Purism in Antiquity
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Edited by:
Olga Tribulato
Purism in Antiquity is devoted to the theories of linguistic purism, and more broadly of linguistic correctness, that were developed in the Greek and Roman world, the texts which transmit them, and the way these theories were received in later periods. The volumes in the series adopt a diachronic viewpoint which combines methodological approaches ranging from literary criticism and linguistics to textual philology and reception studies. The first five volumes focus on Atticism, the purist movement that starting from the imperial age sought to revive the 5th-century BCE Attic dialect against the evolution of Post-classical Greek. Atticist theories of language are transmitted in erudite works known as Atticist lexica which had a fundamental role in the evolution of Greek language and literary practices. Their paradigms of linguistic correctness were treasured throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, profoundly influenced Byzantine literary language, and later provided canons of correctness for those who learned Greek in the Humanist West. The Purism in Antiquity volumes propose a multidisciplinary approach to this fascinating tradition, its textual history, and impact in later periods of Greek culture.
Author / Editor information
Phrynichus’ Praeparatio sophistica ranks not last among the most importat works of ancient scholarly literature which we wish we could read in its original, full redaction. It was Phrynichus’ magnum opus, and the high status of this work was still acknowledged in Byzantine intellectual circles. This volume brings some new light to the Praeparatio sophistica and its history, focusing on three areas of interest: (1) its context of production and linguistic theorisation; (2) its stylistic theorisation and interpretative framework; (3) the direct and indirect transmission from antiquity, through Late Antiquity, and down to the Byzantine era. The volume will be of interest to Classicists working on the linguistic theories of Atticism and the literary practice of the Second Sophistic.
This volume re-examines the manuscript tradition of Pollux’ Onomasticon, the ten-book Atticist lexicon that had the widest circulation in Medieval Byzantium and the Humanistic West. The important reference edition by Erich Bethe (1900–1937) paved the way for the study of the Onomasticon but is now almost a century old. The present volume provides (1) an up-to-date study of the manuscripts in the light of recent advancements in the fields of codicology and palaeography, which complements Bethe’s with new information and corrects some mistakes in his edition. (2) A proposal for a new subdivision of manuscript families and their relations based on a collation of textual samples and a thorough study of the Palaeologan and Renaissance manuscripts overlooked by Bethe. (3) A study of the paratextual material (marginalia, scholia, epigrams) contained in the manuscripts. (4) Suggestions for a perspective future edition of the text, based on a sample of newly edited text with comprehensive apparatuses of sources, loci similes, etc. This volume will be of interest to Classicists working on the manuscript transmission of erudite texts and historians of Atticism.
This volume is the first of four devoted to Atticism, a form of linguistic purism that sought to preserve the rules of the 5th-century Attic dialect against the evolution of Postclassical Greek. The series elucidates the origins and development of Atticist thought, as well as its impact, transmission, and legacy from the Byzantine Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Although Atticism flourished in the Imperial age, its roots are steeped in the previous centuries. This volume investigates the broad historical, cultural, and linguistic factors leading to the emergence of Attic as a prestige variety among the classical Greek dialects, the way Attic exclusivity was construed in Athenian literary sources, and how Hellenistic scholarship contributed to monumentalising Attic supremacy.
Atticism can be regarded as the first example of an intellectual movement seeking to promote an extinct variety to the status of linguistic standard, reflecting an ideological and nostalgic view of identity. This volume traces the roots of this linguistic phenomenon back to factors at work in the construction of Hellenicity in the archaic and classical periods.
