This dissertation analyzes growth and graduality in Vergil’s Bucolics . In the Bucolics , Vergil unifies various forms of growth, defined in this study as increase over time. There is the growth of organic life forms—that is, the move towards biological maturity that occurs over…
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The Menelaus Theorem, which involves the ratios between the chords of arcs arranged in a certain manner on the surface of a sphere, was the fundamental proof for spherical astronomy in antiquity and the middle ages. In this dissertation, I trace the history of this theorem throu…
This dissertation examines inscriptions from the Roman and Late Antique Near East that ask the gods for salvation (hyper sôtêrias or pro salute) from the pre-Roman to the Christian period (100 BC–AD 800). The first part of the dissertation distinguishes between two types of insc…
This dissertation deals with Greek and Latin traditions in the work of George Gennadios Scholarios (c. 1400–1472), the first patriarch of Constantinople during the period of Ottoman rule. Scholarios is famous as a Thomist philosopher, and the translator of many of Thomas Aquinas…
Historical linguistics has no generally accepted methodology for statistically estimating whether the connections it documents between languages are coincidental or statistically significant (likely to reflect historical realities). Currently the best proposals are very suscepti…
The two ancient Latin translations of the Vita Antonii were prepared within sixteen years after Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, composed that text following the abba's death in 356. The elegantly literary Evagrian translation is extant in numerous medieval manuscripts, but the…
I examine the two chief anatomical and physiological (embodiment) theories of voluntary animal motion from the time of Aristotle (b. 384 B.C.) to that of Mondino (d, A.D. 1326). The formal study of animal motion commenced with the Greek natural philosopher Aristotle who wrote th…
This dissertation focuses on wall painting in the thirteenth-century lordship of Athens, an area roughly corresponding to modern-day Attica, Boeotia and the Argolid in southern Greece. The lordship was established as part of the Latin Principality of Morea in 1205 when, in the a…
This study focuses on aspects of material life, documenting cross-cultural relationships between the Greek and Latin inhabitants of Venetian Crete, Hospitaller Rhodes, and Frankish Cyprus during the late Middle Ages. I propose that the written evidence from these locations must …
Scholars commonly argue that the unity of modern Europe was anticipated by the medieval religious community of Latin Christendom. This study examines the meaning of Latin Christian identity from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries viewed through one particular lens: the divisi…
This dissertation studies the history of the reception of the Psalm headings (also called the inscriptions, superscriptions, or titles) from the original Hebrew text into the main early versions of Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac, and Targumic Aramaic. This material has proven diff…
In the final extant letter of his Epistulae Morales, Seneca the Younger attributes the human good to the work of cura, “care” or “concern,” before abruptly discussing how humans, unique among animals, have access to future time. This dissertation argues that Seneca’s distinctive…
Despite the important role played by St. Jerome (331–420) in the history of translation, his own translations have suffered some neglect when it comes to detailed investigations of his theory and praxis. In particular, the distinction he espoused between his ordinary sense-for-s…
This thesis aims to discern the appeal and the experience one could find at the purpose-built brothel in Pompeii. While we know certain aspects of Roman prostitution like the range of prices and different vocabulary terms for the word “prostitute”, my passion and curiosity for R…
This dissertation attempts to fill some of the gaps in scholarship surrounding Roman declamation. Ubiquitous throughout the Imperial period, declamation was both shaped by and helped shape Roman society. I examine a set of invented declamatory laws that awarded a prize (praemium…
This thesis seeks to provide a provisional edition of Baptista Massa's "De Fructibus Vescendis," a fifteenth-century treatise on the medicinal qualities of fruits. Included is a description of the manuscripts and textual tradition, as well as discussion on some distinctive featu…
This study centers on an unusual medieval Arabic text, probably from the 11th century, called Hikayat Abi al-Qasim (The Imitation of Abu al-Qasim). The H[dotbelow]ikaya tells the tale of a Baghdadi party-crasher crashing a party in Isfahan, and the author informs us in his intro…