MECANO PhD projects

MECANO PhD Projects

Citations and quotations in the Naturalis Historia: creating the canon in the Encyclopaedia

The general objective of this PhD project is to study how people are cited in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia (NH), considered the first Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. A monumental collection of 37 books, the Naturalis Historia is populated by multiple people who are mentioned in very different roles: sources, witnesses, protagonists of episodes or significant discoveries.

The philosophical canon and the art of (mis)quoting Plato and Aristotle in the Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca

It is widely assumed that, at least from Iamblichus (mid 3rd–mid 4th century AD) onwards, in the Platonic schools of late antiquity philosophical education was organised around a canon of philosophical texts with works by Aristotle and Plato at the core.

The Presence of Classics in Early Modern Book History

The aim of this PhD project is to study the reuse of Latin scientific and technical texts in (Early) Modern England. The Helsinki Computational History Group has used automated methods to detect all the instances of text reuse in the largest collections of printed data for British books (1470–1800, > 250.

Pulse and Physiology in Hellenistic Science

Part of the medical canon taught in late antiquity and the middle ages were the Galenic pulse works, which shaped medical theory and practice throughout history. Galen’s own works were greatly informed by the lost canon of Hellenistic pulse treatises and theories, with which Galen engages throughout his works and which he cites and quotes profusely.

Detecting and Retrieving Lost Historians

The general objective of this PhD project is to study ancient historians whose works are lost and preserved through quotations and paraphrases in later sources. Classical scholarship defines them as ‘fragmentary historians’, because it is possible to find traces of their work by extracting chunks of texts (fragments) from still extant sources.

Recovering anonymous late-antique preachers in the corpus of pseudo-Augustinian sermons

When it comes to Latin patristic preaching, Saint Augustine is the canon. His ca. 750 sermons were transmitted as sermon collections in thousands of medieval manuscripts. In the manuscripts authenticated Augustinian sermons travel with large numbers of sermons wrongly attributed to Augustine, ca.

Syntax, formulaic structures, and canon-marking in Greek and Arabic: documentary texts and Galen

Galen’s vast Greek corpus of medical treatises, many also translated into Arabic, offers perfect territory for exploring language structures in the canonical writer’s toolbox. How original or common were they? Can the impacts of such canon markers be traced in non-Galenic attestations of contemporary and other germane language material?

Ancient Sources on Matter in Late Medieval Commentaries on Aristotle

In the mid-13th century, just after Aristotle’s works on natural philosophy were translated, various conceptions of matter were at play. The ancient commentaries of these works negotiated the epistemic authority of two canonical authors, Plato and Aristotle, in their mutual relation and in relation to interpreters from various philosophical traditions.

Contextual scientometrics: uncovering and understanding referencing patterns to the ancient canon in modern scholarly discourses

In modern academia, famous authors, thinkers and philosophers from the ancient world continue to shape scholarly discourses. However, precisely which canonical references we find in specific disciplines, and how often they are referred to, is yet to be investigated. The specific objectives of this PhD project are therefore to build a large, multi-disciplinary corpus of scientific journals from JSTOR.

A democratic turn? Uncovering and understanding referencing patterns to Greco-Roman canonicity in 20th-century public discourse

Reference cultures typically provide other cultures with models, ideas or examples, and have been formed through public discourse over different generations. This PhD project will uncover the social use of Greco-Roman antiquity as a reference culture in 20th-century public discourse, and takes it to a new level.