Arte rates reguntur: Nautical handbooks in antiquity?

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Abstract

Given the huge number of technical handbooks on multifarious subjects, ranging from astronomy and music to rhetoric, horticulture, and cooking, the absence of ancient nautical handbooks comes as a surprise. Such handbooks did exist in antiquity in some form, likely having been written in the period of the Hellenistic boom of technical texts, but disappearing at some later point, perhaps around the third or fourth century AD. This disappearance could be due to a number of reasons, suggesting that the tastes and needs of the audience(s) for nautical technai were changing. These nautical handbooks may have been superseded by more specialized works, such as treatises on astronomy and mathematics, geography and periploi, and naval tactics, which may have been regarded as being of greater use than an interdisciplinary book on sailing. From a purely aesthetic perspective, many readers will probably not feel inclined to bemoan the loss of all ancient handbooks on navigation, as they will have looked similar to the periploi, containing many imperatives, short main clauses in hypotaxis, and many numerals.

Section snippets

Introduction: the status quaestionis

After Winston Churchill had received some treatment from his dentist, Wilfred Fish, he is reported to have written him a note saying: “I know you have written a book about dentures, but I think you should read one.”1 We have no knowledge of any technical manual on dentures or indeed dentistry as such from antiquity.2 However, there are numerous other specimens of treatises, textbooks, and manuals dealing with the most

Sailors and landlubbers: the importance of nautical training

So where does that leave us? From what has been said so far by the authorities in the field, it would seem that two points merit closer investigation. One is the question of possible hints in ancient literature that might allude to the existence of nautical handbooks. The other is to look into the realities and details of the training of sailors and nautical officers in antiquity, as far as it is possible to reconstruct these with the help of texts and other sources. Is it really true that all

Nautical handbooks in antiquity? The problematic nature of the evidence

Now that we have formed an idea about the professional status of sailors as experts in their own right, especially (but not exclusively) those serving in the navy, and have also assured us of the importance of organized training of naval recruits, we would actually come to the conclusion that manuals of any kind were not really necessary at all, and that Lionel Casson should just have asked an experienced skipper to teach him the skills he needed instead of keeping all to himself on his boat

Thales, nautical astronomy

Thales of Miletus is said to have written a Nautical Astronomy,39 and a passage from Apuleius’ Florida (18.15) allows us to get an idea of the possible contents of that work: astronomy and meteorology, in particular the winds, which are always

Orality versus literacy in professional seamanship

A look at the most important testimonia to the existence of nautical handbooks in antiquity has left us with the impression that such manuals might have existed. We know of at least one work which was written for the practical needs of a military commander and probably introductory in character. Although this treatise was composed ad personam, it experienced at least some kind of wider circulation from late Republican times to the early fourth century AD when it was used by Nonius Marcellus.

On the fringe of the arts: the status of the ars gubernandi

There are authors in antiquity who would call into question the status of the ars gubernatoria as a proper science, for example Cicero in De finibus bomorum et malorum 1.42:

We esteem the art of medicine not for its interest as a science but for its conduciveness to health; the art of navigation is commended for its practical and not its scientific value, because it conveys the rules for sailing a ship with success. So also Wisdom, which must be considered as the art of living, if it effected no

A handbook de re nautica: some speculations

Another very important question that anyone who claims that nautical handbooks existed in antiquity will have to answer is: What kind of information would you expect to find in such manuals? In other words, if you were asked to reconstruct the contents of such a work, what would they actually be? As long as one cannot come up with a list of possible subject matter, the argument remains incomplete.

What can be said here must perforce be brief. Taking e.g. the chapters of Vegetius’ book on

Conclusion: love and the sea

I would like to conclude this paper with a look at the first few lines of the first book of Ovid’s didactic poem On the Art of Love (Ars amatoria). The poet announces that he is going to communicate to his readers—that is, to all those among the Romans who are yet unaware of the ars amandi—the knowledge that is required to be a successful lover. It should be noted that the reference is specifically to readers, and not to an audience, as can be seen from the expressions hoc legat and lecto

Acknowledgements

This study is dedicated to the memory of Manfred Fuhrmann (1929–2005), whose work on ancient technical texts has been groundbreaking. I am much indebted to him for his help at an early stage of my research and his kind encouragement to pursue my question further. I presented my ideas at research seminars in St Andrews and Edinburgh in February/March 2006. My thanks go to Douglas Cairns, Andrew Erskine, Stephen Halliwell, Harry Hine, and Ulrike Roth for stimulating contributions. The late Sir

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