Antiquity in Print - (New Directions in Classics) by Daniel Orrells (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- Daniel Orrells examines the ways in which the ancient world was visualized for Enlightenment readers, and reveals how antiquarian scholarship emerged as the principal technology for envisioning ancient Greek culture, at a time when very few people could travel to Greece which was still part of the Ottoman Empire.
- About the Author: Daniel Orrells is Professor of Classics at King's College London, UK.
- 368 Pages
- Literary Collections, Ancient & Classical
- Series Name: New Directions in Classics
Description
About the Book
"Daniel Orrells examines the ways in which the ancient world was visualised for Enlightenment readers, and reveals how antiquarian scholarship emerged as the principal technology for visualising ancient Greek culture, at a time when very few people could travel to Greece which was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Offering a fresh account of the rise of antiquarianism in the 18th century, Orrells shows how this period of cultural progression was important for the invention of classical studies. In particular, the main focus of this book is on the visionary experimentalism of antiquarian book production, especially in relation to the contentious nature of ancient texts"--Book Synopsis
Daniel Orrells examines the ways in which the ancient world was visualized for Enlightenment readers, and reveals how antiquarian scholarship emerged as the principal technology for envisioning ancient Greek culture, at a time when very few people could travel to Greece which was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Offering a fresh account of the rise of antiquarianism in the 18th century, Orrells shows how this period of cultural progression was important for the invention of classical studies. In particular, the main focus of this book is on the visionary experimentalism of antiquarian book production, especially in relation to the contentious nature of ancient texts.
With the explosion of the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, eighteenth-century intellectuals, antiquarians and artists such as Giambattista Vico, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the Comte de Caylus, James Stuart, Julien-David Leroy, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville all became interested in how printed engravings of ancient art and archaeology could visualize a historical narrative. These figures theorized the relationship between ancient text and ancient material and visual culture - theorizations which would pave the way to foundational questions at the heart of the discipline of classical studies and neoclassical aesthetics.Review Quotes
"While traditionally considered a discipline driven by philological exactitude, Antiquity in Print highlights just how much the emergence of Classics was conditioned by the use of images and a sophisticated visual rhetoric. Written with verve and erudition, Orrells presents an important reframing of the historiography of Classical scholarship." --Hans C. Hönes, Senior Lecturer in Art History, University of Aberdeen, UK
"There is much to admire in this book, starting with its large number of high-quality engravings and their placement in close proximity to the author's discussion of them. Orrells offers intelligent and creative readings of these images, thanks particularly to his classical training, which allows him to identify the authors' ancient points of reference, and their philological, chronological, and archaeological mistakes." --ArionAbout the Author
Daniel Orrells is Professor of Classics at King's College London, UK. He is author of Sex: Antiquity and Its Legacy (2015) and Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity (2011), and is co-editor of The Mudimbe Reader (2016) and African Athena: New Agendas (2011).