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Graphic devices such as tables and diagrams and other visual strategies of organising text and information are an essential part of communication. The use of these devices and strategies in books and documents developed throughout the medieval and early modern periods as knowledge was translated and circulated in European vernaculars. Yet the use of graphic practices and multimodal literacies associated with them have mostly been examined in the context of Latin Greek Arabic and Hebrew and early vernacular writing remains an under-researched area. This volume brings together contributors from English historical linguistics and book studies to highlight multimodal graphic practices and literacies in texts across a range of genres and text types from the late medieval period until the eighteenth century. Contributions in the volume investigate both handwritten and printed materials from books in the domains of medicine religion history and grammar to administrative records and letter writing.

Many of our oldest and best-loved stories are about killing guests and betraying hosts. Hospitality is celebrated in medieval texts and in medieval studies as a way of binding individuals together and strengthening social cohesion but both the practice and narration of hospitality was shot through with ambiguity and ambivalence.

This volume shifts the scholarly gaze from the high table — where kings queens and honoured guests are graciously served by skilled servants — to the shadowy corners of the hall the places where gossip and complaint are exchanged where outlaws hide under the guise of hospitality where hostages and troublesome strangers are benched where the light from the hall-fire reflects on drawn blades: prompting difficult reflections on the processes of extraction and predation that provided the material foundations for the feast.

The chapters in Guests Strangers Aliens Enemies range from Silk Road caravanserais in Armenia and crusader relations in the Latin East through ambassadorial and papal receptions in the Mediterranean treatment of merchants and the poor in Scandinavia elite feasts in Latin Europe to hosting of outlaws and hostages in Eurasia. The authors explore ambiguities of hospitality in the Middle Ages through a wide range of sources and methodological approaches.

Gandhāran art developed around the first century BCE till the fourth century CE in parts of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan and has been the focus of intense scholarly debates in both Classical and South Asian Studies for many decades. In this book Ashwini Lakshminarayan offers for the first time a specialized study on gender using Gandharan material culture and convincingly proposes new readings of visual culture beyond Eurocentric and postcolonial interpretations.

This book sets the stage with a detailed overview of the contexts in which Gandhāran art was located in Buddhist sites by analysing the gendered use of space and the gender and activities of donors and administrators. At its core the book gives prominence to the stone reliefs of Gandhāra and examines how male and female bodies are represented how they interact and how gender symbolised ideals and values.

With an important comparative overview of the Gandhāran artistic production and new illustrations this work is indispensable for all those interested in the study of gender in ancient art the interaction between Graeco-Roman and Indic cultures and the development of the early Buddhist artistic tradition in South and Central Asia that also shaped Buddhist visual culture eastwards in China.

Chancelier de l’Université de Paris Jean Gerson (1363-1429) est surtout connu comme théoricien de la théologie mystique et par son action réformatrice au sein de l’Église pendant les années difficiles du Grand Schisme où il joua un rôle de premier plan. Or si la carrière universitaire et l’action politique de Gerson font de lui un intellectuel parisien l’évidence de la transmission manuscrite et imprimée désigne sans équivoque le Rhin supérieur comme la région où la diffusion des œuvres du chancelier a été la plus foisonnante. Intervenant à une échelle comparable à la diffusion manuscrite des œuvres de Thomas d’Aquin le rayonnement de l’œuvre de Gerson a ceci de spectaculaire qu’il dépasse largement le milieu universitaire et qu’il se déploie en moins d’un siècle. Le paradoxe reste pourtant intact de pourquoi l’Allemagne et non la France s’impose comme le lieu de rayonnement de l’œuvre de Gerson dans des proportions aussi importantes quantitativement ? Pour répondre à cette question l’étude de la réception de l’œuvre du chancelier ne peut pas faire l’économie d’une réévaluation de la tradition manuscrite et imprimée des 15e et 16e siècles à partir des témoins préservés dans les bibliothèques du Rhin supérieur. En privilégiant le cas de Gerson comme point d’observation ce volume se propose de renouveler les perspectives de l’histoire intellectuelle et culturelle dans le long 15e siècle en focalisant sur l’histoire des textes les conditions et les circonstances de leur transmission afin de dresser une cartographie des réseaux de communication dans la région rhénane dans les décennies qui entourent l’invention de l’imprimerie.

In the present day the term ‘idol’ is often associated with a personality cult but it still contains traces of its ancient meaning namely above all the idea of worship. But this exactly creates a problem for the faith in God attested in the Old Testament. Worship and imagery obviously contradict the Old Testament commandment of worshipping the God of Israel without any image. This study fills a gap in the research in theological and religious studies by systematically exploring the various uses and connotations of the term eidôlon. The starting point is an examination of the use of eidôlon in Greek literature and in Egyptian sources from the Hellenistic period. The main part of the work is devoted to the various connotations of the term that later find their way into the Septuagint the Greek Bible. There as well as in later Jewish-Hellenistic literature eidôlon becomes the terminus technicus for the pictorial representation of deities.

Comment les Grecs et les Romains ont-ils représenté le singe cet animal qui dans la culture occidentale des deux derniers siècles a surtout incarné de nouvelles possibilités de repenser la relation entre les hommes et les non-humains ? En dehors du paradigme évolutionniste élaboré par Darwin sans les données de la génétique et le dispositif disciplinaire de la primatologie les textes anciens ont construit d’autres représentations culturelles du singe sans le concevoir comme un cousin ou un parent proche avec lequel nous aurions un ancêtre commun.

À travers une analyse philologique rigoureuse des textes anciens des traités savants de la zoologie et la médecine grecques aux élaborations symboliquement plus complexes du théâtre comique ou de la fable cette étude propose une analyse approfondie de la représentation discursive des primates non humains dans la culture antique.

Des questions essentielles pour la compréhension des cultures anciennes - de l’anthropomorphisme des animaux au débat sur l’intelligence des vivants en passant par les élaborations autour de l’importante catégorie de la mimésis - sont abordées selon une approche d’anthropologie historique. Les relations interspécifiques la représentation de l’altérité géographique et culturelle les jugements de valeur exprimés sur les groupes minoritaires et marginaux seront traités à travers la perspective transversale donnée par l’analyse d’une partie spécifique de l’encyclopédie culturelle ancienne à savoir le singe des Anciens.

La Légende dorée de Jacques de Voragine constitue à n’en pas douter une œuvre centrale et incontournable de la littérature européenne. Le nombre considérable de ses témoins manuscrits dans toutes les langues de l’Occident médiéval permet largement de le mesurer tout autant que la foule des œuvres qui s’en sont inspiré.

On ne peut manquer pourtant de s’étonner : la Légende dorée a certes circulé à travers les milieux sociaux les aires linguistiques et les territoires les plus divers mais au prix de substantielles transformations dans sa matérialité dans sa composition dans ses significations et ses usages. Pourtant sans devenir absolument méconnaissable la compilation hagiographique confectionnée à la fin du xiii e siècle a rapidement constitué une matrice textuelle accueillante et ouverte aux interventions que ses lecteurs ultérieurs ont apportées pour mieux l’actualiser au gré de leurs besoins et selon les nécessités des contextes. Tel est bien le paradoxe d’une œuvre si plastique et polyvalente qu’avec une singulière longévité littéraire elle parvient à perdurer non pas malgré mais grâce aux modulations considérables qu’elle connait.

C’est ainsi que la Légende dorée a pu s’imposer comme un instrument à la fois souple et robuste de la pastorale tout à la fois tourné vers l’édification de l’individu et assurant l’interface entre la collectivité de tous les hommes et la grande Cour des saints.

This innovative volume of cultural history offers a unique exploration of how gender and status competition have intersected across different periods and places. The contributions collected here focus on the role of women and the practice of masculinity in settings as varied as ancient Rome China Iran and Arabia medieval and early modern England and early modern Italy France and Scandinavia as well as exploring issues that affected people of all social rank from raillery and pranks to shaming male boasting about sexual conquests court rituals violence and the use and display of wealth. Particular attention is paid to the performance of such issues with chapters examining status and gender through cultural practices especially specific (re)presentations of women. These include Roman priestesses early Christian virgin martyrs flirtation in seventh-century Arabia and the attempt by an early modern French woman to take her place among the immortals. Together this wide-ranging and fascinating array of studies from renowned scholars offers new insights into how and why different cultures responded to the drive for status and the complications of gender within that drive.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance games were not an idle pastime but were in fact important tools for exploring transmitting enhancing subverting and challenging social practices and their rules. Their study through both visual and material sources offers a unique insight into medieval and early modern gaming culture shedding light not only on why where when with whom and in what conditions and circumstances people played games but also on the variety of interpretations that they had of games and play. Representations of games and of artefacts associated with games also often served to communicate complex ideas on topics that ranged from war to love and from politics to theology.

This volume offers a particular focus onto the type of games that required little or no physical exertion and that consequently all people could enjoy regardless of age gender status occupation or religion. The representations and artefacts discussed here by contributors who come from varied disciplines including history literary studies art history and archaeology cover a wide geographical and chronological range from Spain to Scandinavia to the Ottoman Turkey and from the early medieval period to the seventeenth century and beyond. Far from offering the ‘last word’ on the subject it is hoped that this volume will encourage further studies.

Gaspar van Weerbeke was one of the most successful Franco-Flemish musicians of the second half of the fifteenth century holding prestigious positions in the Sforza court in Milan the Burgundian court chapel and the papal chapel in Rome. His compositions were widely transmitted in manuscript and print sources throughout Europe and he was one of the best represented composers in the early Italian music prints of Ottaviano Petrucci. Despite the high esteem of his contemporaries Gaspar has up to now played only a peripheral role in Renaissance music historiography. This book is the first collection of research articles dedicated exclusively to the life and works of Gaspar. While the basic facts of Gaspar's life have long been known the book fleshes out the details presenting a more differentiated and complex picture of his biography. Analysis of a wide range of Gaspar's compositional output leads to new interpretations of his approach to different genres: masses motets and motet cycles. His relatively small quantity of songs is revisited in light of the confusion—both then and now—over the meaning and validity of their attributions. This book seeks to promote further research on this composer and place him in his appropriate place in music history.