Scrinium Classical Antiquity

OTIS, B., Ovid As an Epic Poet. Cambridge University Press, London, 1966. XII,411p. Cloth wrps. Wrps bit worn and repaired with acid free adhesive tape.'This handsomely produced book on the 'Metamorphoses' has three main theses. First that the poem is an epic on Love; Ovid 'took the one thing that was to him emotionally real - the love that unites or destroys men and women - and made an epic of it' (p.345). Secondly that the key to the continuity of this 'carmen perpetuum' lies not in the often tenuous links between the individual episodes but in the arrangement of the themes: (a) i. I-ii 875, 'The Divine Comedy', tales in which amor brings a loss of 'maiestas' to the gods; (b) iii. I-Vi. 400, 'The Avenging Gods', tales of divine wrath, interspersed with amatory episodes; (c) Vi. 401-Xi. 795, 'The Pathos of Love', tales of human passion, with contrasting episodes of a miraculous character. Each group has an elaborate internal structure, which Otis expounds in great detail, and there is a progression from one group to another in terms of the poet's engagement with his subject. Otis's third thesis is that the unity of the epic is marred by the conflict between the love theme, which was Ovid's primary concern, and the Roman-Augustan theme, which he felt obliged to include for political reasons. (...) Otis's mistake all through is that he seeks to impose a macrostructure, using as his units the individual stories and ignoring the lower levels of organic construction which link the stories into groups of various shapes and sizes. (...) In the detailed criticism of particular passages Otis has some acute and sensitive things to say. He is particularly good on the differences between elegiac and hexameter narrative (pp.23 ff.). Yet even here some of his concepts are open to question.' (ROBERT COLEMAN in The Classical Review (New Series), 1967, pp.46-50). € 49.50 (Antiquarian)

OTT, J. S., Bishops, Authority and Community in Northwestern Europe, c.1050–1150: Volume 0, Part 0. Cambridge University Press, 2015. 392p. Hardback. Series: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, 102. This important study of episcopal office and clerical identity in a socially and culturally dynamic region of medieval Europe examines the construction and representation of episcopal power and authority in the archdiocese of Reims during the sometimes turbulent century between 1050 and 1150. Drawing on a wide range of diplomatic, hagiographical, epistolary and other narrative sources, John S. Ott considers how bishops conceived of, and projected, their authority collectively and individually. In examining episcopal professional identities and notions of office, he explores how prelates used textual production and their physical landscapes to craft historical narratives and consolidate local and regional memories around ideals that established themselves as not only religious authorities but also cultural arbiters. This study reveals that, far from being reactive and hostile to cultural and religious change, bishops regularly grappled with and sought to affect, positively and to their advantage, new and emerging cultural and religious norms. (Publisher's information). € 100.73 (New)

OTT, J. S., Bishops, Authority and Community in Northwestern Europe, c.1050–1150 : Volume 0, Part 0. Cambridge University Press, 2017. 392p. Paperback. Series: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, 102. This important study of episcopal office and clerical identity in a socially and culturally dynamic region of medieval Europe examines the construction and representation of episcopal power and authority in the archdiocese of Reims during the sometimes turbulent century between 1050 and 1150. Drawing on a wide range of diplomatic, hagiographical, epistolary and other narrative sources, John S. Ott considers how bishops conceived of, and projected, their authority collectively and individually. In examining episcopal professional identities and notions of office, he explores how prelates used textual production and their physical landscapes to craft historical narratives and consolidate local and regional memories around ideals that established themselves as not only religious authorities but also cultural arbiters. This study reveals that, far from being reactive and hostile to cultural and religious change, bishops regularly grappled with and sought to affect, positively and to their advantage, new and emerging cultural and religious norms. (Publisher's information). € 27.90 (New) (MD)

OTT, W. P., Laws of Nature. Oxford University Press, 2018. 288p. Hardback. Ott and Patton ... have assembled a diverse group of scholars to examine the origins and status of the modern scientific concept of natural law ... clearly written ... Highly recommended. C. D. Kay, CHOICE 01/02/2019 |a 24/06/2019 (Publisher's information). € 67.94 (New)

OTT, W., Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2009. 274p. Hardback. Walter Ott offers us a fascinating account of the development of theories of causation and laws of nature in the early modern period... a great piece of scholarship covering an impressive array of figures. It is quite a demanding read, but well worth the effort. Eric Stencil, Journal of the History of Philosophy (Publisher's information). € 100.55 (New) (MD)

OTT, W., Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2012. 274p. Paperback. € 48.90 (New) (MD)

OTT, W., Descartes, Malebranche, and the Crisis of Perception. Oxford University Press, 2017. 260p. Hardback. [Walter Ott's] work is commendable for the very careful attention he pays to the texts. ... the picture that Ott draws, of an optimistic theory of perception, based squarely on a view of what the physical world is like and how it operates, that gradually, as the need for ever more complicated mental processes unfold, lost contact with that physical world, is a fascinating one, and Ott's book deserves the same close and careful study he himself put into it. Margaret Atherton, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews |a 13/2/18 (Publisher's information). € 67.25 (New)

OTTE, J.-P., Les mythes de la création. Les matins du monde du cercle polaire à l'Océanie. Les Aubes sauvages. Les Aubes encantées. Les Naissances de la femme. Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2017. 652p. Paperback. Pendant une douzaine d’années, Jean-Pierre Otte s’est attaché à rassembler les mythes premiers du cercle Arctique, des deux Amériques, de l’Afrique noire, de l’Océanie et de l’Australie de l’'Ère du rêve'. Ces mythes de création qui, dans le recours à l’imaginaire, demandent à la vie le secret de ses origines, étaient peu connus, dispersés ou fragmentaires, souvent jamais traduits de la langue dans laquelle les grands voyageurs et les premiers ethnographes les rapportèrent. Dans un second temps – et cette démarche fera date –, Jean-Pierre Otte s’est efforcé d’amener ces grands récits de la tradition orale à l’existence écrite. Son travail dans la rigueur n’en est pas moins une transposition poétique, aussi vivante et passionnée que possible. Il s’agissait d’amplifier le sens, d’exalter les couleurs, d’accentuer les contrastes, et de mettre en évidence, sans le dénaturer, le contenu philosophique, métaphysique, religieux, amoureux ou moral des mythes du commencement. Rendus magnifiquement, ces matins du monde ont été choisis pour être représentatifs des grands courants cosmogoniques, lesquels ne sont peut-être, malgré leurs différences, ou plutôt grâce à elles, que la diversité fabuleuse et fertile d’une unité foncière inscrite au plus profond de la mémoire du monde et de la nôtre. (Publisher's information). 'Otte reprend ici un nombre considérable d'histoires, de fables et de mythes de la création, cite leurs principaux éléments narratifs, et effectue une 'transposition poétique', élabore lui-même, autrement dit, un récit littéraire qui du mythe oral d'origine entend restituer 'le contenu philosophique, métaphysique, religieux, amoureux ou moral'.' (Review in Libération). € 37.50 (New)

OTTER, S. M. D., British Idealism and Social Explanation. A Study in Late Victorian Thought. Clarendon Press, 1996. 262p. Hardback. Series: Oxford Historical Monographs. € 193.62 (New) (MD)

OTTERLO, W.A.A. van, Beschouwingen over het archaïsche element in den stijl van Aeschylus. Kemink en Zoon, Utrecht, 1937. (II)II,162p. Sewn. Cover bit grimy. Corners a bit bumped. Diss. Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. € 12.50 (Antiquarian)