Primavesi, Oliver 1961-

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PRIMAVESI, Oliver 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born February 17, 1961, in Offenbach am Main, Germany; Education: Attended University of Heidelberg and Oxford University.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Zimmer 382, Geschwester-Scholl-Platz I, Munich 80539, Germany; fax: 0892180 2355. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Author and educator. University of Munich, Munich, Germany, instructor, 1998-2000, professor of Greek philology, 2000—. Previously taught at University of Frankfurt am Main.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Prix Reinach, Association pour l'Encouragement des Études Grecques en France, 1999; Prix Gantrelle, Académie Royale de Belgique, 2000.

WRITINGS:

Die Aristotelische Topik: Ein Interpretationsmodell und seine Erprobung am Beispeil von Topik B, Beck (Munich, Germany), 1996.

(With Alain Martin) L'Empédocle de Strasbourg (P. Strasb. gr. Inv. 1665-1666), Walter de Gruyter (New York, NY), 1998.

Contributor to journals, including Antike und Abendland and Elenchos.

SIDELIGHTS:

In L'Empédocle de Strasbourg (P. Strasb. gr. Inv. 1665-1666), German author and professor Oliver Primavesi and coauthor Alain Martin provide a critical analysis of a newly discovered papyrus containing work by the pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles. The papyrus, reconstructed from fifty-two small fragments, comprises a total of seventy-four legible lines, including fifty-four previously unknown lines from Book I and Book II of Empedocles's poem on nature. "Their content does not merely summarize Empedocles, it makes it possible moreover to resolve problems which had remained in abeyance in the exegetical tradition and reveals the place of Presocratic studies in Egypt where the papyrus was discovered," commented Lambros Couloubaritsis in Diogenes. For example, the newly discovered lines on the papyrus demonstrate "that there are not two Poems of Empedocles, 'On Nature' and 'Purifications,' but just one, devoted to 'physics,'" Couloubaritsis noted. "Most of the supposed fragments of the 'Purifications' can be reassigned to 'Nature,'" added M. F. Burnyeat in the Times Literary Supplement.

The papyrus was originally discovered in 1904, when German archaeologist Otto Rubensohn purchased an Egyptian funerary crown made out of the papyrus. "Originally, [the fragments of the papyrus] had formed a collar-shaped strip used … as the base on which to paste gilded copper leaves to form a wreath," Burnyeat remarked. However, "when the copper leaves were removed, to get at the literary text for whose sake the thing was bought, the base fell to pieces," Burnyeat wrote. In 1990 Martin began reassembling the papyrus. In 1994 he identified the contents as verses by Empedocles, then enlisted Primavesi's assistance with philosophical interpretation. "Congratulations not only to them for their meticulous labors, but also to the publisher Walter de Gruyter for the magnificence of photography, layout and general presentation," Burnyeat remarked.

Primavesi's philosophical interpretation of the work provides an overview of various interpretations of the fragments. Empedocles originated the idea that the four elements—called "roots" by Empedocles—of fire, air, earth, and water form the basis of the entire universe. Primavesi examines the philosopher's notions of how these roots, under the influence of the force of repulsion called "Strife" and the force of attraction called "Love," make and re-make the world. Primavesi's analysis "has the merit of making clearer his interpretation and the debate which his philosophical approach joins," Couloubaritsis noted. Despite the lack of reference to the mythic and poetic elements, Primavesi's work in the book "advances the present debate" about the newly discovered lines and Empedocles's work in general, Couloubaritsis stated.