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Oliver Nicholson
Classical and Near Eastern Studies
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It seems
to be a point of fact: everyone has used a reference book at one
time in their life to discover the origins or meaning of a particular
topic; but rarely do we consider the origins of the text itself.
One of such texts is developing at the University of Minnesota right
now. Oliver Nicholson, associate professor in the Department of
Classical and Near Eastern Studies, is the general editor of the
Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (ODLA). The project, which is
housed in the Center for Medieval Studies at the University, "is
the first attempt to produce a one-volume general reference book
for every aspect of this half-millennium," says Nicholson.
When it is completed it will weigh in at a million words and will
be published worldwide by Oxford University Press.
This reference text will cover the half-millenium which falls between
the Roman World and the High Middle Ages (c. 250-750 A.D.). There
are two dozen Area Advisers helping with specific areas of expertise
ranging from Armenia and Ethiopia to North Africa and Ireland. The
core areas covered include the Late Roman and Persian Empires, the
Germanic Kingdoms of early mediaeval Western Europe and the first
century of Islam. Once Nicholson and his team begin commissioning
articles, a large number of scholars will be involved.
The “late antique” period is a relatively new invention among historians.
“This is a period of history, literature and thought in which there
has been an immense burgeoning of scholarly interest in the past
generation,” says Nicholson.
Professor Nicholson expertly expands on this period's appeal:
"In many ways it is the result of one man's inspiration. Until
the 1960s people believed Gibbon that the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire was Decline and Fall. They preferred to study periods
of the past they could admire — like the Glory that was Greece
and the Grandeur that was Rome.
Peter Brown (who taught me 35 years ago when I was an Oxford undergraduate)
alerted the scholarly world to the fact that the half-millennium
from about 250 A.D. to about 750 A.D. was bursting with human variety
and inventiveness, not just in religion but also in art, literature
and the formation of political and civil institutions.
Since then two generations of scholars have been thrilled by the
way that in Late Antiquity ideas and events cross one another. We
may not have much in the way of statistics about the conditions
of Late Antique life, but it is possible to get inside the minds
of Late Antique people (such as Augustine of Hippo in eastern Algeria)
often with amazing intimacy. It is in many ways in the modern
taste to consider history that is immediate and inspiring rather
than history which we can set upon a pedestal and admire.
This is also an era which has fundamentally formed our world—the
rise of Christianity, the formation of western Europe with many
of its institutions, the rise of Islam are all forces which form
modern habits and institutions.
For example, I regularly get 70 to 100 in my large lecture classes
on Age of Constantine, Age of Augustine and Age of Justinian and
Muhammad. So the Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity will provide
the basic reference work on every aspect of this very various era.
Here is true cultural diversity."
For more information please visit the Classical
and Near Eastern Studies Web site or Professor Nicholson's profile
page.
By Andria Peters
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