R.S. BAGNALL, Papiri e storia antica

Papiri e storia antica
Bardi Editore

Edizione italiana a cura di Mario Capasso
Translates Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History
Reviewed in BMCR

Roger S. Bagnall
isbn: 88-88620-34-6
issn:
€ 25,00
€ 25,00 (per ordini fuori Italia)


Collezione Storica
Collana che accoglie opere monografiche a carattere storico basate su studi scientifici, ma con taglio divulgativo

In 8°, 193 pp., con 8 ill. in b/n
Abstract:
Come dovrebbero usare i papiri gli studiosi di storia antica? Il mondo mediterraneo antico, come ci è stato presentato da Erodono, Tucidide e Tacito, è caratterizzato dalla politica, dalla guerra e dalle élites di potere della Grecia e di Roma. C’era però un altro mondo antico, in cui la gente comune si guadagnava da vivere, vendeva le terre, governava le città e si faceva causa a vicenda. Questo è il mondo che i papiri portano alla luce; questo libro tratta del modo in cui ciò si realizza.
Papiri e storia antica dimostra come gli storici possano raccogliere informazioni da documenti sparsi e spesso assai danneggiati allo scopo di mettere insieme un quadro della società, dell’economia e della cultura del mondo multiculturale e multilingue dell’antichità. Attraverso la discussione dell’analisi storica contemporanea dei documenti, Roger Bagnall esamina accuratamente modi alternativi di avvicinarsi a queste fonti. Egli dimostra come lo storico dell’antichità possa utilizzare le metodologie dell’antropologia, della storia comparativa e della statistica, insieme a strumenti più tradizionali, allo scopo di trasformare questi testi in domande e risposte.
Studenti e insegnanti di storia antica troveranno Papiri e storia antica una guida indispensabile per utilizzare questi testi antichi nel loro lavoro.
Autore:
Roger S. Bagnall è professore di Storia e Letteratura Classica alla Columbia University. Tra le sue pubblicazioni, Egypt in Late Antiquity (1993) e The Demography of Roman Egypt (1994).
Mario Capasso è direttore del Centro di Studi Papirologici dell’Università di Lecce.
Indice:
Mario Capasso: Come scrivere la storia utilizzando i papiri secondo Roger S. Bagnall: la volpe, il riccio e le quattro dracme del contadino egiziano.
Prefazione
Prefazione alla traduzione italiana (2006)
Introduzione
Storia e papiri
Capitolo I:
La cultura del papiro
Capitolo II:
Scelte antiche e moderne nella documentazione
Capitolo III:
Particolare e egenerale
Capitolo IV:
Tempo e luogo
Capitolo V:
Quantificazione:
Capitolo VI:
Porsi delle domande:
Capitolo VII:
Continuità e rinnovamento:
Opere citate nel testo e nelle note:
Bibliografia generale:
Indice analitico


Source: papy-L

REVIEW: Roger S. Bagnall, Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. Variorum Collected Studies Series

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.05.16
Roger S. Bagnall, Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. Pp. 352; figs. 6. ISBN 10: 0-7546-5906-2. ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-5906-8. $114.95.
Blurb at the publisher

Reviewed by Pablo Ubierna and Diego M. Santos, Medieval Research, CONICET Buenos Aires (pabloubierna@ciudad.com.ar and diegoaug@yahoo.com.ar)
Word count: 1551 words

Table of contents

Here we have a single volume of work by Roger Bagnall in which he has, for a second time, published a collection of articles in the Variorum Series.1 These two volumes, along with the collection of articles by Sir L. Kirwan (Studies on the History of Late Antique and Christian Nubia, edited by T. Hägg, L. Török, and D. A. Websley, 2002) and by L. S. B. MacCoull (Coptic Perspectives on Late Antiquity, 1993), are the most important texts about the Nile Valley in Roman Times published by Ashgate.

The Papyrological work done by Bagnall is one of the most valuable tools for the study of Eastern Mediterranean History in Late Antiquity. This group of most valuable articles, some of them already well known to and praised by scholars interested in Roman and Byzantine Egypt, is an excellent survey of research conducted in the field over the last three decades. In this book, Bagnall's central focus is devoted to theoretical models. In his previous book on papyrology for historians2 he insisted on the importance of working with models. Articles III, VI, VIII, XVII of the present collection are all concerned with models, and are, at the same time, the most important papers in the volume. In chapter III, for example ("Evidence and models for the economy of Roman Egypt", originally published in 2005), Bagnall provides a long critical introduction to the work of M. Finley before making invaluable comments about the possibility of working with models in order to interpret the economy of Roman Egypt. According to Bagnall, historians have not yet outlined a theoretical model to interpret the economy of Roman Egypt. In contrast to Ptolemaic or Byzantine Egypt, the characteristics of the documents, and their publication, have not yet allowed for (or led to) a synthetic work. The importance of working with a theoretical model was stated by Bagnall in his book Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History (p. 3):

historians are undoubtedly more hostile to theories of the master-explanation type than any other and with reason. There is a cogent philosophical argument, which I accept, that such substantive philosophy of history is inherent "a misconceived activity", essentially because our "knowledge of the past is significantly limited by our ignorance of the future". This sort of theory will therefore largely be left out of account here. (...) these large-scale explanations do, to my mind, have some use if deployed only as models to stimulate thinking and as source of questions, but none at all when treated like historical laws.
More at BMCR

NYU Hires Renowned Classicist From Columbia U. to Lead New Institute

NYU Hires R.S. Bagnall (Columbia) to Lead New Institute

New York University has taken a page from the empires of antiquity by carrying off a prize from a rival kingdom. The prize is a renowned professor at Columbia University who, in an announcement expected today, will be joining the NYU faculty.

The scholar is Roger S. Bagnall, a longtime professor at Columbia who is leading its archaeological project at Amheida, in the Dakhleh Oasis of Egypt. He will become the director of NYU’s new Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in July. The institute “will undertake a new and revolutionary approach to the study of antiquity, crossing geographic boundaries and cultures,” said John E. Sexton, NYU’s president.
more

NYU Press release about the Institute

Source: Chronicle for Higher Education online, D. Meadow's Rogue Classicism