Both the range of this subject and its time span are truly vast. 1 This paper addresses a few of the issues concerning the activities of European antiquarians and the ancient Greek and Roman inscriptions of Asia Minor over the course of four hundred years from 1400 to 1800, touching upon five matters. Firstly, the collection and removal of antiquities including inscriptions by Europeans. Secondly, the varied functions of the visible ancient inscriptions for the Ottoman state and its inhabitants, both talismanic and therapeutic, and of the "non-literal reading" of an ancient inscription, distinct from the European antiquarian interest in the literal text of inscriptions, in establishing record of, and collections of the inscribed historical texts surviving from antiquity. Thirdly, the question of how safe a home was Europe for antiquities, including inscriptions and manuscripts that were brought from Asia Minor, and how much of scholarly importance that had survived was then lost in transit at sea and in Europe in wars and disasters? Fourthly, the problems with the transcriptions made by hand, the content of the record made and its accuracy. Was the inscription regarded simply as a text, prioritised as a text, or, was the text transcribed in its context including the epigraphic surface, its shape and relief carving, if any, its physical location if in situ, was it understood as forming a whole, and was it recorded as such? Were the letter forms, the number of lines, the different size of letters and words in an inscription, misspellings, etc., accurately noted or not? And, finally, the problems generated through the printed publication from the 16 th c. onwards of the transcriptions that had been made of inscriptions, in particular, those employing a standard font in publication for the study of inscriptions, not least impacting the understanding of orthography. Again, was it a matter of the antiquarian publishing just the text of an inscription, or the text within its context, to scale,
Journal of Interdisciplinary Mediterranean Studies, is open to users and it is an 'open access' journal. Users are able to read the full texts, to download, to copy, print and distribute without obtaining the permission of the editor and author(s). However, all references to the book notices, criticisms and translations published in the e-journal Libri are to indicate through reference the source of the citation from this journal. Phaselis: Journal of Interdisciplinary Mediterranean Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal and the book notices, criticisms and translations which have had their peer reviewing process completed will be published on the web-site (www.libridergi.
A caprice or capriccio is a drawing or painting that has been composed from a variety of different elements recorded separately that have been combined by the artist to form an imagined composition, often depicting an idea of a time or of the passage of time, and the idea of a place, relating to patrimony and history, to the consequences of the passage of time and to destiny, rather than taking a more or less exact copy of a particular place from a particular position. The latter work would in the 18 th c. have been termed a view or veduta, rather than a caprice or capriccio. Those 18 th and 19 th c. artists, such as G. A. Canaletto, G. P. Panini, C. R. Cockerell, and H. J. Johnson, who drew and painted capriccio also drew and painted accurate views. The insertion of transients, people, ships and boats, birds and animals drawn elsewhere into the depiction of a view or veduta does not change the work into a capriccio but, for example the painting entitled, A
This volume is described by its publisher as follows: "Baldassarre Giardina's book is the fruit of many years of research. Since the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century and the historical and archaeological studies of E. Allard, L. A. Veitmeyer and He. Thiersch, little work has been done on the subject of lighthouses. No up-to-date or systematic scholarly research has been produced until now. Drawing on the rich accumulation of existing research, the author has in addition brought together evidence from historical and literary sources from the ancient, medieval and modern periods. Together with this, he has researched new evidence, data and scientific discoveries, and from these he has assembled a framework that sheds light on hitherto unpublished aspects of these structures, identifying their archaeological and typological characteristics. With this book, the author has given us a systematic exploration of the subject, its results arranged in such a way as to demonstrate the earliest form of these structures and their evolution in time." The aim of this British Archaeological Report, International Series publication, a bilingual volume of vi+348 pages in both English (translation by C. Higget) and Italian, is further articulated by its author on p. 22, "Illustrated with photographs, often taken in situ, the present book, Navigare necesse est. Il faro tra mondo antico e Medioevo: storia, architettura, iconografia ed evidenze archeologiche was born as a result of research initiated for my doctoral thesis. It aspires to be the most definitive and complete corpus of the lighthouses of the ancient world known to us from literary documents, iconographic images and archaeological evidence." The book opens with a 49 page introduction to the subject, divided into 8 chapters entitled: Navigational aids before the construction of the Alexandria Lighthouse (Pharos); The Pharos at Alexandria and other lighthouses: the sources; Devolpment (sic) of the lighthouse: architecture, materials and construction techniques; Iconography, iconology and reliability of the images; Illumination systems and visibility distances: Late lighthouses and the development of Coastal Towers; The first medieval lighthouses: Genua, Portus Pisanus, Coruan, then a two page series of conclusions. This is followed by the 76 catalogue entries, a 17 page bibliography usefully providing a preponderance of Italian scholarship, 114 Plates, 52 Figs. and two Map Plates. The English translated text of this BAR publication by C. Higget seems to be entirely unedited, in addition to numerous typos, it should be: Development rather than Devlopment; Constantinople rather than Costantinople, fn. 351; confirms, rather than conferms etc.; it is surely Attalos or Attalus rather than Attalo, p.70, Al-Idrisi, not Edrisi p. 58 fn. 316, Abu Hajjaj al-Andalusi, not Abu al-Haggag, p. 59 fn. 321; Abu'l-Feda rather than abdul Feddal p. 58 fn. 316; while for example fn. 323 and fn. 324 seem to have been misplaced. However, and of greater importance, this "most definit...
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