Viator

"Allegory in the Navigatio sancti Brendani." The Navigatio sancti Brendani has been variously interpreted as a monkish transatlantic voyage, a continental devotional piece with an Irish setting, an allegorical pilgrimage, and an allegory of monastic life. This article explores the monastic allegory in the context of the early Irish church, suggesting a link with the célí dé reform in examining the type of monasticism evinced in the text, as well as its genre in Irish literary tradition (the text as an immram). The eschatological theme, as disclosed by apocalyptic imagery, is also linked to the metaphor of the voyage as a life journey. On the level of a physical voyage, the text evokes the physical and geographical reality of the early Irish church; on the spiritual level, the voyage evokes the aims and outlook of the reform movement of the ninth century, especially attitudes toward pilgrimage, using the familiar immram genre. The Irish Christian and Irish monastic background to the Navigatio is thus reinforced.

"Some Ciceronian Models for Einhard's Life of Charlemagne." This essay seeks to reevaluate the traditional characterization of the Vita Karoli Magni as the first secular biography of the middle ages, a work which self-consciously used Suetonius in order to adapt the written traditions of hagiography and shape a distinctively "imperial" ideal of Carolingian kingship. Instead, it reconstructs the context of Ciceronian rhetoric to which Einhard is known to have been familiar and with which the writing of history and res gestae was closely associated. An awareness of the general rules of epideictic, deliberative, and, above all, forensic rhetoric, it is argued, sheds considerable light not just on Einhard's influential fusion of biography with annals but on the status of the text as an implicit critique of Louis the Pious. Focusing on the generally neglected presence of Charlemagne's will in the text, the essay locates at least the genesis of Einhard's composition in the disturbed politics of 828-829, thereby tying it born to the Epitaphium Arsenii and to Einhard's own Translatio et miracula sancti Marcellini et Petri as evidence of vocal and articulated opposition to Louis's political and ecclesiastical activity.

"Political Theory and Narrative in Charters." Charters and above all imperial diplomas were intended to be seen and only secondarily to be read. For the entire medium of representation of lordship, visual rhetoric was as essential a component of the statement as the verbal rhetoric brought forward by the diplomatic formulae. A series of examples illustrates the great importance of charters for historical examination in general and medieval political theory and narrative in particular. Although it must never be forgotten that first of all charters serve legal aims, they also carry a host of information on the issuers' legitimization, social, legal, and political rank, and even administrative requirements. By no means did all diplomas which survive as single documents present themselves to contemporaries as an ensemble of symbols of lordship. However, they were all capable of doing so and were, when necessary, so employed by the appropriate personnel. These needs could arise in circumstances that were polar opposites: they could be an expression and presentation of actual power, or as claims to such in uncertain situations of impotence.

"Thietmar of Merseburg on Rituals of Kingship." This study confronts a longstanding tendency to interpret the rituals of Ottonian kings exclusively as a means to represent theories of monarchy and to treat them as manifestations of a coherent system. Expanding on research pertaining to rites of submission or surrender, Warner argues that Ottonian views on the subject of ritual were not as systematic as they sometimes appear to be in modern studies and that rituals of kingship encompassed a variety of purposes and messages. Since perception was as important as form or content in ritual, accounts of ceremonial occasions could be manipulated to support an argument. For example, an examination of Thietmar's chronicle suggests that the level of detail and the interpretation accorded a specific ceremonial moment commonly depended on Thietmar's own prejudices and antipathies. Hence, such instances say as much about Thietmar as they do about kingship, government, or the character of ritual. Given the degree to which the image of Ottonian rulership relies on Thietmar's chronicle, Warner emphasizes the need to recognize that the chronicle's author was no dispassionate observer of history but rather a man of affairs with a distinct point of view and pragmatic interests.

"Locum sepulturae meae ... elegi: Property, Graves, and Sacral Power in Eleventh-Century Germany," Focusing on the well-documented story of the eleventh-century Rhenish Count Palatine Ezzo and his family, this article reexamines the premise that monasteries were founded on family lands to function as burial sites expressing family solidarity in "dynastic" terms, Such a theory is based on the assumption that self-perception among European aristocratic families changed after the turn of the millennium, when loose, horizontally linked kin groups presumably began to identify themselves as vertically aligned patrilineages, Rotondo-McCord argues that although such a nascent dynastic consciousness may be observable for the eleventh century, it was not the chief factor in determining the location of noble graves, Instead, personal and highly variable concerns in siting burials on family property could take precedence over the goal of noble self-expression in the form of a "dynastic" necropolis, The example of the graves of the Ezzonids at Brauweiler demonstrates that the choice of a final resting place could be affected by the conflicting agenda of a range of parties, including both family members and family "outsiders," In this story, the latter were quarrelling ecclesiastics, who in the end may have done more than family members themselves to foster the notion of a "dynastic self-consciousness,"

"Averroes on the Prime Mover Proved in the Physics." The fact established by recent scholarship that Averroes's God is an exclusively final cause raises the question how Averroes understands the prime mover proved in Aristotelian natural philosophy, especially since, for him, no other science can possibly prove God's existence. In Averroes's eyes, does Aristotle's Physics conclude to what can only be the first being, or God, which causes all things merely as a separate end? The author argues, on the contrary, that the prime mover proved in the Physics, for Averroes, must be a celestial soul and nothing more, the efficient mover of the first heavenly sphere. The author presents the doctrine of the long Physics commentary, extant in Latin, together with parallels in other works. He brings out the distinctively Averroean reading of Physics 7-8, including the influential theory positing celestial "souls" not subsistent in the bodies to which they are united. And, he shows why this reading fails if the prime mover thereby proved is an exclusively final cause. Averroes's physics, then, unlike for Kogan, allows for no "transformation" of a first efficient soul into a merely final intellect. The prime mover of the Commentator's Physics cannot be consistently identified with his God.

"Women and Preaching in Medieval Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Saints' Lives." Although there had been contention in the early church about women's eligibility for the preaching ministry, debate became more urgent, more elaborate, and more paradoxical during the thirteenth century. On the one hand the male prerogative over preaching was reinforced; on the other, there was renewed emphasis on everyone's responsibility to put to good use any God-given preaching talent, while hagiographic narratives developed the preaching exploits of popular female saints, notably Saint Mary Magdalene. In the universities lecturers sought to resolve such inconsistencies in the orthodox position in ways which disclose a context of revisionist challenge. That some of the paradoxes were perceived beyond academic circles is apparent from evidence in Bernard of Fontcaude's report on Waldensian views about women and preaching. Key elements of the debate reappeared later in Lollard controversy, though by a twist of irony the Lollards rejected those very legends of female saints which, within orthodoxy, so strongly substantiated the public preaching role for women which orthodoxy continued to prohibit.

"A Discourse on the Poor: The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux." This paper takes as its object of study three scenes from the life of Louis IX in the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Collection), ca. 1324. The miniatures, inspired by contemporary Lives of Louis, show the saint aiding the poor. Surrounding each of the scenes is a series of marginal figures that form a kind of pictorial "gloss" on the central pictures. It is argued that this original juxtaposition of miniature and marginalia constitutes a discourse on the problems of poor relief, revealing some of the ambivalence with which the poor were regarded in the fourteenth century. The margins function repeatedly as a site of exclusion from the charitable activities occurring within the pictorial frame. Thus, the book depicts not only the beneficiaries of Louis's charity, but also (in theory) those unworthy of the king's compassion. In this light, the pictures function not merely as an exhortation for Queen Jeanne to give alms to the poor, but also as a warning to give discriminately, recognizing that not all people were deserving of charity.

"Cleanness on the Question of Images." The Middle English poem Cleanness is manifestly about how the physical sense of sight leads to the beatific vision. The poem's sentiments on this broad topic appear to be informed by the ancient question of whether religious images have a legitimate devotional purpose. Shortly after Cleanness's composition, this question was revived by Lollard iconoclasts who attacked the orthodox cult of images. The documents recording both the Lollard challenge and the defense of images by ecclesiastical writers offer an intriguing context for interpreting Cleanness, since the iconodules make their case by interpreting the very same biblical narratives that provide the poem its primary sources. A comparison between Cleanness's biblical exempla and their analogues in iconodule tracts, however, reveals that the poem, while orthodox in its opinions, does not recommend the devotional use of images as heartily as iconodules do. Cleanness's acceptance of images is tempered by a suspicion that images may often become idols-a suspicion it shares with the Lollards, whose polemic against images it sometimes anticipates.

"Plays as Play: A Medieval Ethical Theory of Performance and the Intellectual Context of the Tretire of Miraclis Pleyinge." Within the larger history of the medieval church's attitude toward drama and performance lies a distinct scholastic theory that conceives of performance in the context of an ethical approach to playing. The theory is developed within the medieval reception of the Nicomachean Ethics, principally through the treatment of the Aristotelian virtue of eutrapelia in the commentaries of Albert and Thomas, and also within more explicitly Christian distinctiones on play. The theory judges playing on the basis of moral rather than formal criteria and thus often mentions performance alongside non-dramatic kinds of play. Understanding this habit of mind allows one to see how the two parts of the Middle English Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge cohere, and it makes Lawrence M. Clopper's recent reinterpretation of "miracle" unnecessary in order to establish the work's unity. The theory also seems embedded in some of the cycle drama's reflexive references to play, particularly in the Towneley passion sequence.

"Manorial Estate Officials and Opportunity in Late Medieval English Society." This essay explores the evolution of manorial estate offices after the Black Death, and the opportunities now open to peasants holding positions such as hayward. In contrast to familiar stereotypes, these offices were not necessarily low-paying, crushingly burdensome, and held only by tricksters such as Chaucer's reeve. Changing conditions required rent collectors rather than labor supervisors, and at manors such as Wymondham Grishagh, Norfolk, the old offices were adapted to the new circumstances. Rather than a 4s. rent allowance the pay might be as high as 40s. a year, and opportunities existed for a man so inclined to make an occupation of collecting rents at many different manors. While not a ticket to wealth and higher social status, the added income and prestige of the offices were one of numerous ways families could exploit the now favorable economic conditions of the fifteenth century.

"Bona ablata, An Inventory of Property Stolen from George of Liechtenstein, Prince- Bishop of Trent (1390-1419)." Following a citizen uprising in 1407 against Prince-Bishop George of Liechtenstein, the count of Tirol, Frederick N of Habsburg, seized control of the principality and forced the prince bishop into exile. Comtal troops ransacked the episcopal residence, the Castello del Buonconsiglio, in Trent. An inventory of 1410 records some of the stolen property, including liturgical chalices and vestments, books and documents, and a silver table service. Though the inventory has been previously published, albeit most often in excerpt, it has not been studied in light of the culture, education, and patronage of the prince bishop. Its contents suggest that George of Liechtenstein was a wealthy cleric of some learning who sought to preserve a princely lifestyle of Bohemian and German court taste in a provincial town far from the refinement of the Viennese court.

"Joel Meets Johannes: A Fifteenth-Century Jewish-Christian Collaboration in Manuscript Illumination." This study addresses a rare phenomenon in the production of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, one which has not been given sufficient attention, the working relationship between a Jewish artist and a German manuscript atelier who joined to produce at least two lavishly decorated Hebrew manuscripts: the division of the work between the two and within the atelier, and the way in which this work was carried out. The protagonists of this article are the scribe and artist Joel ben Simeon, the German artist Johannes Bamler, the scribe Meir Jaffe, and Jacob Matathiah, a wealthy Jew from the city of Ulm who brought the first three together.

"On the Threshold of the Renaissance: New Methods and Sensibilities in the Biblical Commentaries of Isaac Abarbanel." Isaac Abarbanel, celebrated scholar, financier, and leader of Spanish Jewrv at the time of the 1492 expulsion, is usually viewed as a late medieval figure. Yet he spent the first half of his life in Portugal at a time when new humanist winds were blowing and composed nearly all of his prodigious theological and exegetical tracts in Spain and Italy at a time when Renaissance cultural ideals had taken root. The article highlights the "Renaissance" side of Abarbanel's intellectual profile in three new ways. It explores the impact of "historical thinking," a central feature of Renaissance humanism, on Abarbanel. It illustrates the influence of this and other Renaissance sensibilities on his biblical scholarship rather than on his theological views. And it draws many of its examples from Abarbanel's Spanish biblical commentaries, written almost a full decade prior to his arrival in Italy. In this way, it illuminates heretofore over-looked aspects of Abarbanel's intellectual biography while furnishing a case study in the transition from medieval to Renaissance biblical scholarship.

"On the Latino-Slavic Cultural Symbiosis in Late Medieval and Renaissance Dalmatia and Dubrovnik." The eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea is an area where the symbiosis of two cultures, the Latin and the Slavic, achieved its fullest success, thanks to the geographic proximity of Dalmatia and Italy, to intense contacts between the two shores, and to the gradual slavicization of Dalmatian cities. These developments can best be followed by monitoring the usage of languages in these cities. From a survey of this usage, it becomes evident that in Dubrovnik, Zadar, Split, and elsewhere, Slavic had become the dominant language in the daily life of people, even though Latin remained the language of officialdom. However, Dubrovnik and the Dalmatian cities were exposed to strong influences of Italian humanism and the Italian Renaissance, imported into the region by numerous Italians and Dalmatians-especially students-who traveled between Dalmatia and Italy. Books brought to Dubrovnik, Zadar, and other cities by Italians were another important conduit of influences. The encounter of two cultures is most visible in literary works written in the Slavic language but modeled after Italian patterns. Thus, the Dalmatian cities produced a unique, lasting, and valuable symbiosis of two cultures.

"Mexican Medicine Comes to England." The great Spanish Renaissance physician and naturalist, Francisco Hernández (1515-1587) wrote descriptions of over 3,000 native Mexican plants and their medicinal applications, but his work was published posthumously only in selections and translations during the seventeenth century. One country that had no cordial relations with Spain and virtually no relations at all with Mexico at the time was England, yet it was there that translations of Hernández began to appear from 1659 to 1725, some in obscure places, others more conspicuous, all of them neglected until now. The reasons for English interest in Hernández's work include the arrival in England of similar or identical plants from Jamaica, along with continuing attempts at new forms of botanical classification, the search for new drugs, and sheer intellectual curiosity. All of these reasons somehow contradicted official policy, which, paradoxically, brought together scientists and physicians, apothecaries and naturalists, Spanish authors and English readers, in informal circles of affinity.

" 'The King's Entertainment' by the Duke of Newcastle." "The King's Entertainment" by William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle (1593-1676) survives in a single manuscript copy made by the Duke's secretary John Rolleston. Written for Charles II some time between May and the autumn of 1660, this royal show is of particular importance because of its textual relationship with Newcastle's Restoration comedy The Triumphant Widow (London 1677), generally assumed to have been written in collaboration with the playwright Thomas Shadwell. The first part of this article contains a physical description of the manuscript and examines the evidence regarding the date of composition. The second part reassesses the respective contribution of Newcastle and Shadwell to The Triumphant Widow in the light of "The King's Entertainment," and concludes that the Duke had a greater part in its authorship than literary historians have previously allowed. A diplomatic edition of the text follows in Appendix 1.