In today's world of intellectual property disputes; industrial espionage; and book signings by famous authors; one easily loses sight of the historical nature of the attribution and ownership of texts. In Openness; Secrecy; Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance; Pamela Long combines intellectual history with the history of science and technology to explore the culture of authorship. Using classical Greek as well as medieval and Renaissance European examples; Long traces the definitions; limitations; and traditions of intellectual and scientific creation and attribution. She examines these attitudes as they pertain to the technical and the practical. Although Long's study follows a chronological development; this is not merely a general work. Long is able to examine events and sources within their historical context and locale. By looking at Aristotelian ideas of Praxis; Techne; and Episteme. She explains the tension between craft and ideas; authors and producers. She discusses; with solid research and clear prose; the rise; wane; and resurgence of priority in the crediting and lionizing of authors. Long illuminates the creation and re-creation of ideas like "trade secrets;" "plagiarism;" "mechanical arts;" and "scribal culture." Her historical study complicates prevailing assumptions while inviting a closer look at issues that define so much of our society and thought to this day. She argues that "a useful working definition of authorship permits a gradation of meaning between the poles of authority and originality;" and guides us through the term's nuances with clarity rarely matched in a historical study.
#1852057 in Books Johns Hopkins University Press 1996-11-20Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .73 x 6.00l; .96 #File Name: 0801854814321 pages
Review
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Quite interesting workBy Christopher R. TraversIn "Archaic Roman Religion;" Dumezil seeks to address the topic of early Roman religion. Roman religion; as Jaan Puhvel points out (in Comparative Mythology) is traditionally one of the three pillars of comparative Indo-European studies; along with Indian and Germanic material.While Volume 1 spends a lot of time trying to go through the Old Capitoline Triad as representative of Dumezil's three function theory (a theory which I personally think was overextended by Dumezil and taken in the wrong directions; but which is base on some valid observations); volume 2 discusses primarily foreign influences on Roman religion and the overall structure of religion within the republic. An appendix inclues This volume is not sparse on facts; contrary to the comments of another commenter.Despite the age of the work; and that it must be seen as somewhat dated in some areas (particularly the discussion of the interplay of Carthaginian and Roman religion); the book is still worth reading. However; I cannot recommend it as the only book you'd ever read on a topic. Religion in the Roman Empire (Blackwell Ancient Religions) in particular is a book that should be read as well in part because of the insight it offers on the nature of religion in Carthage and other Semitic cultures within the Roman empire.However; on the whole; this book is sufficiently informative to provide the reader unique insights and facts; and I would highly recommend it despite its age and intervening discoveries by other scholars.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. more historyBy Roberto QuintasI have read the first volume and need to read this second. It is well writting and have solid historical basis. A must read to all pagans.15 of 17 people found the following review helpful. An invitation to discoveryBy F. P. Barbieri... The beauty of the style; the fascinating glimpses of worlds beyond - the Vedic; Teutonic; Celtic and other data deployed casually and yet much to the point; the intellectual penetration and the ability to see common threads in different things and differences in similar things - riveted my interest for ever on the history of culture.It is true that the English version does the style of the original no favours - one must remember that the anthropologist Levy-Strauss; a man well able to judge; compared Dumezil's style to that of Voltaire: probably the highest compliment a French writer can pay to another. However; the whole is still eminently readable.It demands; however; a certain kind of reader: one who does not mind being challenged; who does not mind being introduced to unknown and obscure facts; who has no need to be cradled in his or her own convinctions; and who does not mind a certain kind of pugnacity. For there is no doubt that Dumezil; this courtly old French gentleman with exquisite olde-worlde manners; who charmed almost everyone who came into contact with him - including myself - was a fighter. His presence in the academic world was a solitary and battling one; he once wrote to me that he utterly refused to become a "chef d'ecole" and form his own academic party (this is perhaps the reason why latter-day Dumezilians are numerically rather scarce and academically not too impressive). Certainly the bites he takes out of scholars with opposing views are merciless; but one has to say that he always fought fair and face to face; that he rarely attacked anyone who had not attacked him first (comparative Indo-European studies are still today a rather contentious field) and that he never would have considered sinking to the level of the famous historian who once organized a congress "about" Dumezil's own work; or rather against it; without so much as letting Dumezil or any of his friends know about it. Now that is indeed base.Be that as it may; this book is a classic that will last as long as the work of Mommsen; or Tocqueville; or Gibbon. As an introduction to archaic Roman religion; as a systematic textbook; it may perhaps disappoint; since it neither covers all the main points systematically nor leaves out matters that interest the author but that are not; of themselves; equally important. But as an inspiration to further research; as an introduction to the idea that history is not a collection of data but an intellectual adventure; as an intellectual adventure in itself; it is magnificent. Twenty years after reading it for the first time; I went back to it; having; in the meantime; read; written and published myself about archaic Roman religion; and; guess what? Not only was the book as fresh as new; but I immediately found a whole series of new ideas and areas to develop; waiting for me to be ready to recognize them.
