The treatise De mundo (On the Cosmos), dated around the 1st century BCE, offers a cosmology in the Peripatetic tradition which draws also on Platonic and Stoic thought and subordinates what happens in the cosmos to the might of an omnipotent god. Thus the work is paradigmatic for the philosophical and religious concepts of the early imperial age, which offer points of contact with nascent Christianity. In line with the aims of the SAPERE series, this volume on De mundo is explicitly interdisciplinary by nature, bringing together contributions from scholars from a broad spectrum of disciplines and specialisations which focus on specific topics, each from its own disciplinary perspective. The volume contains a Greek text and translation of De mundo as well as interpretive essays on the language and style, geography, cosmotheology and the reception in or possible influence of De mundo in various intellectual traditions.
Cosmic Order and Divine Power : Pseudo-Aristotle, On the Cosmos
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Author Description
ist Doktorandin in Klassischer Philologie an der Universitat Goettingen. Born 1954; Studied at the Universities of Stellenbosch, Pretoria, and Chicago; 1990 PhD; Professor of Classics at the University of Stellenbosch.
teaches in the Classics Section of the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Cape Town. His research interests lie in the intellectual history of Greece (especially, but not exclusively, Epicurean philosophy), rhetoric, and ancient commentaries on Homer.
was holder of the chair of Oriental Languages at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt am Main. His main fields are Arabic and Islamic Studies, including Islamic philosophy, theology, history sciences and the field of Greek / Syriac / Arabic / Latin translations as well as analyzing and describing Arabic manuscripts.
is an Honorary Fellow and former Librarian of the Warburg Institute, University of London. She specializes in the history of Renaissance philosophy and humanism, with a particular interest in the later influence of the ancient philosophical schools.
was Professor of Classics, University College Dublin. He is Associate Director of the Plato Centre, Trinity College Dublin, and joint editor of a series of philosophical commentaries on Plotinus.
teaches in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The University of Tokyo. His main field of research is in Syriac Studies, especially the reception of the Greek sciences in Syriac and the works of the thirteenth-century author Gregory Barhebraeus.
is lecturer of Ancient Greek at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Heidelberg. Among her scholarly interests are early Christian literature (especially Origen) and the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in the first centuries AD. She has also worked on Augustine's polemic against the Semi-Pelagians.