{"product_id":"epistemic-impressions-making-and-mediating-classical-art-and-text-9780192846587","title":"Epistemic Impressions: Making and Mediating Classical Art and Text","description":"\u003cem\u003eEpistemic Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e advances a new history of image-making and art-text relations in classical antiquity. Moving away from a focus on imitation \u003cem\u003e(mimēsis)\u003c\/em\u003e, it looks instead to the concept of the seal-impression \u003cem\u003e(typos), \u003c\/em\u003e which played a vital role in ancient philosophies of mind: seals were 'epistemic objects' in that they informed complex thinking about the relationship between form, matter, and medium. As an indexically produced image, the \u003cem\u003etypos\u003c\/em\u003e offered Greek thinkers a model of sense perception and knowledge transmission grounded in material processes of engraving and stamping, which were closely related to those of sculptural moulding and casting \u003cem\u003e(plastikē).\u003c\/em\u003e In turn, these had a profound influence on concepts of truth, representation, and replication, offering a materially embedded ontology of the image that has far-reaching implications for our understanding of Graeco-Roman aesthetics. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on theories of media, Verity Platt explores how the concept of impressing \u003cem\u003e(typōsis)\u003c\/em\u003e was especially significant for literary engagements with artworks, informing Greek models of intermediality from archaic poetry to imperial Greek prose and early Christian exegesis. Advancing an 'object-oriented' approach that dislodges the trope of \u003cem\u003eekphrasis\u003c\/em\u003e in favour of embodied processes of making, the book focuses on Hellenistic epigram, an especially medium-conscious genre, offering new readings of poems by the third-century BCE poet Posidippus, who drew on practices of engraving, stamping, and casting in his epigrams on precious gems \u003cem\u003e(Lithika)\u003c\/em\u003e and bronze statuary \u003cem\u003e(Andriantopoiika)\u003c\/em\u003e. Posidippus' sophisticated engagement with materiality is set within the longer history of intermedial relations in ancient epigram, as these unfold through the \u003cem\u003eGreek Anthology\u003c\/em\u003e in dialogue with shifting approaches to image-making and transmission under the Roman Empire and in early Byzantium. As a prehistory of analogue modes of reproduction (and thus the concept of 'type'), \u003cem\u003eEpistemic Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e demonstrates how, just as many ancient concerns with the visual may seem surprisingly modern, so many modern preoccupations are in fact more ancient than we might presume.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Verity Platt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/20\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeries:\u003c\/b\u003e Classics in Theory\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 448\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 2.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.70w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780192846587","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45265273716873,"sku":"9780192846587","price":155.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_b89065f1-4094-4513-af25-bba427bbad68.jpg?v=1771309830","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/epistemic-impressions-making-and-mediating-classical-art-and-text-9780192846587","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}