Acknowledgments

This book is “based on a true dissertation,” advised by Christoph Uehlinger and Michael Satlow (University of Zurich, 2018). I am grateful for their kind but critical feedback, and for their ongoing support and advice. The dissertation was funded by the University of Zurich’s Research Priority Point (URPP) “Asia & Europe” and a Marie Heim-Vögtlin scholarship by the Swiss National Scientific Foundation (SNSF). The inclusion of the dissertation project into the URPP’s research field “Concepts and Taxonomies” offered a stimulating intellectual environment and left distinct marks on its course. I am thankful to all involved for this great opportunity and experience.

I am grateful to the SNSF for funding the open-access publication of this book. The Meyerhoff Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Maryland, the Doctoral Program Asia and Europe, and Fonds für Altertumswissenschaft hosted by the Department of Greek and Latin Philology at the University of Zurich (funded by Walter Burkert) paid for the copyediting and indexing at different stages in the process of the book’s genesis.

Regarding copyediting and indexing, Adina M. Yoffie, William H. Brown, and Katherin Papadopoulos (and her helper John Keily) have done more for this book than cleaning up my English, detecting typos, and producing a useful index, and I am most thankful for your careful work, personal interest, and prompt delivery. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers from Cambridge University Press for their insightful remarks and the editor, Beatrice Rehl, for her support and patience with a first timer. Susan Marks was a great mentor “on the go.”

Hayim Lapin has read a prior draft of this manuscript and provided substantial feedback, and Maxine Grossmann has helped me to digest setbacks and to reframe frustration and despair. Thank you both “a google times” as my kids would say. Speaking of which: My girls grew alongside this book. Just in time for its publication, they are now old enough to understand what this means. And I am so sorry that this discovery ended only in a series of frustrations! No, there are no pictures in the book and there is nothing to color; no, it’s not a story with some fancy main characters, a brave heroine, or a funny prince; no, we won’t be giving a copy to your teachers for Christmas or deposit one in the school library. Honestly, I don’t think they will ever read it. I am still dedicating it to them. And to their father, my best friend, Martin Ferrazzini, who really wants to see his name in it and deserves it more than anyone else. He had many chances and reasons to vote against this project but never did, and instead chose encouragement. Merci tuusig!