Το Κέντρον Ερεύνης της Ελληνικής και Λατινικής Γραμματείας της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών διοργανώνει διαδικτυακή διάλεξη του James L. Zainaldin (Vanderbilt University) με τίτλο:
«Writing the Peach Between Chinese and Roman Agronomy».
Η διάλεξη θα πραγματοποιηθεί την Πέμπτη 18 Ιουνίου στις 18.00.
Περίληψη
The peach was cultivated at an early point in China, from where it eventually spread to the rest of the world. As documented by texts such as the Shijing, Liji, and Shiji among others, the peach acquired great cultural and literary significance in China over the course of the first millennium BCE. In view of these early attestations, it is perhaps notable that the peach does not appear in Chinese agricultural literature until the sixth century CE, in Jia Sixie’s 賈思勰 Qimin yaoshu 齊民要術, the first extant work of Chinese agronomy. On the other side of the world, the peach begins to appear in Greco-Roman agricultural writings in the first century CE, about 500 years before Jia wrote, although its first full treatment in the extant record comes only in the third century with Gargilius Martialis work De hortis. But in contrast with China, the peach was a new fruit in the Mediterranean and seems to have been cultivated in Rome only from the early first century CE. While it seems to have become popular quickly, it was only sparingly handled in literature and did not possess the deep cultural meaning it possessed in China—it was, rather, a quintessentially foreign fruit, the “Persian apple” (Persicum malum). This talk explores the written treatment of the peach in ancient China, Greece, and Rome, with particular focus on the agronomic writings of Jia Sixie and Gargilius Martialis. The comparison presents an interesting opportunity to look at how technical treatments of the peach were, or were not, influenced by the history of the fruit and its context-dependent cultural associations.
Ηλ. Διεύθυνση επικοινωνίας για τον σύνδεσμο ΖΟΟΜ: mkonaris@academyofathens.gr