Vita Brevis
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Vita Brevis
''Vita Brevis: A Letter to St Augustine'' ( la, Brief Life; also published in English as ''That Same Flower'') is a novel written by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder and originally published in 1996. Gaarder presents the text as written by Saint Augustine´s lover (who is mentioned, but not named, in his ''Confessions''). Plot In the introduction, Gaarder claims that he found the old manuscript at a bookshop in Buenos Aires and translated it. According to his plotline, it was written by Floria Aemilia, Augustine's concubine, who after being abandoned by him, got a thorough Classical education, read his ''Confessions'' (where she is mentioned but not named, unlike their son, Adeodatus) and felt compelled to write this text as an answer. Editions * Gaarder, Jostein. ''Vita Brevis'' (Brief Life) (also appeared in English as That Same Flower) (1996) See also * ''Ars longa, vita brevis ''Ars longa, vita brevis'' is a Latin translation of an aphorism coming originally from ...
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Jostein Gaarder
Jostein Gaarder (; born 8 August 1952) is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories, and children's books. Gaarder often writes from the perspective of children, exploring their sense of wonder about the world. He often utilizes metafiction in his works and constructs stories within stories. His best known work is the novel '' Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy'' (1991). It has been translated into 60 languages; there are over 40 million copies in print. Family Gaarder was born and raised in Oslo. His father was a school headmaster and his mother was a teacher and author of children’s books. Gaarder married Siri Dannevig in Oslo in 1974. They moved to Bergen, Norway in 1979 and had two sons. In 1997, Gaarder and Siri Dannevig established the Sophie Prize. It was an environmental development prize of (USD 100,000 = 77,000 €), awarded annually until 2013, when it was announced that it would no longer be awarded due to lack of ...
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Aschehoug
H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), commonly known as Aschehoug,() is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway, founded in 1872. Headquartered in Oslo, the publishing house has 480 employees. The Aschehoug group also comprises other publishing houses owned partially or wholly by Aschehoug. Aschehoug can be directly translated to "ash hill." History Aschehoug was founded as a bookstore in 1872 on Egertorvet in Oslo by cousins, Hieronymus and Halvard Aschehoug. From the start the firm was involved in publishing in a modest way, its output consisting mainly of school books. In 1888, the company was taken over by William Martin Nygaard and Thorstein Lambrechts (1856-1933), who kept the name while expanding its operations. In 1900 William Nygaard withdrew from the bookselling side of the business and established a publishing company, which was given the name H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard). In 1935, following the death of William Nygaard, the publishing house turne ...
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Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ...
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Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include ''The City of God'', '' On Christian Doctrine'', and '' Confessions''. According to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith". In his youth he was drawn to the eclectic Manichaean faith, and later to the Hellenistic philosophy of Neoplatonism. After his conversion to Christianity and baptism in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing the grace of Christ was indispensable to human free ...
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Confessions (St
Confessions are acknowledgements of facts by those who would have otherwise preferred to keep those facts hidden. Confessions may also refer to: Film, television, and radio * ''Confessions'' (1925 film), a British silent film * ''Confessions'' (2010 film), a Japanese film * ''The Confessions'' (film) (''Le confessioni''), a 2016 Italian film * Confessions series, a 1970s series of film adaptations of novels by Christopher Wood * "Confessions" (''Arrow''), a 2019 television episode * "Confessions" (''Breaking Bad''), a 2013 television episode * "Confessions" (''Roseanne''), a 1990 television episode * ''Confessions'' (radio programme), a British radio feature presented by Simon Mayo Literature * ''Confessions'' (Augustine), a 4th-century autobiographical work by St. Augustine of Hippo * ''Confession'' (Bakunin), an 1851 autobiographical work by Mikhail Bakunin * ''Confessions'' (Rousseau), a 1782–1789 autobiography by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * Confessions series, a 1970s ...
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Manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include ''any'' written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts. Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, music notation, explanatory figures, or illustrations. Terminology The study of the writing in surviving manuscripts, the "hand", is termed palaeography (or paleography). The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS., ms or ms. for singular, and MSS., mss or ms ...
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Bookshop
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of libraries in c.300 BC stimulated the energies of the Athenian booksellers. History In Rome, toward the end of the republic, it became the fashion to have a library, and Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade. The spread of Christianity naturally created a great demand for copies of the Gospels, other sacred books, and later on for missals and other devotional volumes for both church and private use. The modern system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of printing. In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries the Low Countries for a time became the chief centre of the bookselling world. Modern book selling has changed dramatically with the advent of the Internet. Major websites such as Amazon, eBay, and other big bo ...
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Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South America's southeastern coast. "Buenos Aires" can be translated as "fair winds" or "good airs", but the former was the meaning intended by the founders in the 16th century, by the use of the original name "Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre", named after the Madonna of Bonaria in Sardinia, Italy. Buenos Aires is classified as an alpha global city, according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) 2020 ranking. The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Province's capital; rather, it is an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include t ...
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Concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubinage was a formal and institutionalized practice in China until the 20th century that upheld concubines' rights and obligations. A concubine could be freeborn or of slave origin, and their experience could vary tremendously according to their masters' whim. During the Mongol conquests, both foreign royals and captured women were taken as concubines. Concubinage was also common in Meiji Japan as a status symbol, and in Indian society, where the intermingling of castes and religions was frowned upon and a taboo, and concubinage could be practiced with women with whom marriage was considered undesirable, such as those from a lower caste and Muslim women who wouldn't be accepted in a Hindu household and Hindu women who wouldn't be accepted in ...
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Ars Longa, Vita Brevis
''Ars longa, vita brevis'' is a Latin translation of an aphorism coming originally from Greek, roughly meaning, "skilfulness takes time and life is short". The aphorism quotes the first two lines of the ''Aphorismi'' by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. The familiar Latin translation ''Ars longa, vita brevis'' reverses the order of the original lines, but can express the same principle. Translations The original text, a standard Latin translation, and an English translation from the Greek follow. Interpretation The most common and significant caveat made regarding the saying is that "art" ( la, ars, translating grc, τέχνη tékhnē) originally meant "technique, craft" (as in ''The Art of War''), not "fine art". Hippocrates was a physician who made this the opening statement in a medical text. The lines which follow: "The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate." ...
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1996 Norwegian Novels
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on board; Eight people 1996 Mount Everest disaster, die in a blizzard on Mount Everest; Dolly (sheep), Dolly the Sheep becomes the first mammal to have been cloned from an adult somatic cell; The Port Arthur massacre (Australia), Port Arthur Massacre occurs on Tasmania, and leads to major changes in Gun laws of Australia, Australia's gun laws; Macarena, sung by Los del Río and remixed by The Bayside Boys, becomes a major dance craze and cultural phenomenon; Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 crash-ditches off of the Comoros Islands after the plane was Aircraft hijacking, hijacked; the 1996 Summer Olympics are held in Atlanta, marking the Centennial (100th Anniversary) of the modern Olympic Gam ...
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Philosophical Novels
Philosophical fiction refers to the class of works of fiction which devote a significant portion of their content to the sort of questions normally addressed in philosophy. These might explore any facet of the human condition, including the function and role of society, the nature and motivation of human acts, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge, whether there exists free will, or any other topic of philosophical interest. Philosophical fiction works would include the so-called ''novel of ideas'', including some science fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, and the ''Bildungsroman''. Philosophical fiction : ''This is only a list of some major philosophical fiction. For all philosophical novels, see :Philosophical novels. There is no universally accepted definition of philosophical fiction, but a sampling of notable works can help to outline its history. Some philosophers writ ...
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