pls. + xx + 297 pp. 5 84.95. The origins of most musical in- struments are obscure. Many are deri- vations and subspecies whose ancient origins cannot be traced. Equally problematic is the fact that throughout the ages there were constant changes of constructional details. resulting in the eventual reclassification into distinct instruments. Therefore, it is rare in the history of musical instruments that we should have access to the docu- ments which give the approximate date and circurmtance of the invention of an instrument, as well as the surviv- ing instruments that support those documents. Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) has been regarded as the inventor of the pianoforte. and his invention of the principle of striking the string marked the beginning of a continuum of developments that led to the modern piano. His contemporary also believed the pianoforte was a “nuova inventione” made in Florence around 1700 by Cristofori, then in the service of Prince Ferdinand de’ Medici. Contrary to the widely accepted theory on the invention of the piano, Stewart Pollens argues that the strik- ing mechanism that distinguishes the pianoforte from other stringed key- board instruments was known long before Cristofori, and that what Cris- tofori achieved was the ‘‘rediscovery'’ of the principle of striking the string and the adaptation of the hammer ac- tion to his instrument. The earliest written document Pollens examines is a treatise written ca. 1440 by Henri Arnaut of Zwolle. a physician and as- trologer to Philip the Good. Arnaut provides technical descriptions and drawings of several instruments. among them dulce melos. Pollens be- lieves that Arnaut's description of the dulce melos provides ample evidence for the existence of the striking action similar to the one employed on Cris- tolori's pianofortes and that Arnaut recorded the technique from an earlier source. The exchanges of musical in- struments and musicians between the court of Burgundy and the court of Ferrara provide tangible evidence that Arnaut’s dalce melos or the idea of striking action on a string keyboard instrument was exported to Italy in the fifteenth century. Indeed, the next reference to keyboard instruments with the facility for playing piano and

Binaural Cross-Correlation Predicts the Responses of Neurons in the Owl’s Auditory Space Map under Conditions Simulating Summing Localization

Summing localization describes the perceptions of human listeners to two identical sounds from different locations presented with delays of 0-1 msec. Usually a single source is perceived to be located between the two actual source locations, biased toward the earlier source. We studied neuronal responses within the space map of the barn owl to sounds presented with this same paradigm. The owl's primary cue for localization along the azimuth, interaural time difference (ITD), is based on a cross-correlation-like treatment of the signals arriving at each ear. The output of this cross-correlation is displayed as neural activity across the auditory space map in the external nucleus of the owl's inferior colliculus. Because the ear input signals reflect the physical summing of the signals generated by each speaker, we first recorded the sounds at each ear and computed their cross-correlations at various interstimulus delays. The resulting binaural cross-correlation surface strongly resembles the pattern of activity across the space map inferred from recordings of single space-specific neurons. Four peaks are observed in the cross-correlation surface for any nonzero delay. One peak occurs at the correlation delay equal to the ITD of each speaker. Two additional peaks reflect "phantom sources" occurring at correlation delays that match the signal of the left speaker in one ear with the signal of the right speaker in the other ear. At zero delay, the two phantom peaks coincide. The surface features are complicated further by the interactions of the various correlation peaks.

Astronomy and Astrology in the Works of Abraham ibn Ezra

Abraham ibn Ezra the Spaniard (d. 1167) was one of the foremost transmitters of Arabic science to the West. His astrological and astronomical works, written in Hebrew and later translated into Latin, were considered authoritative by many medieval Jewish and Christian scholars. Some of the works he translated from Arabic are no longer extant in their original form, and on occasion his treatises provide information about earlier sources that is otherwise poorly preserved, if at all. Ibn Ezra seems to be the earliest scholar to record one of the seven methods for setting up the astrological houses, and this method was subsequently used by Levi ben Gerson (d. 1344) in southern France.

Der Exodyszyklus der Sarajevo-Haggada: Bemerkungen zur Arbeitsweise spätmittelalterlicher jüdischer Illuminatoren und ihrem Umgang mit Vorlagen

This article searches out the iconographic models of the Sarajevo Haggadah. One of the purposes of this search is to contribute a few observations to the recently much-debated question of recensions. It appears that the iconographic models of the Sarajevo-Haggadah are of specifically western character and in many cases hark back to late antique sources. These sources are manifold and originate from different iconographic traditions, but they also point clearly to the phenomenon of transmission of iconographic types and formulae from earlier sources, such as an early Christian Pentateuch. Therefore, it seems that the Haggadah's illuminator combined a variety of available sources in order to create a distinctive cycle with very specific characteristics. To this extent the article reinforces methods developed in the search for recensions. On the other hand, it has been believed that the whole group of sephardic cycles goes back to a common Jewish prototype. The following article challenges this assumption and shows that it is more likely that the Jewish illuminators used a variety of Christian models which they modified according to their specific needs. The article concentrates on the question of how medieval illuminators made use of models and how free they were to modify, to combine, and to enrich them.

Fi Masadir al Turath al Siyasi al Islami

This is perhaps one of the most useful books I have come across inrecent years. In an age when almost every Middle East or Islamic studiesspecialist is obsessed with "political Islam" or "radical or fundamentalistIslam," and when the western mass media and below-average media specialistson the Muslim world try to explain "the rage of Islam" to theiraudience, this book is a forceful reminder that the political language ofcontemporary Islamic revivalism is grounded in a historically establishedand rich Islamic (political) tradition. It also reminds us that in order to dojustice to the political principles of the modem Islamic movement, boththe academics and the media specialists must familiarize themselves withthis rich and historically constructed tradition.The author's primary intention is to document and discuss the mainsources (i.e., writings) of Islamic political thought from the first centuriesto the present. To 'Arif, the Islamic theory of knowledge and practice,which is based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah, has worked as a catalyst thatenabled the Muslim mind to construct a unique political theory that takesinto account changing sociopolitical and historical conditions. As a result,"political thought" has always formed the crux of Islamic thinking in generaland has never been divorced from the unique evolution and progressof Islamic civilization. What this means, in effect, is that for a modemscholar to carry out research, let us say, on the concept of jihad in Islam,he/she must trace the concept to its earlier sources and study it in its epistemologicaland historical evolutions. Concepts do change, depending on ...

The Cognitive Origins of John's Unitive and Disunitive Christology'

AbstractThe most distinctive aspect of John's christology is not that it is the highest in the New Testament, or that it is the lowest; that the Son is one with the Father, or subordinate to the Father; that eschatology is present, or futuristic; that Jesus knows what is going to happen, or that he anguishes in pathos; that the signs are embellished, or that they are existentialized. The most distinctive aspect of John's christology is that both parts of these polarities, and others, are held together in dynamic tension within the Johannine narrative. This is the most salient characteristic of John's christology. Not only has it been the primary source of classic christological debates,2 but it has also been the prevalent interest of most modern historical, literary and theological investigations of the Fourth Gospel.3 A primary strategy for addressing John's christological unity and disunity has been to pose a diachronic history of composition involving the conflation of earlier sources and later editions. In other words, John's perplexities can be addressed by assuming multiple sources, authors and contexts of the material's origins. Such approaches are indeed attractive, as several of John's perplexities are addressed through them. However, because conclusive evidence for such sources is itself in doubt, other attempts to understand the origin of these tensions must be explored. They cannot be ignored or simply harmonized away. The above work (Anderson, 1995) identifies four major sources of John's christological unity and disunity, but this essay is concerned with only one of those. Namely, the degree to which John's christological unity and disunity may be attributed to cognitive factors in the thinking and experience of the evangelist.4

Religious Motives for Columbus's First Voyage

Summary To support the thesis that a religious impulse helped push Christopher Columbus across (he Atlantic to the shores of the New World, this essay first examines Columbus's Book of Prophecies (ca. 1502) to disclose the apocalyptic nature of the Admiral's Christianity. An analysis of the postils, or marginal notes, in Colum-bus's copy of Historie rerum ubique gestarum, probably made in the early 1480s, establishes that key elements in Columbus's eschatological framework were present in the earliest sources available. In addition, repeated declarations of the evangelical purpose of the Enterprise in Columbus's two records of the voyage, the Carta de Colon of 1493 and the Log, some of which refer to Columbus's presentations to the Catholic Monarchs, reaffirm (he missionary character of the first voyage.

The lost chant tradition of early Christian Jerusalem: some possible melodic survivals in the Byzantine and Latin chant repertories

The medieval chant traditions of the Eastern and Western churches can generally be traced back to about the tenth century, when the earliest surviving notated manuscripts were created. In these earliest sources, the various traditions are already distinct from each other and fully formed, each with thousands of chants that are assigned to at least eight modes and belong to dozens of melody types or families, carefully distributed across the daily, weekly and annual cycles of a complicated liturgical calendar. Yet we have hardly any information at all as to how these traditions evolved into the highly complex state in which we first find them. Where did they come from and when did they originate? How and when did they achieve the relatively fixed form in which we know them? Questions such as these have been important in chant research during the last thirty years, ever since Willi Apel outlined what he called ‘the “central” problem of the chant, that is, the question concerning its origin and development’. But attempts to investigate these questions have often been conceived too narrowly, overlooking as much evidence as they include or more. For instance, many scholars have written about ‘the central problem’ as if it belonged mainly to Gregorian chant and its close relative, the Old Roman or special Urban repertory, when in fact the origins and early history of almost every tradition of Eastern and Western chant are equally obscure.

Advanced high-current ECR ion sources for implanters

We have already introduced a high-current ECR ion source producing a 200-mA beam of oxygen ions with an 80% O+ fraction. Two more advanced ECR sources with a high-current density of more than 100 mA/cm2 have been newly developed. One source provides high-current density without the accompanying damage to the microwave transmitting window found with the earlier source. This damage, which occurs when high-speed backstream electrons attack the window, limits source lifetime. By adopting a multiple microwave inlet configuration for the introduction of microwaves into the plasma chamber, the ECR condition can be satisfied and high-density plasma can be generated without an attack by backstream electrons. The other is a very compact source producing a high-current beam at a very low-power consumption. This is achieved by reducing the inner diameter of the plasma chamber to 5 cm φ, which is smaller than the cutoff dimensions for propagation of the 2.45 GHz microwave. A high-plasma density of 1 × 1013 cm−3 has been obtained at the low microwave power of 250 W.

Mössbauer study of iron doped oxides of copper and manganese

57Fe doped CuO, La2−xSrxCuO4 and MnO2 have been prepared by the Nitrate route. In all the three oxides the isomer shift values lie in the range 0.25–0.36 mm/s which is typical for the Fe3+ state. The Mossbauer parameters of iron doped CuO differ considerably from those obtained in earlier source experiments. The difference may be attributed to the aftereffects of nuclear decay.

The earliest sources of Notker's sequences: St Gallen, Vadiana 317, and Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale lat. 10587

‘This little book has verses of composedmodulamen, so that he who wishes to be retentive may hold on to his breath.’ With this elegiac distich Notker Balbulus concluded the preface dedicating hisLiber ymnorumto Liutward, Bishop of Vercelli, abbot of Bobbio, archchaplain and chancellor to the then emperor, Charles the Fat. The collection of sequences must have been sent to Liutward during 884, since by December of that year Notker had broken off work on hisMetrum de vita sancti Galli, mentioned in the preface to theLiber ymnorumas in the process of preparation. The genesis of the book of sequences can be traced farther back: Notker tells in his preface how, on showing verses to his teacher Iso, corrections were proposed. Later he presented some ‘little verses’ to his teacher Marcellus (the Irish monk Moengal) who ‘with joy’ collected them on parchment scrolls (rotulae) and gave them to his students to sing. Marcellus died at St Gallen in 871, Iso in the same year at the monastery of Moutier-Grandval, where he had been sent to teach some time previously. Many of the ‘versus modulaminis apti’ must have been composed already by 871.