Measuring Heaven : : Pythagoras and His Influence on Thought and Art in Antiquity and the Middle Ages / / Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Joost-Gaugier, Christiane L.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (376 p.) :; 60 halftones, 1 line drawing

Surviving fragments of information about Pythagoras (born ca. 570 BCE) gave rise to a growing set of legends about this famous sage and his followers, whose reputations throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages have never before been studied systematically. This book is the first to examine the unified concepts of harmony, proportion, form, and order that were attributed to Pythagoras in the millennium after his death and the important developments to which they led in art, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, music, medicine, morals, religion, law, alchemy, and the occult sciences. In this profusely illustrated book, Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier sets out the panorama of Pythagoras's influence and that of Christian and Jewish thinkers who followed his ideas in the Greek, Roman, early Christian, and medieval worlds. In illuminating this tradition of thought, Joost-Gaugier shows how the influence of Pythagoreanism was far broader than is usually realized, and that it affected the development of ancient and medieval art and architecture from Greek and Roman temples to Gothic cathedrals.Joost-Gaugier demonstrates that Pythagoreanism—centered on the dim memory of a single person that endured for centuries and grew ever-greater—inspired a new language for artists and architects, enabling them to be "modern."

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- PART I. PYTHAGORAS-MAN AND LEGEND -- 1. Pythagoras in the Greek World -- 2. Pythagoras in the Roman World -- 3. Pythagoras in the Late Pagan and Early Christian Worlds -- 4. Pythagoras in Medieval Memory -- PART II. PYTHAGOREAN THOUGHT -- 5. Pythagoreanism in Greek and Roman Antiquity -- 6. Neopythagoreanism in the Late Pagan and Early Christian Worlds -- 7. The Middle Ages: A New Pythagoreanism -- PART III. PYTHAGOREANISM IN ART AND ARCHITECTURE -- 8. Pythagoreanism in Ancient Art and Architecture -- 9. The Oldest Surviving Pythagorean Building and Its Significance -- 10. The Pythagoreanism of Hadrian's Pantheon -- 11. Pythagoreanism in Medieval Art -- 12. Sacred Siting: The Pythagorean Heritage of Medieval Ecclesiastical Architecture -- 13. Conclusions -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index