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THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Summer Examinations 2013
RECEPTIONS OF ANTIQUITY
Time allowed: 2 hours
Candidates MUST answer TWO questions in SECTION A and TWO questions in
SECTION B.
Students will not be given credit for substantial repetition of material between questions on
the examination paper.
Read carefully the instructions on the answer book and make sure that the particulars
required are entered on each answer book.
SECTION A
Comment on points of interest in TWO of the following passages. Select passages from
TWO DIFFERENT topics (worth 33%):
1. TOPIC I
a) “Although Plato has not provided us with a fully fledged method for understanding the
sciences and the arts, I have shown that he must nonetheless be considered superior to all
other philosophers inasmuch as he wrote the best and wisest books on these subjects. Now his
detractor claims in the second book of his work that the philosopher who comes nearer to the
truth of the faith and who is more in agreement with the teaching of the Church must be held
wiser; and he tries to prove that the doctrines of Aristotle are in tune with those of the Church,
whereas the doctrines of Plato are out of tune with them. I am now going to advance the
opposite claim and show with clear argument that, if either of them, it is Plato rather than
Aristotle who agrees with the Catholic faith. I do not say this because I would wish Plato
rather than Aristotle to enter the Church by the backdoor; nor do I say it out of contempt for
Aristotle: both are alien to our faith and far removed from it, and both are Greek in origin as
well as religion. Therefore, it is fruitless for him, lacking any genuine praise, to take refuge in
the Church and in the faith, like those who are condemned to death and hide themselves in a
sanctuary as if it were a place of retreat. Accordingly, it is not my aim to enter a pointless
competition and to prove, as he did with Aristotle, that Plato was a Christian; rather, I will try
to show that even an enemy of the Church, if he were looking for assistance and a guide to
lead him towards the truth of faith, should turn towards the writings of Plato instead of those
of Aristotle; and I will also try to show how such a person can derive the greatest benefit from
them.”
Bessarion, Against the Slanderer of Plato II 1 (transl. by John Monfasani)
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b) “For some time now I have meant to write to you and would have done so except for my
feeble command of your language. For I have enjoyed little fortune in learning Greek as
happened to you with Latin, which you were wont to use with our authors’ assistance, and
which, through their descendants’ negligence, you seem to have forgotten. Cut off from either
means of communication, I had remained silent. One man has once again restored you to our
age in Latin dress; and by Jove, your Penelope did not wait for her Ulysses any longer or
more anxiously than I have for you. Already I had gradually lost all hope, for, aside from
some opening lines of several of your poems, in which I viewed you as one beholds from a
distance the uncertain and shimmering look of a desired friend, or a glimpse of his streaming
hair, nothing of yours has reached me in Latin—in short, I had no hope of seeing you at close
quarters; for that little book that commonly passed as yours, though of uncertain authorship,
and though it has been derived from yours and is ascribed to you, is certainly not yours. If he
lives long enough, this man will restore you to us in your entirety; for he has already begun to
let us enjoy fully not only the outstanding fruits of your divine works but also the charms of
conversing with you. I recently tasted the Greek flavor of one of these in Latin dress, which
made me plainly see the capabilities of a vigorous and keen intellect. […] Although poetry is
also your primary and particular specialty, and although, following a certain Jerome who is a
skillful user of our language, I wrote that, once translated into either Latin or Greek prose,
you seemingly are transformed from an eloquent poet into one scarcely able to speak, yet
now, surprising as it may appear, I find you pleasing though translated into Latin prose. […] I
have said many things as though you were present, but now upon emerging from these vivid
flights of the imagination, I realize now how far removed you are, and I fear that it may prove
annoying for you to read so many things in the shadows, except that your lengthy letter was
written from there. Farewell forever, and when you have returned to your place, do give my
greetings to Orpheus and Linus, Euripides and the others.”
Petrarch, Familiar Letters I 7 (translated by Aldo S. Bernardo)
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2. TOPIC II
a) “I would repeat that love is the ground and origin of all our affections and the epitome of
all the perturbations of the soul. […] Because of these agitations of the soul, the blood
becomes adust [i.e. burnt], earthy, and melancholy, as in the case of all other violent passions
except joy, according to Galen, for which reason many have fallen into terrible circumstances
and corrupt states of health, becoming melancholy, foolish, misanthropic, maniacal, and
lycanthropic according to the report given by the learned Avicenna in his chapter on love.
Aretaeus the physician makes mention of a young dandy of his day who became lovemad and
could not be cured through the ministrations of this learned doctor of Cappadocia. […]A
young Athenian became insane for love of a marble statue. The same would have happened to
a rich merchant of Arles not long ago had it not been for the help of the learned Valleriola, as
recounted in his Observations. According to Strabo and Suidas, Sappho the poetess, forlorn
for her love of Phaon hurled herself from the Leucadian rock into the sea, for women are
more frequently and more grievously troubled by these ills than are men. Such love gives rise
to a pale and wan complexion, joined by a slow fever that modern practitioners call amorous
fever, to palpitations of the heart, swelling of the face, depraved appetite, a sense of grief,
sighing, causeless tears, insatiable hunger, raging thirst, fainting, oppressions, suffocations,
insomnia, headaches, melancholy, epilepsy, madness, uterine fury, satyriasis, and other
pernicious symptoms that are, for the most part, without mitigation or cure other than through
the established medical remedies for love and erotic melancholy, based on the teachings of
Hippocrates toward the end of his book on the diseases of young women and in his book on
generation.”
Jacques Ferrand, A treatise on love sickness, 2 (tr. D. Beecher and M. Ciavolella)
b) “Why the digits have nails. The supreme Maker of things adorned the digits of the hands
and feet with nails so as to have them attached as a support. The digits grasp only soft bodies
with the fleshy parts that they have at their end. But objects that are hard and therefore resist
the nature of flesh and forcibly push it away, cannot be grasped without the aid of nails. For
their flesh, which we shall later explain is a rather hard, fatty tissue spread beneath the skin, is
then bent back and turned under, and for that reason needs reinforcement. Indeed, man gains
numerous advantages from nails, if they are neither beyond the tips of the fingers nor below
them, as for example if it is necessary to scrape, scratch, pinch, peel, or pluck something. […]
Attachment of the nails. To keep them from hanging loose, they are attached at their upper
end by a ligament to the root of the last bone of the digits. Because it was worthwhile that
they be attached to flesh and skin, skin surrounds the entire root externally, and internally
flesh is attached throughout. Galen attests that not only an artery and a vein but also a nerve
extend into the very root, and he writes that the nails take sense, life, and nourishment from
these in the same way as other parts. I know, indeed, that not only are two small nerves [Nn.
medianus et ulnaris, Nn. digitales palmares proprii] (hand in fig. 2, ch. 11, Bk. 4) brought to
the root of the nails, but also that they run with the veins [Vv. digitales palmares propriae]
(figure of the hand, ch. 6, Bk. 3) beneath the nails, also to the end of the digit. I also believe
that the nails lack all sensation. Therefore I agree in no small way with the view of those who
think that the nails grow from a coalescence of bone, nerve, and skin (some add flesh as well).
But that veins, arteries, and nerves are not dispensed in the nails like garden channels is
known from the fact that nails start out from a root and grow like hairs.”
Andreas Vesalius, On the fabric of the human body, I, 34 (tr. D. Garrison and M. Hast)
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SECTION B
Answer TWO of the following questions, from TWO DIFFERENT topics (worth
67%):
1. TOPIC I
a) How does Dante Alighieri understand the relation between pagan antiquity and the
Christian era? Discuss with reference to at least TWO passages from the Divine Comedy.
b) Which aspects of ancient culture are particularly problematic for Renaissance Christians?
Discuss with reference to at least TWO ancient and TWO Renaissance sources.
c) ‘The ‘classical’ is an ideological construct.’ Discuss with reference to both primary and
secondary texts.
2. TOPIC II
a) What were the many forms of melancholia and to what extent could it be considered a
‘special disease in our culture’ (J. Pigeaud)?
b) Did ancient Greek knowledge of, and texts on, anatomy facilitate or hinder medical
awareness of the human body in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?
c) What role did scholars and translators play in the popularity of Galenic medicine up to
1600?
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