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thelittlemars · 1 year

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Transcribing a Middle English text

— "Of seint Alex of Rome”, from the Naples Manuscript, National Library, MS XIII.B.29

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skyeventide · 6 months

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codex unicus is an insane concept. it means this text survived in a single copy, a single manuscript. any other copies went lost, were destroyed, were scraped clean, burned, rotted, or, in the most fabled and most comforting option, are still hidden somewhere in a cellar, in an archive, in a private collection never accessed before. do you want to check if a word really is an error? you can't. you want to confront a sentence with the one in another copy? you can't. you want to find out what the illegible ††† part means? you can't. it's lost. unknown. because the manuscript only exists in single copy, and we are so lucky we even have that.

#philology #classics #this is about germanic literature but applies to all of the codici out there

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theidealistphilosophy · 10 months

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That is why I go into solitude— so as not to drink out of everybody’s cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think as I really think; after a time it always seems as though they want to banish me from myself and rob me of my soul— and I grow angry with everybody and fear everybody.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality.

#philosophy tumblr #philoblr #german philology #philosopher #friedrich nietzsche #meta ethics #daybreak #morality #existentialism #solitude #dark academia #life quotes

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trzpiotka · 1 year

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“The government and the roads are bad in Poland, so are the bridges too. There is plenty of bad people who roam around without getting a beating“ true since 1746 i guess

#german #ba thesis adventure #im like “im writing a thesis in German philology and it's your problem too”#it's literally “there is plenty of bad people for whom there is no corporal punishment” btw

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p1325 · 3 months

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I can't believe I got two exams in one day. Wish me luck

#me #gpoy #ahhhhhhh #german philology

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lesewut · 1 year

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‘It can be considered as a sad disaster, that no philosophy, no religion, no ideology, lead to a peaceful and healthy world.’

"Nietzsche and his Christian Worldview“ is presented by Karl Jaspers in 1938 (a lecture in the context of Wissenschaftlicher Predigerverein Hannover), who was pen pal of Hannah Arendt and mental Student of Max Weber. The other book is a collection of selected writings of Nietzsche, also published in 1938. Both not of antiquarian value, but can be used as credentials to underdraw the failure of all promises of salvation.

'In truth,there was only one Christian and he died on the cross.'

Every try to draw near to Nietzsche‘s philosophy and opinion, will stay insufficient. For understanding Nietzsche it is obligatory to understand his contradiction, to understand the discrepancy as a pretence-function. The 'completeness' of his philosophical claim, can just be expressed in this way of antinomy: Between drastic apodictic claims and endless dialectic of all abolishing possibilities.

Nietzsche also saws his current epoch in a crisis. The sinking of culture The replacement of education by merely knowing about education The permanent search for ways to compensate the mental loss of substance („seelischer Substanzverlust“) Universal acting and Living in the 'as if' (das Leben im „als ob“) The anaestesia of boredom by rush and sensation […] and in the noise of mind-simulation, everything is talking, all is ignored and missed by non-existent listeners, all is 'over discussed' to the point of losing importance and significance. And in the dullness of breathless acquisition, in the clamour of the masses, which are feeding the machinery that will in the end consume them, nobody is noticing the big event:

God is dead.

This phrase was too often miscontrusted as godlessness, it has to be seen more as an ontological perception of human existence in so called modern world.

Why is God dead? Should be the next question and Nietzsche would answer:

Because of Christianity.

In Nietzsche’s world-view, the interaction of Christian values and methods to 'overcome' the lies and hypocrisy are not to underestimate.

As Nietzsche himself had both parents descend from pastor families, he explains the distance from Christian Religion, especially the inner scepticism of German protestants, by the fact that they have lost their believe as they noticed the errors of what was preached and what was put into practrice.

But Nietzsche’s hostility is not holistically integrated into his basic experience, as he is using Christian value system for his theory of world-history:

The Universality, Unity, Coherence, Will for Truth (as a Symbol between Logos and Alogon, here the antinomy again) and the Christian Propulsion as the energy for break with all the falseness, because the deeply relfected thinker reveals this fanatism of rigid adherence on a world-immance of the One, that does not exist.

The reflected person, educates himself and is willingly disturbing the sure thought being.

With his restless thoughts, that will not give him comfort in determination, because the human will percieve a higher essence of being in „Nicht-Festgestelltheit“ (~ Not-Determinedness)

The Human will be alone, but he will reach new highs without a goddess, all beauty and all knowledge will be brought back to him, to us (auf-uns-Selbst-zurückrufen), he himself will be brought back into himself.

Out of the deepness of historicity of humanity, there will be fullfilled freedoms, because he will be the present, brought back into himself (sich-Selbst-geschenkt-werden).

Not only for Nietzsche is the distortion of Christianity, the reverse of what was true for Jesus.

It is generally underrated how Nietzsche is drawing an Image of Jesus, to exhibit defects of what the Christian Religion did with the ethical rules of behaviour Jesus exemplified.

„Im Grunde hab es nur einen Christen und der starb am Kreuz.“

Whereas Jesus embodied the ressentiment (of all Humiliated and Insulted, the resentement of the Powerless, the decandence of those, who will ruin themselves „Sich-Selbst-zu-Grunde-richten“),

the later Interpretation reduced the Symbol of a new humanistic ethic into faith.

Faith turned into doctrine and the symbol 'anouncement of the infinite bliss' was decreased into „lauter Sachen und Personen, statt der Symbole, lauter Riten und Dogmen, statt einer Praxis des Lebens.“

With Paulus impact Jesus was turned to the figure of the saviour, in the foreground the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. And because the disciples of Jesus searched for an Explanation, because earthly Born can not bear the bottomless and the inexplicable, they searched for ways for atoning the crime, a method for expiating the sin, so they asked how could have this [injustice] happen?

It has to happen this way, God gave his son as a sacrifice for our sins.

„Nichts ist unchristlicher als die kirchlichen Kruditäten von der Gott als Person, von einem Reich Gottes, welcher kommt von einem Himmelsreich, jenseits, von einem ‚Sohn Gottes‘, der zweiten Person der Trinität … Das ist alles im welthistorischen Zynismus die Verhöhnung des Symbols.“

Nietzsche situates the destructive lie in Christianity, that made the Ancient Greek wisdom in vain, destroyed the Imperium Romanum, annihilated the progess of Islam scholarship and wisdom, the progress and humanistic ideas of the Renaissance and is till today blurring the striving of the individual to forefeel the truth, because the Christian demand on historical Totalwissen is paralyzing by tracing the Golden Age back to a long past time (ironically Nietzsche also, as he is proclaiming the historical highlight of humanity in pre-Socratic Greece, the up-lifting era of tragedy).

Nietzsche wants to establish a new philosophy, a countermovement, the nihilism for washing the humanity pure from all the attached and purported sins and fictions. Following the esperance to give the human an higher self by finding himself, without searching for himself, by drawing near to truth, without fixing and degenerating it. And Nietzsche is detecting, like other Übergangsmenschen, that science will also be instrumentalised and its content filled like previous dogmatic doctrines.

Now a personal train of thoughts: It gives me a feeling of unease, when ´Modern world´ is praised and labelled with concepts, which lack more and more authorization in the practice.

When neo-liberal economy, military re-armament, increased importance of biopolitics, parliamentary reduction of jurisdiction, hypersensitization of (mental) diseases […] are considered as absolutely necessary for maintenance of democratic governmental system, a more or less reflecting human-being is seeking for a debate culture, a professional (and thereofore unbiased) exchange of interdisciplinary methods of analysis.

It will remain difficult to establish a criticial discourse, even till today propagandistic instruments are used for formation of opinion, not just in countries like China, Russia or Turkey, but also in countries we would consider as intented to ensure freedom of speech, as economic interests are dictating the course and purposely replacing fundamental ethical principles (war and aggression are always to condemn, every armed conflict is a sign of humaneness failure !!! )

The world of our humanity is still not able to find sustainable solutions for the majour issues (Global Climate Crisis; rising gap between rich and poor; imprudent consumerism; Extensive Surveillance & Big Data, just to name a few...) of our future.

It can be considered as a sad disaster, that no philosophy, no religion, no ideology, lead to a peaceful and healthy world.

It could be so easy, if basic maxims, would have born in fruit. If the `Golden Rule´, which can be traced back till Ancient Egypt and India, would have been truely assimilated into soul and heart.

`Thou shalt not kill‘, but still today, mothers lose their children and women become willows.

O- we have wonderful definitions of peace and harmony, we were endowed by evolution with this present called reason, to order and tame the forces of nature, to make our lives more and more comfortable.

Equal we are born, but the place of birth is separating us, no equal chances and opportunities to actively improve our way of living, pushing the envelope with sincere effort to the limit of our mental and physical flexibility.

Indisputable are also the systematical limitations, in the modern world, science will be exploited for politcal and economic concerns. In a world, where 'God is Dead' , the seeking human can not find rest bottomless and abysmal, as long as he is not able to find home within himself.

It seems that science will constantly shoulder more and more responsibility and this development could improve prudent valuation and therefore a healthy basis for all live on earth.

But as science is the daughter of Philosophy, it must be reviewed and verified by Ethics Council (my Suggestion: Compiled by financial-independent international supervisory authorities of all areas of life and different vocational sectors, crossing all cultural and age-group section). It will stay a dream, to imagine a world without wars and greed, but if every single one could end the war within himself, I think there would be no war outside the own body and mind.

'Error is something rare in individuals, but it is the rule in groups, parties, peoples, times.'

[Trying to fix a conception of how an individual can improve himself. No Completeness, very messy, here and there some teardrop disturbing the scripture !!! :') Never meet my own requirements :( ]

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duerer-renaissance · 2 years

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Albrecht Dürer Saint Jerome in His Study, 1514 New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art (engraving, 246 x 189 mm)

Circle of the Master of the Female Half Lengths Lucretia, circa 1514-1550 (oil on wood panel, 655 x 500 mm)

The unknown artist who painted this Lucretia transported the subject into the space used by Albrecht Dürer in his Meisterstiche depicting St. Jerome. While most of the iconography from Dürer's print is removed, the prominent gourd in the upper right corner still remains.

The original meaning of the gourd often remains unclear to all but the most educated scholars, who have noted that it is likely a reference to the philological disagreement between St. Jerome and St. Augustine over the meaning of the Hebrew word kikayon as used in the Book of Jonah. Whereas Augustine believed it should follow the traditional translation cucurbita (gourd), Jerome settled on the term hedera, which describes a type of ivy.

Outside of those who would be familiar with this debate, the gourd in Dürer's print was understood to reference the passing of time, which may explain its inclusion in the otherwise unrelated story of Lucretia.

sources: The Met, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336229 Mutual Art, https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Lucrezia-Borgia/9F8799D59BF2533BF429C098D0C2C543 Artnet, http://www.artnet.com/artists/master-of-the-female-half-lengths/lucretia-MByM7PkplGkagByT7J4c4Q2 Parshall, Peter W. “Albrecht Dürer’s St. Jerome in His Study: A Philological Reference.” The Art Bulletin 53, no. 3 (1971): 303–5. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3048864.

#albrecht dürer #master of the female half lengths #saint jerome #german art #netherlandish #engraving #st jerome #philology

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sirspeep · 8 months

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i'm going to what may be my last university exam for a while and my internal monologue is just. astarion voice lines on loop. this is gonna go really well, methinks.

#siv speaks #siv TREMBLES AND SHAKES FACED WITH HER GREATEST ENEMY YET (german philology)

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thatstudyblrontea · 1 year

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January 18, 2023

Library afternoons again. Finally. Looking forward to more productive days, studying Germanic Philology and Russian Literature, getting my student life up and running for the new year.

#studyblr #bookblr #books #study blog #book aesthetic #studyspo #studying #light academia #library #germanic philology #russian literature #uni life #uniblr #uni student #undergrad student #study inspo #study inspiration #study motivation #problematicprocrastinator

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koumeowkami · 9 months

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Wait, what's so bad about linguistics ? I thought it was the fun little language science?

fun... oh my god... you poor fools /j

i think you don't know how bad linguistics can get until you study it. maybe if you're a science fanatic and already have a scientific mindset you might enjoy it, but since i'm not like that at all it's simply hell for me. too many definitions, too many little things to remember, not to mention all the sounds you have to memorize and the ways they're written. it's actually kinda boring, too.

everyone studying languages usually struggles a lot with linguistics and it's pretty much one of the hardest exams here (i'll be starting my third year at uni in october and i still have to do the linguistics exam. you study it in the first year). i also had to study ENGLISH linguistics which was worse cause i had to remember all of that in another language... it wasn't pretty

#ask #🔥; lira!#can't believe my humanistic ass studied languages to be freed from science and i STILL have to study it. god hates me #one of the worst experiences i've ever had at uni along with germanic philology. which basically relies on linguistics. lol

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globossum · 2 years

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I can’t be a philologist because my sanity bar drops a bit more every time I remember all the manuscripts we lost forever because of [insert reason].

#cotton library what did they do to you #heart attack every time I have to look to damaged mss for more than 0.0001 sec #i don't like this game anymore can i change my thesis to something that does not expose me to these atrocities?#germanic philology #philology meme #romance philology

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thelittlemars · 10 months

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Not stonks for Thorkelin

The Germanic Philology Diary, vol. 1

I decided that I would create a little format on this blog. Turns out that I know a shit ton of curiosities and fun facts about history and literature, in particular regarding Germanic Philology — the field that studies Germanic Medieval texts.

Today, while researching for my thesis, I discovered a little story that I thought some of you might like. It's about the first ever Latin translation of Beowulf, aka the Bible of philologists. It's a thrilling, funny but tragic story that involves an Icelandic scholar, bombings and fires.

So, my thesis is on Sir Walter Scott and Old Norse mythology (simplified). While reading some of his letters, I encountered one that he sent to a friend on August 9th, 1810.

These [volumes Scott bought] with some others & with what I had before make me strong in Northern antiquities which the Bombardment of Copenhagen in which Thorkelin's library perishd has renderd scarce.

Apart from the fact that Scott is totally bragging in this passage, my first thought when reading this was "Hold on, Walter...what do you mean with Bombardment of Copenhagen??"

Of course, being the little rat that I am, I had to find out more. Turns out that the British bombarded Copenhagen in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. Most of the city was destroyed in the fires that followed.

Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin, an Icelandic scholar, lived in Copenhagen. At this point, he had spent 20 years working on the first ever translation in Latin (and German) of the Old English poem Beowulf. He even lived in England for years in order to study the original manuscript, after the only copy existing of the poem was damaged in a fire a few years before. He was a living legend for scholars of the time.

In his personal library, which contained many Old Norse texts, including sagas, copies of the Eddas and scaldic poetry, he kept the final transcript and editorial notes of the translation. As he himself put it in the 1815's edition of the translation, he just had time to save the first drafts of the translation before his house collapsed in the fire.

Now imagine this. It's 1807, the books you so avidly collected in your library are extremely rare and difficult to find. You probably travelled a lot to find them, and spent a fortune to buy them. Moreover, the work of your life, the work that is literally paying your rent because it was commissioned by the Government is forever lost in the fire that followed a fucking bombardment. Not stonks for you, my friend. However, this idiot had the courage to look at his manuscript translations and thought "Mh, okay. Imma just do it again".

And he fucking did.

Yes, his translation is nowadays considered shit. Most of the translations of the time of literally anything are considered shit. They were trying to translate everything into Latin, and then used the Latin translation to do other translations, instead of consulting the original. So yeah, it was shit. But he still put the effort in that translation. And he was the first to do it.

So yeah, not stonks for Thorkelin. But still. Kudos for Thorkelin, I guess?

And, for the love of everything holy, please Walter...stop bragging.