Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts: Proceedings of the Second COMERS Congress, Groningen, 1-4 July 1996

Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts presents the proceedings of the second COMERS congress, the successor to Centres of Learning (Brill, 1995). Like its predecessor it contains in ancient, medieval and renaissance Europe and the Near East. Although the genre of encyclopaedia was defined and named only in modern times, texts that aspire to the encyclopaedic ideals of utility and comprehensiveness are found throughout recorded history. They respond to and shape ideas about the natural world, human history, and the nature and limits of human knowledge. The present volume comprises five extended essays on the problems and opportunities facing researchers into encyclopaedic texts, and 21 research papers on specific topics. It will be of interest to a general university audience as an interdisciplinary project, as well as to specialists in the various disciplines covered. Contributors include: Wout Jac. van Bekkem, Maaike van Berkel, Peter Binkley, Robert L. Fowler, John B. Friedman, Geert Jan van Gelder, Guy Guldentops, Hilary Kilpatrick, Juris Lidaka, Ulrich Marzolph, John North, Brian W. Ogilvie, G.J. Reinink, Vincent C. Renstrom, Bernard Ribémont, Kimberly Rivers, Bert Roest, E.C. Ronquist, Catherine Rubincam, E.L. Saak, William Schipper, Frank Trombley, Michael W. Twomey, Jan R. Veenstra, and William N. West.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Notes of Contributors Abbreviations Preface ENCYCLOPAEDIA: DEFINITIONS AND THEORETICAL QUESTIONS 1. Encyclopaedias: Definitions and Theoretical Problems, Robert L. Fowler 2. Patient and Impatient Encyclopaedism, E.C. Ronquist 3. About the Definition of an Encyclopedic Genre in the Middle Ages, Bernard Ribémont 4. Preachers' Responses to Thirteenth-century Encyclopaedism, Peter Binkley 5. Encyclopaedism in Renaissance Botany: From Historia to Pinax, Brian W. Ogilvie ORGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE 7. The Organisation of Material in Graeco-Roman World Histories, Catherine Rubincam 8. Cosmic Correspondences: Songs as a Starting Point for an Encyclopaedic Portrayal of Culture, Hilary Kilpatrick 9. Memory, Division, and the Organisation of Knowledge in the Middle Ages, Kimberly Rivers 10. The Attitude towards Knowledge in Mamluk Egypt: Organisation and Structure of the subḥ al-a‘sha by al-Qalqashandī (1355-1418), Maaike van Berkel 11. Cataloguing Superstition: A Paradigmatic Shift in the Art of Knowing the Future, Jan R. Veenstra EPISTEMOLOGY OF ENCYCLOPAEDIC KNOWLEDGE 12. Encyclopaedias and the Art of Knowing Everything, John North 13. Sailing on the Sea of Talmud: the Encyclopaedic Code of Early Jewish Exegesis, Wout Jac. van Bekkum 14. Compilation as Theme and Praxis in Franciscan Universal Chronicles, Bert Roest 15. Henry Bate's Encyclopaedism, Guy Guldentops CULTURAL AND POLITICAL USES 16. Compleat Men, Women and Books: On Mediaeval Arabic Encyclopaedism, Geert Jan van Gelder 17. The Taktika of Nikephoros Ouranos and Military Encyclopaedism, Frank Trombley 18. Communal Identity and the Systematization of Knowledge in the Syriac 'Cause of All Causes', G.J. Reinink 19. The Limits of Knowledge: Hélinand de Froidmont's Chronicon, E.L. Saak 20. Public Knowledge at Private Parties: Vives, Jonson, and the Circulation of the Circle of Knowledge, William N. West 21. Censoring Encyclopaedic Knowledge: The Case of Sahagún and Sixteenth-century Spanish America, Vincent C. Renstrom RECEPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF TEXTS 22. Towards a Reception History of Western Medieval Encyclopaedias in England Before 1500, Michael W. Twomey 23. The Earliest Manuscripts of Rabanus Maurus' De rerum naturis, William Schipper 24. Albert the Great's Topoi of Direct Observation and his Debt to Thomas of Cantimpré, John B. Friedman 25. Bartholomæus Anglicus in the Thirteenth Century, Juris Lidaka 26. Medieval Knowledge in Modern Reading: A Fifteenth-Century Arabic Encyclopaedia of omni re scibili, Ulrich Marzolph Index