Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The thesis has two aims. The first is to show that a more charitable approach to Manilius, such as Lucretian scholarship has exhibited in recent decades, yields a wealth of exciting discoveries that earlier scholarship has not thought to look for. The thesis' contributions to this project centre on three aspects of the poem: (I) the sophistication of its didactic techniques, which draw and build on various predecessors in the tradition of didactic poetry; (II) its cosmological, physical and theological basis, which has no exact parallel elsewhere in either astrology or natural philosophy, and despite clear debts to various traditions, is demonstrably the invention of our poet; (III) the extent to which rationales and physical bases are offered for points of astrological theory – something unparalleled in other astrological texts until Ptolemy. The second, related aim of the thesis is to offer a more satisfying interpretation of the poem as a whole than those that have hitherto been put forward. Again the cue comes from Lucretius: though the DRN is at first sight primarily an exposition of Epicurean physics, it becomes clear that its principal concern is ethical, steering its reader away from superstition, the fear of death and other damaging thought-patterns. Likewise, the Astronomica makes the best sense when its principal message is taken to be not the set of astrological statements that make up its bulk, but the poem’s peculiar world- view, for which those statements serve as an evidential basis. It is, on this reading, just as much a poem ‘on the nature of the universe', which provides the title of my thesis. At the same time, however, it finds new truth in the conventional assumption that Manilius is first and foremost an advocate of astrology: it reveals his efforts to defend astrology at all costs, uncovers strategies for making the reader more amenable to further astrological study and practice, and contends that someone with Manilius' set of beliefs must first have been a devotee of astrology before embracing a natural- philosophical perspective such as his. The thesis is divided into prolegomena and commentaries, which pursue the aims presented above in two different but complementary ways. The prolegomena comprise five chapters, outlined below: Chapter 1 presents a comprehensive survey of the evidence for the cosmology, physics and theology of the Astronomica, and discovers that a coherent and carefully thought-out world-view underlies the poem. It suggests that this Stoicising world- view is drawn exclusively from a few philosophical works of Cicero, but is nonetheless the product of careful synthesis. Chapter 2 explores the relationship between this world-view and earlier Academic criticism of astrology and concludes that the former has been developed as a direct response to these criticisms, specifically as set out in Cicero’s De divinatione. Chapter 3 examines the later impact of Manilius’ astrological world-view, as far as it can be detected, assessing the evidence for the early reception of his poem and its role in the history of philosophical astrology. The overwhelming impression is that the work was received as a serious contribution to debate over the physical and theological underpinnings of astrology; its world-view was absorbed into the mainstream of astrological theory and directly targeted in the next wave of Academic criticism of astrology. Chapter 4 looks at the more subtle strategies of persuasion that are at work in the Astronomica. It observes, first, a number of structural devices and word- patternings that set up the poem as a model of the universe it describes. This first part of the chapter concludes by asking what didactic and/or philosophical purpose such modelling could serve. The second part examines how, by a gradual process of habituation-through-metaphor, the reader is made familiar with the conventional astrological way of thinking about the world, which might otherwise have struck him as a baffling mass of contradictions. The third part looks at the use of certain rhetorical figures, particularly paradox, to re-emphasise important physical claims and assist the process of habituation. Chapter 5 takes on the task of making sense of the Astronomica as a whole, seeking out an underlying rationale behind the choice and ordering of material, accounting as well as is possible for its apparently premature end, and asking why, if it is a serious piece of natural-philosophical teaching, it so often appears to be self- undermining. A short epilogue asks what path can have led Manilius to embark on such a work as the Astronomica. It offers a sketch of the author as an adherent (but not a practitioner) of astrology, who had developed a philosophical system first as scaffolding for an art under threat, but had then come to see more importance in that philosophical underpinning than in the activities of prediction. The lemmatised commentaries that follow cover several passages from the first book of the Astronomica. As crucial as the remaining four books are to his natural-philosophical teaching, it is in this part of the poem that Manilius concentrates the direct expositions of his world-view. Like the chapters, the commentaries' two concerns are the nature and the exposition of the work's world-view. Each of the commentaries has its own focus, but all make full use of the format to tease out the poet's teaching strategies and watch his techniques operate 'in real time' over protracted stretches of text. Finally, an appendix presents the case for the Astronomica as the earliest evidence for the use of plane-image star maps. At two points in his tour of the night sky Manilius describes the positions of constellations in a way that suggests that he is consulting a stereographic projection of each hemisphere, and that he is assuming his reader has one to hand, too. This observation casts valuable new light on the development of celestial cartography.

Thesis (MPhil (Ancient Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is an attempt to investigate whether the Babylonians of the periods prior to the 6th Century BCE possessed an interest in the workings of celestial bodies reaching beyond the scope of what would today be regarded as astrology – the idea that the movements of the stars were signs from the gods, foretelling the future. The objective is thus to see whether it is possible that at least some of the texts recording the phenomena present in the night sky could have been compiled for what could be termed a more “scientific” purpose: recording the stars out of an interest in how the universe works. It will be acknowledged that to the people of the time, the formal study of the movements of astral bodies, as well as any supernatural implications they might hold, were not separate fields. This, of course, stands in contrast to the differentiated modern schools of astronomy and astrology. In order to investigate the possibility that to some individuals the former took precedence (and by implication that they possessed what could be termed a more “scientific” frame of mind), selected sources, particularly the different sections of the text known as MUL.APIN, will be analysed for signs of content and approaches more befitting to the field of generalised study than that of divination. It will be found, however, that although some texts do show signs of study isolated from divination (through, for example, the inclusion of detail which would have no relevance to the aforementioned), others, which at first glance appear purely astronomical, contain information contrary to what would be expected of a thorough investigation of visible reality. This includes idealised dates and intentionally falsified information, inserted to have the recorded universe appear to conform to conservative ideology. In order to make this point clearer, cosmological aspects of this ideology will be introduced even before the astronomical texts are analysed. Finally, it will be concluded that while scientific inclinations amongst the individuals recording the stars during this era was by no means the norm, there are indications that they were emerging in some. Though the field of Babylonian astral observations during this period cannot, as a whole, be classified as a science, does not mean that all its practitioners should be disqualified as scientific thinkers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is 'n poging om te ondersoek of die Babiloniërs van die periode voor die 6de eeu v.C. 'n belangstelling in die werking van die hemelliggame gehad het anders as wat vandag as astrologie beskou sou word – die idee dat die bewegings van die sterre tekens van die gode was wat die toekoms voorspel. Die doel is om te kyk of dit moontlik is dat ten minste sommige van die tekste wat die verskynsels van die naghemel aanteken vir 'n meer “wetenskaplike” doeleinde geskryf is: die dokumenteer van die sterre uit ‟n belangstelling in hoe die heelal werk. Daar word erken dat vir die mense van destyds die formele studie van die bewegings van hemelliggame, asook enige bonatuurlike implikasies wat hulle mag inhou, nie afsonderlike velde was nie. Dit is in teenstelling met die onderskeie moderne skole van astronomie en astrologie. Ten einde die moontlikheid te ondersoek dat vir sommige individue eersgenoemde voorrang geniet het (en by implikasie dat hulle 'n meer “wetenskaplike” denkwyse besit het), word geselekteerde bronne, veral die verskillende afdelings van die teks bekend as MUL.APIN, geanaliseer vir aanduidings van inhoud en benaderings wat meer van toepassing op die wetenskaplike veld as dié van divinasie is. Daar is egter bevind dat alhoewel sommige tekste aanduidings toon van studie wat onderskeibaar is van divinasie (byvoorbeeld, deur die insluiting van besonderhede wat van geen toepassing op die voorgemelde is nie), bevat ander, wat aanvanklik suiwer astronomies voorkom, inligting in teenstelling met wat van 'n deeglike ondersoek van die sigbare werklikheid verwag sou word. Dit sluit geïdealiseerde datums en opsetlik vervalste inligting in wat ingevoeg is om die aangetekende heelal skynbaar aan konserwatiewe ideologie te laat voldoen. Om hierdie punt duideliker te maak, word die kosmologiese aspekte van hierdie ideologie bekendgestel voor die astronomiese tekste geanaliseer word. Ten slotte, word die gevolgtrekking gemaak dat ofskoon wetenskaplike neigings onder individue wat die sterre gedurende hierdie tydperk gedokumenteer het geensins die norm was nie, daar wel aanduidings is dat dit in sommige te voorskyn kom. Hoewel die veld van Babiloniese sterrewaarneming gedurende hierdie periode nie in sy geheel as 'n wetenskap geklassifiseer kan word nie, beteken dit nie dat al sy beoefenaars as wetenskaplike denkers gediskwalifiseer moet word nie.

Malgré l’acceptation théorique et pratique que l’astrologie médiévale rencontre au 13e siècle latin, son statut philosophique ambigu tient, au moins en partie, à son double partage en art mécanique et en science libérale. Plus mystérieux encore reste le fait qu’elle apparaisse en Occident sans devoir violenter les cadres philosophiques où elle s’inscrit, aussi chrétiens soient-ils. Du point de vue de l’histoire de la philosophie, ce que cette arrivée en douceur passe sous silence, c’est l’enracinement conceptuel toujours déjà préétabli du projet astrologique à l’intérieur d’un contexte philosophique plus global, dans et par lequel l’idée d’influence astrale valide sa raison d’être. En passant par la philosophie naturelle et la métaphysique de Thomas d’Aquin, ce travail veut montrer comment l’astrologie médiévale survient en terres chrétiennes à partir de la rencontre de la hiérarchie causale de l’être propre à l’arabo-aristotélisme néo-platonisant avec une théologie de la providence divine. D’aporie en aporie, la déconstruction de ce que toute astrologie présuppose prend place, de sorte qu’il devient possible de comprendre l’aspect rationnel et proprement philosophique de l’entreprise astrologique au Moyen Âge. / In spite of the theoretical and practical acceptation that medieval astrology is greeted with during the 13th century in the Latin world, its philosophically ambiguous nature is due, at least partly so, to the distinction made between mechanical arts and liberal sciences. Even more mysterious is the fact that it appears in Occident without having to violate the peripheries of Latin philosophy, as Christian as it could be. From a history of philosophy point of view, this rather smooth entrance seems to imply that the astrological project is always-already conceptually rooted in a philosophical context larger than itself, by which it validates its raison d’être. Through the study of Thomas Aquinas’ natural philosophy and metaphysics, this work demonstrates that medieval astrology could occur among the Christian world whenever the causal hierarchy of being brought forth by Arabic aristotelianism and Neo-Platonism walked hand in hand with the Christian theology of divine providence. From an aporia to another, the deconstruction of what any astrology presupposes therefore takes place, from which it becomes possible to properly understand both the rational and philosophical aspect of the astrological enterprise during the Middle Ages.

The work introduces the reader into the etic definition of magic and into the Mandaean emic definition. Author chronologically and phenomenologically systematizes history of Western scholarship of Mandaic magical texts and then he deals with them phenomenologically, philologically and according to religious studies. He refers to the methods which should be used during the examination of these findings and he points out the phenomena, which are to be noted. In some cases, he reffers to non-Mandaic magical texts and he also seeks for their possible influence on the Mandaic texts. Author uses the primary texts in Mandaic and secondary literature especially in English and German.

Les prédictions astrologiques annuelles constituent un genre littéraire cohérent qui suscite deplus en plus d’intérêt de la part des historiens du Moyen Âge et de la première modernité. Cettethèse étudie plus particulièrement leur généralisation dans l’Europe latine entre 1405 et 1484,plusieurs siècles après les premières mentions dans les sources théoriques. Une première partieexplore la dialectique interne de ces « jugements », et en particulier les méthodes astrologiques qui,rigoureusement appliquées, soutiennent la prétention scientifique de leurs auteurs. Ceux-ci, leurmilieu social et plus généralement le contexte de production de ces prédictions font l’objet d’unedeuxième partie. Une troisième examine la réception contemporaine et la transmission jusqu’à nosjours de textes pourtant promis à une existence éphémère. Cette étude est complétée et étayée parun catalogue systématique de 111 prédictions manuscrites et 84 incunables rédigées en latin etconservées dans les collections publiques, et des 64 astrologues identifiés comme leurs auteurs.Enfin, les trois prédictions annuelles connues pour 1405, à la fois singulières et caractéristiques,font l’objet d’une édition critique commentée et traduite en français. / Astrological annual predictions form a consistent literary genre. In recent years, interest in thesematerials among Middle Ages and Early Modern Era historians has been increasing. This thesisspecially adresses the spreading of this kind of predictions in Latin-speaking Europe between1405 and 1484, several centuries after they are firstly mentioned in theoretical sources. Our firstpart explores the internal dialectics of these prognostications, and in particular the strictly-followedmethods of astrological calculation provided as support to the authors’ scientific pretensions. Thegeneral context of production, and the social background of these authors, form a second part ofthe thesis. The third part considers the contemporary reception of these astrological predictions,as well as their unlikely transmission until our days in spite of the genre’s ephemeral nature. Acomprehensive catalogue of the 111 handwritten and 84 incunable latin prognostications preservedin public collections, as well as the 64 astrologers potentially identified as their authors, completethis study. Finally, we offer a critical edition, with French translation and commentary, of the threeknown predictions for year 1405 which, in spite of their individual features, constitute model samplesof the genre.

O objetivo deste trabalho é examinar como se relacionam a elocução poética e a de-monstração técnica nas Astronômicas de Manílio. Considerando o poema como um opus composto na difícil confluência de dois discursos, o técnico das doutrinas astroló-gicas helenísticas e o poético do gênero didático de poesia, investigo aquela relação em três perspectivas diferentes: a da persona doctoris, em que estudo os tipos de limites impostos à confecção poética do enunciado verdadeiro do vate; a da doctrina, em que exponho, analiso e interpreto numerosos casos de variação da expressão poética aplica-da à exposição didática da matéria astrológica verdadeira dos números, nomes e ra-tiones; e a da persona discipuli, em que considero o problema da intelecção da matéria técnica e o interpreto num contexto poético mais amplo. Pretendo demonstrar, assim, como o poema de Manílio realiza uma representação essencialmente poética e não ex-clusivamente técnica da ars astrológica, bem como apontar, a partir daí, alguns sentidos em que a poesia amimética das Astronômicas se poderia dizer também mimética. / This dissertation intends to examine the relationship between poetic elocution and tech-nical demonstration in Manilius Astronomica. By considering the poem as an opus del-icately interwoven in between two discourse genres, the technical discourse of Hellenis-tic astrology and the poetic one of didactic poetry, I investigate the abovementioned relationship under three points of view: that of the persona doctoris, under which I study the kinds of limitations imposed on the composition of the poets (vates) true utterance; that of the doctrina, under which I present, analyze and interpret numerous cases of variation in poetic expression applied to the didactic exposition of the true astrological matter of numbers, names and rationes; and that of the persona discipuli, under which I consider the problem of the understanding of technical matter and inter-pret it in a broader poetic context. Thus I intend to demonstrate how Manilus poem puts together an essentially poetic and not exclusively technical representation of the astrological ars, and, consequently, point out some meanings in which the non-mimetic poetry of Manilus could be said to be mimetic.

Édition critique, traduction française et commentaire philologico-littéraire de trois sections du poème " Perì Katarcôn " de Maxime : perì nosôn (les maladies), perì tomès (les opérations chirurgicales), et perì drapetôn (les esclaves fugitifs). Dans l'introduction je m'occupe de l'attribution du " Perì Katarcôn " à Maxime d'Éphèse, aussi bien que de la langue, du style, et de la métrique du poème. / Critical edition, french translation and commentary of three sections from the poem " Perì Katarchôn " of Maximus : perì nosôn (on the diseases), perì tomès (surgery), and perì drapetôn (runaway slaves). In the introduction I consider the problem of the attribution of the " Perì Katarcôn " to Maximus of Ephesus, and analyse the language, the style and the metric of the poem.

O objetivo deste trabalho é examinar como se relacionam a elocução poética e a de-monstração técnica nas Astronômicas de Manílio. Considerando o poema como um opus composto na difícil confluência de dois discursos, o técnico das doutrinas astroló-gicas helenísticas e o poético do gênero didático de poesia, investigo aquela relação em três perspectivas diferentes: a da persona doctoris, em que estudo os tipos de limites impostos à confecção poética do enunciado verdadeiro do vate; a da doctrina, em que exponho, analiso e interpreto numerosos casos de variação da expressão poética aplica-da à exposição didática da matéria astrológica verdadeira dos números, nomes e ra-tiones; e a da persona discipuli, em que considero o problema da intelecção da matéria técnica e o interpreto num contexto poético mais amplo. Pretendo demonstrar, assim, como o poema de Manílio realiza uma representação essencialmente poética e não ex-clusivamente técnica da ars astrológica, bem como apontar, a partir daí, alguns sentidos em que a poesia amimética das Astronômicas se poderia dizer também mimética. / This dissertation intends to examine the relationship between poetic elocution and tech-nical demonstration in Manilius Astronomica. By considering the poem as an opus del-icately interwoven in between two discourse genres, the technical discourse of Hellenis-tic astrology and the poetic one of didactic poetry, I investigate the abovementioned relationship under three points of view: that of the persona doctoris, under which I study the kinds of limitations imposed on the composition of the poets (vates) true utterance; that of the doctrina, under which I present, analyze and interpret numerous cases of variation in poetic expression applied to the didactic exposition of the true astrological matter of numbers, names and rationes; and that of the persona discipuli, under which I consider the problem of the understanding of technical matter and inter-pret it in a broader poetic context. Thus I intend to demonstrate how Manilus poem puts together an essentially poetic and not exclusively technical representation of the astrological ars, and, consequently, point out some meanings in which the non-mimetic poetry of Manilus could be said to be mimetic.

Malgré l’acceptation théorique et pratique que l’astrologie médiévale rencontre au 13e siècle latin, son statut philosophique ambigu tient, au moins en partie, à son double partage en art mécanique et en science libérale. Plus mystérieux encore reste le fait qu’elle apparaisse en Occident sans devoir violenter les cadres philosophiques où elle s’inscrit, aussi chrétiens soient-ils. Du point de vue de l’histoire de la philosophie, ce que cette arrivée en douceur passe sous silence, c’est l’enracinement conceptuel toujours déjà préétabli du projet astrologique à l’intérieur d’un contexte philosophique plus global, dans et par lequel l’idée d’influence astrale valide sa raison d’être. En passant par la philosophie naturelle et la métaphysique de Thomas d’Aquin, ce travail veut montrer comment l’astrologie médiévale survient en terres chrétiennes à partir de la rencontre de la hiérarchie causale de l’être propre à l’arabo-aristotélisme néo-platonisant avec une théologie de la providence divine. D’aporie en aporie, la déconstruction de ce que toute astrologie présuppose prend place, de sorte qu’il devient possible de comprendre l’aspect rationnel et proprement philosophique de l’entreprise astrologique au Moyen Âge. / In spite of the theoretical and practical acceptation that medieval astrology is greeted with during the 13th century in the Latin world, its philosophically ambiguous nature is due, at least partly so, to the distinction made between mechanical arts and liberal sciences. Even more mysterious is the fact that it appears in Occident without having to violate the peripheries of Latin philosophy, as Christian as it could be. From a history of philosophy point of view, this rather smooth entrance seems to imply that the astrological project is always-already conceptually rooted in a philosophical context larger than itself, by which it validates its raison d’être. Through the study of Thomas Aquinas’ natural philosophy and metaphysics, this work demonstrates that medieval astrology could occur among the Christian world whenever the causal hierarchy of being brought forth by Arabic aristotelianism and Neo-Platonism walked hand in hand with the Christian theology of divine providence. From an aporia to another, the deconstruction of what any astrology presupposes therefore takes place, from which it becomes possible to properly understand both the rational and philosophical aspect of the astrological enterprise during the Middle Ages.