Measuring Heaven: Pythagoras and his Influence on Thought and Art in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Description

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." Title Page Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction PART I. PYTHAGORAS — MAN AND LEGEND 1. Pythagoras in the Greek World The Beginnings: The Sixth Century BC The Reputation of Pythagoras in the Fifth Century BC The Critical Fortune of Pythagoras from the Fourth to the Second Century BC 2. Pythagoras in the Roman World The First Century BC: Pythagoras Mythologized The First and Second Centuries AD: The Vir Sagacis Animi Revered 3. Pythagoras in the Late Pagan and Early Christian Worlds The Third and Fourth Centuries: The Divine Pythagoras as Apollo Reincarnated Pythagoras Remembered in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries 4. Pythagoras in Medieval Memory PART II. PYTHAGOREAN THOUGHT 5. Pythagoreanism in Greek and Roman Antiquity Sappho: The First Pythagorean? The Culture of Early Pythagoreanism 6. Neopythagoreanism in the Late Pagan and Early Christian Worlds The Revival of Pythagoreanism in the First Century AD: Arithmology and Arithmosophy The Dissemination of Neopythagoreanism after the First Century The Druids and Pythagoreanism 7. The Middle Ages: A New Pythagoreanism Rules for Conduct in the Pythagorean/Christian World The Enduring Classical Conception of Number The New Enthusiasm for Numerical Organization in Learning Number in Daily Life: Magic, Medicine, and Alchemy PART III. PYTHAGOREANISM IN ART AND ARCHITECTURE 8. Pythagoreanism in Ancient Art and Architecture Antique Images of Pythagoras Possible Pythagorean Impulses in Classical Antiquity The Iconography of Apollo in Roman Art and Architecture and Its Pythagorean Connections 9. The Oldest Surviving Pythagorean Building and Its Significance 10. The Pythagoreanism of Hadrian’s Pantheon 11. Pythagoreanism in Medieval Art Medieval Images of Pythagoras The Dodecahedron in Early Medieval Art: Cosmos and Number The Pythagorean Sphere in Later Medieval Art: Cosmos and Number The Pythagorean Y as a Symbol of Choice 12. Sacred Siting: The Pythagorean Heritage of Medieval Ecclesiastical Architecture The Basilical Origins of the Medieval Church Concepts of Order in the Gothic Cathedral 13. Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index