Tabula Cebetis

Tabula Cebetis (The Tablet of Kebes) is the Latin title of an ancient philosophical dialogue . The work is written in ancient Greek and bears the Greek title πίναξ pínax ('The painting', 'The picture panel').

Author, time of creation and content

The font in its present form appears to have been written by an unknown author in the 1st or early 2nd century. From the 2nd century at the latest, the philosopher Kebes , who in the late 5th and early 4th century BC, was valid . Lived when the author. Hence the anonymous author is also called pseudo-kebes .

The title refers to a votive painting that was located in front of the temple of the god Kronos and depicted human life. An old man and two young men talk about this in the fictional dialogue. The philosophical views that are expressed are to a large extent Neo-Pythagorean , but stoic and cynical influences are also discernible.

reception

The Pinax des Pseudo-Kebes was widespread in antiquity and was quoted by Lukian and the church writer Tertullian , among others . In the Middle Ages, the work was unknown to the Latin-speaking scholarly world of the West. However, it was translated into Arabic by an anonymous translator in the High Middle Ages . The Arabic text has been preserved.

In the Renaissance was Pinax rediscovered. The first edition was published in 1494 as a text accompanying the grammar of Konstantinos Laskaris by Aldus Manutius in Venice. A Latin translation by the Italian humanist Ludovicus Odaxius (Lodovico Odassi) first appeared in print in 1497 . Numerous other prints followed, whereby the Pinax was often combined with the Golden Verses or the handbook , an excerpt from Epictet's doctrinal conversations . The work was translated into seven other languages as early as the 16th century and remained popular until the 18th century.

Editions and translations

John T. Fitzgerald, L. Michael White (Eds.): The Tabula of Cebes. Scholars Press, Chico 1983, ISBN 0-89130-601-3 (critical edition with English translation and introduction)
Rainer Hirsch-Luipold , Reinhard Feldmeier , Barbara Hirsch, Lutz Koch, Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (eds.): The picture panel of the Kebes. Allegory of Life (= Sapere , Volume 8). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-15574-2 (non-critical edition with translation, introduction and interpretive essays)

literature

Edmund Wilhelm Braun : Cebestafel . In: Real Lexicon on German Art History . Volume 3, Druckermüller, Stuttgart 1954, Sp. 383-390
Jean-Marie Flamand, Dimitri Gutas : Le tableau de Cébès . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 2, CNRS Editions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , pp. 248-251
Reinhart Schleier: Tabula Cebetis or "Mirror of Human Life / which is virtuoso and unreasonably painted". Studies on the reception of an ancient image description in the 16th and 17th centuries. Mann, Berlin 1973

Web links

The work of the pseudo-Kebes in the German Digital Library
Johann Kramer: Tabula Cebetis Thebani , woodcut, 1551

Remarks

^ Rainer Hirsch-Luipold: Introduction. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold et al. (Hrsg.): Die Bildtafel des Kebes. Allegory of Life , Darmstadt 2005, pp. 11–37, here: 29 f .; Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: From Kebes to Pseudo-Kebes. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold et al. (Hrsg.): Die Bildtafel des Kebes. Allegory of Life , Darmstadt 2005, pp. 38–66, here: 43–47.
↑ See also Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: From Kebes to Pseudo-Kebes. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold et al. (Hrsg.): Die Bildtafel des Kebes. Allegory of Life , Darmstadt 2005, pp. 38–66, here: 48–51.

[1] Rainer Hirsch-Luipold: Introduction. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold et al. (Hrsg.): Die Bildtafel des Kebes. Allegory of Life , Darmstadt 2005, pp. 11–37, here: 29 f .; Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: From Kebes to Pseudo-Kebes. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold et al. (Hrsg.): Die Bildtafel des Kebes. Allegory of Life , Darmstadt 2005, pp. 38–66, here: 43–47.

[2] See also Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: From Kebes to Pseudo-Kebes. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold et al. (Hrsg.): Die Bildtafel des Kebes. Allegory of Life , Darmstadt 2005, pp. 38–66, here: 48–51.