Faithful Marriages and Wild Unions: Palladius’ On Grafting
-
Laurence Totelin
Abstract
Inspired by Liba Taub’s work on genres of scientific enquiry this chapter examines Palladius’ poem On Grafting, which describes numerous grafts that are considered impossible from the point of view of modern botany. I examine the sexual and family metaphors prevalent in the poem, and argue that Palladius, like other ancient authors writing on grafting, commented on human social mores through his description of grafts. I note that, in his poem, Palladius chose to stress more unusual, wilder, forms of grafting than in his prose text. I suggest that this was because the poet wanted to stress the benefits of exogamy and adoption, unions that go beyond the bounds of close kinship.
Abstract
Inspired by Liba Taub’s work on genres of scientific enquiry this chapter examines Palladius’ poem On Grafting, which describes numerous grafts that are considered impossible from the point of view of modern botany. I examine the sexual and family metaphors prevalent in the poem, and argue that Palladius, like other ancient authors writing on grafting, commented on human social mores through his description of grafts. I note that, in his poem, Palladius chose to stress more unusual, wilder, forms of grafting than in his prose text. I suggest that this was because the poet wanted to stress the benefits of exogamy and adoption, unions that go beyond the bounds of close kinship.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter 1
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- List of Figures and Tables IX
- Prologue: of Friendship and Fishponds 1
- Introduction 5
-
Part I: Historiography, Disciplinary Categories, and Anachronism
- Greco-Roman Histories of Astronomy, Their Genres, and Their Afterlives 15
- When was Cosmology? The Curious History of a Disciplinary Category 33
- Surmise or Certainty: Women in Science in Antiquity 51
- Deep Reading of Kepler’s New Astronomy: An Exercise in Computational History of Science 65
-
Part II: Scientific Writing: Genres, Authority, Authorship, and Audiences
- Narrative Elements in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 83
- Style and Intended Readership of Theophrastus’ On Fire (De igne) 95
- Strategies of Moralising in the Pseudo-Vergilian Aetna 115
- Leonides of Alexandria’s Isopsephic Epigrams: An Astronomical Art? 131
- Faithful Marriages and Wild Unions: Palladius’ On Grafting 153
- Ancient Authority in Arabic-Islamic Scientific Writing and Practice 169
- “A Cabinet of Many Rare Secrets”: The Uses and Abuses of Aristotle’s Masterpiece 191
-
Part III: Counting and Measuring: Tools, Diagrams, and Replicas
- The Various Uses of Numbers and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt 219
- Greek Sexagesimals and Zeros 231
- The Diagrams and Replicas of Richard of Wallingford’s Clock 253
- Measuring Magnetism: Retrospective on Theories and Instruments from Lucretius to Blackett and Bullard 279
- Ancients and Moderns in Tycho Brahe’s Astronomy 295
- List of Contributors 317
- Bibliography
- Index
- Index Locorum
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter 1
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- List of Figures and Tables IX
- Prologue: of Friendship and Fishponds 1
- Introduction 5
-
Part I: Historiography, Disciplinary Categories, and Anachronism
- Greco-Roman Histories of Astronomy, Their Genres, and Their Afterlives 15
- When was Cosmology? The Curious History of a Disciplinary Category 33
- Surmise or Certainty: Women in Science in Antiquity 51
- Deep Reading of Kepler’s New Astronomy: An Exercise in Computational History of Science 65
-
Part II: Scientific Writing: Genres, Authority, Authorship, and Audiences
- Narrative Elements in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 83
- Style and Intended Readership of Theophrastus’ On Fire (De igne) 95
- Strategies of Moralising in the Pseudo-Vergilian Aetna 115
- Leonides of Alexandria’s Isopsephic Epigrams: An Astronomical Art? 131
- Faithful Marriages and Wild Unions: Palladius’ On Grafting 153
- Ancient Authority in Arabic-Islamic Scientific Writing and Practice 169
- “A Cabinet of Many Rare Secrets”: The Uses and Abuses of Aristotle’s Masterpiece 191
-
Part III: Counting and Measuring: Tools, Diagrams, and Replicas
- The Various Uses of Numbers and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt 219
- Greek Sexagesimals and Zeros 231
- The Diagrams and Replicas of Richard of Wallingford’s Clock 253
- Measuring Magnetism: Retrospective on Theories and Instruments from Lucretius to Blackett and Bullard 279
- Ancients and Moderns in Tycho Brahe’s Astronomy 295
- List of Contributors 317
- Bibliography
- Index
- Index Locorum
