Looking back on his first encounters withAmbrose, Bishop of Milan, in the late fourth century, Augustineremembers noticing the curious way Ambrose would read: ‘his eyeswould scan over the pages and his heart would scrutinize theirmeaning – yet his voice and tongue remained silent’.7 This –reading in silence – is not normal, and Augustine wonders whatcould possess Ambrose to adopt such a practice. (Was it to preservehis voice? Or a way of avoiding unwanted discussions about the texthe was reading?)

StAugustine draws this same parallel when he writes to a communityof nuns, ‘let it not be only your mouth that takes food, but let yourears also drink in the word of God’.3

Manguel, Alberto. A history of reading. 2014.

A historical perspective on the sciencesbrings into view controversies, and some beliefs and methodological con-victions that retrospectively turn out to be false—among Blumenberg’scharacteristically colorful picks are Augustine writing that “the stars werecreated for the consolation of people obliged to be active at night,” and“Linnaeus’s opinion that the song of the birds at the first light of morningwas instituted as consolation for the insomnia of the old.”84

In rapid succession there followed alpha-betized subject indexes to major authors like Aristotle (indexed anonymously by 1250 in Paris), Augustine (by the Dominican Kilwardby at Oxford, 1256–61), or Aquinas (owner- indexed by Godfrey of Fontaines, then circulated more broadly). These indexes used a clear ordering system (the alphabet) and subject terms that were standard in scholastic circles, with the result that they could serve as a col-lective resource for students and scholars throughout Europe who had access to a copy, and they circulated separately from the works they indexed.127

The hermeneutic circle (German: hermeneutischer Zirkel) describes the process of understanding a text hermeneutically. It refers to the idea that one's understanding of the text as a whole is established by reference to the individual parts and one's understanding of each individual part by reference to the whole. Neither the whole text nor any individual part can be understood without reference to one another, and hence, it is a circle. However, this circular character of interpretation does not make it impossible to interpret a text; rather, it stresses that the meaning of a text must be found within its cultural, historical, and literary context.

proper charitable attitude

And perhaps the great secret or Writing is the mixing all these in so just a proportion that every one may tast what he likes without being disgusted by its contrary

Rhetorick."