Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The relative thinness of this book is deceptive, as the amount of information it offers is enormous.The 117 pages of main text are supplemented by 41 small-print pages of endnotes, altogether 314 of them, offering innumerable details from textual remarks to bibliographical data and, of course, various suggestions and interpretations.This makes the reading of the whole 'essay' (as the author himself repeatedly calls his book) quite an enterprise even for someone who is fairly well acquainted with scholarship on Theophrastus.From the title of the book, readers might expect a broad study on Theophrastus and his scholarly contribution, including the field for which he is most famous, viz.botany.Thus, for those interested in the history of natural sciences, it could be disappointing to find out that the book is rather a full-length treatment of Theophrastus' Characters, which, as the sleeve-note mentions, 'aims to locate this influential work with respect to the political and philosophical worlds of Athens in the late fourth century'.It does contain a few references to Theophrastus' other scientific work but the focus is clearly on the Characters. 2 At that, Millett's study is a must for everyone dealingThe reviewer apologizes for the lateness of this review.1 Thus, in his review, John Scarborough [2009] suggests that the book is mis-
Institution: University of Tartu
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W615068232