325:, was discovered in a cuneiform commentary on a medical text. However, the significance of cuneiform commentaries extends beyond the light they shed on specific details of Mesopotamian civilization. They open a window onto what the concerns of the Mesopotamian literate elite were when they read some of the most widely studied texts in the Mesopotamian intellectual tradition, a perspective that is important for “seeing things their way.” Finally, cuneiform commentaries are also the earliest examples of textual interpretation. It has been repeatedly argued that they influenced rabbinical
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The earliest examples, and also one of the largest corpora of text commentaries from the ancient world, comes from first-millennium-BCE Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Known from over 860 manuscripts, the majority of which date to the period 700–100 BCE, most of these commentaries explore numerous types
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Cuneiform
Commentaries Project, a research project led by Professor Eckart Frahm, and sponsored by Yale University and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The website includes an up-to-date catalogue and dozens of annotated editions, as well as introductory essays (including essays on the
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The publication and interpretation of these texts began in the mid-nineteenth century, with the discovery of the royal
Assyrian libraries at Nineveh, from which ca. 454 text commentaries have been recovered. The study of cuneiform commentaries is, however, far from complete. It is the subject of
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Cuneiform commentaries are important because they provide information about
Mesopotamian languages and culture that are not available elsewhere in the cuneiform record. To give but one example, the pronunciation of the cryptically written name of Gilgamesh, the hero of the
273:, many of which may be of concern or interest primarily to specialists. The commentator may take a position on variant readings of the text or on a point of scholarly dispute, but arguments are usually succinct, a paragraph or less than a page in length.
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hermeneutic techniques used by the commentaries and the relationship between cuneiform commentaries and early Hebrew exegesis); photographs of the manuscripts (i.e., clay tablets), including those yet to be edited; and guides to further readings.
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project to recover the texts of antiquity, with its related boom in publishing. In the modern era, a commentary differs from an annotated edition aimed at students or the casual reader in that it attempts to address an exhaustive range of
389:. It offers an online hypertext linked to interpretive materials of various kinds. These include basic information about grammar, syntax, and diction; several commentaries; an apparatus criticus; help with scansion; and other resources.
352:"DCC publishes born digital scholarly commentaries on classical texts intended to provide an effective reading and learning experience for classicists at all levels of experience." It currently contains commentaries on selections from
142:, but its primary purpose is to elucidate the language of the text and the specific culture that produced it, both of which may be foreign to the reader. Such a commentary usually takes the form of
196:, or is produced within a culture assumed to be of limited familiarity to a reader, a broader range of issues may require elucidation. These include, but are by no means limited to,
290:). Most of them, however, comment on divination treatises, in particular treatises that predict the future from the appearance and movement of celestial bodies on the one hand (
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settings, and cross-references to related passages in the same work, other works by the author, or sources used by the author.
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that were in use during his days as a student in the 350s A.D. One of the most used of the ancient scholia today is that of
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239:) are a valuable source of information otherwise unknown, including references to works that are now lost.
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452:. New perspectives on the purpose and use of scholia and annotations within the Roman intellectual milieu.
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that have survived to the present day, Mesopotamian text commentaries are written on clay tablets in
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ongoing research by the small, international community of scholars who specialize in the field of
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The production of commentaries began to flourish in the 16th century as part of the
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on cuneiform scholarship, they often contain
Sumerian words or phrases as well.
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Means of providing commentary on the language of the text include notes on
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is a line-by-line or even word-by-word explication usually attached to an
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The
Classical Commentary: Histories, Practices, Theory (limited preview)
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The Vergil
Project is a resource for students, teachers, and readers of
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European
Literary Careers: The Author from Antiquity to the Renaissance
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Babylonian and
Assyrian Text Commentaries. Origins of Interpretation
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of a text in the same or an accompanying volume. It may draw on
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580:"Future Philology? The Fate of a Soft Science in a Hard World"
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Patrick Cheney, "'Jog on, jog on': European Career Paths," in
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As with the majority of the thousands of texts from the
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Gibson, Roy K.; Shuttleworth Kraus, Christina (2002).
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Wilson, Nigel (2007). "Scholiasts and commentators."
372:(ed. Eric Casey, Evan Hayes, and Stephen Nimis), and
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189:obstacles to reading and understanding the text.
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539:Apology for Himself against the Books of Rufinus
282:of texts, including literary works (such as the
331:Akkadian Commentaries and Early Hebrew Exegesis
376:(eds. Christopher Francese and Meghan Reedy)
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185:. The aim is to remove, lessen or point out
522:(University of Toronto Press, 2002), p. 6
461:Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record
106:Learn how and when to remove this message
564:). See T. G. Pinches, “Exit Gišṭubar!”,
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548:(Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 3.
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712:"Home Cuneiform Commentaries Project"
546:Greek Mythography in the Roman World
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44:adding citations to reliable sources
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499:Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
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566:The Babylonian and Oriental Record
220:perspectives, literary allusions,
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463:5; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2011).
444:. Oxford University Press, 2004.
618:"Dickinson College Commentaries"
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690:"Vergil Project Information"
368:(ed. Christopher Francese),
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284:Babylonian Epic of Creation
243:provides a list of several
55:"Commentary" philology
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578:Pollock, Sheldon (2009).
488:vergil.classics.upenn.edu
277:Mesopotamian commentaries
212:and facts of daily life,
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227:Some commentaries from
360:(ed. William Turpin),
364:(ed. Bret Mulligan),
210:technical terminology
40:improve this article
748:Classical philology
429:Textual scholarship
344:Online commentaries
271:scholarly questions
229:Classical Antiquity
150:, or separate text
409:Literary criticism
194:text is historical
140:literary criticism
493:dcc.dickinson.edu
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366:Sulpicius Severus
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692:. upenn.edu
670:. upenn.edu
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233:Middle Ages
177:, literary
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506:References
187:linguistic
169:, and the
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66:newspapers
743:Philology
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473:. Brill.
414:Philology
214:religious
167:semantics
144:footnotes
120:philology
404:Exegesis
398:See also
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311:Akkadian
266:humanist
175:rhetoric
171:analysis
148:endnotes
721:June 8,
696:11 July
674:11 July
652:11 July
643:"About"
627:11 July
524:online.
419:Scholia
249:Servius
237:scholia
231:or the
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374:Vergil
370:Lucian
354:Caesar
329:. See
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253:Vergil
241:Jerome
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179:tropes
163:syntax
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192:If a
183:style
87:JSTOR
73:books
723:2024
698:2015
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654:2015
629:2015
542:1.16
475:ISBN
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358:Ovid
206:laws
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