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

The eleven essays brought together in this volume explore the relations between expulsion, diaspora, and exile between Late Antiquity and the seventeenth century. The essays range from Hellenistic Egypt to seventeenth-century Hungary and involve expulsion and migration of Jews, Muslims and Protestants. The common goal of these essays is to shed light on a certain number of issues: first, to try to understand the dynamics of expulsion, in particular its social and political causes; second, to examine how expelled communities integrate (or not) into their new host societies; and finally, to understand how the experiences of expulsion and exile are made into founding myths that establish (or attempt to establish) group identities.

John Tolan is professor of history at the University of Nantes (France) and member of the Academia Europæa. He is author of numerous articles and books in medieval history and cultural studies, including Petrus Alfonsi and his Medieval Readers (1993), Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (2002), Sons of Ishmael: Muslims through European Eyes in the Middle Ages (2008), and Saint Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter (2009). He is director of a major project funded by the European Research Council, “RELMIN: The legal status of religious minorities in the Euro-Mediterranean world (5th-15th centuries)” (www.relmin.eu).

Fondée sur le décor peint remarquable et jusqu’ici méconnu de l’église Saint-Eutrope des Salles-Lavauguyon, la présente étude explore les fonctions des images hagiographiques monumentales des XI e-XII e siècles. L’élargissement du questionnement à d’autres édifices permet d’éclairer leur rôle et leur inscription dans l’espace culturel. Se concentrer sur un « lieu d’images » suppose de définir les cadres d’une réflexion méthodologique. Ce livre s’appuie sur une approche contextuelle des œuvres visuelles en changeant d’échelle au fur et à mesure de l’analyse. L’auteur met en lumière la singularité et l’inventivité des concepteurs de chaque image en la replaçant dans sa série, une série qui témoigne de la variété des occurrences du Haut Moyen Age au XII e siècle. Détailler chaque cycle narratif permet d’examiner la façon dont la matière hagiographique est traduite en images et d’observer la construction ou la reconstruction de la vita peinte, les rythmes et les temps du récit.

Chaque cycle hagiographique est étudié à l’aune des thèmes qui sous-tendent l’ensemble du décor. Se dessine ainsi l’acte de création qui a présidé à l’élaboration de celui du prieuré des Salles-Lavauguyon. Les intentions des commanditaires, des chanoines réguliers, se lisent entre les images qu’ils ont choisies et leur mise en œuvre. Une communauté canoniale qui se pense à travers son édifice et son décor et qui se positionne au sein de l’Eglise locale grâce aux images hagiographiques. Prendre pour objet ce prieuré et ses peintures invite à aborder la géographie canoniale du diocèse et son articulation avec les réseaux monastiques, la politique épiscopale, la réforme canoniale, l’instruction et la culture spirituelles mais aussi les enjeux de pouvoir, d’autorité et de territoire.

Le but de ce livre qui dépasse celui de la stricte monographie thématique est ainsi de contribuer à rendre compte de la richesse des mentalités médiévales.

Cécile Voyer a fait ses études au Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale de Poitiers. Elle est actuellement maître de conférences à l’Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux 3.

An early visual mass medium, the magic lantern was omnipresent in most Western societies between 1880 and 1930. The Christian Church, especially the Catholics, spiritual associations such as the Freemasons, political interest groups and teaching institutions all made use of lectures enriched by projected images to disseminate information, convictions and doctrines. Moreover, the lantern often featured as a concealed aid in stage spectacles. Nineteen authors analyse the effects of "the beam of light in the dark" in the context of religion, faith and belief. Attention is paid to the wide spectrum of locations where projections took place, as well as to the lantern's impressive versatility. The lavishly illustrated chapters collected in this volume range from analyses of religious propaganda to fundraising lectures for missionary work in China, from the fight against alcoholism to the secularisation of society, and from the lantern's application in spiritualist sessions to its use in science and teaching.

Fallacy studies are a well established and fast expanding field of argumentation theory. Without notable exception, however, the evergrowing literature on argumentative failure suffers from a conspicuous lack of interest in medieval fallacy theory - arguably the most creative stage in the whole history of argumentation theories. The standard story is that after Aristotle got off to a tentative start, the study of fallacies lay dormant until people at Port Royal and John Locke revived it in spectacular fashion. The volume will show that this picture is both inaccurate and misleading. By working its way from the inside out within each medieval world, Fallacies in the Arabic, Byzantine, Hebrew and Latin Traditions will provide ample and unambiguous record of the exegetical proficiency, technical expertise and argumentative savoir-faire typically displayed by medieval authors on issues about flawed arguments which are all too often our own.

During the period of Latin rule on Cyprus (1191-1571), Famagusta went from being a small fishing village to a populous, cosmopolitan center of international trade by the early fourteenth century. After the fall of Acre in 1291 the Lusignan kings of Cyprus, now also kings of Jerusalem, made Famagusta a quasi capital-in-exile, with a new cathedral as the coronation church of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The city began to stagnate with shifting trade patterns and the Black Death, was annexed by the Genoese after their invasion and partition of the island in 1374, and was only reunited with the Kingdom of Cyprus in 1464 with King James II “the Bastard’s” reconquest. With the Venetian takeover of the island in 1474, Famagusta experienced a demographic, economic, and artistic renaissance. In 1571, after an epic siege, the city fell to the Ottoman Turks, and from then on visitors described the ruins of the once great Gothic jewel of the Eastern Mediterranean with melancholic nostalgia.

In its heyday, Famagusta was home to Greeks, Franks, Armenians, Jews, Syrians of various religious backgrounds, and numerous merchants from the Italian trading cities, above all Genoa and Venice. Smaller groups completed the mix. With money pouring in from trade and the support of the crown, in the fourteenth century the town was encircled with impressive walls, still extant, and dozens of churches were constructed, adopting unique variations of the Gothic style, including large Latin, Greek, and Syrian cathedrals. Many of these are still intact, others consist of evocative ruins among the palm trees with the backdrop of the blue sea. This fascinating history and its heritage are dealt with within the present volume.

List of contributors: Annemarie Weyl Carr (editor), Justine M. Andrews, Michele Bacc i, Nicola Coldstream, Michalis Olympios, Tassos Papacostas, Maria Paschali

This volume brings together innovative contributions on the history and nature of families in the early modern Middle East, covering Central Asia, Iran, Ottoman Turkey and the Arab World from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century and beyond. It argues the importance of connecting the key concept of family in its widest possible meaning, whether descent group, lineage, household or dynasty, with the notion of transmission of knowledge, authority, status and power, and develops this idea through a pluridisciplinary and cross-regional approach. Based on primary sources in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish as well as art and material culture, the individual articles detail processes and dynamics of transmission, thus initiating a comparative dialogue.

Faustus was a Gallic representative of what has been referred to as 'semipelagianism'. In his De Gratia, he fiercely opposed the Augustinian view of Grace and Predestination that had been upheld by Lucidus, a presbyter who possibly misunderstood Augustine's thought. Faustus did not open new ground about these contested doctrines, but put significant roadblocks to their possible extreme trajectories.

This book offers new and innovative perspectives on the archaeology of consumption in Byzantine cities and their hinterlands. Case-studies range from towns in eastern Macedonia, north-western and central Greece, and Crete to urban centres in Serbia, Bulgaria and western Turkey. The archaeological data and historical insights presented in this volume are always of great interest, often exciting, and more than once outright astonishing. The commodities discussed in the volume are dated between the 6th and the 16th century CE and include pottery (e.g., glazed table wares, amphorae, cooking pots, storage jars), textile fragments, metal objects, bronze and golden jewellery, marble carved slabs and columns.

Feeding the Byzantine City sheds compelling light on a world which was much more complex and interconnected than has often been assumed, which makes it essential reading for scholars and a larger audience alike.

Under what conditions did women in late medieval France learn read and write? What models of female erudition and authorship were available to them in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries? These questions, often difficult to answer in the extant historical record, are approached here via a number of perspectives, namely, the patronage and book ownership of women between the late medieval and early modern periods, and their involvement in the translation of works from Latin to French.

Through a close analysis of the female patronage and manuscript production leading up to the early modern period, this new study sheds important light on the development of female book ownership, reading practices, and patronage, and, ultimately, female authorship in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The monograph shows how female book owners in the fifteenth century in particular were provided visual and rhetorical models of female erudition and savoir - models which further encouraged these practices in the generations to follow. In particular, a focus on translations from Latin to French produced for and by women reveals the ways in which female patrons participated in the production of not only books they were able to read in French, but also individual manuscript exemplars that put forward new conceptual frameworks around women’s reading practices. Chapters examine adaptations and translations of Ovid’s Heroides and Boccacio’s De mulieribus claris; the libraries and patronage of Anne de Bretagne and Louise de Savoie; and works by Christine de Pizan, Anne de Graville, Marguerite de Navarre, and Louise Labé.

Comment montrer brièvement ce qui apparente l'abbesse bénédictine Hildegarde de Bingen, qui appartient encore au haut moyen âge et, moins d'un siècle plus tard, les béguines Hadewijch d'Anvers, Mechthilde de Magdebourg, Marguerite Porete, du Hainaut, ainsi que la prieure cistercienne Béatrice de Nazareth, élevée chez les béguines et partageant leur spiritualité? Ce qui fait leur parenté profonde est bien mis en évidence par certains textes de l'époque, tel ce témoignage de 1158 concernant Hildegarde et sa contemporaine, Elisabeth de Schönau, appartenant aussi à l'ordre bénédictin: "En ces jours-là, Dieu manifesta sa puissance par l'intermédiaire du sexe faible, en ces servantes qu'il emplit de l'esprit prophétique."

This up-to-date discussion takes as its starting point the challenge to the traditional notion of feudalism in the twenty-five years since the publication of Jean-Pierre Poly and Eric Bournazel’s work on the ‘mutation féodale’ and Susan Reynolds’s attack on the very idea of a feudal society in the Middle Ages. While these challenges have presented a new picture of Western Europe in the so-called feudal age, one more focused than the traditional model of feudalism was, no new scholarly consensus has yet emerged.

The volume has two objectives. Firstly, it discusses the present state of research, bringing together leading representatives of the various interpretations of feudalism. It examines the character of medieval society, including questions of landholding, government, and the relationship between king and aristocracy. Secondly, it provides a new geographic perspective on the subject by considering countries little discussed from a feudal perspective. In addition to discussing countries that have been prominent in previous studies of feudalism such as England and France, the book also includes contributions on Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, Hungary, and Romania, thus supplying a truly European perspective and a comparative view of social structure in different regions of Europe.

The exemplum held immense power in antiquity, especially in the political field. What role did historical or legendary figures from the Greco-Roman past play during the Empire in speeches intended to build, legitimise or question power? How were they selected? How did they work? These are the questions that the eighteen contributions in this volume seek to answer. This multifaceted approach crosses several literary genres, including poetry, historiography, and political or philosophical discourse, which are examined over six centuries. It considers different types of power or authority (imperial power, but also the authority of the magistrate in the Greek city during Roman domination, and the power of bishops). This highlights the plasticity of exempla that, depending on the context, could justify or question a vast diversity of ideologies and practices of power.

Both in discourse about religions and in the religious discourse of the Greco-Roman Empire, the great figures of mythology and history functioned either as models or as foils, following their use in poetical, philosophical, historiographical, panegyrical or apologetical contexts. The approach’s interest lies in the parallel consideration of different sorts of texts, generally examined independently otherwise : Augustan poetry, polytheistic rhetoric and historiography and Christian literature. Indeed, Pagans and Christians had many common concerns, expressed through the conceptual tools they borrowed from each other. Specific case studies reveal underlying connections in the elaboration of the exemplary figures and thus in the beliefs of the Greco-Roman Empire. The contributions show notably how exemplary figures are constructed by the communities depending upon them, the mediating role they play between men and gods, their networking signification, each one being defined by the interactions with the others, their role as rhetorical and polemical devices due to their adaptability, and, in the change of paradigm brought about by Christianity, how pagan figures persist and become a fundamental substratum for new figures, elaborated from these mythical exempla.

Il volume raccoglie alcune delle relazioni presentate durante il 4° Colloquio Internazionale della Societas Artistarum. Svoltosi presso l’Università degli studi di Milano il 7-9 novembre 2019, esso si proponeva di approfondire da prospettive diverse come si sia configurato nell’Italia medievale e rinascimentale il rapporto fra medicina e filosofia. Alcuni contributi si soffermano sul contesto storico-istituzionale dell’insegnamento e della pratica della medicina, sull’uso di dottrine etiche e di strumenti logici e retorici da parte dei medici. Altri contributi, avvalendosi anche di documenti e testi inediti, analizzano invece temi interdisciplinari come le teorie della generazione e la natura delle acque fluviali oppure mettono a fuoco il pensiero e l’opera di medici-filosofi come Bartolomeo da Salerno, Taddeo Alderotti, Antonio da Parma, e Ludovico Boccadiferro.

La breve ma intensa attivita di ricerca di Eugenio Randi (Milano 1957- 1990) è stata guidata dall'esigenza di superare l'unilaterale immagine del secolo XIV come età di crisi, dissoluzione e decadenza intellettuale, per riconosceme il'pluralismo', Ia straordinaria creatività, il ruolo decisivo nel processo di formazione della cultura europea. Oltre a rappresentare una concreta testimonianza della vasta risonanza che il lavoro di questo giovane medievista ha avuto, non solo in Italia, la raccolta di studi con cui amici e colleghi hanno voluto ricordarlo mira proprio a mettere nel dovuto risalto come il profondo rinnovamento delle forme, dei metodi e dei contenuti del sapere scolastico realizzatosi nel Trecento abbia consentito di raggiungere fecondi risultati teorici in teologia, in logica, nella filosofia naturale, nelle dottrine etico-politiche. Attraverso una molteplicita di approcci e senza Ia pretesa di offrire una sintesi a tutt'oggi prematura, questo volume propone sia originali riletture di aleuni episodi (lo statuto parigino del 1340) ed autori (Eckhart, Ockham, Holcot, Buridano) che hanno segnato una vera svolta nel pensiero tardomedievale, sia nuove prospettive su figure, testi e temi meno noti ma altrettanto essenziali per comprendere la ricchezza di un secolo non ancora sufficientemente esplorato.

Gérer les finances des princes et des villes est devenu à la fin du moyen âge l’affaire de professionnels de l’argent et de ses techniques. Ces hommes dont les employeurs requièrent compétence et loyauté appartiennent au monde en pleine ascension des officiers, des «fonctionnaires». Les nécessités de la guerre et de la paix, les coûts des armées et de la diplomatie, l’entretien et le fonctionnement des rouages du gouvernement et de l’administration, les aléas et les pressions de la situation économique, tout cela donne un sens à leur travail et requiert leur vigilante attention.

Accroître des moyens matériels, par des expédients ou des réformes durables, rendre plus performants des outils de gestion, voilà des objectifs qui peuplent ces pages, à travers plus d’un siècle et demi du passé des anciens Pays-Bas. Les études publiées regorgent ainsi d’apports nouveaux pour l’histoire de l’impôt, de l’emprunt, des rentes, du crédit et du commerce de l’argent. Elles éclairent aussi une face essentielle des relations entre gouvernants et gouvernés, dictées par des recettes et dépenses mais en même temps orientées par ceux qui y pourvoient et en font carrière.

La transmisión manuscrita de una obra depara, en ocasiones, sorpresas y sucesos inesperados. Este es el caso de los libros V y VI del Speculum doctrinale de Vicente de Beauvais, dedicados a la ethica monastica, que muy pronto se independizaron de la obra completa, creando una tradición propia, de la que incluso surgió, tras diversas transformaciones, una obra nueva, los Flores philosophorum et poetarum.

En el presente volumen, se aborda, en primer lugar, el estudio de los libros V y VI del Speculum doctrinale, sus características y su transmisión manuscrita, y, posteriormente, las modificaciones sufridas por estos dos libros, tanto en su estructura como en su contenido, que dan origen a los Flores philosophorum et poetarum y que implican una nueva fase en su transmisión con una evolución de enciclopedia a florilegio. Finalmente se presentan los testimonios manuscritos del florilegio y su filiación con la obra enciclopédica de Vicente de Beauvais.

La edición crítica de los Flores philosophorum et poetarum, que ocupa la segunda parte del libro, tiene en cuenta la doble condición de esta obra, original y a la vez subordinada a los libros V y VI del Speculum doctrinale de Vicente de Beauvais, por lo que se presenta con tres aparatos (de fuentes, crítico e intertextual), con la intención de reflejar su transición entre la enciclopedia y el florilegio.

This book takes a unique approach to the study of folk music in Central Europe. Through an analysis of this cultural tradition, and of how words and ideas that were first introduced in Latin Antiquity became increasingly cultivated, refined, and established in the centuries that followed, the volume also questions present-day studies of sound and its organization into the field of so-called ‘folk music’. In so doing, it breaks down boundaries that separate historical studies from ethnomusicology, and sheds light on what music continues to mean in daily life.

While the focus is primarily on Central European folk music, and in particular on material found in the Hungarian archives, the approach taken here also points to a fruitful comparative methodology that could be employed on a larger scale, enabling scholars to consider broader chronological and geographical contexts.

In 1477, the Low Countries were in chaos. On 5 January Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was killed in the battle of Nancy. His political adversaries used this fortuitous opportunity to reverse his much-hated policies. The late duke’s confidents were executed, as nobles fled from court. The French king declared war on Charles’ heir, Mary of Burgundy, and the cities rose in rebellion against the duchy. United in their opposition to the ducal court, the Estates-General instituted a new state structure which severely reduced the power of the central state. The duchess’ new husband, Maximilian of Austria, was never able to dictate war policy nor appease the discontent of the populace, because his first priority was to strengthen the power of the Habsburg dynasty. In 1482, when Mary of Burgundy died after a tragic fall from her horse, revolt again spread across the county of Flanders. In this dramatic crisis that would last for a decade, central authority was again challenged by a political alternative, the Flemish regency council.

This book examines the people behind the revolt. From a murky background of conflicting loyalties, it identifies the principal allies of the Habsburg dynasty and key political adversaries of Maximilian in the Flemish cities. An in-depth analysis of their lives and their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds on the eve of the Flemish Revolt elucidates their reasons for rebelling or remaining loyal to court. By focusing on disloyal nobles at court and urban dissenters in the county of Flanders, this book goes beyond previous studies of the revolt and offers new insights into the social history of medieval politics. In the end, readers will discover whether the court, the nobility, and the urban rebels were really striving for the goal they claimed, the common good.

Jelle Haemers is a post-doctoral research fellow at Ghent University (IAP-project ‘City and Society in the Low Countries, 1100-1800’). His research interests focus mainly on urban history of the Late Middle Ages.

The Nordic welfare state of the 20th century has been hailed around the world as a model of how to build democratic and egalitarian societies. It has often been described as a project of social democracy, often following a narrative of secularization and rationalization of society. However, some of the most important actors and ideas of the "Scandinavian Sonderweg" had their roots in Protestant, often Pietist and revivalist milieus that dreamed of creating an egalitarian community. The present volume explores these often forgotten roots in several case studies of phenomena from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, focusing primarily on questioning the function of aesthetics in the creation of the welfare state model. We argue that aesthetics and what Friedrich Schiller called aesthetic education played an important, unifying role for Nordic societies. These aesthetics were shaped by Protestant ideas and practices. Through references to the then widespread circulation of educational texts based on Luther's catechism, the later pietistic catechism of Erik Pontoppidan, Nordic hymnbooks, and practices such as communal singing and preaching in church, church coffee, reading circles, and conventicle meetings, a common aesthetic language emerged that unified different social groups and their competing goals and claims. Civic actors and movements learned specific ways to engage in society, to develop practices of internalizing responsibility, (self)critique, and accountability, and to communicate and develop a more democratic modern civic sphere. We therefore propose to look at this history from the perspective of a historically changing aesthetic as an integrating principle for understanding the political, social, cultural, economic and many other aspects of the Nordic welfare state.

The late medieval period is widely acknowledged as one of the most salient moments of the history of logic and semantics. It not only considered logic as a sine qua non condition for scientific knowledge, it also begot highly sophisticated theories about both argumentation and language. The last fifty years of increasingly intense research have brought about an ever more detailed knowledge of these theories. And yet, the questions as to what kind of logic is medieval logic, whether and to what extent it corresponds to our conception of logic, and, even, what the nature of its object was, remain challenging. That it has a formal character is widely accepted; and its semantic components display remarkable affinities with contemporary ones. But is it formal in the way modern logic is - or believes it is? Medieval logic does not really make recourse to symbolisms, after all, and the fact that the idea of formal validity might have been born in the twelfth century does not mean that developing formal approaches was an aim of medieval logicians. And what is its semantics a semantics of? Medieval logicians use Latin to deal with Latin constructions, but do these constructions belong to natural language or are they regimented to the point of forming some sort of ideal language?

The twenty-five papers gathered in this volume deal with these issues, thus allowing to reassess the broader questions of the formal character and formalising ambitions of medieval logic, as well as that of the natural character of the language in (and on) which it operated: in other words, they address the question of the nature, object and purpose of medieval logic.

« On ne naît pas homme, on le devient ». La formule de Simone de Beauvoir détournée par les historiennes et les historiens des masculinités peut également s’appliquer à la période médiévale à travers l’éducation. Au sein du discours clérical du xiii e siècle, la masculinité laïque, loin d’être innée, est en effet envisagée comme un apprentissage autant pour les garçons et les adolescents que pour les adultes - pères de famille et maris. Cette identité de genre constitue un statut qui s’acquiert au prix de nombreux efforts sur soi-même, par un long processus de transformation intérieure. Élaboré dans les commentaires bibliques, un idéal de masculinité incarné par Adam se dessine également et exerce une grande influence sur le comportement masculin prescrit dans les textes pédagogiques. Le discours normatif ainsi produit participe de la différenciation des sexes. Il constitue un moyen privilégié de forger l’identité sexuée et un terreau fertile d’exploration historique.

Dans une perspective d’histoire culturelle et sociale, cet ouvrage s’intéresse à la manière dont la masculinité est construite au sein d’un corpus de sources du xiii e siècle principalement composé par des frères mendiants. Il interroge un domaine de recherche au développement récent, en plein essor depuis les années 1990-2000, qui reste toutefois encore peu exploité pour la période médiévale, en particulier dans le milieu francophone. Ayant rendu les hommes visibles en tant qu’êtres sexués, l’étude des masculinités s’avère pourtant complémentaire de l’histoire des femmes et indispensable pour appréhender les sociétés médiévales dans le dialogue entre les genres qui y prend place.

It was once assumed that nearly all agricultural labourers in medieval Europe were serfs. Serfdom was distinct from slavery in that serfs could contract legitimate marriages, hold personal property and could not be moved around at will. Historians more recently moved away from examining servile condition and its implications and focused on the seigneurial regime and village society with little regard for the influence of status.

In the Middle Ages and indeed in all pre-industrial societies, the vast majority of the population tilled the land. We are still not in a good position to evaluate how noble and ecclesiastical landlords received revenues from lands they were only indirectly engaged in farming, despite this being a basic factor that governed medieval society. What kind of agricultural system provided the impetus for economic growth that so dramatically increased the number of cities and volume of trade?

There is no modern, synthetic book on medieval serfdom that compares regions or draws general conclusions about it. This work attempts such a synthesis and also shows avenues of future research, but most importantly it is intended to reorient attention to the importance of serfdom in the structure of medieval society.