Reasons Why Not

Shifting Horizons - A Line and Its Movement in Art, History and Philosophy

“…This brief excursus into illuminations and Denkfiguren of the twelfth century demonstrates that the figure of the horizon itself is subject to historical change. 10 Depending on location, era, knowledge, and culture, the horizon line is variably and contingently delineated and defined, open to new meanings and configurations. In this sense, the horizon appears not as a constant astronomical or cartographic fixture but as something subject to continuous movements that shift the relationship(s) between the visible world and imaginary realities in incessantly (re)calibrated new ways.…”

“…9 Glauch et al (2011; Hoffmann/Wolf (2012), especially Ingrid Baumgärtner, «Erzählungen kartieren: Jerusalem in mittelalterlichen Kartenräumen», 231-262. 10 Hinske/Engfer/Janssen/Scherner (1974). 11 , 49.…”

“…-1141, in his book Kitâb al ḥujja wa'l-dalîl fi naṣr al-dîn al-dhalîl (known as the Book of the Kuzari, completed 1140), describes China as the specific geographic space from which the very start of the day is calculated. 10 Here, in the Book of Kuzari, a specific topographic space is associated with the eastern horizon, similar to the use of the word Maghreb for denoting the regions of northwest Africa as the far west, located on the very edge of the medieval western horizon.…”

“…The precise measurement endows reality and strong presence to the whole scene, but it also reminds us of the depth of the horizon and the length stretched between the horizon and earth. 10 See Halevi (1977), Book 2, section 19. 11…”

“…In so doing, it seeks to establish itself as immutable: as Ober notes, if «someone were to pull up the agora horos and carry it somewhere else, the statement it proclaims would no longer be accurate, since it would no longer mark a boundary of the agora». 10 The transformative possibilities of moving horoi were wellknown in Athens from the work of the lawmaker Solon, who claims in his poems to have liberated Athens by uprooting the boundary stones fixed everywhere and by setting himself instead as a kind of boundary marker. 11 By speaking in the first person, the Agora horos takes on a similar role for itself, commanding us to recognize its authority by yoking itself to the ground in which it rests.…”