Contents | apologizes for late reply; is very sorry that Warburg is not feeling well; everybody lives under a tremendous pressure; relates the story of a student of his who is fighting in France, but gives lectures to his commanding officer on Roman history late every night; it is proof for Boll to know that the soldiers on the front do not want to push aside 'the old things'; the situation is unclear, what with the Russian Revolution, Hindenburg, the Western front, the U-boat war, etc.; he is certain that the radicals in the Russian Revolution will not succeed, the revolution will collapse like the French Revolution; it is doubtful whether the officers will be able to drive with brute force, with machine guns, their own soldiers to fight; Boll is reading the history of the French Revolution to his wife; the German forces are no longer strong enough, not even against a Russian military despot; replies to Warburg's queries, recommends the scholar [Hans] Driesch, erstwhile botanist, then philosopher, to Warburg, he would be a good scholar for Hamburg; Boll is working on a small volume on the history of astrology [in 'Aus Natur und Geisteswelt', 1919]; wants Warburg to join him, remembers the joint lectures by Boll, Bezold and Warburg in Hamburg; hopes to work together with Warburg in the future; is sorry that Warburg could not lecture in Leipzig because of acute fuel shortage; Boll does not know a reference book for constellations of planets, but one can easily calculate constellations with the help of the [Paul Viktor] Neugebauer tables ['Hilfstafeln zur Berechnung von Himmels-Erscheinungen']; a mathematician could help Warburg with the question whether the date [of Luther's birth] was 1483 or 1484; mentions Cardanus, Gauricus; returns a book by [Alfred] Hagelstange; finds the question of the name of a month in honour of Asclepius and Dioscurus very interesting; mentions festivals in Pergamon, cults of (De)Meter, Teukros, zodiac, a twelve-gods-year; seven male and five female gods, Bythinian calendar of cults; Al Kindi article, Arabic geography, astrology, Varaha Mihira, supplies bibliographical references; on cowheaded Hathor; refers to [Anton] Hauber's book ['Planetekinderbilder']; Boll wants to discuss Hauber's book in the meetings of the Heidelberg academy; urges Warburg to submit an article for 'Sitzungsberichte' |