The Frontiers of Ancient Science

Product Description


Our understanding of science, mathematics, and medicine today can be deeply enriched by studying the historical roots of these areas of inquiry in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. The fields of ancient science and mathematics have in recent years witnessed remarkable growth. The present volume brings together contributions from more than thirty of the most important scholars working in these fields in the United States and Europe in honor of the eminent historian of ancient science and medicine Heinrich von Staden, Professor Emeritus of Classics and History of Science at the Institute of Advanced Study and William Lampson Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at Yale University. The papers range widely from Mesopotamia to Ancient Greece and Rome, from the first millennium B.C. to the early medieval period, and from mathematics to philosophy, mechanics to medicine, representing both a wide diversity of national traditions and the cutting edge of the international scholarly community.
Review
For the present reviewer, interested in medical history, the volume is rich and stimulating, ranging over many authors and insights. For other historians of science there are equally rich pickings in this wonderful, challenging volume, entirely befitting the honorand.

John Wilkins in: BMCR 2016.01.10
About the Author


B. A. Holmes, Princeton University; K.-D. Fischer, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.