Poikile Physis () von Diego De Brasi

STMAC aims to advance an inter-disciplinary and inclusive approach to the study of science in the ancient world, ranging from mathematics and physics, medicine and magic to astronomy, astrology, and divination and covering the Mediterranean world, the Near (Middle) East, and Central and East Asia. The series is open to different types of publications including monographs and edited volumes as well as text editions and commentaries.

Biological literature of the Roman imperial period remains somehow underestimated. It is even quite difficult to speak of biological literature for this period at all: biology (apart from medicine) did not represent, indeed, a specific subgenre of scientific literature. Nevertheless, writings as disparate as Philo of AlexandriasAlexander, PlutarchsDe sollertia animalium orBruta ratione uti, AeliansDe Natura Animalium, OppiansHalieutika, Pseudo-OppiansKynegetika, and Basil of CaesereasHomilies on the Creation engage with zoological, anatomic, or botanical questions.Poikile Physis examines how such writings appropriate, adapt, classify, re-elaborate and present biological knowledge which originated within the previous, mainly Aristotelian, tradition. It offers a holistic approach to these works by considering their reception of scientific material, their literary as well as rhetorical aspects, and their interaction with different socio-cultural conditions. The result of an interdisciplinary discussion among scholars of Greek studies, philosophy and history of science, the volume provides an initial analysis of forms and functions of biological literature in the imperial period.

Diego De Brasi, University of Trier, Germany;Francesco Fronterotta, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.