Bruce Karl Braswell – författare

In 13th-century Toledo, King Alfonso the Wise fostered the publication of Castilian translations of certain Arabic works that had in turn been translated from Greek and Pehlvi. In this book, which is the revised English version of the Spanish original published under the title of Modelos griegos de la sabiduría castellana y europea, the author studies four of these Castilian translations – the Libro de los Buenos Proverbios, Poridad de las Poridades or Secreto de secretos, Bocados de Oro and Historia de la Donzella Teodor – works of sapiential literature that had an enormous influence in all of Europe. Their Arabic models had been translated from Greek in Bagdad at the instigation of the great caliphs of the 9th century and also in the Fatamid court at Cairo in the 11th century.The traditional view is that this literature is simply of oriental origin, but the author believes that the models were Greek Byzantine works discovered by the Arabs in Syria and Egypt in the 7th and 8th centuries. Their true origin is to be found in the Greek sapiential literature that developed around the figures of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Alexander in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine schools of philosophy; its influence can frequently be found reflected in authors of Christian literature. A detailed study of themes, vocabulary and expressions in the works themselves confirms these origins.

No detailed description available for "A Commentary on Pindar, Nemean Nine".

Modern studies of Pindar have largely neglected ancient scholarship on the poet. This is not entirely by chance, since the almost 1000 pages of the scholia vetera on the odes presuppose an acquaintance with the language and conventions of the Hellenistic grammarians who commented on the Pindaric texts. While the scholia have not undeservedly been criticized for containing a sizeable amount of dross, they have nevertheless preserved the comments of major figures of Alexandrian scholarship such as Aristarchos and Didymos whose interpretations are not only of historical interest but can often contribute to a better understanding of ancient texts. The Pindaric scholarship of Aristarchos was the subject of two special studies, both of which appeared as long ago as 1883, while Didymos has fared even less well. The only collection of the remains of his Pindar commentary was published by Moritz Schmidt in his 1854 edition of all the fragments of the grammarian known to him. This was based on Boeckhʼs partial edition of the Pindar scholia published in 1819. The present edition, which draws on Drachmann''s critical edition, not only offers a revised Greek text but also an English translation with explanatory notes and full indices. An extensive introduction, which situates Didymos in the scholarship of late Ptolemaic Alexandria, includes the first modern critical catalogue of all the works which are expressly attributed to him. While the present work is primarily addressed to advanced students and professional classicists, it is hoped that the presentation will ease the entry of others into the fascinating field of ancient scholarship which has now established itself as a special discipline.