Two layers, one voice. This book is written in two layers. The main text carries the argument: read only that, and you miss nothing of the reasoning and can follow the book from cover to cover. Around it stand boxes that show the foundation for those who want to dig deeper — they deepen the case, but they never interrupt it. There are five kinds:
- Scholar — the technical detail (a Greek form, a calendar rule, a manuscript) for those who want the fine grain. - Workbench — the recomputation: the figures, the base rate, the road from measurement to result. - Countercase — the strongest opposing argument, in its own words, before it is weighed. - Excursus — a side-path that throws light from an angle: an instructive error, a parallel, a history. - Heart — where the argument pauses for a moment at what the measurement means.
The three marks. Every claim carries a mark, and the three must never be allowed to blur: CALCULATED (reproducible — you can reproduce it yourself), DOCUMENTED (seen in the primary source itself, with its location) and CONSTRUED (an interpretation — it weighs as much as you grant the reading, and no grain more). The full use of these marks is set out in Chapter 2. In the boxes, a Workbench carries its mark — in square brackets, or named in the heading — wherever it closes a self-standing measurement, calculation, or source-finding; boxes that mainly lay out a line of reasoning, a weighing, or a method state their status in the running text itself.
Sources. All references follow APA; the locations — with page, chapter, or a findable online place — are given at the back, so that every citation can be traced.
Two layers, one voice. This book is written in two layers. The main text carries the argument: read only that, and you miss nothing of the reasoning and can follow the book from cover to cover. Around it stand boxes that show the foundation for those who want to dig deeper — they deepen the case, but they never interrupt it. There are five kinds:
- Scholar — the technical detail (a Greek form, a calendar rule, a manuscript) for those who want the fine grain. - Workbench — the recomputation: the figures, the base rate, the road from measurement to result. - Countercase — the strongest opposing argument, in its own words, before it is weighed. - Excursus — a side-path that throws light from an angle: an instructive error, a parallel, a history. - Heart — where the argument pauses for a moment at what the measurement means.
The three marks. Every claim carries a mark, and the three must never be allowed to blur: CALCULATED (reproducible — you can reproduce it yourself), DOCUMENTED (seen in the primary source itself, with its location) and CONSTRUED (an interpretation — it weighs as much as you grant the reading, and no grain more). The full use of these marks is set out in Chapter 2. In the boxes, a Workbench carries its mark — in square brackets, or named in the heading — wherever it closes a self-standing measurement, calculation, or source-finding; boxes that mainly lay out a line of reasoning, a weighing, or a method state their status in the running text itself.
Sources. All references follow APA; the locations — with page, chapter, or a findable online place — are given at the back, so that every citation can be traced.