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The Devil's Tabernacle is the first book to examine in depth the intellectual and cultural impact of the oracles of pagan antiquity on modern European thought. Anthony Ossa-Richardson shows how the study of the oracles influenced, and was influenced by, some of the most significant developments in early modernity, such as the Christian humanist recovery of ancient religion, confessional polemics, Deist and libertine challenges to religion, antiquarianism and early archaeology, Romantic historiography, and spiritualism. Ossa-Richardson examines the different views of the oracles since the Renaissance--that they were the work of the devil, or natural causes, or the fraud of priests, or finally an organic element of ancient Greek society. The range of discussion on the subject, as he demonstrates, is considerably more complex than has been realized before: hundreds of scholars, theologians, and critics commented on the oracles, drawing on a huge variety of intellectual contexts to frame their beliefs. In a central chapter, Ossa-Richardson interrogates the landmark dispute on the oracles between Bernard de Fontenelle and Jean-François Baltus, challenging Whiggish assumptions about the mechanics of debate on the cusp of the Enlightenment. With erudition and an eye for detail, he argues that, on both sides of the controversy, to speak of the ancient oracles in early modernity was to speak of one's own historical identity as a Christian.

Oracles. --- Mysteries, Religious --- Occultism --- Europe --- Religion.

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Ever since it was first published 1930, William Empson's "Seven Types of Ambiguity" has been perceived as a milestone in literary criticism - far from being an impediment to communication, ambiguity now seemed an index of poetic richness and expressive power. Little, however, has been written on the broader trajectory of Western thought about ambiguity before Empson; as a result, the nature of his innovation has been poorly understood. This book remedies this omission. Starting with classical grammar and rhetoric, and moving on to moral theology, law, biblical exegesis, German philosophy, and literary criticism, the author explores the many ways in which readers and theorists posited, denied, conceptualized, and argued over the existence of multiple meanings in texts between antiquity and the twentieth century. This process took on a variety of interconnected forms, from the Renaissance delight in the "elegance" of ambiguities in Horace, through the extraordinary Catholic claim that Scripture could contain multiple literal - and not just allegorical - senses, to the theory of dramatic irony developed int he nineteenth century, a theory intertwined with discoveries of the double meanings in Greek tragedy. Such narratives are not merely of antiquarian interest: rather, they provide an insight into the foundations of modern criticism, revealing deep resonances between acts of interpretation in disparate eras and contexts. This book lays bare the long tradition of efforts to liberate language, and even a poet's intention, from the strictures of a single meaning.

General ethics --- Religious studies --- Law --- Literature --- Ambiguity

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Jill Kraye, Professor Emerita of the Warburg Institute, is renowned internationally for her scholarship on Renaissance philosophy and humanism. This volume pays tribute to her achievements with essays by friends, colleagues, and doctoral students-all leading scholars-on subjects as diverse as her work. Articles on canonical figures such as Marsilio Ficino and Justus Lipsius mix with more quirky pieces on alphabetic play and the Hippocratic aphorisms. Many chapters seek to bridge the divide between humanism and philosophy, including David Lines's survey of the way fifteenth-century humanists actually defined philosophy and Brian Copenhaver's polemical essay against the concept of humanist philosophy. The volume includes a full bibliography of Professor Kraye's scholarly publications. Contributors are: Michael Allen, Daniel Andersson, Lilian Armstrong, Stefan Bauer, Dorigen Caldwell, Brian Copenhaver, Martin Davies, Germana Ernst, Guido Giglioni, Robert Goulding, Anthony Grafton, James Hankins, J. Cornelia Linde, David Lines, Margaret Meserve, John Monfasani, Anthony Ossa-Richardson, Jan Papy, Michael Reeve, Alessandro Scafi, and William Stenhouse.

History of philosophy --- History of civilization --- anno 1400-1499 --- anno 1500-1599 --- Humanism --- Philosophy, Renaissance --- Renaissance philosophy --- Philosophy --- Classical education --- Classical philology --- Philosophical anthropology --- Renaissance --- Philosophy, Modern

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Secondary education --- History of education and educational sciences --- anno 1600-1699 --- Amsterdam

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