Postdoc at Alchemies of Scent (Prague)
The project Alchemies of Scent, hosted at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, has advertised an opening for a 5-year postdoc, copied below (original website here): […]
BMCR: Dosoo on Iaô sabaôth
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2021.07.35: Roxanne Sarrazin Bélanger, Alain Delattre, Daniel Demaiffe, Natasja De Winter, Alain Martin, Georges Raepsaet, Marie-Thérèse Raepsaet-Charlier, Iaô sabaôth: pratiques magiques dans la cité des Tongres: une […]
Doctoral position in the study of of Coptic magic (Würzburg)
23-month Position in the Study of Coptic Magic (doctoral) The project The Coptic Magical Papyri: Vernacular Religion in Roman and Early Islamic Egypt at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg is pleased to […]
New collection of essays on the Pseudo(?)Aristotelean De mundo
The De mundo is an under-researched classic of ancient thought with major ramifications for western esotericism, in particular the ‘cosmic religion’ highlighted by Festugière in the Revelation d’Hermes Trismegiste. The […]
new book: Apocryphal and Esoteric Sources in the Development of Christianity and Judaism
The interface of esotericism with the history of biblical literature, and Christianity and Judaism more widely, is understudied. It’s great to see a new volume focusing on apocryphal and esoteric […]
two postdocs working on the early history of the codex in Oslo
Courtesy of Prof. Brent Nongbri, rockstar: The projectWe are excited to recruit two postdoctoral research fellows to the project The Early History of the Codex: A New Methodology and Ethics […]
Open Access Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie
Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie (or in its full title, Paulys Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft) is an indispensable resource for the study of the ancient world. Curious about a name, place, or person […]
New book: Kutash, Goddesses of Myth and Cultural Memory
Below you find a link for the new book of Emilie Kutash, Goddesses of Myth and Cultural Memory, available through Bloomsbury and on Amazon: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/goddesses-in-myth-and-cultural-memory-9780567697400/ Here is a description from […]
new book: A Prophet Has Arrived
Ad for an important new sourcebook via AGADE: A Prophet Has Appeared. The Rise of Islam through Christian and JewishEyes, A Sourcebookby Stephen J. Shoemaker (Author)March 2021Hardcover, 320$90.00, £74.00Paperback$34.95, £29.00Pages: […]
Pre-Print: Esoteric Knowledge in Ancient Sciences
The Max Planck Institute has made available a pre-print for what looks to be an absolutely amazing volume: Markham J. Geller and Klaus Geus, edd. Esoteric Knowledge in Antiquity (TOPOI […]
New edition of Aristoxenus from Carl Huffman
Lovers of the Pythagoreans — the actual followers of the historical Pythagoras, or those following those followers — will be excited to see that Carl Huffman, who has done us […]
Two new books on providence and fate: Burns, Did God Care?; Brouwer and Vermicati (eds.), Fate, Providence and Free Will
The end of summer has brought us not one but two new titles dealing with providence, fate, and free will in Roman philosophical and religious literature of the first centuries […]
new book: Valentinian Christianity
I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time – a new reader of Valentinian sources, with Greek and Coptic facing new English translations, by Geoffrey S. Smith of […]
Sinatti on Neoplatonic Demons and Angels
A new book on demons and angels in Neoplatonism has just been reviewed in BMCR by Cesare Sinatti – you can read the review here. The book is: Luc Brisson, […]
What is Coptic magic?
‘The Coptic Magical Papyri: Vernacular Religion in Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt is a five-year research project (2018-2023) based at the Chair of Egyptology of the Julius Maximilian University […]
Dillon on Banner, Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus
Courtesy of BMCR: Nicholas Banner, Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. ix, 299. ISBN 9781107154629. £75.00. Reviewed by John Dillon, Trinity […]
Zellmann-Rohrer on Faraone, The Transformation of Greek Amulets
Michael Zellmann-Rohrer (Oxford University) has just published a review at BMCR of a Christopher Faraone, The Transformation of Greek Amulets in Roman Imperial Times. Empire and after (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania […]
Daglish on Mastrocinque, the mysteries of Mithras
Attilio Mastrocinque’s work is nothing if not distinctive. His From Jewish Magic to Gnosticism is one of those books that comes at the old problems from a very different perspective. […]
New book: The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
An up-to-date study of the ancient Hermetica in their Egyptian context with attention to Egyptian, Greek, and Gnostic sources alike – a sort of sequel to Mahé’s Hermès en Haute-Égypte – […]
CFP: Charms, Charmers, and Charming
Conference: Charms, Charmers, and Charming When: May 22 – 24, 2019 Where: University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) Deadline for abstracts: December 1, 2018 From the organizers: The Department of Lingue, Letterature […]
Hermetica II: The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and Introduction
Since the ’90s, the standard English translation of the Corpus Hermeticum has been Copenhaver’s Hermetica. It remains a very useful tool, but one way in which it is inferior to […]
God’s Library and Variant Readings
Brent Nongbri’s work will be familiar to many followers of this website, principally his terrific book Before Religion, a wonderful critique of the usage of the category ‘religion’ in the […]
Digital Syriac Corpus
Via PaleoJudaica (in turn reblogging AWOL): The Digital Syriac Corpus has been around for some time, and is starting to have a significant corpus of digitized Syriac texts available for […]
CFP: ESSWE7 Western Esotericism and Consciousness
ESSWE7: Western Esotericism and Consciousness, Visions, Voices, Altered States Where: University of Amsterdam When: July 2-4, 2019 Deadline: October 1st, 2018 Website From the organizers: The history of Western esotericism […]
Gnosis volume 3.1: Hermetism
Courtesy of April DeConick: the newest issue of Gnosis: Journal for Gnostic Studies is guest-curated by Christian Bull, and features a collection of new papers on Hermetism. (It doesn’t get […]
New Book: The Nag Hammadi Codices and Late Antique Egypt
There are loads of new volumes including papers on the Nag Hammadi texts these days. The study of Gnosticism really has transformed over the last twenty years, in wonderful and […]
New Book: Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus
I am very happy to draw attention to the forthcoming publication of Nicholas Banner’s Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). I was lucky enough […]
New book: Apocalyptic Thinking in Early Judaism
From the website at Brill: Apocalyptic Thinking in Early Judaism. Engaging with John Collins’ ‘The Apocalyptic Imagination.’ Edited by Cecilia Wassen and Sidnie White Crawford. Supplements to the Journal for the Study […]
Podcast: Secret History of Western Esotericism
NSEA members and readers of this blog will want to know about the Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP). Created by Earl Fontainelle, a researcher of esotericism, the podcast […]
Greek Fragments of the First Apocalypse of James discovered
The (First) Apocalypse of James is an early Christian Gnostic apocalypse extant in two different Coptic versions, Nag Hammadi Codex V and the Tchacos Codex. These Coptic works are generally […]
New Book: Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity
This new volume of papers looks terrific, and includes a number of studies about Gnosticism as well as ancient wisdom traditions more generally. The volume is a Festschrift for Prof. […]
ZODIAC: Ancient Astral Science in Transformation
The Freie Universität Berlin has launched the website for its project researching the formations of ancient zodiacal and mathematised cosmology in the near east and beyond, seeking ‘to develop a […]
Colloquium on Apuleius’ De mundo
George Boys-Stones and the University of Toronto are putting on a workshop on Apuleius’ translation of (Ps.)Aristotle’s On the World, a very important and under-researched document in the history of […]
ISAW Visiting Research Scholar Program 2022-23
The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) is a centerfor advanced scholarly research and graduate education, which aims toencourage particularly the study of the economic, religious, politicaland […]
A new book on the ‘evil creator’ idea as a Christian innovation
Ancient esotericism-specialists may know M. David Litwa’s work from his Hermetica II volume or elsewhere. In a new OUP offering he addresses the problem of how the idea of an […]
R.I.P. Robert Rittner
Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, via AGADE (see original post here): July 26, 2021 The OI community mourns the loss of our dear friend and […]
