Brepols

The purpose of this volume is to question traditional notions of city space in pre-modern Europe (with its stress on space being incorporated, regulated and integrated, dominated by its merchants and crafts), and to investigate how far it was in fact economically and politically pluralistic with a great variety of functions and juridictions. The volume examines comparatively the range of different urban spaces in and outside the medieval and early modern city from gardens, farmland and wasteland to industrial sites, poor and rich suburbs, shooting grounds, green space, grey space and military zones. Case studies cover cities in France, Germany, Italy, the Low Countries, England, Portugal and the Middle East. We ask: how far was the pre-modern city a compact city? Or was it in fact a ‘subaltern city’, as geographers have recently proposed, where many urban spaces were contested and the municipality has to be seen as only one key spatial actor?

This book is the result of an international conference organized by the University of Tours in May 2021. It sets out to explore the notion of sequel in literature by examining the Homeric poems. While Gérard Genette evoked Homer in a considerable number of pages of his essay Palimpsestes, he however paid particular attention to forms of continuity from the front, from the back and from the sides, afterwards and sideways, which seem to make Homeric material the first victim of the cyclical additions that appear to constitute the ineluctable future of the great epics. In recent decades, however, these positions have been strongly nuanced and the time was ripe, therefore, for diachronic reflection on the validity of the notion of the ‘Homeric sequel’ by testing the meaning it has in various geographical and cultural contexts, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The authors of this volume contribute to the discussion of the literary concept of ‘continuation’ and offer a wide panorama of the poet's fruitful reception over time; they do so without neglecting the phenomena of transformation made possible by the survival of a mythology of Homeric origin which exists despite the absence of a direct reading of the Greek texts.

Dom Donatien De Bruyne's work of a century ago has been all but unobtainable since it was first published quasi-anonymously just before the outbreak of the Great War. Originally conceived as an instrumentum laboris to the great Benedictine project to produce a critical edition of the Vulgate, it now has a new life as a unique collection of the division systems that were used with the biblical books before the twelfth century. These constitute a primary interpretation of the text, anterior to, and more pervasive in influence than any work of formal biblical exegesis.

This collection makes available the raw material for a new chapter in the study of the Latin Bible and the study of its reception in the later patristic and medieval periods. Moreover, it may usher in a new chapter in the history of biblical exegesis.

Donatien De Bruyne (1871-1935), a monk of the abbey of Maredsous (Belgium), worked from 1907 onward as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate. Visiting the European libraries he collected a great amount of material for the critical edition of the Vulgate, with a special attention to the Old Latin and also to ‘parabiblical’ texts such as summaries, divisions, and prefaces, a care uncommon at that time. His expertise in Latin palaeography and patristics was broadly recognised.

The Icelandic sagas have long been famous for their alleged realism, and within this conventional view, references to the supernatural have often been treated as anomalies. Yet, as this volume demonstrates, such elements were in fact an important part of Old Norse literature and tradition, and their study can provide new and intriguing insights into the world-view of the medieval Icelanders.

By providing an extensive and interdisciplinary treatment of the supernatural within sagas, the eleven chapters presented here seek to explore the literary and folkloric interface between the natural and the supernatural through a study of previously neglected texts (such as Bergbúa þáttr, Selkollu þáttr, and Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra), as well as examining genres that are sometimes overlooked (including fornaldarsögur and byskupa sögur), law codes, and learned translations. Contributors including Ármann Jakobsson, Margaret Cormack, Jan Ragnar Hagland, and Bengt af Klintberg explore how the supernatural was depicted within saga literature and how it should be understood, as well as questioning the origins of such material and investigating the parallels between saga motifs and broader folkloric beliefs. In doing so, this volume also raises important questions about the established boundaries between different saga genres and challenges the way these texts have traditionally been approached.

Amongst the rites for procurating prodigies, those ominous signs of divine anger, the supplication holds a special place.

A lavish ceremony in which not only the priests but the whole Roman people took part, it gathered men, women, and children who were due to visit all the sanctuaries of the City in order to address their prayer to the gods, according to a religious rhetoric where verbal request and body language were associated. Through the supplicatio, ‘self-abasement’ rather than a properly ‘kneeling’ rite which a much debated etymology suggests, Roman people intended to placate deities of whom they acknowledged in the same way as the undeniable superiority.

The purpose of the present work is to define this rite, regarding the people, the places and the various elements it involved. At the same time, the point is also to clarify the controversial origins of a ceremonial traditionally related to the ritus Graecus. Quite similar to the supplication ‘between human people’ with which it shares most of its ritual elements, the religious supplication seems to have been influenced by the ritus Graecus and the practices which come under it, without asserting, though, a Greek origin. Complexity and contradictions characterise, as well, the supplication which, without breaking thoroughly with the austerity of ancestral rites, still belongs to the typically Roman procuration. Officially attested since the fifth century B. C., this rite disappeared in the last century of the Roman Republic, just as the notion of prodigy changed, under the influence of a new way of thinking.

Caroline Février is maître de conférences in Latin language at the University of Caen. Her research work focuses mainly on Roman religion. Her doctoral thesis and several of her articles are devoted to the expiation of prodigies.

Cet ouvrage rassemble des écrits épars, souvent peu connus des milieux universitaires et pour beaucoup d’entre eux difficiles à trouver. Au-delà de leur regroupement en six parties aux intitulés en apparence académiques, le lecteur ne manquera pas de découvrir la diversité de la nature des textes ici rassemblés autour de la notion de Culte, considérée en particulier dans le lien étroit et complexe qu’elle entretient avec la Musique tout au long de l’histoire du christianisme. Articles de fond incontournables pour tout chercheur intéressé par les questions de culte, de cérémonial et de musique ecclésiastique, se mêlent ainsi à des textes à visée plus large, transcriptions de conférences ou d’interviews, ou textes de présentation de disques.

L’implication personnelle de l’auteur durant sa vie professionnelle et intellectuelle, étendue sur plus d’un demi-siècle, favorise la dimension de témoignage qu’ont acquis plusieurs de ces textes face aux évolutions historiques récentes des pratiques cultuelles, toujours interrogées, sous des angles variés ressortant de l’histoire, de l’anthropologie, de la musicologie, voire de la théologie.

Toutefois, par le regard distancié qu’il a toujours réussi à maintenir sur son propre engagement, ils contribuent aussi, au même titre que les articles d’approche historiques ou méthodologiques, à reposer les questions essentielles qui permettent de mieux saisir et d’interroger les axes fondamentaux qui gouvernent la diversité des pratiques au sein du culte chrétien en Occident à travers son histoire.

This book, a tribute to an exceptional scholar known for his broad-ranging interests, brings together the new work of students, friends, and colleagues of Prof. Dyer. The volume reflects his interests in the twin disciplines of history and archaeology and his ground-breaking work in medieval standards of living, social tensions, and town-country relations. The varied and stimulating essays presented in this volume examine a host of critical issues dealing with diet, settlement, employment opportunities, taxation, credit and debt, and the tensions felt in town and country alike which often exploded into full-scale revolt. This new work not only looks at these issues from the standpoint of new evidence and theoretical perspectives, but also imparts a strong sense of the controversy surrounding many of these central issues in medieval history, ranging from how well common people managed to live and reproduce to the nature of their relationships with each other and with their social superiors. The volume, in short, stimulates a vital reconsideration of many of the key concerns pertaining to the study of medieval societies.

In 1617, after seven years of war between Sweden and Russia and talks facilitated by English and Dutch diplomats, the peace treaty of Stolbovo was signed. This important but little-studied document was to form the basis for relationships between Sweden and Russia for the next one hundred years, before it was replaced by the Peace of Nystad in 1721, and it had a huge influence on the lives of the people who lived in the region.

This wide-ranging volume draws together contributions by scholars from Britain, Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Russia, and Finland to offer new insights into, and analysis of this peace treaty and its impact on the wider region during the seventeenth century. Covering disciplines including political and economic history, church history, and Slavonic and Classical philology, the chapters gathered here shed new light on, and provide a new understanding of, the Early Modern period in the Baltic Sea area.

Sympozjum Egejskie. Papers in Aegean Archaeology is a peer-reviewed series that has been designed to full the role of a platform for presenting and introducing a wide range of new research approaches and themes within the broad area of Aegean Archaeology. This is primarily achieved through showcasing the work of newcomers to the discipline, in other words those scholars who are currently at the beginning of their research career in the field of Aegean Archaeology, as well as scholars working outside the traditional university structure such as independent scholars, professional field archaeologists, museum curators and conservators. It is our hope that this series will serve as a concise guide to the most recent research undertaken by early career scholars and the diverse and inspiring new trends in the archaeology of the Prehistoric Aegean, as well as shining a light on the future direction of the discipline.

Philosopher and man of letters, Lybian magnate, political writer in Constantinople, pupil of Hypatia the neoplatonist, and eventually metropolitan bishop of Ptolemais - Synesius of Cyrene is among the most interesting figures of Late Antiquity.

The present volume brings together the papers presented at the conference “Synesios von Kyrene: Politik - Literatur - Philosophie”, held at the University of Constance in November 2008. They offer a broad approach to selected aspects concerning Synesius’ works as well as to the historical background, philosophical contexts, and reception in scholarship and literature, from Late Antiquity to the present.

Helmut Seng is Associate Professor at the University of Constance and Lecturer at the Institute of Classical Philology at the University of Frankfurt. Main research interests include Synesius and the Chaldaean Oracles as well as aspects of form and of intertextuality in Greek and Latin literature.

Lars Hoffmann was a researcher at the University of Mainz, where he taught in all fields of Byzantine studies. Since 2010 he has been a researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History at Frankfurt and in collaboration with other scholars, he is responsible for a new edition of a collection of Byzantine legal sources. Main research interests include the cultural history of Byzantium as well as the tradition and reception of ancient and Byzantine Greek texts.

Chapitre important de l’histoire du XXe siècle religieux européen, l’itinéraire de la communauté de Taizé a croisé les différents événements qui ont marqué la recherche de l’unité des chrétiens divisés et l’histoire de nombreuses églises du continent entre la Seconde Guerre mondiale et la chute du rideau de fer. Première communauté cénobitique masculine née sur terrain réformé, vite devenue point de rencontre d’une sorte d’église œcuménique en gestation, Taizé a interpellé les chrétiens et les églises en des lieux et en des temps différents. Observatoire original des événements caractéristiques de la soif d’unité qui a fait irruption parmi les chrétiens au cœur du XXe siècle, Taizé attendait encore un nécessaire effort d’historicisation. Ce volume essaie de répondre à cette exigence grâce à l’étude d’une très riche documentation inédite, conservée à Taizé et en beaucoup d’autres archives européennes. Ce travail est le fruit d’une recherche de nombreuses années, consacrée aux premières décennies de l’histoire de la communauté fondée par Roger Schutz : depuis les premiers projets communautaires partagés avec quelques amis au lendemain du déclenchement de la guerre, jusqu’à l’annonce, au printemps de 1970, d’un « état conciliaire » tout à fait inédit pour sortir de l’impasse où se trouvait l’œcuménisme après les promesses du début des années 60. Les origines, l’évolution, l’accueil et les résistances rencontrées par cette création communautaire originale constituent donc l’objet de ce volume. Cette ouvrage entend donc suivre, reconstruire et documenter l’« itinérance » de Taizé entre les différentes réalités ecclésiales ainsi que le dynamisme déployé par cette communauté au long des différentes lignes de fracture de l’histoire du XXe siècle.

That Genesis was a key text in the formation of the medieval intellectual world is well recognised. But what were the motives and methods of those who used it? This book looks at the writers and how they wrote about Genesis to reconstruct the intellectual history of the period. It explores how their use of Genesis discloses common attitudes to revelation, authority, and one another.In turn the book examines, how awareness of their self-understanding, can help in understanding their exegesis. Since they built on authorities and one another, and wished 'to remain true' to their authorities, how did exegesis change and develop? This study reveals a group who saw themselves as a single body dispersed over time, charged with a common task as 'Christian Schoolmasters', and who wished to retain all the had received, make it suitable for teaching their students, and ensure its continuance. The book explores the intellectual bonds between those we usually study (e.g. Augustine) and umpteen others whose often anonymous exegeses we tend to ignore - yet it was the cumulative impact of both that created medieval theology. born in 1958 in Ireland, Thomas O'Loughlin is a lecturer in theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies in the University of Wales Lampeter. His research in recent years has focused on the theology of the early medieval period, especially as seen in their biblical exegesis.

Over the span of his career, Gernot R. Wieland has been actively engaged in the contribution and promotion of the study of medieval literature, particularly in Anglo-Latin and Old English. From his early work on glosses in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, to his later editorial work for The Journal of Medieval Latin, Wieland has provided the field with diverse, diligent, and creative scholarship. The contributors of this volume pay tribute to the significance of Wieland’s teaching and learning in the literature of medieval Europe by presenting him with twelve essays on varied aspects of the subject.

The first section of the volume aims to honour Wieland’s contributions to the study of medieval glossing. It deals with the history of glossing from early medieval Latin literature to late Middle English grammatical texts, as well as the early interpretative history of Walter of Châtillon’s Alexandreis and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie. The following section corresponds with Wieland’s interest in Anglo-Saxon literature, with essays on the bilingual letters of Ælfric of Eynsham, the poetry of Alcuin of York, and the Old English Hexateuch. The second half of the volume, which examines elements of Latin literature from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, is divided into two sections containing essays that well represent Wieland’s diverse philological and literary interests in medieval Latin. The third section of the volume on the texts and contexts of Latin literature presents essays on the books of Abbot Maiolus of Cluny, on scholastic virtues of good teaching, and on Walter Map’s Dissuasio Valerii. The final section on the texts and manuscripts of Latin literature provides editions of and commentaries on a Latin-Greek phrase-book, a treatise on the firmament of Genesis 1:6.

With these contributions, this volume honours the research interests of a great teacher and learner of the Middle Ages: Gernot Weiland.

This book surveys teaching and learning in the mathematical and occult sciences, medicine and natural philosophy in various Islamicate societies between 800 and 1700. It focuses in particular on Egypt and Syria between 1200 and 1600, but looks also at developments in Iran, India, Anatolia, and Iraq. It discusses institutions of teaching and learning such as house and court teachers, madrasas, hospitals, in-family teaching, and travelling in search of knowledge, as well as the content of the various sciences taught by or at them. Methods of teaching and learning, teaching bestsellers and their geographical and temporal dissemination, as well as encyclopaedias and literature on the classification of the sciences are treated in further chapters.

The importance of training and education is on the increase. While the production of ‘human capital’ is seen as a motor for a competitive economy, skills and expertise proof to be necessary for social mobility. Remarkably, in conceiving modern forms of ‘apprenticeship’, several mechanisms from the acien régime, seem to return. The difference between public and private initiative is disappearing, education and training is being confused, and in order to acquire generic skills as flexibility, communicability, self-rule, creativity and so on, youngsters have to learn ‘in context’. Even for maths, scholars now talk of ‘situated learning’.

Before the advent of a formal schooling system, training took place on the shop floor, under the roof of a master. The apprentice not only worked but also lived in his master’s house and was thus trained and educated at the same time. In cities, this system was formally complemented by an official apprenticeship system, prescribing a minimum term to serve and an obligatory masterpiece for those who wanted to become masters themselves. Traditionally, historians see this as an archaic and backward way of training, yet this book’s aim is to show that is was instead a very flexible and dynamic system, perfectly in tune with the demands of an early modern economy.

In order to understand it fully, however, we should differentiate the informal training system organised via a ‘free market’ of indentures on the one hand and the institutionalised system of craft guilds on the other. In Antwerp, early modern guilds had a project of ‘emancipating’ their members. They didn’t simply produce certain skills, but through a system of quality marks defended the honour of craftsmen. This is the difference with current practices. By representing hands-on skills as superior, guilds supplied a sort of symbolic capital for workers.

Bert De Munck is lecturer at the University of Antwerp and member of the Centre for Urban History. His research focuses on the history of the guilds, vocational training and social capital.

This interdisciplinary volume explores the ways in which time is staged at the threshold between the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Proceeding from the reality that all cultural forms are inherently and inescapably temporal, it seeks to discover the significance of time in mediations and communications of all kinds.

By showing how time is displayed in diverse cultural strategies and situations, the essays of this volume show how time is intrinsic to the very concept of tradition. In exploring a variety of medial forms and communicative practices, they also reveal that while the beginning of the age of printing (around 1500) may mark a fundamental change in terms of reproduction and circulation, artefacts and other historical traditions continue to employ earlier systems and practices relating time and space.

The volume features articles by leading researchers in their respective fields, including studies on mosaics as a medium reflecting space and time; the triptych’s potential as a time machine; winged altarpieces mediating eternity; texts and images of the passion of Christ permeating past, present, and future; dimensions of time embedded in maps; a compendium of world knowledge organized by forms of time and temporality; the figuration of prophecy in times of crisis; the portrayal of time in architecture.

The volume thus provides a new approach to media and mediality from the perspective of cultural history.

Édouard Jeauneau a déjà publié deux recueils d'articles. Le premier, Lectio philosophorum (1973) était centré sur l'École de Chartres, le second, Études érigéniennes (1987, prix Victor Cousin 1990) sur Jean Scot Érigène. Ce troisième recueil, "Tendenda Vela", combine les deux thèmes.

Les travaux qui y sont rassemblés, et qui couvrent plus de vingt années de recherches, portent non seulement sur Jean Scot et sur les maîtres chartrains, mais sur leurs sources bibliques, patristiques et profanes. Parmi les sources patristiques, une place de choix est faite aux Pères grecs: Denys l'Aréopagite, Grégoire de Nysse, Maxime le Confesseur. Pour les sources profanes, l'accent est mis sur les textes philosophiques qu'on lisait dans le monde latin en la première moitié du XIIe siècle, notamment le Timée de Platon et la Consolation de Philosophie de Boèce.

Ce nouveau recueil ne se distingue pas seulement par la diversité des sujets traités, mais aussi par la variété de leur approche. Tantôt l'auteur dresse le bilan des recherches qu'il a menées sur les manuscrits en pays tchèque (Plato apud Bohemos) ou en Californie (Berkeley UCB Ms. 95), tantôt il approfondit les thèmes philosophiques (Translatio studii, Processio et Reditus, Cogito érigénien) et théologiques (le Filioque) qu'il a rencontrés au cours de ses excursions à travers le Moyen Âge, tantôt il propose une nouvelle interprétation de quelques œuvres d'art appartenant à cette période: De l'art comme mystagogie, Les sirènes dans le chœur des Vieillards. Un livre qui devrait intéresser les historiens de l'art, de la philosophie et de la théologie.

De 1958 à 1992, Édouard Jeauneau (° 1924) á été chercheur et depuis 1975 directeur de recherche de 1ère classe au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Section Philosophie) à Paris. Depuis 1974 il est aussi fellow du Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto).

Pendant longtemps, les travaux sur la cartographie ont surtout porté sur les mappemondes, aussi bien dans le monde latin que dans le monde arabo-musulman. Les représentations cartographiques des espaces locaux et régionaux ont suscité un intérêt plus modéré, même si les études sur la cartographie à grande ou à moyenne échelle des xii e-xv e siècles connaissent depuis quelques années un renouveau notable tant dans le domaine latin que dans le domaine arabe.

La publication des actes du colloque international qui s'est tenu à Tours en juin 2018 rassemble quinze études consacrées à la représentation cartographique du territoire, et, plus généralement, à la cartographie des espaces régionaux et locaux qui émerge dès le x e siècle dans le monde arabo-musulman et à partir du xii e siècle dans l’Occident latin, pour connaître un essor remarquable dans les deux derniers siècles du Moyen Âge. Le livre réunit des articles de synthèse et des études de cas, abordant les questions complexes de l'émergence de cette cartographie, de ses formes et de ses usages dans le monde arabo-musulman et dans l'Occident latin.

En présentant un petit recueil de textes rares et peu étudiés, écrits en langue vulgaire, que ce soit l'anglo-saxon, le moyen-haut-allemand, le moyen-anglais, l'ancien islandais ou le norrois, ce volume donne un panorama de la diffusion des connaissances géographiques et cosmographiques parmi les populations germaniques de l'Antiquité tardive jusqu'au début de l'époque moderne. Après avoir analysé le Heimlýsing, une description du monde en ancien Islandais qui paraît dépendre des écrits d'Isidore de Séville, et les Fornaldarsögur Norórlanda, c'est-à-dire le corpus des anciennes sagas en norrois, on examine l'itinéraire du Grafen von Katzenelnbogen, à savoir un compte rendu très précis d'un voyage dans la Terre Sainte ainsi que les voyages 'virtuels' imaginés dans le poéme Cartula perge d'Alcuin de York et dans les Pilgrimages to the Holy Land en moyen-anglais. L'Enchiridion anglo-saxon du moine Byrhtferth documente la diffusion des connaissances astronomiques dans la culture de l'Angleterre du Haut Moyen Age ; le Lucidarius allemand et le Niederreinischer Orientbericht nous apprennent quant à eux les merveilles de l'Orient.

Dagmar Gottschall (Lecce) a coordoné les travaux de neuf spécialistes des langues germaniques anciennes : Francesca Chiusaroli (Rome), Carla Del Zotto (Rome), Carmela Giordano (Arezzo), Maria Cristina Lombardi (Naples), Lorenzo Lozzi Gallo (Bari), Simonetta Mengato (Venise), Andrea Meregalli (Arezzo), Celestina Milani (Milan) et Lucia Sinisi (Bari), qui esquissent par leurs contributions les contours d'un espace littéraire et culturel peu connu - l'Europe septentrionale -, dans lequel les écrivains rédigeant en langue vulgaire ont developpé une littérature géographique d'une valeur documentaire de première main.

In emulation of Professor Éamonn Ó Carragáin, who has, over the last few decades, demonstrated how words and images together join in that extraordinary cultural achievement which is the Ruthwell Cross, the volume seeks to transcend the established methods of the single discipline.

The twenty-six essays draw together insights from fields as diverse as archaeology, art history, and liturgy to reflect on the literature and material culture of the Anglo-Saxons. The first section looks outwards from the insular context, to medieval Rome, more generally to western Europe, and backwards to the world-geography of the ancient world; its illustrations include colour plates to illumine the hangings, clothing and vestments extant from Anglo-Saxon England. A range of texts is considered in the central section, Latin, English, and Old Norse. The third section focuses on sculpture, buildings and the insular landscape, juxtaposing the sculptured stonework of Northern Britain with early Christian monuments and remains from Ireland; among the illustrations are striking coloured photographs of Irish ecclesiastical sites. The contributors are from Canada, the United States, Italy, Britain, and Ireland.

C’est dans le cadre du renouveau de la linguistique diachronique et de l’attention croissante portée au moyen français que s’inscrivent les présentes études sur la linguistique textuelle du moyen français. Quels sont, dans cette période, les éléments linguistiques contribuant à la structuration du texte? Comment la cohésion textuelle et la continuité thématique sont-elles assurées? Les contributions réunies ici explorent ces domaines, en décrivant l’emploi d’une série de connecteurs, modalisateurs et signes de ponctuation et en analysant les mécanismes sous-jacents au fonctionnement des expressions anaphoriques et des constructions topicalisantes et focalisantes.

Le présent volume, qui est le fruit du XIe colloque international sur le moyen français tenu à Anvers (19-21 mai 2005), offre une analyse originale et détaillée des outils linguistiques dont dispose le moyen français pour rendre accessible son discours.

Ce volume réunit 27 articles que Geneviève Hasenohr a consacrés à la littérature de dévotion médiévale entre 1978 et 2007. Études et éditions de textes romans font toucher du doigt ce que furent au quotidien les modèles de vie chrétienne et les lectures spirituelles proposés aux laïcs en France entre e et e siècle, leur fonds monastique commun et leur touche propre. Cette reprise est complétée par la publication actualisée d’une documentation inédite, attendue depuis des décennies par les médiévistes : une partie des notices documentaires primitivement destinées à prendre place dans le t. 2 (jamais paru) du vol. VIII du Grundriss der romanischen Literaturen des Mittelalters : La littérature ançaise aux e et e siècles (t.1, Heidelberg, 1988). uelques études plus philologiques, une bibliographie de l’auteur et plusieurs index complètent la sélection.

Chartiste, ancien membre de l’École Française de Rome, Geneviève Hasenohr est une philologue, historienne des textes de spiritualité médiévaux en langue romane. Elle a dirigé la Section romane de l’Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (CNRS) et enseigné à l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne ainsi qu’à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études. Elle est correspondante de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

Within the contemporary renewal of the exegetical and historical research on Jesus and early Christianity, this book focuses on a wider knowledge of the social and cultural context of the first two centuries, thanks to a systematic research of documentary materials and archaeological data (epigraphs and documentary papyri). Secondly, the book faces the increasingly perceived need to use all the existing literary material for the reconstruction of the historical Jesus and the first groups of his followers. Thirdly, the book stresses the importance of giving space to new epistemological and methodological perspectives in the field of human sciences. The last section of the volume is dedicated to the connection of contemporary research with the interpretations of Jesus and early Christianity developed in the modern age.

Textus Roffensis, a Rochester Cathedral book of the early twelfth century, holds some of the most significant texts issued in early medieval England, ranging from the oldest English-language law code of King Æthelberht of Kent (c. 600) to a copy of Henry I’s Coronation Charter (5 August 1100). Textus Roffensis also holds abundant charters (including some forgeries), narratives concerning disputed property, and one of the earliest library catalogues compiled in medieval England. While it is a familiar and important manuscript to scholars, however, up to now it has never been the object of a monograph or collection of wide-ranging studies. The seventeen contributors to this book have subjected Textus Roffensis to close scrutiny and offer new conclusions on the process of its creation, its purposes and uses, and the interpretation of its laws and property records, as well as exploring significant events in which Rochester played a role and some of the more important people associated with the See. The work of the contributors takes readers into the mind of the scribes and compiler (or patron) behind the Textus Roffensis, as well as into the origins and meaning of the texts that the monks of early twelfth-century Rochester chose to preserve. The essays contained here not only set the study of the manuscript on a firm foundation, but also point to new directions for future work.

A collaborative investigation of one of the best-known works of late medieval European literature, the Franco-Burgundian collection of short stories known as the Cent Nouvelles nouvelles. Modelled loosely on Boccaccio’s Decameron and incorporating elements from Old French fabliaux as well as Poggio Bracciolini’s Liber Facetiarum, the anonymous collection attributes its morally challenging and frequently humorous tales to named narrators including Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Luxembourg, Count of Saint Pol. 

The contribution of this new volume of essays is threefold: - empirical, in that it brings entirely new interdisciplinary insights into the study of the genesis and reception of the work; - methodological, in that it integrates study of the text within a 360-degree evaluation of the work’s manuscript and early printed context; and - conceptual, in that it seeks to understand the social dimensions of textual production and consumption.

These approaches unite ten principal contributions by specialists in the fields of art history, book history, court history and linguistics from France, the Netherlands, the USA and the UK.

The first book of Macrobius' Saturnalia, written probably in the 430s AD, includes a historical exposition of the Roman calendar with a dramatic date some fifty years earlier, set in the mouth of the learned senator Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, followed by more technical detail at the request of an Egyptian named Horus, who as a foreigner is allowed to seek elementary information for which no one brought up in Roman culture would need to ask.

This text was excerpted in early medieval Ireland, with some but by no means all its pagan matter excised, to provide an introduction for those who at best understood the rules of this recent import but not the rationale for them; it is quoted by Bede as Disputatio Chori et Praetextati, Chorus being a corrupted form of Horus.

The excerpt took on a textual life of its own, which the present edition, the first devoted to the Disputatio rather than Macrobius, seeks to clarify; it examines the manuscripts and the relations between them, presents a critical edition with apparatus criticus and translation, and attaches a full-scale commentary concerned above all with the information provided in the text.

The Pal.M.A.I.S. Syro-Italian joint project at Palmyra, established in 2007, aimed to shed light on private housing in the Roman East. Through excavations in Palmyra’s southwest quarter, the remains of a residential complex, the ‘Peristyle Building’, were uncovered; this site was built in the Roman period but was inhabited up to the eighth century ad.

This volume, dedicated to Prof. Maria Teresa Grassi (Università degli Studi di Milano), who co-directed the project together with Dr Waleed al-As‘ad (Museum of Palmyra), presents selected studies stemming from the Pal.M.A.I.S. project. It draws together contributions dedicated to the topography of the southwest quarter, the excavation of the Peristyle Building, and selected classes of material. Through detailed analysis and the presentation of fresh data, this volume sheds new light on a relatively unexplored sector of a threatened UNESCO World Heritage site.

Medieval Islamic society was overwhelmingly a society of peasants, and the achievements of Islamic civilization depended, first and foremost, on agricultural production. Yet the history of the medieval Islamic countryside has been neglected or marginalized. Basic questions such as the social and religious identities of village communities, or the relationship of the peasant to the state, are either ignored or discussed from a normative point of view.

This volume addresses this lacuna in our understanding of medieval Islam by presenting a first-hand account of the Egyptian countryside. Dating from the middle of the thirteenth century, Abū ‘Uthmān al-Nābulusī’s Villages of the Fayyum is as close as we get to the tax registers of any rural province. Not unlike the Domesday Book of medieval England, al-Nābulusī’s work provides a wealth of detail for each village which far surpasses any other source for the rural economy of medieval Islam. It is a unique, comprehensive snap-shot of one rural society at one, significant, point in its history, and an insight into the way of life of the majority of the population in the medieval Islamic world. Richly annotated and with a detailed introduction, this volume offers the first academic edition of this work and the first translation into a European language. By opening up this key source to scholars, it will be an indispensable resource for historians of Egypt, of administration and rural life in the premodern world generally, and of the Middle East in particular.

The ‘Alawī religion, known for most of its history by the name Nuṣayriyya, emerged in Iraq over a millennium ago. An esoteric, syncretistic religion with a close affinity to Shī‘ī Islam, its origins are shrouded in obscurity. Over time, beliefs and rituals deriving from paganism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity were grafted to the radical Shī‘ī substrate, giving the religion its distinctive character. Throughout their history the ‘Alawites were a persecuted religious minority, but in the 1970s they came to power in Syria and retained absolute rule until recently. There is also a significant population in Hatai Province in southern Turkey.

Arising from the authors’ long-standing interest in the ‘Alawī religion, this anthology offers for the first time a selection from the distinctive literature of the mysterious religion. The book opens with a detailed introduction setting the background for the themes it will cover: the mystery of the divinity in the ‘Alawī faith; rituals and ceremonies; calendar and festivals; the doctrine of reincarnation; initiation into the divine mysteries and the esoteric circle; and finally, the identity and self-definition of the religion’s followers vis-à-vis Islam and other religions.

This volume brings together the Proceedings of the seminar held on 29 and 30 October 2015 at the Department of Humanities of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The title of the book, which is the same as the seminar, refers to the “age of consolidation” of Venice, that had been identified by the promoters of the initiative as the 9th and 10th centuries. All the papers in the volume, therefore, consider a Venetian reality as already formed, even in its early days; a reality, or rather a social, economic and political community which, at this moment in time, reinforces its urban aspect, and creates the basis for the growth that will characterize its history after the tenth century.

The book collects twelve papers of archaeological, historical, epigraphic and historical-artistic subject.

Volume editorial board:

Leen Van Molle (University of Leuven, Belgium), Yves Segers (University of Leuven, Belgium) (directors)

John Chartres (University of Leeds,UK) , Marc de Ferrière le Vayer (University of Tours, France), Pim Kooij (Wageningen University, Netherlands), Michael Kopsidis (IAMO, Halle (Saale), Bjørn Poulsen (Aarhus University, Denmark), Jean-Pierre Williot (University of Tours, France)

Agriculture and alimentation have, from early times, always been crucial elements in the development of market systems. Shortage and surplus gave shape to different forms of exchange and sale, to the dynamics of supply and demand, and to expanding interconnections between both regions and social groups. Farmers learned to adapt their production to market conditions and to the shifting needs and tastes of a growing and demanding public. But the path from a self-supporting way of life to the present forms of market integration in the complex, global world was far from uniform and linear. Food production, market structures and market mechanisms changed over time and differed between regions and countries of the North Sea area. This volume aims at exploring and unravelling the complexity of the agro-food market, from the field to the table.

Since the discovery in the 1950’s of the so-called 'Barcelona Papyrus', the anaphora contained within it has remained the most understudied classical anaphora. However, a close analysis of this anaphora can reshape liturgical historians’ understanding of a number of classical anaphoras, and thus their approach to anaphoral development more broadly. This anaphora requires scholars to rethink questions concerning the construction, geographical provenance, and structural patterns of early anaphoras and their units. It is a witness to a very early form of Eucharistic praying, and points to various ways in which older less developed Eucharistic prayers developed into the anaphoral patterns common in the fourth century. As such, an analysis of this anaphora is of historical and methodological interest. This anaphora is also an early witness to Egyptian Eucharistic praying. It stems from the same anaphoral tradition as the anaphora of St. Mark, but on the whole it is an earlier witness to that tradition. The anaphora in the Barcelona Papyrus also bears a number of structural and textual similarities to the anaphora described in the Mystagogical Catecheses, which is often attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem. As such, it sheds further light on the relationship between Egypt and Jerusalem.

The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Joshua includes tales of spies, giants, the prostitute Rahab, the punishment of Achan, oracles, and Joshua’s brilliant military victories. Joshua stops the sun. The first half of the book relates Joshua’s stunning conquests in Canaan. The second half, the apportionment of the land among the tribes, detailed geographical surveys of territorial boundaries, and the death of Joshua.

Skilful, well-paced story telling is a feature of the ANB’s Joshua. To the accounts of Rahab and Achan we may add the chronicle of Joshua’s successful, crushing campaign in the wake of the destruction of Makkedah. In rapid succession, and in an annalistic style involving staccato repetition of key phrases, the narrator relates the destruction of Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir.

The text of the ANB’s Joshua is extant in British Library Royal 1 C III (base manuscript, L) and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS français 1 (P), both c. 1350 and both the Bibles of kings. L belonged at some point in the fifteenth century to Reading’s Benedictine abbey, entering the royal library in 1530. Characteristic of L is its occasional insertion of short glosses in English or Latin to clarify or correct the Anglo-Norman text. An illustrated text, P was prepared by an English workshop for the fourth baron de Welles, John, and his wife, Maud, daughter of William, Lord Ros. This is clearly the Bible of a wealthy and well-connected English family. After the Welles family, the manuscript belonged to Louis de Bruges († 1492), then to King Louis XII of France.

Tales of treachery and friendship, adultery and murder, rape and revenge, as well as prophecy, repentance, forgiveness and thanksgiving — such is the stuff of the Anglo-Norman Bible’s Books of Samuel. They recount the life of the last of Israel’s judges but include some of the world’s best-known characters — Saul, David and Jonathan, Goliath, Bathsheba, and Absalom. 

The first book traces the life of Samuel, and the initial success of King Saul, chosen to satisfy the Israelites’ demand for a king. After Saul loses God’s favour, David enters his court to console him, but Saul envies David’s success. When Saul dies in battle, David succeeds him. In book two, David consolidates control over his kingdom, but his adultery with Bathsheba precipitates the reverses of the final chapters. Historically, the Books of Samuel trace the creation of Israel’s monarchy and explain its ultimate failure. Religiously, they relate Israel’s continuing relationship with God and the establishment of Jerusalem as the religious and political capital of the new kingdom.

Two mid-fourteenth-century manuscripts preserve the text of the Anglo-Norman Bible’s Samuel. The base manuscript (L), British Library Royal 1 C III, notable for its inclusion of multi-lingual glosses, was acquired by Henry VIII from the Benedictine Abbey of Reading in 1530. The lavishly illustrated Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS français 1 (P), produced in England for the baronial de Welles family, later belonged to King Louis XII of France. Brent A. Pitts has prepared the critical edition and Maureen Boulton’s introduction and notes elucidate the text and its interpretation by medieval commentators.

Annotations in modern books are a phenomenon that often causes disapproval: we are not supposed to draw, doodle, underline, or highlight in our books. In many medieval manuscripts, however, the pages are filled with annotations around the text and in-between the lines. In some cases, a ‘white space’ around the text is even laid out to contain extra text, pricked and ruled for the purpose. Just as footnotes are an approved and standard part of the modern academic book, so the flyleaves, margins, and interlinear spaces of many medieval manuscripts are an invitation to add extra text.

This volume focuses on annotation in the early medieval period. In treating manuscripts as mirrors of the medieval minds who created them - reflecting their interests, their choices, their practices - the essays explore a number of key topics. Are there certain genres in which the making of annotations seems to be more appropriate or common than in others? Are there genres in which annotating is ‘not done’? Are there certain monastic centres in which annotating practices flourish, and from which they spread?

The volume investigates whether early medieval annotators used specific techniques, perhaps identifiable with their scribal communities or schools. It explores what annotators actually sought to accomplish with their annotations, and how the techniques of annotating developed over time and per region.

The lives of the apostles after Pentecost are described in the books of the New Testament only in part. Details of their missionary wanderings to the remote corners of the world are found in writings not included in the biblical canon, known as the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. In the early Middle Ages these originally Greek writings were translated and rewritten in Latin and circulated under the title Virtutes apostolorum. These texts became immensely popular. They were copied in numerous manuscripts, both as a comprehensive collection with a chapter for each apostle and as individual texts, echoing the needs of monastic and other religious communities that used these texts to celebrate the apostles as saints.

The First International Summer School on Christian Apocryphal Literature (Strasbourg, 2012) concentrated on the transmission of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in the Latin world. This volume also highlights the use of the Bible in the apocryphal Acts, the imagination of the apostles in early Christian art and poetry, and the apocryphal Acts in early medieval print. Other contributions concern the study of Christian apocryphal literature in general and in the context of the Strasbourg Summer School in particular.

Appearances can be deceptive; and medieval ritual practices are in this respect no exception. They perform stability through the codification of repetitive modes of behaviour and simultaneously admit flexibility in their integration of newer forms of representation. They mask the historical contingencies of their own creation and construct alternative narratives of authority and continuity. They do not simply appear; their appearance reflects the mutual interplay of construction and modification.

This collection of eleven essays-which chronologically spans the period from the Carolingians to the Catholic Reform movement of the later sixteenth century-explores this double-edged potential in the appearance of medieval ritual practices; and, in this case, chiefly church rituals. It comprises a series of individual studies by scholars of literature, theology, music, and the visual arts. Each study examines a particular moment of change or transformation in ritual practices, illuminating, thereby, processes of ritualization. In this way, the book both provides an impulse to the recent renewal of methodological interest in ritual studies and presents individual contributions to specific scholarly discourses within this broad area.

Written transmission relies on the fact of ‘publication,’ the step between the authorial process and reception. But what does ‘publishing’ mean in the context of a manuscript culture, in which books were copied slowly and singly by hand? This is a fundamental question. If one fails to appreciate the act of publication, one’s understanding of any authorial work and its reception from any period will remain defective. The case studies in this volume ask what it meant for medieval and renaissance authors and their associates to publish. The contexts under scrutiny range from England to Italy, from hagiography to literary criticism, and from Carolingian monasteries to renaissance libraries. Medieval publishing remains undiscovered territory in the main. This volume constitutes a first effort towards a long-term narrative, from the ninth to the sixteenth century.

The twenty-one essays in this volume, published from 1971 onwards, together with the introductions and conclusion, treat of the Bible and apocryphal works in Ireland during the pre-Norman period, from A.D. 600 to 1200. The essays cover developments during the period from Professor Bernhard Bischoff’s seminal 1954 essay ("Wendepunkte"), on new evidence for Irish contributions in the field, down to the present day. After an initial survey of research during this period, attention is paid to the texts of the Latin Bible, in particular the Psalms and the Four Gospels, and to the Antiochene influence on Psalm interpretation, as well as to the rich corpus of Irish apocryphal writings, some of them very early (Transitus Mariae, so-called Infancy Narrative of Thomas, texts on the Magi and a related Infancy Narrative). Special attention is paid to the creative biblical interpretation of the Psalms in the early Irish Church A.D. 600-800, and also to what appears to be an early Irish (early eighth-century) commentary on the Apocalypse. It is hoped that these essays will contribute to a renewed examination of early Irish exegesis in this the sixtieth year of the publication of Dr Bischoff’s 1954 essay.

Martin McNamara studied theology in Rome and later biblical studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome and Jerusalem, and at the École Biblique, Jerusalem. He specialised in the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible (‘Targums’), with a doctoral dissertation in 1965 (published 1966) and has many later essays on the topic, published as collected essays in 2011. He has been active since 1954 in the study and critical edition of Irish texts on the Bible and the Apocrypha, and has written extensively on these topics.

This monograph examines the Late Classical and Hellenistic bronze coinages of five mints in the Thessalian perioikic region of Magnesia. At the core of this work lies a new die-study of the coins produced by the strategically and economically important coastal cities of Homolion and Meliboia as well as the lesser-known mints of Eureai, Eurymenai, and Rhizous. Combining this die-study with a close examination of the cities’ topographical context in a border region between Thessaly and Macedon and drawing on archaeological data from Magnesia and beyond, the monograph addresses key questions concerning the chronology, denominations, and circulation patterns of the bronze issues minted on eastern Mount Ossa. This analysis not only throws new light on coin production in Late Classical and Hellenistic Magnesia, but also allows a discussion of the possible military and non-military functions of the region’s different bronze issues.

Placing the coins of Eureai, Eurymenai, Homolion, Meliboia, and Rhizous in their wider context, this monograph furthermore addresses broader issues in the history of Thessalian coinage. In particular, the monograph’s regional approach offers an unusual opportunity to examine to what extent Thessaly’s Late Classical and Hellenistic civic coins were genuinely local in design, production, and function. The monograph thus both explores the coins of Mount Ossa and contributes towards a better understanding of the introduction and development of bronze coinages in the wider Thessalian region and beyond.

The Calligraphy of Medieval Music treats the practical aspects of the book making and music writing trades in the Middle Ages. It covers most major regions of music writing in medieval Europe, from Sicily to England and from Spain to the eastern Germanic regions. Specific issues raised by the contributors include the pricking and ruling of books; the writing habits of scribes and their reliance on memory; the cultural influence of monastic orders such as the Carthusians; graphic variants between regional styles of music notation ranging from tenth-century Saint-Gall to sixteenth-century Cambrai; and the impact of print on late medieval notation. The volume opens with a few essays dealing with general issues such as page layout and manuscript production both in and out of medieval Europe. The second part of the book covers early music notations from the tenth and eleventh centuries, and the third part, the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.

This volume provides a fresh look at the Capetian century (1214-1314), a period that changed the cultural and political fabric and laid the foundation for the modernisation of the medieval West.

The period from the birth of Louis IX to the death of Philip the Fair is remarkable for a series of developments and accomplishments associated with the Capetian kings of France. Innovations in architecture, manuscript illumination, and music all helped shape the cultural fabric of French and European life. Administrative historians emphasize the development of political institutions that have been said to lay foundations of the modern State. ‘Moral reform’, partly in support of the crusading movement, led to various changes in policies toward Jews, prostitutes, heretics, and many other social groups.

This volume brings together essays presented at the Capetian Century Conference held at Princeton University, commemorating two seminal anniversaries bracketing the 'Capetian Century' - the Battle of Bouvines (1214), and the death of Philip the Fair (1314).

When Bartolomeo Sacchi ('Platina', 1421-1481) wrote his Vitae pontificum (Lives of the Popes) and presented it to Pope Sixtus IV in 1475, he surely could not have imagined how influential it would become over the centuries. His was the first papal history composed as a humanist Latin narrative and, as such, marked a distinct breakthrough in relation to the Liber pontificalis, the standard medieval chronicle of the papacy. Whatever Platina's intentions for the book, it soon came to be regarded as the official history of the Roman pontiffs. After the editio princeps of Venice 1479, updated and extended editions continued to be produced until late in the eighteenth century.

The largely untold story of Platina's Lives of the Popes and its fortuna is the focus of this book. The Lives were particularly popular because of Platina's frank criticisms of papal behaviour which did not live up to his humanist moral values. He reminded the popes that they were mere human beings and urged them not to indulge in luxury and nepotism. Catholics, whether or not they agreed with such indictments, read the Lives eagerly, while Protestants naturally appreciated Platina's fault-finding approach towards the papacy. The role which censorship played in the reception of the Lives was previously unknown. This book examines the censorship process (1587-1592) in detail, including a critical edition of the assessments and corrections by English and Italian censors newly uncovered in the Vatican and in Milan.

This book offers an investigation into the basic structures of St Maximus the Confessor’s thought in the context of ancient and late antique philosophy. The introduction explains what is meant by the term ‘metaphysics of Maximus’, and discusses possible senses of terms like ‘Christian philosophy’ and ‘Byzantine philosophy’. On the background of a definition of ‘Christian philosophy’, the author devotes two chapters to discuss Maximus’ ideas of knowledge of the created world and of God. The chapters that follow are devoted to the doctrine of creation, the function of the so-called logoi (divine Ideas) in the procession and conversion of the totality of beings in relation to God, and the relation between the logoi and the so-called divine activities. The logoi, eternally comprised in God’s knowledge as the divine thoughts in accordance with which everything is created, are then shown to function as principles of a rather complex order of being: the cosmos instituted as a whole-part system. This whole-part system secures the possible communion between all creatures and facilitates the conversion of everything to the divine source as a unity in plurality deified by God. The last chapter treats of the doctrines of Incarnation and deification in order to clarify the exact sense of deification for all beings. In the final part of the book, the author applies Maximian metaphysics to a major ethical challenge in our days: the environmental crisis, thus proving that late antique philosophy still has relevance today.

Theodore of Tarsus served as archbishop of Canterbury for twenty-two years until his death in 690, aged eighty-eight. Because the only significant record we had of Theodore was that contained in Bede’s Historia, until recently it was very difficult to say anything about his life before this appointment, and even more difficult to determine anything about his thought. All of that changed in the last half of the twentieth century, when the discovery of some biblical glosses from Canterbury was revealed and the ensuing scholarship uncovered more of Theodore’s work than had previously been known. The Laterculus Malalianus is a text that benefited from treatment in this period. This present work examines the Laterculus for what it has to say about the person and work of Christ, and establishes that Theodore’s main theological inspiration was Irenaeus of Lyons and the concept of recapitulation, even while he cast his thought in language heavily drawn from the Syriac East, and Ephrem the Syrian in particular.

The volume represents a contribution to our understanding of the early medieval theological project in Britain, the transmission of eastern Mediterranean thought in the early medieval West and, ultimately, of the work of Theodore of Tarsus.

James Siemens continues to research theological questions arising from the encounter between the Greek and Semitic East and Latin West through the late antique and early medieval periods. He is an honorary research fellow at Cardiff University, and director of the nascent Theotokos Institute for Catholic Studies.

In this volume, the research of Józef Dobosz, one of Poland’s leading historians of the Middle Ages, is made accessible in English for the first time. It brings together nineteen studies focused on the role of the Church, the Cistercian Order, and other religious institutions in the history of the Piast realm from which Poland emerged. The introduction offers a broad outline of the first two centuries of the rule of the Piast dynasty after the Baptism of Poland in 966 until the fragmentation of the Piast patrimony during the twelfth century. The subsequent essays examine the circumstances of the foundation of Poland’s leading Cistercian monasteries in Sulejów, Jędrzejów, Wąchock, Owińska, and Łekno. The author analyses the means of their establishment, evaluates the existing sources, and places these within the context of the Piast dynasty’s economic, political, and social policies.

The studies offer an in-depth analysis of the motivations of the leading dynasts, magnates, and prelates in supporting the mission of the Church in Poland and enabling further embedding of Christianity across all strata of the society. The author examines the oldest Polish documents related to Cistercian monasteries and canons regular (in particular foundation charters) including early medieval charter forgeries. The volume’s key conclusions about the impact of Christianity on nascent Poland are based on a detailed examination of medieval charters, the role of scriptoria, identities of significant people of the Church, and the wider historical record.

During the second half of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth century, it was particularly hazardous for medieval merchants to invest in government finance. The 'certainty of uncertainty' involved in dealing with princes proved disastrous for innumerable businesses, whether they were modest one-man firms or colossal 'super companies'. Yet, in this same period, the Rapondi, a family active in Bruges but originating from the Italian city of Lucca, achieved a career of more than thirty years in the money-lending business, ending with encomiums of princely praise instead of a bankruptcy. This book explains this remarkable achievement, not with a conventional focus on the individuals who agreed the loans and made up the bills, but by linking their work to the phenomenon that dominated the social and political scene of the Low Countries at the time: the formation of the Burgundian state. In the context of the politics of centralization conducted by the Burgundian dukes and the resistance of the Flemish cities the success story of the Rapondi can be understood. The Duke, the City and their Banker analyses how the firm first engaged in this interaction, how it was able to maintain its position while others failed and how these relations came to an end. While the emphasis of the book lies on the Rapondis' activities in Bruges, the meeting-place of international trade and finance in the fourteenth and fifteenth century, it also offers new insights into other important episodes of this fascinating period, including the Great Western Schism that divided the papacy, the continuing hostilities between England and France and the internal French conflict between Bourguignons and Armagnacs. In doing so, The Duke, the City and their Banker shows how an Italian merchant family was able to shape late medieval economic and political history.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have always formed, re-formed, and transformed themselves in conversation. That is, these religions have come to exist in all their varieties by interacting with, thinking about, and imagining each other. In this sense they are co-produced, linked by a dynamic and ongoing inter-dependence. The fifteen essays collected in this volume explore moments of such religious coproduction from the second to the twenty-first century, from early pilgrimage sites to social media. The case studies range across textual and material cultures, showing how a variety of artefacts, coins, rituals, communities, narratives, theological doctrines, and scholarly concepts, were all co-produced across the three religious traditions. In so doing they present a panorama of possibilities from the past, as well as a taxonomy that can help us think about the future of religious co-production. An introductory essay describes the advantages of approaching the past, present, and future of these religions through the lens of co-production, and reflects on crucial methodological issues related to the understanding of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as co-produced religions.

In this book, a dozen distinguished scholars in the field of the history of philosophy and science investigate aspects of the commentary tradition on Aristotle’s De generatione et corruptione, one of the least studied among Aristotle’s treatises in natural philosophy. Many famous thinkers such as Johannes Philoponus, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, John Buridan, Nicole Oresme, Francesco Piccolomini, Jacopo Zabarella, and Galileo Galilei wrote commentaries on it. The distinctive feature of the present book is that it approaches this commentary tradition as a coherent whole, thereby ignoring the usual historiographical distinctions between the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the seventeenth century.