Brepols

Ever since its introduction in the 1970s, Ruth Finnegan’s notion of the oral-written, or the oral-literate, continuum has served as one of the most effective means of dispelling the dichotomous understanding of the two principal media of communication in the Middle Ages. However, while often casually invoked, the concept has never been made a focus of study in its own right. The present volume is an attempt to place the oral-written continuum at the heart of discussion as an object of a head-on theoretical investigation, as a backdrop to distinct processes of acquisition of literacy in different European regions, and, indeed, as a tool for navigating the rugged landscape of verbal forms, exploring the complexity of oral-literary interrelationships that they manifest. The articles probe the concept with a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, span diverse texts and genres, and involve a range of European cultural contexts, with special emphasis on Scandinavia and Northern Europe, but also reaching out to various other corners of the continent: from France, the Netherlands and England in the West, over Germany, Bohemia and Poland in the central region, to Serbia and Bosnia in the Southeast.

The use of the past for contemporary purposes has been a feature of historical and archaeological investigation from ancient times. This ‘politicization of the past’ is often associated with, at best, an inadvertent detachment from an objective use of evidence, and at worst, its wilful misuse. Such use of the past is perhaps most evident in the construction of narratives of nations and ethnic groups — particularly in relation to origins or the perceived ‘golden ages’ of peoples.

This book seeks to assess the role played by different ideologies in the shaping of the past, from early times up until the present day, in the interpretation of the history and archaeology of Northern Europe, whether in Northern Europe itself or further afield. It also considers how those who research, interpret, and present the Northern European past should respond to such uses. The chapters drawn together here explore key questions, asking how contemporary ideologies of identity have shaped the past, what measures should be taken to discourage an inaccurate understanding of the past, and if scholars should draw on the past in order to counter racism and xenophobia, or if this can itself lead to potentially dangerous misunderstandings of history.

In the Ambigua to John, the great early Byzantine monastic theologian and philosopher Maximus the Confessor (580–662) is at work in his most creative and expansive mode. Using difficult passages in Gregory Nazianzen as starting points for his thinking, Maximus draws together various strands of the theological and philosophical traditions he inherited and shapes an ever-moving, kaleidoscopic vision of the journey through the world of place, time, and materiality to final dynamic repose in eternity. Throughout the text, Maximus takes his readers along the many paths his own mind traveled to clarify this breathtaking reflection of the teachings of Scripture and the patristic tradition. In this translation of the first fully critical edition of Maximus’s text, the streams of the Confessor’s divine philosophy are revealed in their own right. This translation will be followed with the first full commentary on the Ambigua to John in English, to appear in Corpus Christianorum in Translation.

The source text of this volume will appear in Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca, vol. 84.

Ambiguum 10 is an important sample of Maximus the Confessor’s philosophical exegesis, which has not received concentrated scholarly attention so far. This volume includes a new critical text edition by Prof. Carl Laga and a new English translation by Dr. Joshua Lollar. It also offers a unique insight into the universe of the great Christian thinker, showcasing his extensive knowledge of Aristotelian, Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophy and offering possible parallels with the Corpus Hermeticum and Ps-Dionysius the Areopagite. The present volume is the first attempt to bring together scholars from different traditions to understand the message and the reception of this seminal work.

Amís y Amiles son los protagonistas de una serie de obras que se difunden por todo el occidente europeo desde el siglo XII, dando lugar a una epístola en latín, un cantar de gesta en francés, un relato hagiográfico en latín, varios exempla, una pieza teatral... La huella del tema de la amistad fraternal se encuentra también en catalán y en castellano.

Este libro, preparado por los profesores Carlos Alvar (Université de Genève) y Hugo O. Bizzarri (Université de Fribourg), presenta en edición bilingüe los principales textos en los que aparece el motivo de “los dos hermanos” o “los dos amigos”.

Peter Abelard's Expositio in hexaemeron, or interpretation of the six-day work of creation, was commissioned by Heloise for the community of the Paraclete. The work is unusual in that it gives priority to the historical over the allegorical sense, and bears strong affinities to the writings of Thierry of Chartres and other twelfth century students of the natural sciences. As such, it is evidence both for the general state of twelfth century knowledge of cosmology, and for the quality of scholarship available in particular to a community of women religious.

The source text of this volume appeared in Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaeualis as Expositio in Hexameron (CCCM 15). References to the corresponding pages of the Corpus Christianorum edition are provided in the margins of this translation.

Wanda Zemler-Cizewski is Associate Professor of historical theology in the Department of Theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her doctorate in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 1983, and is the author of numerous articles on early scholastic biblical interpretation and theology.

This first supplement to my An Annotated Bibliography on Ibn Sînâ (1979-1989), published in 1991, informs the reader about all new studies on Ibn Sînâ (Avicenna) published in the period 1990-1994, and also offers corrigenda and addenda to the former bibliography. Also in the supplement, attention is paid to Western, and to non-Western publications. Moreover, it has been tried to be even more exhaustive by including publications, which have not Ibn Sînâ (Avincenna) in the title, but which nevertheless are offering important and innovative information about his life or thought.

First, an overview is given of the new editions and/or translations of Ibn Sînâ's works, which are once more identified according to the classic bibliographies of G.C. Anawati and M.Mehdavî. Hereafter, separate chapters are dedicated to studies of a biographical and a bibliographical nature. No less than ten chapters are devoted to materials dealing with Ibn Sînâ's philosophical thought (e.g., logic, psychology, metaphysics, religious thought, sources, influences both in the East and the West). Finally, materials dealing with Ibn Sînâ's scientific and medical contributions, are treated within two separate chapters. It has to be noted that almost all publications are annotated with a summary of their most original points and a short critical evaluation. An index, which includes the names of all authors, ancient, medieval and contemporary, has been added.

In sum, this work aims at providing a clear, concise and comprehensive work- instrument for all future Avicenna research. It is not only of great interest for all scholars working in Arabic-Islamic philosophy, science and medicine, but also for historians of philosophy and mediaevalists.

Is it possible for nihilism and an ontology of personhood as will to power to be incubated in the womb of Christian Mysticism? Is it possible that the modern ontology of power, which constitutes the core of the Greek-Western metaphysics, has a theological grounding? Has Nietszche reversed Plato or, more likely, Augustine and Origen, re-fashioning in a secular framework the very essence of their ontology? Do we have any alternative Patristic anthropological sources of the Greek-Western Self, beyond what has been traditionally called "Spirituality" or "Mysticism"? Patristic theology seems to ultimately provide us with a different understanding of selfhood, beyond any Ancient or modern, Platonic or not, Transcendentalism. This book strives to decipher, retrieve, and re-embody the underlying mature Patristic concept of selfhood, beyond the dichotomies of mind and body, essence and existence, transcendence and immanence, inner and outer, conscious and unconscious, person and nature, freedom and necessity: the Analogical Identityof this Self needs to be explored.

How has the digital turn truly changed the nature of our research, particularly in the field of medieval scholarship where our collections are almost never large enough to justify the term 'big data'? All kind of new avenues of research are emerging, thanks to the creativity of scholars and to their interest in what digital means can offer. This collection of articles aims to give an up-to-date overview of the use of computer-assisted methods in several fields of scholarship dealing with ancient and medieval texts and manuscripts (from codicology and palaeography to textual criticism and literary or historical studies), across the boundaries of language and period. In moving away from theoretical debates about what the field of digital humanities is or should be, we present here a clearer picture of what textual scholars can achieve when they use computers for their research needs and purposes, and what their expectations may be in terms of the technology and developments in computational methodology.

List of contributors: T. Andrews, P. Andrist, F. Cafiero, J.-B. Camps, A. Cantera, A. Castro Correa, T. Heikkilä, A. Hoenen, A. Jordanous, E. R. Luján, C. Macé, E. Orduña, I. Rabin, P. Roelli, M. Romanov, S. Rubenson, L. Spinazzè, F. Stella, C. Tupman, K. Van Dalen-Oskam, J. van Zundert.