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A. IntroductionPhysiognomy—the art of eliciting the qualities of a person from their appearance (Characteristic)—enjoyed one of its many historical upsurges in the second half of the 18th centu…

A. ConceptThe term ‘Aristotelianism’, which was only coined in the 19th century, denotes in a broader sense the tradition derived from the works of Aristotle and their reception history from Antiquity to the present. In a narrower sense, it refers to the system of thought based on Aristotelian principles, focused on the theoretical sciences and the gradient of value towards the practical and poietic [16251]. The latter, reductive definition locates the end of Aristotelianism around the middle of the 17th century [16259f.] and places the subsequent era of a supposedly quite di…

See Biblical philology; Judaism

A. IntroductionLife sciences in the 18th century focused on the precise observation of all individual things and the collecting, comparison and systematic presentation of natural diversity in the form of narratives, lists and tableaux. In short, this was the century of natural history. This phase in the history of science preceded the establishment of biology as a conceptually coherent causal and analytical science which began in the 19th century and led to a theoretical consolidation of the discipline through concepts such as ‘organi…

A. IntroductionThe 18th century was a transition period in the history of German cooking and this is reflected in the history of its terminology. The French cuisine is first attested as a loanword in English to denote a particular style or art of cooking in 1786, and in German too, Kochkunst (‘cookery’; literally ‘art of cooking’) first appeared in the second half of the century (it does not yet appear, for instance, in Zedler’s  Universal-Lexicon). There is dispute over whether the shift observable after the …

A. Definition and traditionCertain themes were central to music theory from Antiquity onwards and continued, despite the historical evolution of the discipline from a philosophical science of the abstract structures of the tonal system to a practical theory of composition, to be relevant even in the 18th century. These were the (mathematical) description of the tonal system, the agogic and ethical effects of music, metre and rhythm, based chiefly on ideas and writings of Pythagoras, Aristoxenus, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and Aristides Quintilianus. The Late Antique author Boëthiu…

A. The Phoenicians as a subject of studyThe Phoenicians lived in what is now Lebanon, the southern section of the Mediterranean coast of Syria and northern Israel. From early in the 1st millennium bc, they explored the Mediterranean macroregion, trading with local populations and themselves settling along the routes they regularly plied. Their settlements included the important cities of Tyre, Gades (modern Cádiz), Lixus and …

A. IntroductionThe festival culture of Europe and the European colonies in the Americas (North American Revolution; South America) comprised a complex of rituals, governed by secular and spiritual authorities, corporations, associations and popular culture, which displayed political, social, legal and—increasingly from the late 18th century—(popular) pedagogical dimensions [23]. Occasions and forms differed according to region and institution. They included, for instance, processions in towns and cities, rituals of academic culture like gra…

A. IntroductionBy the mid-16th century at least, the material remains of Antiquity were being systematically collected, documented and evaluated as a source for the reconstruction of the history, religion and institutions of the ancient world (Collections; Graphic reproductions/Drawings/Collection catalogues). It was only in the 19th century, however, that this practice came to be called ‘archaeology’. The Greek word, first attested in the 4th century bc (Pl. Hp. mai. 285d), could mean the study (or reporting) either of beginnings ( archai) or of ancient things ( archaia). …

A. IntroductionEver since Renaissance Humanism, European literary theory had repeatedly made intensive reference to sources of Greco-Roman Antiquity in its efforts to reflect the production and influence of literary texts and the peculiar qualities of literature [25]; [29]. This was still true in the 18th century, but the engagement with the ancient tradition was now taking on very different forms simultaneously. Alongside the intention, particularly characteristic of early French and English classicism in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, to refer to Cla…

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A. IntroductionSince the 16th century, the use of the material culture of Antiquity as a historical source had given rise to collections of inscriptions, coins (Numismatics), gems and sculptures, many of which were still extant in the 18th century [20]. The largest and most sophisticated 17th-century collections of antiquities in France, England and the Netherlands, however, had become dispersed by the end of the century. Only that of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, remained reasonably intact to some degree [22]; [61]. Two trends typified the 18th century: (1) the inclu…

A. Introduction Johan Joseph Zoffany’s group portrait of 1772–1777 (Portraiture), depicting sculptures and paintings (cf. fig. 1), stands in the tradition of 17th-century Kunstkammer painting and can be understood as an allegory of art. The painter is offering a reminder of the outstanding importance of the anciens to the  modernes and of the erotic aura of ancient art works (Querelle des anciens et des modernes; Erotica).The growing prestige of ancient remains since the Renaissance had encouraged the study of the human body over and above the story of creation or the exp…

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A. Initial position circa 1700Because of the broad reception of Late Antique and Roman law across much of continental Europe in the Middle Ages and early modern period, legal studies and prevailing (especially civil) law were still heavily influenced by the ancient legacy of Roman law, even in the 18th century. Roman law was received and applied in the early modern period essentially in the form compiled in the reign of Justinian, from 530 on, in the  Corpus Iuris Civilis ( CIC). The ‘Lotharian Legend’—the belief that Roman law was valid in the German lands as a result …

A. Rival receptions of Antiquity: the ‘French’ Baroque garden and the ‘English’ landscape A.1. The three natures in the gardenThe reference to Antiquity was central to both of the dominant European garden types of the 17th and 18th centuries but in different ways. Antiquity already provided the frame of reference for most of the important gardens of the Baroque, by virtue of its parallel mythological, scientific and cultural readings of nature [16]. Statues (Sculpture), visual quotations and spatial designs (Architecture) staged allegorical comparisons with ancient deities (…

A. IntroductionTranslations of ancient works, particularly in the 18th century, always negotiated the relationship between Antiquity and the present while themselves constructing ‘Antiquity’ and shaping their own culture. For several reasons, however, surveying these translations is difficult. Actual translation literature (as opposed to translation theory) is still known only in excerpts. There is a danger of extrapolating translators’ own explanations of their intentions to the translations the…

A. The buildingNo other temple of the Roman Imperial Period is as well preserved, particularly in its interior, as the Pantheon in Rome [7]. Constructed between ad 125 and 128 in the reign of Hadrian, its rotunda was for many centuries the largest cupola in the world (diameter 43m). A misleading inscription on the portico meant that until the 20th century it was identified as what was in fact its predecessor building on the site, which was built around 27 bc and sponsored by Augustus’ son-in-law, M. Vipsanius Agrippa. The ‘temple of all the gods’ owes its uninterrupted upkeep to …

A. IntroductionA ruin is an architectural form that has lost its original function as a result of destruction or dilapidation. Ancient architecture, much of which was in ruins, constituted an important part of the heritage of ancient cultures alongside the evidence of written culture in the 18th century. Ruins that were particularly prominent in 18th-century reception were found in the ancient centres of Greece and Italy. Reception was dictated not only by the still-apparent architectural accomplishment and monumentality but also by the former functions of these buildings as temple…