Brepols Online Books Medieval Monographs Collection 2015 - bob2015mome

This volume gathers together 277 letters of Pope Honorius III (1216-1227) concerning Frankish Greece and Constantinople. These letters constitute an indispensable source for the early history of the territories conquered during and just after the Fourth Crusade of 1204, for which almost no local archival material survives. The Latin texts of many of the letters are published here for the first time, and almost all the letters have been reedited from the manuscripts, primarily the papal registers in the Vatican Archives. In addition, the volume makes the letters available to non-specialists through exhaustive English summaries of all the letters and complete translations of the most significant ones. A lengthy historical introduction uses these letters to portray the dynamic world of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, and the other states that replaced Byzantium, as the precarious condition of the Latin states compelled the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome to temper their ambitions of transcultural religious unity with pragmatic measures. It explores how this mixture of cultural idealism, practical necessity, and divergent class structures manifested themselves in Honorius' policy towards the lower Greek clergy and Greek and Latin religious orders. Maps, tables, indices, and a guide to papal letters make the volume a useful tool for future studies of this fascinating and controversial phase in the history of Greece and the papacy.

Il volume raccoglie gli studi che l’Autrice ha dedicato alla ricezione della Politica di Aristotele nel Medioevo. L’indagine ruota innanzitutto intorno alle opere appartenenti al genere del commento filosofico, canali primi attraverso cui l’Occidente si riappropria della Politica - e tra queste il commento iniziato da Tommaso d’Aquino e ancor più la sua continuazione, opera di Pietro d’Alvernia, s’impongono alla riflessione successiva come "il commento", dettando la selezione delle questioni da affrontare e i modi con cui l’interpretazione delle asserzioni del Filosofo si attua -; annovera anche altri testimoni di tale ricezione, concepiti e realizzati a sostegno della politica reale (è il caso del De regimine principum di Egidio Romano). Nei capitoli dedicati alla riflessione sulla tirannide e sul finis hominis, l’indagine si amplia sino a comprendere l’elaborazione teorica precedente alla riscoperta dell’Aristotele etico-politico, permettendo in tal modo di cogliere i mutamenti che tale riscoperta consente. I temi oggetto d’analisi sono quelli fondanti della riflessione sulla politica: la determinazione della miglior forma di governo, la riflessione sulla cittadinanza, sulla guerra e la pace, sulla felicità individuale e collettiva, sulle degenerazioni della vita politica (la tirannide), sulle dinamiche economiche che regolano la vita della comunità politica.

Jacques de Vitry, né dans le troisième quart du XII e siècle et mort à Rome en 1240, est issu de la génération qui, au tournant du siècle, fut acteur et témoin des transformations intervenues en Occident chrétien et dans l'Église en particulier.

Homme de savoir et d'action, Jacques nous a laissé dans des écrits variés et nombreux le témoignage de ses expériences : l'étudiant parisien, le chanoine régulier du prieuré d'Oignies, le prédicateur de la croisade contre les Albigeois et les Sarrasins, l'évêque d'Acre acteur de la cinquième croisade, le cardinal de l'Église romaine.

On découvre ainsi une personnalité complexe et attachante chez laquelle trois traits de caractère ne cessent de se répondre : la passion de l'étude associée à l'acuité du regard ; l'ambition de servir ; la recherche d'une voie spirituelle patiemment explorée au fil de l'expérience et de l'âge.

Catherine Benincasa a marqué son époque. Elle naît à Sienne, en l’année 1347. Tertiaire dominicaine et théologienne ne sachant pas écrire et ignorant le latin, elle est proclamée Docteur de l’Église. Catherine, mystique portant les stigmates, a influencé la vie religieuse de plusieurs générations et est engagée en même temps dans les plus grands événements politiques. Elle est patronne et inspiratrice de la réforme dominicaine et du renouveau de l’Église. Catherine meurt à Rome le 29 avril 1380. Le pape Pie II prononce sa canonisation en 1461.

Il nous reste aujourd’hui deux rédactions, indépendantes l’une de l’autre, de la légende de sainte Catherine de Sienne en français médiéval. Toutes les deux descendent de la Legenda Maior de Raymond de Capoue, confesseur de la Sainte. L’une, composée en 1430 et conservée en deux manuscrits, est une traduction plutôt fidèle de la source latine. L'autre est une adaptation (au sens large) de l’original latin, et un abrégé en même temps. Composée en 1458, elle est conservée en six manuscrits. Alors, en somme huit éditions médiévales, ce qui est relativement beaucoup et ce qui est peu.

Les auteurs des versions françaises, dominicains du Nord et du Nord-Est de la francophonie, ont préféré garder l’anonymat.

Este volumen ofrece un texto, inédito hasta este momento, sobre dos figuras emblemáticas de la Antigüedad clásica: las de Aníbal y Escipión. La obra original con el título de Vitae Hannibalis et Scipionis, fue escrita hacia 1467 en latín por Donato Acciaiuoli, uno de los grandes humanistas italianos en la Florencia de los Medici; mientras que la traducción castellana se realizó unos años más tarde (Sevilla, 1491), a manos del que fuera cronista de los Reyes Católicos, Alfonso de Palencia.

El punto central de nuestra investigación ha sido el texto castellano y el método de traducción utilizado por el traductor castellano. Así mismo, ofrecemos, por primera vez, la edición de la traducción palentina acompañada del texto original latino utilizado (Venecia 1478).

Las Vitae Hannibalis et Scipionis han tenido una transmisión textual muy particular, pues des del 1470 entraron a formar parte de la edición príncipe de las traducciones latinas, realizadas por humanistas italianos, de las Vidas paralelas de Plutarco y no se desprendieron del corpus hasta bien entrado el siglo XVI; su simbiosis con esta colección de vidas ilustres fue tal que en múltiples ocasiones se confundieron y pasaron camufladas bajo la autoría del autor de Queronea. Tal fue el caso de Alfonso de Palencia que, creyendo traducir al historiador griego, trasladó una obra maestra del humanismo italiano que reconstruye una nueva imagen de dos de los más grandes generales de la historia antigua.

La solitude en milieu urbain est un champ de recherche contemporain, porté en particulier par la sociologie. Les sociétés urbaines médiévales comptaient aussi leur lot de solitaires : enfants orphelins et abandonnés, immigrants à la recherche d’une vie meilleure, veufs et veuves, personnes âgées isolées. Le contexte de la deuxième moitié du XIV e siècle, avec ses épidémies de peste récurrentes et les ravages causés par la guerre de Cent Ans aggrave le phénomène. Étudiée dans le cadre de la ville de Montpellier, des années 1250 à la fin du XV e siècle, à partir d’archives consulaires, fiscales et testamentaires, la solitude se révèle comme un phénomène fréquent : nombreuses sont les personnes seules dans l’espace urbain. La solitude apparaît sous de multiples formes et se manifeste tout au long du cours de la vie des individus, entrecoupant les cycles de développement familiaux. Or, entre la vie en solitaire et l’isolement social existe toute une palette de situations personnelles, dont on ne peut saisir la complexité que par l’étude des solidarités, recherchées par les personnes seules ou spontanément offertes par des parents, des amis, qui viennent pallier la solitude.

Until recently, research on the late medieval English Office liturgy has suggested that all manuscripts of the same liturgical Use, including those of the celebrated and widespread Uses of Sarum and York, are in large part interchangeable and uniform. This study demonstrates, through detailed analyses of the manuscript breviaries and antiphonals of each secular liturgical Use of medieval England, that such books do share a common textual core. But this is in large part restricted to a single genre of text - the responsory. Other features, even within manuscripts of the same Use, are subject to striking and significant variation, influenced by local customs and hagiographical and textual priorities, and also by varying reception to liturgical prescriptions from ecclesiastical authorities. The identification of the characteristic features of each Use and the differentiation of regional patterns have resulted from treating each manuscript as a unique witness, a practice which is not common in liturgical studies, but one which gives the manuscripts greater value as historical sources. The term ‘Use’, often employed as a descriptor of orthodoxy, may itself imply a greater uniformity than ever existed, for the ways that the ‘Use of Sarum’, a liturgical pattern originally designed for enactment in a single cathedral, was realised in countless other venues for worship were dependent on the times, places, and contexts in which the rites were celebrated.

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

After the fall of the last Western Roman Emperor in 476 AD, Northern Italy played a crucial role - both geographically and culturally - in connecting East to West and North to South. Nowhere is this revealed more clearly than in the knowledge and practice of medicine. In sixth-century Ravenna, Greek medical texts were translated into Latin, and medical practitioners such as Anthimus, famous for his work on diet, also travelled from East to West. Despite Northern Italy’s location as a confluence of cultures and values, modern scholarship has thus far ignored the extensive range of medical practices in existence throughout this region. This book aims to rectify this absence. It will draw upon both archaeological and written sources to argue for redefinitions of health and illness in relation to the Northern-Italian Middle Ages. This volume does not only put forward new classifications of illness and understandings of diet, but it also demonstrates the centrality of medicine to everyday life in Northern Italy. Using charter evidence and literary sources, the author expands our understanding of the literacy levels and social circles of the elite medical practitioners, the medici, and their lesser counterparts. This work marks a significant intervention into the field of medical studies in the early to high Middle Ages.