Brepols

« Le duc a pour son principal officier pour la guerre le maréchal de Bourgogne. Et se conduit par sa main le fait de la guerre avant tous les autres ». C'est ainsi qu'Olivier de La Marche, vers 1474, définit le rôle d'un personnage- clé de 1 'État bourguignon. Or, malgré l 'importance de la fonction et la masse des sources conservées, la « maréchaussée » de Bourgogne n' avait guère, jusqu' à présent, retenu l 'attention des chercheurs. C 'est donc une lacune historiographique non négligeable qui est désormais comblée. L'etude de l'office de maréchal de Bourgogne à la fin du Moyen Age est d'abord celle d'une institution, de ses origines domestiques lointaines -le mariscalcus du Haut Moyen Age était un valet d'écurie- et de l'évolution qui en fit l'un des grands offices politiques et militaires de la Cour de Bourgogne. Mais cette étude ne peut être seulement d' ordre institutionnel et doit, aussi, être d'ordre social. II est impossible, en effet, d'étudier une fonction sans s'intéresser aux hommes qui l'ont incarnée. Les maréchaux de Bourgogne des XIV e et xv e siècles furent des représentants de cette noblesse d'armes qui constitua l'un des piliers de l'État bourguignon. Parmi eux, des hommes comme Guy de Pontailler, Jean III de Vergy et Thibaud IX de Neufchâtel furent des personnalités marquantes de l'entourage ducal. Leurs origines familiales, leurs alliances lignagères, leur implantation régionale, leur carrière étaient autant de critères guidant le choix du prince au moment de leur nomination ; il est donc indispensable de reconstituer ce faisceau de données si l 'on veut comprendre ce que le duc attendait du titulaire de sa maréchaussée et ce qu, était la nature de cette fonction.

Un travail sur le maréchal de Bourgogne ne se conçoit pas sans un recours à la démarche comparative. Du XII e au XV e siècle, dans nombre de principautés du royaume de France et de son voisinage immédiat, se développa une maréchaussée comparable à celle de Bourgogne. Dans certains cas l'office, devenu héréditaire, se mua en une dignité purement honorifique, mais dans d'autres cas il connut le même destin que le maréchalat bourguignon et devint une fonction politique et militaire de premier plan, revendiquée par la noblesse mais étroitement contrôlée par le pouvoir princier : ainsi en Bretagne, en Lorraine, en Savoie. La comparaison de l'évolution institutionnelle, du contenu de la fonction, du profil individuel des titulaires de l 'office s 'avère riche d 'enseignements. En mettant en lumière un type d'institution jusqu'ici mal connu, la présente étude contribue à mieux cerner la réalite des États princiers de la fin du Moyen Age.

Bertrand Schnerb est Professeur d'Histoire médievale à l'Université de Lille 3. II a publié, entre autres ouvrages, L' Etat bourguignon, 1363-1477 (Perrin, 1999).

Dans les études hagiographiques comme dans d’autres domaines de l’histoire médiévale, il s’avère indispensable de retourner aux sources, et d’abord aux manuscrits et aux œuvres qu’ils véhiculent. Le manuscrit ancre le texte dans un contexte particulier, informe sur les milieux dans lesquels il a été produit ou reçu, documente sur les stratégies qui ont présidé à sa diffusion. À qui sait lire les apparats critiques et les descriptions codicologiques, il apporte une moisson d’informations. Lorsqu’ils sont regroupés en ensembles — ensembles des exemplaires d’une même œuvre, ensembles des exemplaires d’une même collection, ensembles de collections apparentées —, les textes hagiographiques acquièrent un intérêt plus large encore, éclairant les champs culturel, social ou économique à la lumière de l’histoire de leur édition. En la matière, les travaux de Guy Philippart sont à placer au premier plan de la recherche des trente dernières années. Songeons à sa contribution fondamentale à la typologie des légendiers médiévaux, à la base de données «Légendiers latins», qui a donné naissance à la BHLms, et à l’Histoire internationale de la littérature hagiographique en cours de publication. C’est tout naturellement autour de la littérature hagiographique, en particulier les thèmes de l’écriture — de la réécriture — et de l’édition manuscrite des textes hagiographiques médiévaux, que quatre de ses anciens étudiants ont réuni une trentaine de spécialistes de renommée internationale. Le résultat? Une collection d’études qui aborde un large éventail de problématiques actuelles. Au-delà de l’hommage au chercheur et à l’enseignant, ce livre se veut aussi témoignage d’amitié.

TOI, HEURESE AUTRICHE, CONCLUS DES MARIAGES. À la mort de Maximilien Ier en 1519, la dynastie de Habsbourg est parvenue à s'imposer durablement à la tête du Saint Empire Romain Germanique, monarchie électorale à laquelle elle avait accédé sous Rodolphe Ier en 1273. En deux siècles et demi, elle est aussi parvenue à rassembler patiemment un ensemble patrimonial sans pareil, passant d'un simple comté alémanique aux fondements d'un « Empire sur lequel le soleil ne se couchait jamais ». De prestigieux héritages, particulièrement bourguignon et espagnol, hongrois et bohéme, furent récupérés suite à une heureuse politique matrimoniale, sans guerre de conquête. Sur huit générations, l'étude exhaustive des 58 mariages aboutis et de plus de 110 projets échafaudés recherche les motivations (territoriales, financières, militaires, religieuses) et les circonstances (soutiens ou oppositions diplomatiques) pour faire la part entre calcul visionnaire et hasard biologique. Tout en évitant l'extinction dynastique et la parcellisation domaniale, les chefs de famille devaient jouer sur « l'échiquier matrimonil » en fonction de la démographie (nombre d'enfants et sexe), des règles eccléssiastiques et nobiliaires, des rapports territoriaux. Les étapes de l'engagement matrimonial (enquêtes, promesses de mariage, fiançailles, procurations) et ses implications financières (dots, contre-dots, dons du matin, douaires) permettent de brosser un tableau général des mariages, cet aspect essentiel de la parenté et de l'histoire d'une grande famille à la fin du Moyen Âge.

Cyrille Debris, né en 1973, est agrégé de l'université en histoire et docteurès lettres.

Sa politique matrimoniale a permis à la dynastie de Habsbourg d'agrandir son patrimoine et d'accéder à l'Empire. Les motivations (territoriales, financières, militaires, diplomatiques) et les circonstances (soutiens ou oppositions) permettent de faire la part du hasard et du choix politique. Tout en évitant et l'extinction biologique et la parcellisation domaniale, les chefs de famille devaient jouer sur l'" échiquier matrimonial " en fonction de la démographie (nombre d'enfants, sexe), des règles ecclésiastiques et nobiliaires, du rapport des forces territoriaux. Sur huit générations, entre Rodolphe I et Maximilien I (1273 - 1519), tous les projets matrimoniaux sont étudiés, aboutis (58 mariages) ou non (110 projets), ainsi que les étapes de l'engagement matrimonial (enquêtes, promesses de mariage, fiançailles, procurations) et leurs implications financières (dots, contre-dots, Morgengabe, douaires). L'ouvrage a été récompensé par l’Académie Française avec la médaille d’argent 2006 du Prix François Millepierres (Histoire et Sociologie).

During the first months of the First Crusade, groups of crusaders attacked the Jewish communities in the Rhineland, forcing them to choose between death and conversion. Many converted, but others chose to die as martyrs. Among these, some were killed by the crusaders, some killed themselves, each other, or even their own children in order to prevent forcible conversion. These events are described in a number of Latin accounts, but also in three Hebrew chronicles and in a number of Hebrew liturgical poems. These Hebrew chronicles introduce many new ideas connected to martyrdom which are not found in earlier Jewish martyr texts. They also differ considerably from contemporary texts on martyrdom, written by Jews living under Muslim rule.

The purpose of the present study is as follows: to outline the most salient features of this new ideology of martyrdom found in the Hebrew Crusade Chronicles and how it differs from earlier Jewish tradition; to try to trace the roots of these new ideas, both by showing how the Chroniclers develop earlier Jewish ideas and also how they borrow notions and concepts from their Christian surroundings; to show what rhetorical means the Chroniclers use in order to present these innovations as firmly anchored in tradition; to attempt to explain why this ideology develops at this particular time and place, and thereby contribute some further methodological reflections on the nature of religious change, especially in a situation of persecution and oppression; to challenge the old paradigm that the Ashkenazic Jewish communities lived in isolation from their non-Jewish surroundings, and to suggest that a serious study of any medieval Jewish text must take into consideration the culture and current notions of the non-Jewish community in which the text was composed.

This major interdisciplinary study re-examines the political thought of John Milton, one of the celebrated proponents of the ‘Commonwealth and Free State’ that was established in England in the mid-seventeenth century. Walker shows that in his epic poem, Paradise Lost (1667), Milton presents a heterodox Protestant vision of politics. This vision differs radically from the vision of politics presented by republicans from Aristotle to Machiavelli, and by Milton himself in his major political prose. The study is based on close readings of primary texts and scholarship in literary criticism, philosophy, theology, and the history of political thought. It is thus a powerful challenge to the current consensus on Milton’s republicanism, his Christian humanism, and the shape of his oeuvre. It is, in addition, an important contribution to our understanding of a tradition of political thought that continues to inform modern republics.

Dr William Walker is Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Media & Performing Arts at the University of New South Wales. He completed an Honours BA and MA in English literature at the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in English literature at The Johns Hopkins University. His research is focused on Locke, Milton, and the history of republican political thought.

Vie et Miracles de saint Josse was written in 1449. Jean Miélot was a translator and writer in the service of the Dukes of Burgundy. The manuscript, which was written by the author himself, is preserved in the Royal Library of Brussels, no. 10958. The greater part of the text is a translation, but a few pages of the manuscript have been copied by Miélot from other sources, and some parts have been composed by Miélot himself. Another manuscript, which is a copy of the original, is preserved in the Municipal Library of Valenciennes. Only a few pages of the manuscript have been published before.

Saint Josse (Jodocus, Judocus) was born in Brittany about 600, son to a local king. He left his home for Picardy, where he met Duke Haymon. He was ordained and served Haymon for seven years. Afterwards he withdrew to the solitude along the river Canche, where he built a hermitage, which was transformed into a church by the Duke. After his death on the 13th of December c. 668, his body was buried in his church. Saint Josse has been venerated in large parts of Europe, not only in France, Belgium and Great Britain, but also in the countries along the Rhine; in the south as far as Slovenia and in the north as far as Scandinavia. Even in the fourteenth century, he was well-known in England - Chaucer's Wife of Bath swears by God and by Seint Joce.

His life was written in latin in several versions, the first from about 800. Pierre de Beauvais wrote the first Life of Saint Josse in French, in octosyllabic verses, in the beginning of the thirteenth century. In the introduction to this edition the relationship of the latin lives and Miélot's translation is discussed. There is also an investigation of the author's language and style. Miélot's vocabulary is large and contains several words which have not been attested before. The text is followed by explanatory notes, an index of proper names and a glossary. The illustrations at the end of the edition consist of thirteen of the miniatures of the Brussels manuscript and three drawings representing Miélot and his workroom, taken from another Miélot manuscript, preserved in the Royal Library of Copenhagen.

 This bibliography of works on medieval communication offers a survey of work in a field of study which, from the 1960s onwards, has seen an ever-increasing number of monographs, collections of miscellanies and articles in learned journals being published every year. It provides a guide to this astonishing output by offering a list of more than 6.700 publications under sixteen headings. Because of the overlap of these headings, a comprehensive Index of subjects, place names and personal names is provided, which will allow the user to quickly find publications relevant to his research. A short Introduction precedes the bibliography. Progress in the field of study over the past two decades is outlined, with attention to those recent developments which have proved the most productive. At the same time, something is said about the growing insights which have led the bibliography’s organisation to be changed substantially since its previous edition in 1999, which already numbered 1.580 items. Not only the more than fourfold increase in the number of items made a new edition necessary therefore, but also new ideas about the best ways of organising the knowledge that is to be gained from the contents of studies of medieval communication.

The world of Byzantine manuscripts is fascinating but also confusing. Although they play an important part in modern studies on the history of Christian liturgy and on the textual history of the Bible, a clear overview of the vast amount of these manuscripts in their many different forms is lacking. A new approach in their cataloguing is called for. The present volume brings together a number of specialists in the field of Byzantine, liturgical and Biblical studies with the aim to develop a new methodology for codicological research of the Byzantine manuscripts, taking seriously the original environment of the integral codices in the monasteries and the churches in which they were manufactured and functioned.

Prof. dr. Klaas Spronk is Head of the Research Department Sources of the Protestant Theological University (PThU), location Amsterdam, and chairman of the CBM Academic Board.

Prof. dr. Gerard Rouwhorst is Professor of Liturgical History at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology and member of the Department of Biblical Sciences and Church History of that institution. He is member of the CBM Academic Board.

Dr. Stefan Royé is member of the Research Department Sources of the Protestant Theological University (PThU), location Amsterdam, and CBM programme coordinator and secretary of the Academic Board.

This book analyses the events of a decade long encounter between an Italian Dominican, Riccoldo da Montecroce (c. 1243–1320), and the Muslims of Baghdad, as recounted by the friar himself. While many of Riccoldo’s views of the Muslims are consonant with those of his medieval confrères, the author examines the much more ambivalent sections of his writings, such as his praise-filled descriptions of Muslim praxis, his obvious love of Qur’anic Arabic, his frequent references to personal encounters with Muslims, and his candid descriptions of the wonder and doubt which these confrontations often elicited. The author argues that the tensions and inconsistencies inherent in Riccoldo’s account of Islam should not be viewed as defects. Rather, she contends, their presence illustrates the complex nature of interreligious encounter itself. In addition to a critical discussion, this volume provides — for the first time — English translations of two remarkable Riccoldian texts: The Book of Pilgrimage (Liber peregrinationis) and Letters to the Church Triumphant (Epistolae ad ecclesiam triumphantem).

This book is a collection of medieval English culinary recipes which have not been edited before. Some of them come from brief collections which have not been previously published, or are found in isolation or very small groups in manuscripts which do not contain such collections. Others come from collections which have been used, or viewed, primarily for collation, but which contain other recipes which had not yet been noted.

It was the author's object to gather together all the recipes which had not been edited and published, or are not currently being edited by others, to make the record of English recipes of this period as complete as possible. The volume concludes with a supplement to the recently published Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth Through Fifteenth Centuries, adding all the "new" recipes to that Concordance, except for a few which are so fragmentary as not to deserve listing.