Abstract
This introductory chapter gives an overview of the research questions raised in the book as much for historians of science as for anyone working with, or producing editions of, ancient scholarly texts. It highlights the benefits that flow from a worldwide history of textual criticism and editions as well as from a focus on texts dealing with science—two key options that are taken in this book. Following the book’s scheme, the introduction first concentrates on ancient editorial practices, in particular examining their potential impact on modern editions. We then highlight how, through time, perceptions changed concerning what a text is, and how this influenced in turn how scholarly texts were made accessible. We offer an analysis of the ways historical, political and social contexts shaped editions and translations of ancient scientific works and documents, using the case studies offered in this book, before turning to an analysis of the specifics of editions and translations that bear on scholarly documents rather than on literary or religious sources. Finally, this introduction looks at how some elements specific to texts dealing with science—such as diagrams and numbers—have been edited and the specific work that has been done editing mathematical and astronomical texts of the past. All these threads help us reflect on how editorial practices have heavily mediated the way we have access to ancient sources dealing with science. The scholarship displayed here lays the foundation for further studies on the history of critical editions. It also raises questions for those who make scholarly translations and critical editions today.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Decorps’s chapter in this book outlines a history of editions of Greek mathematical texts of antiquity. She points out that Friedrich Hultsch’s critical edition of Pappus’ Collection (1876–1878) likewise considered several passages as spurious ‘on the grounds of an ideal representation of what a Greek mathematical treatise should be’ (see note 91).
- 3.
For the case of Archimedes, Netz (2012) offers a reflection on this issue.
- 4.
Chemla (2005) argues that Zhao uses these diagrams as paradigms.
- 5.
See, e.g., for the Elements, (Vitrac 1990, volume I: 200–202) and, for The Gnomon of the Zhou [Dynasty], the critical edition by Guo Shuchun 郭書春 and Liu Dun 劉鈍 (1998: 2). Note that, in the latter edition, the vertical presentation of the sequence of diagrams given by Qian was transformed into a horizontal one.
- 6.
- 7.
Fowler and Turner (1983) provide a systematic description of the notation of integers and fractions in the papyrus Hibeh I 27.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
Biot had access to The Gnomon of the Zhou [Dynasty] by means of the Ming edition included in the Jindai mishu 津逮祕書 (Biot 1841: 596–597). On this edition, see (Chemla 2020: 286). (Biot 1841) gives a translation of the text, and is complemented by (Biot 1842), which relies on astronomical data and computation to analyze The Gnomon of the Zhou [Dynasty] further.
- 12.
- 13.
On the genesis of the philological method associated with the name of Karl Lachmann (1793–1851), see (Timpanaro 2005). Interestingly, the history of the production of sources that Timpanaro assumes in his reflections shows a clear bias due to the type of works to which philological endeavor was first applied in Europe. Indeed, sources are assumed to have been produced by copying, and copyists are assumed either to have made mistakes or to have produced copies following specific types of scenario.
- 14.
- 15.
For the political implications behind this choice, see (Singh 2018: 472–474), which also writes a larger international history of the printing of Devanagarī in the twentieth century.
- 16.
Preisendanz notes that to this day, the edition and publication of ancient works are deemed important and relevant to readers and editors in India. The sheer number of published books runs contrary to the feelings expressed by editors that Caraka’s compendium would be a forgotten, neglected, text.
- 17.
In the three annexes appended to (Chemla et al. 2022), the reader will find information on the conventions used in this volume to deal with numbers, measurement units and measurement values in, respectively, cuneiform, Chinese and Sanskrit sources.
- 18.
Proust notes that transliterations and transcriptions are historical constructions. She uses here the definitions given by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), which itself relies on the definitions of these categories given at the twenty-first congress of Orientalists in Paris in 1948. For instance, Neugebauer’s ‘transcription’ corresponds to what is now for the CDLI a ‘transliteration’. In practice, Assyriologists have also used other modes (hybrids of both notably) of representation of the tablet in Latin script. For the sake of simplicity, in what follows we will stick to the CDLI definitions.
- 19.
As Proust also notes, these remarks further extend to the treatment of computations. After all, transliterations cannot always convey the fact that the addition of quantities of goods to which some tablets attest could have been obtained by bringing together and regrouping the numerical signs representing the addends. The use of Arabic numerals in transliterations might even at times encourage artificial interpretations of numerical relations.
- 20.
- 21.
The status of Bhāskara II’s Līlāvatī and Algebra in relation to his astronomical Crown of Theoretical Astronomical Treatises is still under investigation. In the wake of Colebrooke’s publication, which follows some Sanskrit commentators, they were often thought of as chapters extracted from the astronomical treatise, and having had a more or less autonomous life. Recent studies of the inner coherence of these texts have suggested that these chapters might have been from the beginning three independent treatises (Ramasubramanian et al. 2019: xxi sqq). An edition of all three works taking into account the different strata of editorial work on the texts is thus in need.
- 22.
See Sect. 1.1.4.
- 23.
- 24.
Note that this assertion is true for China, but not for Korea or for Japan, where some of these works were the objects of earlier editions. Moreover, this statement implies that we do not consider as ‘editions’ works based on thirteenth-century works like Gu Yingxiang’s 顧應祥 (1483–1565) works based on Li Ye’s Measuring the circle on the Sea-Mirror (Ceyuan haijing 測圓海鏡, 1248) and Wu Jing’s 吳敬 Great Compendium of The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Methods with Analogies (Jiuzhang suanfa bilei daquan 九章算法比類大全, 1450). On these works, see, respectively, (Guo Shirong 2015) and (Zhou Xiaohan 2018).
- 25.
On the way in which mathematical and astronomical works were edited, drawing on that earlier project, see (Chu 2010: 148–149; 160–162 (Tables 3 and 4)).
- 26.
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Chemla, K., Keller, A. (2024). Shaping the Sciences of the Ancient and Medieval World: An Introduction. In: Keller, A., Chemla, K. (eds) Shaping the Sciences of the Ancient and Medieval World. Archimedes, vol 69. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49617-2_1
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