Mikolaj Szymański – författare

In the aftermath of the Persian Wars, not only new geopolitical borders were established in the Hellenic world, but there also emerged an intracultural line between the worlds of oral and increasing textual modes of communication. This book seeks to prove that these cultural changes are mirrored in a verbal work of art in the texts of Herodotus. The analysis of his texts, by applying the natural narratology theory, shows a specific and extraordinary mediacy between both approaches to communication. On the one hand, his «Histories» present a general account of the recent Greek history in a rationalizing and personal narrative of the historian who codifies it in a textual framework. On the other hand, they seem to consist of a conglomerate of numerous oral stories, which may assume a conversational narration structure.

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive edition of the Church Histories by John Diakrinomenos and Theodore Lector. It contains the original texts along with translations into English and a commentary. We offer a completely new edition, which should be a convenient tool to be used by the researchers. We have made a clear distinction between what is certainly the content that comes from Theodore and the later transmission of the factual information derived from his Church History as can be found in various Byzantine works. We have also attempted, in each particular instance, to trace the connection between the transmission in the later works and Theodore’s composition. It should be emphasized that it is the first translation of all Theodorean tradition into modern language.

Ancient Greek history holds a special place in the works of many 19th-c. writers. The same goes for Cyprian Norwid, one of the most eminent poets in the history of Polish literature, a thinker, and an artist. This book scrutinizes Norwid’s fascination with Greek history and culture, especially his peculiar synthesis of Greek thought and Christianity. It focuses on the key themes of the relationship of Platonism with early Christian writings and their presence in Norwid’s contemporary culture, the opposition of memory and history in 19th-c. literature and social life, and the image of the artist and its influence on social life in modern everyday. The book analyzes Norwid’s oeuvre in a broad comparison with representatives of French, German, and British literature and the humanities.

The book is an analysis of Greek Hellenistic literature with the help of conceptual tools of cultural studies and media theory. Its main aim is to describe the cultural process during which Greek authors in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. made the “textualization of experience", that is, transferred phenomenalistically understood qualities of human sensory experience to the categories characteristic for textual description – as far as possible for them. This process is shown by examples from the works of Xenophon, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Philitas of Kos and Archimedes. The author also tries to show some of the consequences that the phenomenon of the Hellenistic textualization of experience had for the later epochs of European culture.

Historical exempla were an important part of the Roman political discourse. They could serve as a moral guide to conduct, but also lend credibility to an orator’s argument. In his extant orations, Cicero often draws parallels between his contemporaries and the old Romans or, less frequently, he compares the Romans of the present day with non-Roman individuals. Cicero himself calls such foreign examples ‘exempla externa.’ Using a theoretical framework that combines the precepts of ancient rhetorical theory and modern terminology, this book explores the ways in which Cicero employed exempla externa in oratorical practice. It argues that there were many different categories of exemplum for Cicero to choose and that exempla externa were not necessarily suitable for negative lessons.

The book explores the hitherto rarely discussed connection of magic with politics in the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius and Ammianus Marcellinus, offering insight into the way language of magic and ritual pollution is used as means of characterization and historiosophical commentary on the nature of power and political struggle. Religious deviation and innovation, theurgy, necromancy, black and erotic magic, the topoi of an emperor-magician, a semi-divine emperor-healer/saviour and a witch/poisoner, all play an important role in the analyzed texts. Magic is depicted as a way of abusing the official state religion; every such abuse disturbs pax deorum and brings misery on both the perpetrator and the whole state.

The presented volume contains a critical edition of questions 8–10 from Book II of the commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences by Marsilius of Inghen († 1396). Marsilius was a famous scholar and the first rector of the University of Heidelberg, educated in Paris. He influenced next generations of philosophers and theologians up to sixteenth century. In general, these questions deal with the problem of creation of the material world. In detail, question 8 addresses the issue of formless matter and the material nature of the heaven. Question 9 addresses the concept of light and some trinitarian problems. Finally question 10 explores the model of the universe and the approach to the relationship between faith and reason.