Brepols

Selon le mot de Pétrone, « notre pays est si plein de divinités que tu peux plus facilement y rencontrer un dieu qu’un homme. » La Rome antique est bien loin d’être la seule société à connaître pareille surpopulation divine. Par-delà la différence entre d’un côté ce que les sciences religieuses ont l’habitude de considérer comme des « religions traditionnelles » désignées par les termes de fétichisme, animisme, chamanisme et, de l’autre, des monothéismes et des polythéismes, la quasi-totalité des religions du monde réserve une place de choix à d’innombrables divinités mineures ou entités invisibles. Esprits, génies, êtres fantastiques, revenants, ancêtres ou saints font l’objet de relations intéressées, parfois aussi assez inquiétantes pour que l’on cherche à les éviter. La plupart de ces entités ambiguës ne donnent pas lieu à des cultes réguliers. Leur présence se manifeste le plus souvent dans des rencontres fortuites qui appellent un traitement rituel visant à normaliser les relations que les hommes ont avec elles. Créditées de pouvoirs qui se cantonnent à des champs d’intervention limités, elles sont liées à des lieux, des moments, des pratiques telles la chasse, l’agriculture, la guerre ou encore des épisodes biographiques saillants – naissance, maladies, conflits, etc. Cet ouvrage réunit les contributions d’anthropologues, historiens et philosophes qui, chacun à sa manière, se sont essayés à mieux comprendre le sens de cette prolifération d’entités mineures et à questionner sur cette base la notion même de religion comme impliquant – ou non – celle de dieux.

The Decapolis city of Jerash has long attracted attention from travellers and scholars, due both to the longevity of the site and the remarkable finds uncovered during successive phases of excavation that have taken place from 1902 onwards. Between 2011 and 2016, a Danish-German team, led by the universities of Aarhus and Münster, focused their attention on the Northwest Quarter of Jerash - the highest point within the walled city - and this volume is the first in a series of books presenting the team’s final results.

Covering different themes and categories of finds, this volume focuses on the geophysical survey and other remote-sensing work undertaken in and around the Northwest Quarter, and also presents an in-depth discussion of the environmental studies performed at the site. This includes the geoscientific analysis carried out in various contexts, as well as radiocarbon dating, studies of both human and animal bones, and conclusions drawn from the archaeobotanical research.

This book seeks to reconsider the commonly held view that some of Ephrem’s writings are anti-Semitic, and that his relationship with Judaism is polemical and controversial. The outcome of the research highlights several key issues. First, it indicates that the whole emphasis of Ephrem’s critical remarks about Jews and Judaism is directed towards Christian conduct, and not towards Jews; and second, it considers Ephrem’s negative remarks towards Jews strictly within the context of his awareness of the need for a more clearly defined identity for the Syriac Church.

Furthermore, this book examines discernible parallels between Ephrem’s commentaries on Scripture and Jewish sources. Such an exercise contributes to a general portrait of Ephrem within the context of his Semitic background. And in addition, the book offers an alternative reading of Ephrem’s exegetical writings, suggesting that Ephrem was aiming to include Jews together with Christians among his target audience. Further analysis of Ephrem’s biblical commentaries suggests that his exegetical style resembles in many respects approaches to Scripture familiar to us from the writings of Jewish scholars.

A comparison of Ephrem’s writings with Jewish sources represents a legitimate exercise, considering ideas that Ephrem emphasises, exegetical techniques that he uses, and his great appreciation of ‘the People’ - the Jews as a chosen nation and the people of God - an appreciation which becomes apparent from Ephrem’s presentation of them. The process of reading Ephrem’s exegetical writings in parallel with Jewish sources strongly identifies him as an heir of Jewish exegetical tradition who is comfortably and thoroughly grounded in it. This reading identifies Ephrem on a theological, exegetical and methodological level as a Christian writer demonstrating the qualities and features of a Jewish sage.

The author, Elena Narinskaya, has been awarded a PhD at Durham University (Department of Theology and Religion) and is currently involved in Post-doctoral Studies offered by the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter. In her research she works with a variety of methodologies including historical and literary criticism, and philosophical techniques.

This volume examines the role of epigraphic literacy within the newly introduced Christian culture and the developing tradition of literacy in Northern Europe during the Viking Age and the High Middle Ages. The epigraphic material under scrutiny here originates from Scandinavia and North-West Russia - two regions that were converted to Christianity around the turn of the first millennium. Besides traditional categories of epigraphic sources, such as monumental inscriptions on durable materials, the volume is concerned with more casual inscriptions on less permanent materials. The first part of the book discusses a form of monumental epigraphic literacy manifested on Scandinavian rune stones, with a particular focus on their Christian connections. The second part examines exchanges between Christian culture and ephemeral products of epigraphic literacy, as expressed through Scandinavian rune sticks, East Slavonic birchbark documents and church graffiti. The essays look beyond the traditional sphere of parchment literacy and the Christian discourse of manuscript sources in order to explore the role of epigraphic literacy in the written vernacular cultures of Scandinavia and North-West Russia.

Die Studie liefert im ersten Teil erstmalig eine umfassende historisch-systematische, monographische Aufarbeitung der Rolle Epikurs in der Philosophie-, Kultur- und Ideengeschichte des lateinischen Mittelalters (von Isidor von Sevilla bis zum Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts). Quellennah werden viele mittelalterliche Denker von Rang und Namen besprochen. Neben der Philosophie im engeren Sinne wird auch die Bedeutung, die Epikurs Denken im theologischen, medizinischen und poetologischen Diskurs innehatte, eingehend beleuchtet. Durch diese Fülle wird es jetzt erstmals möglich, ein fundiertes Bild über das mittelalterliche Wissen zur epikureischen Philosophie - das sehr viel detaillierter und facettenreicher war als bisher allgemein angenommen - und vor allem zu deren systematischer Funktion innerhalb der mittelalterlichen Denkgebäude zu gewinnen. Der zweite Teil bietet die kritische und kommentierte Edition der ersten lateinischen Übersetzung des X. Buches des Diogenes Laertios, die Ambrogio Traversari 1433 fertiggestellt hatte. Diese Übersetzung bildete den Grundlagentext für die Epikur-Rezeption der Renaissance und Frühen Neuzeit. Für die Edition wurden neben Traversaris Autograph 16 weitere Handschriften aus dem 15. Jahrhundert sowie die Editio princeps von Marchese (ohne Epigramme; ca. 1472) und die zweite Edition von Brugnoli (erstmals mit lat. Übersetzung der Epigramme; 1. Auflage 1475) herangezogen.

The medieval bishop occupied a position of central importance in European society between 900 and 1400. Indeed, medieval bishops across Europe were involved in an assortment of ecclesiastical and secular affairs, a feature of the episcopal office in this period that ensured their place amongst the most influential figures in their respective milieux. Such prominence has inevitably piqued the interest of modern scholars and a number of important studies focusing on individual aspects of the medieval episcopal office have emerged, notably in recent years. Yet scholarly attention has often been drawn towards the careers of extraordinary bishops, men whose renown was often due to their involvement in both ecclesiastical and secular activities that took them beyond the borders of their dioceses. As a result, there has been a tendency to overlook the significance of the function of the episcopal office within local society, and, in particular, the way that this context shaped episcopal power.

The purpose of this volume is to examine the foundations of episcopal power in medieval Europe by considering its functioning and development at the level of local society. This collection of essays derives from papers delivered at a conference at Cardiff University in May 2013, and is divided into three sections focusing on the construction of episcopal power in local society, the ways in which it was augmented, and the different forms through which it was expressed. The essays have a broad geographical scope and include studies focused on English, French, Italian, and Icelandic dioceses.

Questa monografia è uno studio tematico dedicato alla trasmissione e alla ricezione del filosofo presocratico Eraclito di Efeso da parte di Filone di Alessandria, il maggior rappresentante del giudaismo ellenistico. I testi esegetici, filosofici e storico-apologetici di Filone con riferimento allo scritto e alla dottrina eraclitea sono analizzati in modo dettagliato ed esaustivo, prima di essere confrontati con quelli di fonti anteriori e posteriori da un lato, con quelli degli altri filosofi Presocratici dall’altro. Le testimonianze di Filone sono quindi utilizzate per cogliere in modo più preciso il significato originario del discorso filosofico di Eraclito, rispetto alle diverse tradizioni interpretative che si succedono e si intrecciano nel corso della storia della filosofia antica.

This volume contains a selection from among the papers delivered at a conference held to mark the centenary of a watershed event in early modern studies: the appearance of Volume I of P. S. Allen’s edition of Erasmus’s letters. Erasmus scholarship has been a growing field since the late twentieth century, owing to the enormous volume and vast intellectual range of his oeuvre and to the reprinting of his works from the 1960s onwards, while Allen’s edition has proved the basis for research for scholars of almost every aspect of Renaissance humanism and the Reformation.

The conference aimed to investigate as many aspects as possible of Erasmus’s literary, educational, rhetorical, and theological activities and of their influence on the emerging Europe of the early modern era. The essays collected here present a wide-ranging overview of the current state of Erasmus scholarship, including a survey of the discoveries of letters to and from Erasmus unknown to Allen, the printing for the first time since 1529 of the opening section of an important letter to him from Germain de Brie, an account of the crucial role played by Ulrich von Hutten in the publication of the dialogue Iulius exclusus e coelis, and several studies of the influence of Erasmian thought on early modern political and theological controversies. With its broad coverage of the current field, the volume will prove indispensable to Erasmus scholars.

Prince-évêque de Liège de 1581 à 1612, Ernest de Bavière est aussi archevêque de Cologne, évêque de Munster, Hildesheim et Freising. A l'occasion de l'exposition internationale organisée à Liège pour son 400e anniversaire, ce recueil d'études explore les différents aspects de l'activité d'un prince à la charnière de deux temps, entre Renaissance et Modernité. Humaniste et défenseur du concile de Trente, il fut aussi un "prince practitioner", ami de Kepler et de Galilée, alchimiste et mécène des paracelsiens, créateur de stations thermales et d'hôpitaux et opérateur industriel dans les mines et la métallurgie.

This study provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of Hus’s ideas on the last things as they are presented in both his work and life. It examines the content and language of his works, particularly his Latin sermons and correspondence, from a literary-historical perspective. It explores general eschatology (Antichrist, purgatory, heaven and hell), as well as its intertwining with the Last Things that Jan Hus experienced personally in his struggle against Antichrist. Thus, the reader will learn not only about Hus’s official ideas, but also about his intimate thoughts contained in correspondence written during his exile and even as he was in prison awaiting death.

The book also presents Hus’s eschatology in the broader context of Church reform. It clarifies how Hus’s eschatology developed from its beginnings up to his death, and takes into account the writings of other thinkers whose ideas are connected to Hus’s eschatology, such as John Wycliffe, Milíč of Kroměříž, Matěj of Janov, and Nicholas of Dresden. The book also features an introductory prolegomena on Hus’s life and work and early reform eschatology, which describes not only relevant Czech influences on Hus’s eschatology (e.g. university theology, social-political factors, the Czech preaching tradition), but also European influences (e.g. Peter Lombard, heterodox doctrines).

Il libro contiene un’approfondita analisi della pratica dell’esorcismo e del trattamento della possessione diabolica nell’antichità cristiana. Vengono riprodotte, criticamente esaminate, tradotte e commentate tutte le occorrenze scritte esistenti - più di duecento, in sette lingue - in cui compare qualche menzione o anche solo qualche allusione al tema. La provenienza dei testi è varia: autori cristiani, autori pagani che descrivono gli usi dei cristiani, scritti giudeocristiani, gnostici, apocrifi, ordinamenti ecclesiastici, etc. L’arco cronologico preso in considerazione va dall’inizio del II secolo (Elcasaiti) alla metà del III (Cornelio di Roma). La parte analitica è preceduta da un’antologia dei testi antecedenti giudaici (Antico Testamento, Qumran e Giuseppe Flavio) e protocristiani (Nuovo Testamento), e delle testimonianze pagane coeve (Luciano di Samosata e Filostrato). Una lunga introduzione indaga in generale sui presupposti teologici dell’esorcismo, sui modelli biblici, sulle sue implicazioni apologetiche e propagandistiche, sulla sua funzione nell’ambito del conflitto interreligioso, sulla terminologia adoperata, sui formulari e le pratiche attestate, sulle caratteristiche, prerogative e qualità morali dell’esorcista, sul progressivo stabilirsi dell’esorcistato come ordine sacro e sull’istituzione del rito dell’esorcismo dei catecumeni. La bibliografia scientifica utilizzata supera i 1000 titoli. Al termine del libro è a disposizione un riassunto in lingua inglese.

The medieval English West Midlands has long been associated with the production of vernacular texts, in Old and Middle English, and with the making of several famous manuscripts. The aim of this volume is to re-think assumptions about medieval literature and the region in the light of new research in medieval book history. A series of specially commissioned essays in ‘manuscript geography’ examines the making and use of texts and books in relation to cultural networks in the region and beyond. Included are case studies of manuscripts of Worcester and the Worcester diocese from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries; investigations of manuscript production in fourteenth-century Shropshire and its wider regional links; and essays on textual cultures in Warwickshire from the activities of the aristocrats and gentry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the projects of later antiquarians. Essays in the final section of the volume reflect on the possibilities of large-scale, corpus-based research on medieval manuscript books. Collectively the essays identify and explore some of the investments of traditional regionalist accounts of vernacular literary culture and model new theoretical and methodological approaches.

Ce recueil comprend dix-neuf articles concernant divers aspects de l’enseignement à la Faculté des arts au moyen âge. Ils ont été publiés, depuis une vingtaine d’années environ, dans des revues, des actes de colloques et autres volumes collectifs. La dispersion de ces publications rend leurs liens réciproques assez opaques et il a semblé utile de les réunir en un volume.

Tous les articles repris ici sont suivis de notes qui donnent des corrections, des compléments de bibliographie, etc. L’un d’entre eux ( le numéro XIV) est suivi du texte d’une communication dont le thème est dans ses grandes lignes le même et qui n’est pas encore parue (XIVa). Une autre communication qui n’a pas été publiée a été reprise sous le numéro XIX.

Les articles ont été organisés en six sections, selon les six thèmes qui ont retenu mon attention ces dernières années. Le premier, l’étude du vocabulaire, remonte à une époque plus lointaine, où mes travaux de lexicographie m’ont inspiré des recherches sur l’origine des termes techniques de la vie intellectuelle au moyen âge. Le deuxième thème, les examens et les cérémonies dans les universités médiévales, est issu du premier et témoigne, comme les autres, de mon intérêt grandissant pour la vie intellectuelle, en particulier dans les universités médiévales. L’étude du vocabulaire mène non seulement à la réalité historique , mais aussi aux textes témoignant de cette réalité et de l’activité intellectuelle qui s’y exprime. Ces textes n’ont pas seulement un contenu, mais aussi une forme qui n’est pas le fruit du hasard et qui a une influence sur le contenu même. C’est pourquoi le sujet des genres littéraires m’a semblé important à explorer, brièvement ou, dans la seconde étude de la troisième section, comme un moyen de classification de textes divers traitant du même sujet. La cinquième section, sur la disputatio, rassemble quelques études qui complètent les monographies que j’ai publiées sur ce sujet : La ‘disputatio’ à la Faculté des arts de Paris (1200-1350 environ) et La ‘disputatio’ dans les Facultés des arts au moyen âge, parues respectivement en 1995 et 2002. Finalement, la sixième section réunit quelques études centrées sur les disciplines enseignées: la façon dont la lecture des textes de base s’est transformée graduellement en discipline systématique, la place qu’avait sans doute la musique dans l’enseignement de la Faculté des arts, et, en dernier, un exemple de l’influence de la logique sur une tout autre discipline, à savoir le droit.

Les index permettront un usage plus aisé de ce volume et fourniront pour ainsi dire une clef d’accès à ces articles restés relativement isolés.

In modern scholarship, etymology and wordplay are rarely studied in tandem. In the Middle Ages, however, they were intrinsically related, and both feature prominently in medieval literature. Their functions are often at variance with the expectations of the modern reader, in particular when wordplay is used to arrive at crucial answers or to convey theological insights. The studies in this book therefore carry important implications for our understanding of the reception of medieval texts. The authors show how etymology and wordplay in the Middle Ages often served as an impetus for meditation and as a route to truth, but that they could also be put to more mundane uses, such as the bolstering of national pride. In a narrative context, the functions of etymology and wordplay could range from underlining the sexual bravado of the protagonist to being the key indicator of whether the hero would live or die.

This book presents case studies of the uses of etymology and wordplay in a number of medieval literatures (Latin, Old French, Middle High German, Italian, Old Irish, Old English, Old Norse, Slavic). By moving beyond the strictly etymological discourse into different parts of medieval literature, the functions of these devices are highlighted in various contexts. Their significance ranges from the bawdy to the sublime, from the open-ended to the specific. Classical and medieval developments of etymology and wordplay are described in a background chapter.

Richelieu, cardinal ministre, considérait la nécessité de l’intervention de l’État dans tous les domaines de la vie du royaume - guerre, finances, commerce, organisation du territoire, diplomatie, religion et culture. La France de Richelieu est engagée dans la Guerre de Trente ans qui, caractérisée par une double dimension nationale et religieuse, implique toutes les puissances européennes et ravage les territoires. Richelieu conçoit sa mission d’homme d’État comme devant apporter la paix à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur du royaume et conforter les positions de la France face à l’impérialisme espagnol. Plus que quiconque conscient de l’apparition d’une opinion publique dont il fallait convaincre les différents cercles (la cour, Paris, le royaume) de la légitimité de ses actions et de ses choix, notamment sur la scène extérieure, il mit sa plume au service de ses desseins politiques. On connaît le Richelieu mémorialiste, épistolier, théoricien politique, orateur, on le connaît fondateur de l’Académie française et créateur de la Gazette ; on sait qu’il a encouragé et soutenu le théâtre, qui s’enrichit de très nombreuses formes dans cette première moitié du dix-septième siècle. Richelieu conçut des pièces et les fit écrire, de même que Rubens concevait les toiles dont il confiait ensuite la réalisation à son atelier. Tel est le cas de Europe, dont nous donnons la première publication française depuis 1642, qui peut être ainsi attribuée à la fois à Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin et au Cardinal. Rédigée dans les bouleversements de l’actualité politique dont elle restitue les grandes tensions, cette comédie héroïque en alexandrins qui donne à des thèmes d’abord précieux une coloration tragique met en scène, à travers les péripéties sinueuses de l’ambition du roi d’Espagne, Ibère, le difficile accouchement d’une concorde des nations européennes, sous l’égide d’un héros pacificateur et vertueux, Francion, enfin libérées de leur passion amoureuse mimétique et délétère pour la belle Europe, voire pour l’ensemble du monde - c’est-à-dire libérées de leur impérialisme.

Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine, active between the end of the third century and the beginning of the fourth, is the Christian author who has handed down to us, in the form of quotations, the greatest number of Greek philosophical texts. Yet his precise relationship to philosophy has never been the subject of a comprehensive study.

This book, which brings together contributions by leading specialists, aims to provide an initial overview. The analyses, covering most of Eusebius’ works, starting with the Preparation for the Gospel, show the importance of philosophy in his thought. Beyond the use he makes of philosophers, sometimes to criticise them, sometimes to appropriate their ideas, Eusebius stands out for his fairly good knowledge of philosophy, especially Platonic philosophy, the issues of which he seems to understand well. Although he takes up from his Christian predecessors the idea that Christianity is, as such, a “philosophy”, this claim sometimes implies a technicality that is revealed not only in the way he quotes and comments on the philosophers, but also in the presence in his work, less visible at first sight, of concepts and methods of exposition that bear witness to a real philosophical culture. At the end of these studies, Eusebius of Caesarea, too often reduced to a “court theologian” or to the status of “Father of Ecclesiastical History,” emerges more as the scholar he was, both Greek and Christian, whose work and thought are inseparable from the philosophical context in which they were born.

When the Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt conducted his ground-breaking excavations of Palmyra in the 1920s and 1930s, during which time he investigated several grave monuments and carried out the first observations of Palmyra’s famous funerary portraits, he kept detailed diaries of his work. For a long time, these have been stored at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen together with the extensive Ingholt Archive, while further photographs and notes on Palmyrene sculpture have been kept with Ingholt’s family in the United States. Now this material and Ingholt’s diaries, written primarily in Danish, have for the first time been transcribed and translated into English with a full commentary written by Professor Rubina Raja, Dr Julia Steding, and Dr Jean-Baptiste Yon, in order to make these unique texts available to a wider public. The diaries contain a wealth of information on Palmyrene sculpture, grave complexes, and inscriptions from the city, as well as offering previously unpublished details into Ingholt’s excavations, and his time in the field that will provide essential new insights for scholars working on Palmyra.

How did ancient cities like Palmyra survive? How did their people produce and manage the resources required for both their short- and long-term needs? Were their methods circular or wasteful? What materials did they reuse, and how? What form did their routine exchanges take? The material culture of Palmyra offers unique potential for addressing these questions in a concrete way. While the city is most famous for its long-distance commerce, a century of excavations at the site, together with a series of recent print publications and digital enterprises, have provided scholars with unprecedented amounts of material objects, among them inscriptions, statues, tesserae, coins, glass and metal finds, textiles, and other objects, all of which shed new light on Palmyra’s economy and how its inhabitants consumed, maintained, exchanged, or reused key resources.

Drawing together contributions from leading researchers on ancient Palmyra, this volume explores various dimensions of the city’s economy from fresh angles. The chapters gathered here feature new methodologies for determining the size of Palmyra’s population and for understanding the nature of coins in local exchanges, offer reassessments of the Palmyrene institutions that underpinned economic exchange, examine how Palmyrenes used and reused materials, and consider the forms of exchange and reuse that governed the building activity of Palmyrenes after the city’s Roman heyday and within areas of Egypt.

Exile in the Middle Ages took many different forms. As a literary theme it has received much scholarly attention in the Latin, Greek and vernacular traditions. The historical and legal phenomenon of exile is relatively unexplored territory. In the secular world, it usually meant banishment of a person by a higher authority for political reasons, resulting in the exile leaving home for a shorter or longer period. Sometimes an exile did not wait to be expelled but left of his or her own accord. Leaving home to go on pilgrimage, or, in the case of women to marry, could be experienced as a form of exile. In the ecclesiastical sphere, two forms of exile stand out. Monasticism was often seen as a form of spiritual (permanent) exile from the secular world. Excommunication was a punishment exercised by the Church authorities in order to eject persons (often only temporarily) from the community of Christians. Banishment as a form of social punishment is therefore the central theme of this volume on Exile in the Middle Ages. The book covers the period of the central Middle Ages from ca. 900 to ca. 1300 in Western Europe, though some chapters have a wider remit. The genesis of the volume was a series of presentations delivered at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in 2002, which was devoted to the theme of Exile.

This volume presents contributions by leading scholars on various topics and aspects of Islamic Archaeology, a discipline which has recently seen the development of exciting new approaches to the study of the material culture of the Muslim world. This material culture was produced by and/or for Muslims, as well as by and/or for non-Muslims living under Islamic rule from the 7th century onward, in an expanding and ultimately vast area reaching from southern Europe to West Asia.

The contributions in this book focus on Jordan, Oman, Spain, Turkey, Lebanon, as well as Israel, and cover a timespan from the 7th century through the Mamluk period to the early 20th century. They highlight the archaeology of large Islamic centers in the past, but also of the material culture in smaller sites and peripheral regions. Special emphasis is paid to pottery as one of the main artifacts that carry information on past societies, but other finds and materials are discussed as well. The aspect of Islamic material culture which receives particular attention is ‘production’, specifically the production of clay vessels, glaze, mercury, and crops.

What unites the new approaches presented here is that Islam is understood as both a ‘religion’ and a framework for economic, cultural, and social networks and influence. In this perspective, the volume aims to offer students of Islamic archaeology, historians of Islam and archaeologists of different disciplines a glimpse of the state-of-the-art in current Islamic Archaeology