Viator

Diagrams, maps, and other forms of graphic visualization are nowadays discussed as a specific mode of communication, graphicacy, typical of the modern age with its ever-increasing role of visual media in social life. This essay questions this tendency to see graphicacy as a by-product of modernity by surveying various forms of representational graphic signs and systems that were placed on various media in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, and it suggests that this graphic material should be seen as expressions of the very same mode of communication rising at the time of the sociocultural-and more specifically, religious-transformation of the late Roman and post-Roman worlds. With reference to this graphic evidence, early graphicacy is defined as a mode of visual communication of conceptual information and abstract ideas by means of non-figural graphic devices, which may comprise inscribed letters, words, and isolated decorative symbols.

This article attempts to provide a fresh perspective on the thorny issue of what exactly preceded the category of texts labeled “Germanic heroic poetry.” The argument follows the character of the dragonslayer (Sigurd/Sigmund) through its manifold avatars in the Nibelung cycle of texts, from the earliest skaldic poets and the “Sigemund episode” in Beowulf to Völsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied. It argues that there are three separate narrative cores which collided into the grand narrative of the Nibelung cycle: a dragon-slayer Indo-European-type legend and two narrative traditions of two separate historical events (the fifth-century fall of the Burgundian kingdom and the seventh-century events at the Frankish court surrounding the death of the Merovingian king Sigibert, his wife Brunichildis, and her rival, Fredegunde). This argument is accompanied by a revaluation of past scholarship - both “Old” and “New Philological.” The article aims to go beyond source-criticism to a deeper understanding of how the Germanic heroic tradition works. Ultimately, it advocates a third way - a rhizomatic understanding of Germanic heroic narrative ecologies as processes of narrative and cultural exchange and transformation, rather than clear-cut categorizations and genealogies of textual artifacts.

This article argues that the Latin epic poem Waltharius is best understood as a political commentary on the years following the civil war of 840-843. The poem does not, as has been suggested, mock or undermine lay warriors as heroic figures, but neither does it present their behavior as inherently unproblematic. It should be read instead as a complex meditation on the impossibility of heroism under deficient royal leadership, and as a wistful portrayal of the contradictions and dilemmas affecting the lay elite of the generation who had lived through the battle of Fontenoy. Its criticism of the character of Gunther, and its overall pessimism about kingship, finds echoes in the prose political literature of this time. This article traces some of these echoes, and reads the poem as part of the wider political conversation of the 840s to 870s.

The ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus is well known today, and was also very popular in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Medieval Christians read Josephus’s works in Latin translations made in the fourth to sixth centuries, and Josephus was recommended by none other than Jerome and Cassiodorus. There has, however, been relatively little study of the Latin text of Josephus, or of Josephus’s medieval reception and influence. Previous work has only hinted that the latter was vast, and that Josephus enjoyed a high reputation. This article carefully traces the reception of one Latin adaptation of Josephus’s Jewish War (the so-called “Hegesippus”) in the early Middle Ages. This heavily Christianized reworking of Josephus was read all over Europe, from Italy to England to Iberia. More importantly, because this text was invariably attributed to Josephus up to the ninth century, it becomes clear that some of Josephus’s considerable reputation in the Middle Ages was due - ironically - to a heavily Christianized perversion of his Jewish War.

Using as its point of departure a series of regnal origin narratives from across the Latin west (though with a particular focus on Scandinavia and Central Europe), this article explores how writers of history in the high Middle Ages thought and wrote about kingship. It considers both the image of royal power conveyed, and its place within the wider intellectual and cultural context of a narrative and its production. Especially in the “new realms” emerging between the beginning of the first millennium and the early thirteenth century, the origin of kingship was a paradigmatic moment, and the exercise of kingship by first rulers was almost by definition ideal. Yet these origin tales also emerged within a specific cultural milieu. This social context, in turn, required a refashioning of regnal history to meet contemporary expectations of what this kind of writing about the past should look like. In the process, an idealized past often became a means with which to define the role of the social group for which these texts were written, and to which many of the writers themselves belonged. Much of that process of self-representation was incidental. It mattered, but it was not the main focus of these narratives. Yet exactly because of this somewhat circumstantial nature, the resulting image of kingship, and of the right ordering of a regnal community, allows us to gain better, deeper and broader understanding of the cultural framework of royal power and its exercise.

This article examines the use of pagan classics in education in the central Middle Ages, analyzing the numbers and sizes of their surviving manuscripts as its primary evidence. It sets out to establish that their entry into school use over ca. 800-ca. 1200 was not simply about adding them to the curriculum but that the classics gradually replaced the early Christian poets which had dominated the study of Latin in the pre-Carolingian period. Secondly, it demonstrates that this classicization of the Latin curriculum was accompanied by a significant change in the format of manuscripts containing school texts. Over the period examined, their average size fell by ca. 40% percent, a development which indicates their increasing accessibility in the classrooms. The article concludes that while the term “renaissance of the twelfth century”is a problematic cultural summation, its use seems justified in describing the changes that took place in Latin education over the central middle ages, culminating in the twelfth century.

Food and drink played an important part in medieval piety, but to date most studies of this topic have focused on the food practices of medieval women. This article seeks to redress the balance by considering the significance of food and drink to religious men, through a case study of a culturally significant and well-documented group: the saintly bishops of medieval England. The food practices of these men were shaped by religious thought, but also by contemporary ideas about the body, gender, and social status. Ultimately, a holy man’s relationship with food and drink would influence his chances of canonization.

In his De visione beatifica Dietrich of Freiberg criticizes a rude interpretation which some authors (rudis expositio aliquorum) gave on Aristotle’s concept of “nobility,” concerning a passage of De anima’s book III. Since De visione is considered one of the most antithomistic writings of Dietrich of Freiberg, Thomas Aquinas and his followers are usually regarded as the main polemical objective of the German Dominican theologian. However, as he does not explicitly quote Thomas, it is plausible that the expression rudis expositio is related to a broader interpretative context. Starting from these considerations, the author proposes an innovative solution to the problem. In so doing, he introduces a new approach to categories such as “thomism” and “antithomism.”

The fifteenth-century carol An aungell fro heuen gan lyth is remarkable for the way in which it explores the Economy of Salvation and the triune power of the Godhead through the iconographic motif of the Trinitarian knot. This motif, derived from the “threefold cord” which “is not easily broken” (Eccles. 4.12), was developed by Petrus Alfonsi, Joachim of Fiore, and Dante in a Trinitarian context. An aungell fro heuen gan lyth is not only informed by this complex strand of Trinitarian iconology, but is also notable for its sophisticated handling of the motif. The Trinitarian knot is central to the carol’s burden, but also recurs throughout the five stanzas, where it serves as a meditative device which celebrates the five great mysteries of faith enshrined in the Apostles’ Creed. These mysteries, described in turn through the narrative progression of the carol, are encapsulated in successive variations on the Trinitarian knot.

In the thirteenth century, the English crown began to make more explicit reference to the common good by claiming that its actions were undertaken for the “common profit” of the realm. In the same period it also adopted the notion of “the state of the king and kingdom,” gradually superseded by “the profit of the king and kingdom,” to express a mutuality of interests between crown and people. This study examines the adoption and development of these key phrases in the discourse of the English parliament, and specifically in the political language of the common petition, the characteristic diplomatic form that developed from the end of the thirteenth century to express the collective views of the polity. From the time of Edward II the making of common petitions was taken over by the commons, the representative element in parliament, and they began to make more consistent and assertive use of the language of the common good to justify their demands for reform. However, “common profit” was applied in these contexts principally in relation to the material wealth of the realm. There was no straightforward transition from “common profit”to the more extensively studied phrase, “common weal,” that became current from the mid-fifteenth century. The study contributes to a broader understanding of the significance of political language in articulating the value systems of pre-modern elites.

This article examines what Jews in medieval northern Europe knew of the customs and rituals of their Christian neighbors in urban environments and questions how this permeated Jewish awareness and rhythms of living. The article presents two calendar-related case studies: a late thirteenth-century Christian calendar written in Hebrew, the earliest known calendar of this type and several Hebrew texts that refer to St. John the Baptist Day, which provide a lens into this occasion, one of the central social celebrations of the Christian year. The final section of the article discusses what these sources reveal about fluency and engagement with the Christian ritual cycle among Jews who lived in close proximity to Christians who observed these rites in their shared urban setting.

The first recorded initiative to reform the Western ecclesiatical calendar since its creation in antiquity arose at the Avignonese court of Pope Clement VI (1342-1352), who in 1344/45 solicited the advice of expert astronomers in an effort to fix the computation of Easter. Although ultimately unsuccessful, Clement’s plan provides a noteworthy example of scientific patronage at the papal curia, whose background has yet to be explored in sufficient detail. The present article offers a comprehensive survey of this project and its genesis, which will deal with both the various protagonists involved, the specifics under discussions, the reasons the reform failed to come about, and the historical significance of the efforts made. Particular attention will be paid to the possible influence of Hebrew and Greek expertise on the papal reform plan, here represented by the Jewish astronomer Levi ben Gerson and the Byzantine cleric Barlaam of Seminara.

Niccolò Machiavelli occupies an important place in the canon of military authors. He is often considered the first original Western writer on war since the fall of Rome because his book, Arte della guerra (“Art of War”), synthesizes contemporary military customs with those of antiquity. However, in this essay I challenge the originality of three of that book’s core elements: its use of military exempla, its emphasis on educated generals, and the reciprocal military-state relationship it describes. I argue that it was actually John of Salisbury, the notable twelfth-century English writer, who first formulated these principles in his book Policraticus. This essay explores the dimensions of John’s antecedents and also the intellectual connections between the two books, including the influence of Policraticus in Renaissance Italy and, possibly, upon Machiavelli himself. It concludes by advocating for John of Salisbury’s own place in the canon of original military authors.

The article examines Virgil’s alleged interest in Platonic philosophy, sketched out in his Lives, and its contribution to the image of the philosopher-poet as defined by Dante and Petrarch. Both poets read closely the Lives of Virgil and sought in them guidance for their own poetic missions. Here I argue that Petrarch tried to defend Dante’s misunderstood Divine Comedy by presenting him as a devotee of Platonic allegoresis of the same caliber as Virgil. His efforts were continued by Landino who wished to accommodate both poets to the intellectual background of Medicean Florence. In negotiating the tension between poetry and philosophy Landino-an accomplished poet himself-is willing to recognize the contribution of allegory to introducing philosophical enquiry to the masses, although he eventually decides to embrace the pursuit of philosophy per se.

A manuscript in the Biblioteca Nacional de España contains a translation into Spanish of Philip Sidney’s The Defence of Poesy. This seventeenth-century document is possibly the first translation of Sidney’s treatise into any language as well as a very rare example in this period of cultural transmission from England into Spain, which was at the time isolating itself from foreign influence, especially from protestant countries. The mere existence of this manuscript invites a number of questions about the transmission of literary texts in early modern Europe, the relationship of the Sidney family to the Spanish court, and the possible readings a treatise on poetics could receive. This article explores some of the enigmas that surround Deffensa de la Poesia, and examines the puzzling marginalia contained in its pages, a facet of the text ignored by the few previous scholars who have discussed it.

Whilst it has become commonplace to acknowledge the political and public role of a prince’s investments in the religious sphere, little attention has been paid to contemporary theories of statecraft that discuss and throw light upon such activities, beyond the extensive treatment of magnificence within art history. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to describe two distinct but related strands visible in contemporary writings on princehood and rulership-one concerned with piety as a princely virtue, its instrumentalization and display; the other with the divine sanction of rule and its implications for the image and duties of the prince-which together amount to an illuminating theorization of princely piety. These two strands, extending our roster of contemporary terms and concepts beyond the now-traditional focus on magnificence, amount to a useful framework for any understanding of the practical deployment of princely piety, and of its reception in the encomiastic literature.