Learned Antiquity: Scholarship and Society in the Near East, the Greco-Roman World and the Early Medieval West

In conjunction with a long-running research project at the University of Groningen on cultural change, this volume forms the proceedings of an international conference held at the university in 2001. The contributors adopt an inter-disciplinary approach to studying knowledge, learning and cultural change in a range of societies over a long period of time, including Babylonia, Neo-Assyria, the Greco-Roman period, Christianity, Byzantine, Islamic and Carolingian cultures. The fourteen essays look especially at the role and function of centres of learning, at particularly influential scholars, at literary genres and the importance of socio-political context in the process of cultural change and transformation.