Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a Syrian satirist and rhetorician, best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he ridiculed superstition, religious practices, belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was Syriac, all of his extant works are written in Ancient Greek. Everything, known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration The Dream, he was the son of a lower middle class family from the village of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria; as a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an education in Ionia. He visited universities throughout the Roman Empire. After acquiring fame and wealth through his teaching, Lucian settled down in Athens for a decade, during which he wrote most of his extant works. In his old age, he may have been appointed as a highly-paid government official in Egypt, after which point he disappears from the historical record.
Lucian's works were wildly popular in antiquity, more than eighty writings attributed to him have survived to the present day, a higher quantity than for most other classical writers. His most famous work is A True Story, a tongue-in-cheek satire against authors who tell incredible tales, regarded by some as the earliest known work of science fiction. Lucian invented the genre of a parody of the traditional Platonic dialogue, his dialogue The Lover of Lies makes fun of people who believe in the supernatural and contains the oldest known version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Lucian wrote numerous satires making fun of traditional stories about the gods including The Dialogues of the Gods, Zeus Rants, Zeus Catechized, The Parliament of the Gods, his Dialogues of the Dead focuses on the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and Menippus. Philosophies for Sale and The Banquet or Lapiths make fun of various philosophical schools, The Fisherman or the Dead Come to Life is a defense of this mockery. Lucian ridicules public figures, such as the Cynic philosopher Peregrinus Proteus in his letter The Passing of Peregrinus and the fraudulent oracle Alexander of Abonoteichus in his treatise Alexander the False Prophet.
Lucian's treatise On the Syrian Goddess satirizes cultural distinctions between Greeks and Syrians and is the main source of information about the cult of Atargatis. Lucian had an wide-ranging impact on Western literature. Works inspired by his writings include Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the works of François Rabelais, William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Lucian is not mentioned in any contemporary texts or inscriptions written by others and he is not included in Philostratus's Lives of the Sophists; as a result of this, everything, known about Lucian comes from his own writings. A variety of characters with names similar to Lucian, including "Lukinos," "Lukianos," "Lucius," and "The Syrian" appear throughout Lucian's writings; these have been interpreted by scholars and biographers as "masks", "alter-egos", or "mouthpieces" of the author. Daniel S. Richter criticizes the frequent tendency to interpret such "Lucian-like figures" as self-inserts by the author and argues that they are, in fact fictional characters Lucian uses to "think with" when satirizing conventional distinctions between Greeks and Syrians.
He suggests that they are a literary trope used by Lucian to deflect accusations that he as the Syrian author "has somehow outraged the purity of Greek idiom or genre" through his invention of the comic dialogue. British classicist Donald Russell states, "A good deal of what Lucian says about himself is no more to be trusted than the voyage to the moon that he recounts so persuasively in the first person in True Stories" and warns that "it is foolish to treat as autobiography." Lucian was born in the town of Samosata, located on the banks of the Euphrates river on the far eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire. Samosata had been the capital of Commagene until 72 AD when it was annexed by Vespasian and became part of the Roman province of Syria; the population of the town was Syrian and Lucian's native tongue was Syriac, a form of Aramaic. During the time when Lucian lived, traditional Greco-Roman religion was in decline and its role in society had become ceremonial; as a substitute for traditional religion, many people in the Hellenistic world joined Mystery Cults, such as the Mysteries of Isis, the cult of Cybele, the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Superstition had always been common throughout ancient society, but it was prevalent during the second century. Most educated people of Lucian's time adhered to one of the various Hellenistic philosophies, of which the major ones were Stoicism, Platonism and Epicureanism; every major town had its own university and these universities employed professional travelling lecturers, who were paid high sums of money to lecture about various philosophical teachings. The most prestigious center of learning was the city of Athens in Greece, which had a long intellectual history. According to Lucian's oration The Dream, which classical scholar Lionel Casson states he delivered as an address upon returning to Samosata at the age of thirty-five or forty after establishing his reputation as a great orator, Lucian's parents were lower middle cla
Johann Franz Buddeus
Johann Franz Buddeus or Budde was a German Lutheran theologian and philosopher. Johann Franz Buddeus was a descendant of the French scholar Guillaume Budé. Johann Franz was born at Swedish Pomerania, where his father was pastor, he early received a thorough education in classical and Oriental languages, had read the Bible through in the original before he went to the University of Wittenberg in 1685. He was appointed adjunct professor of philosophy there soon after taking his master's degree in 1687, in 1689 exchanged this for a similar position at Jena, where he paid much attention to the study of history. In 1692 he went to Coburg as professor of Greek and Latin in a Gymnasium, the next year to the new University of Halle as professor of moral philosophy. Here he remained until 1705, his lectures embraced all branches of this science, touched on philosophy and politics. Respected by all as a man and a Christian, he remained at Jena for the rest of his life, several times acting as rector of the university temporarily and being head of his department and an ecclesiastical councilor from 1715.
He was considered the most universally accomplished German theologian of his time. In philosophy he professed an eclecticism, his theological position was determined by the tradition of Johannes Musäus at Jena through his close relations with Baier. His association with Spangenberg and Zinzendorf brought him under suspicion and gave rise to a formal investigation of his doctrine. In certain ways, too, he was influenced by federalist theology, but without allowing it to lead him beyond the bounds of Lutheran orthodoxy. In all departments he showed himself a man of scholarly instincts, his work was epoch-making in church history that dealing with the Old Testament and the apostolic age. Taken as a whole, the life of Buddeus belongs to the transition period which follows that of simple orthodoxy, yet in his Biblical criticism he did not get so far as to make the slightest concession. As an academic teacher he attained great success, he had the gift of a striking and pregnant style in Latin, he died at Gotha.
His works and small, number over a hundred. Of those published in the Halle period may be mentioned Elementa philosophiæ practicæ and Elementa philosophiæ eclecticæ. To the second Jena period belong among others the Institutiones theologiæ moralis, a work in accordance with his philosophical ethics. Gesammelte Schriften. Reprint Hildesheim, Georg Olms, 1999–2006 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed.. "article name needed". New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. "Johannes Franciscus Buddeus" Vladimir Abashnik, Johann Franz Budde. In: The Dictionary of eighteenth-century German philosophers. General editors: Heiner F. Klemme, Manfred Kuehn. In 3 vol. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. 2010, Vol. 1: A – G, pp. 164–169. Johann Franz Buddeus at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is referred to as Quintilian, although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are seen, the latter in older texts. Quintilian was born c. 35 in Calagurris in Hispania. His father, a well-educated man, sent him to Rome to study rhetoric early in the reign of Nero. While there, he cultivated a relationship with Domitius Afer, who died in 59. "It had always been the custom … for young men with ambitions in public life to fix upon some older model of their ambition … and regard him as a mentor". Quintilian evidently adopted Afer as his model and listened to him speak and plead cases in the law courts. Afer has been characterized as a more austere, Ciceronian speaker than those common at the time of Seneca the Younger, he may have inspired Quintilian’s love of Cicero. Sometime after Afer's death, Quintilian returned to Hispania to practice law in the courts of his own province.
However, in 68, he returned to Rome as part of the retinue of Emperor Galba, Nero's short-lived successor. Quintilian does not appear to have been a close advisor of the Emperor, which ensured his survival after the assassination of Galba in 69. After Galba's death, during the chaotic Year of the Four Emperors which followed, Quintilian opened a public school of rhetoric. Among his students were Pliny the Younger, Tacitus; the Emperor Vespasian made him a consul. The emperor "in general was not interested in the arts, but … was interested in education as a means of creating an intelligent and responsible ruling class"; this subsidy enabled Quintilian to devote more time to the school, since it freed him of pressing monetary concerns. In addition, he appeared in the courts of law. Of his personal life, little is known. In the Institutio Oratoria, he mentions a wife who died young, as well as two sons who predeceased him. Quintilian retired during the reign of Domitian, his retirement may have been prompted by his achievement of financial security and his desire to become a gentleman of leisure.
Quintilian survived several emperors. Domitian’s cruelty and paranoia may have prompted the rhetorician to distance himself quietly; the emperor does not appear to have taken offence as he made Quintilian tutor of his two grand-nephews in 90 AD. He is believed to have died sometime around 100, not having long survived Domitian, assassinated in 96; the only extant work of Quintilian is a twelve-volume textbook on rhetoric entitled Institutio Oratoria, published around AD 95. This work deals not only with the theory and practice of rhetoric, but with the foundational education and development of the orator himself, providing advice that ran from the cradle to the grave. An earlier text, De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae has been lost, but is believed to have been "a preliminary exposition of some of the views set forth in ". In addition, there are two sets of declamations, Declamationes Maiores and Declamationes Minores, which have been attributed to Quintilian. However, there is some dispute over the real writer of these texts: "Some modern scholars believe that the declamations circulated in his name represent the lecture notes of a scholar either using Quintilian's system or trained by him".
Institutio Oratoria is a twelve-volume textbook on the theory and practice of rhetoric by Roman rhetorician Quintilian. It was published around year 95 AD; the work deals with the foundational education and development of the orator himself. In this work, Quintilian establishes that the perfect orator is first a good man, after that he is a good speaker, he believed that a speech should stay genuine to a message, "just and honorable." Coherently, this came to be known as his good man theory, embracing the message that if one cannot be genuinely good one cannot be a good speaker for the people. This theory revolves around being of service to the people. A good man is one who works for the prosperity of society. Quintilian published Institutio Oratoria in the last years of Domitian’s rule of the empire, he had worked alongside Domitian, but as he began to write more and ease away from Emperor Domitian’s complete power, the emperor did not seem to mind as he was so impressed with Quintilian, he hired him to be a tutor for his family because of Quintilian’s devotion to education.
Domitian was in the harshest period of his rule, no one had the courage to speak any idea, unlike his, but Quintilian did. He spoke as an orator in the tradition of Cicero, such as had not been seen since the beginning of the reign of Augustus. Rather than pleading cases, as an orator of his era might have been expected to do, he concentrated on speaking in more general terms about how sound rhetoric influences the education of the people. Quintilian cites many authors in the Institutio Oratoria before providing his own definition of rhetoric, his rhetoric is chiefly defined by Cato the Elder’s vir bonus, dicendi peritus, or “the good man skilled at speaking”. He states: “I should like the orator I am training to be a sort of Roman Wise Man”. Quintilian “insists that his ideal orator
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Art of Fugue, the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations as well as for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time; the Bach family counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After becoming an orphan at age 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach, after which he continued his musical development in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in Weimar—where he expanded his repertoire for the organ—and Köthen—where he was engaged with chamber music. From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, for its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum.
From 1726 he published some of his organ music. In Leipzig, as had happened in some of his earlier positions, he had a difficult relation with his employer, a situation, little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by King Augustus III of Poland in 1736. In the last decades of his life he extended many of his earlier compositions, he died of complications after eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint and motivic organisation, his adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include hundreds of both sacred and secular, he composed Latin church music, Passions and motets. He adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance in his four-part chorales and his sacred songs, he wrote extensively for other keyboard instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra.
Many of his works employ the genres of fugue. Throughout the 18th century Bach was renowned as an organist, while his keyboard music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities; the 19th century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies, by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals and websites devoted to him, other publications such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis and new critical editions of his compositions, his music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements, including for instance the Air on the G String, of recordings, for instance three different box sets with complete performances of the composer's works marking the 250th anniversary of his death. Bach was born in the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, into a great musical family, his father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the director of the town musicians, all of his uncles were professional musicians.
His father taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, his brother Johann Christoph Bach taught him the clavichord and exposed him to much contemporary music. At his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michael's School in Lüneburg for two years. After graduating he held several musical posts across Germany: he served as Kapellmeister to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, a position of music director at the main Lutheran churches and educator at the Thomasschule, he received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736. Bach's health and vision declined in 1749, he died on 28 July 1750. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany, on 21 March 1685 O. S.. He was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt, he was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius, who taught him violin and basic music theory. His uncles were all professional musicians, whose posts included church organists, court chamber musicians, composers.
One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ, an older second cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach, was a well-known composer and violinist. Bach's mother died in 1694, his father died eight months later; the 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. There he studied and copied music, including his own brother's, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private, blank ledger paper of that type was costly, he received valuable teaching from his brother. J. C. Bach exposed him to the works of great composers of the day, including South German composers such as Johann Pachelbel and Johann Jakob Froberger. During this time, he was taught theology, Greek and Italian at the local gymnasium. By 3 April 1700, Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann—who was two years Bach's elder—were enrolled in the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, some two weeks' travel north of Ohrdruf
National Library of the Czech Republic
The National Library of the Czech Republic is the central library of the Czech Republic. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture; the library's main building is located in the historical Clementinum building in Prague, where half of its books are kept. The other half of the collection is stored in the district of Hostivař; the National Library is the biggest library in the Czech Republic, in its funds there are around 6 million documents. The library has around 60,000 registered readers; as well as Czech texts, the library stores older material from Turkey and India. The library houses books for Charles University in Prague; the library won international recognition in 2005 as it received the inaugural Jikji Prize from UNESCO via the Memory of the World Programme for its efforts in digitising old texts. The project, which commenced in 1992, involved the digitisation of 1,700 documents in its first 13 years; the most precious medieval manuscripts preserved in the National Library are the Codex Vyssegradensis and the Passional of Abbes Kunigunde.
In 2006 the Czech parliament approved funding for the construction of a new library building on Letna plain, between Hradčanská metro station and Sparta Prague's football ground, Letná stadium. In March 2007, following a request for tender, Czech architect Jan Kaplický was selected by a jury to undertake the project, with a projected completion date of 2011. In 2007 the project was delayed following objections regarding its proposed location from government officials including Prague Mayor Pavel Bém and President Václav Klaus. Plans for the building had still not been decided in February 2008, with the matter being referred to the Office for the Protection of Competition in order to determine if the tender had been won fairly. In 2008, Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička announced the end of the project, following a ruling from the European Commission that the tender process had not been carried out legally; the library was affected by the 2002 European floods, with some documents moved to upper levels to avoid the excess water.
Over 4,000 books were removed from the library in July 2011 following flooding in parts of the main building. There was a fire at the library in December 2012. List of national and state libraries Official website
Auhausen
Auhausen is a municipality in the Swabian district Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany. The municipality is within the Oettingen central administrative body. Auhausen was the site of the 1608 meeting that formed the Protestant Union known as the Union of Auhausen
Système universitaire de documentation
The système universitaire de documentation or SUDOC is a system used by the libraries of French universities and higher education establishments to identify and manage the documents in their possession. The catalog, which contains more than 10 million references, allows students and researcher to search for bibliographical and location information in over 3,400 documentation centers, it is maintained by the Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education. Official website
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gesner, Johann Matthias". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 909.
