Brepols Online Books Medieval Miscellanea Collection 2020 - bob2020mime

In the almost twenty years between the two international conferences on John Wyclif organised by the University of Milan, the most recent of which (September 2016) lies to some extent at the origin of the present volume, an increasing number of studies have been devoted to this great English thinker, theologian and reformer. These have enhanced our knowledge of his philosophical, theological and pastoral work, which had long remained in the shadows. The essays collected in the present book take further steps along this path, through the contribution of a range of specialists who have been called to further reconstruct Wyclif’s place in his intellectual milieu from the standpoint of his textual and doctrinal dependence and influence: the collected essays deal with the antecedents of Wyclif’s thought, his sources, and his role as a source for countless followers and opponents.The following authors have contributed to the volume: Mark Thakkar, Alessandro Conti, Aurélien Robert, Stephen E. Lahey, Ian Christopher Levy, Sean Otto, Kantik Ghosh, Jindřich Marek and Graziana Ciola.

Tous les groupes humains produisent afin d’assurer leur subsistance, mais il n’y a pas de « travail » ni a fortiori de « travailleurs » dans nombre de sociétés, au sens du moins que ces notions ont pris en Europe à l’époque de l’industrie et de l’économie politique. Reste que beaucoup d’historiens considèrent le monachisme du Moyen Âge comme une sorte de laboratoire des formes du « travail » en Occident, du reste à l’origine du processus de « croissance » qui caractérisa cette partie du monde.

Les quatorze auteurs de ce volume ont entrepris de reprendre sur nouveaux frais la question des représentations et des pratiques du labeur, en examinant tout à la fois les modèles, les règlements et les rapports sociaux à l’œuvre au sein des monastères occidentaux, depuis les premiers écrits latins et les premières traces archéologiques jusqu’au développement des établissements cisterciens aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles. Plusieurs contributions s’efforcent de reconstituer les catégories médiévales de l’activité humaine tout en interrogeant les modalités concrètes d’exploitation des ressources. L’ouvrage accorde une large place aux débats historiographiques en s’attachant notamment à saisir la genèse, entre xixe et xxe siècle, de la figure du « moine civilisateur » et de l’idéal du « travail monastique », souvent bien éloignés des réalités du Moyen Âge.

The definition of translation in Renaissance Europe is here proposed as a process of acquisition: the book studies how a number of European languages, finding their identification in the newly evolving concept of nation, shape their countries’ vernacular libraries by appropriating ancient and contemporary classics.

The emergence of standard modern languages in early modern Europa entailed a competition with the dominant Latin culture, which remained the prevalent medium for the language of science, philosophy, theology and philology until at least the eighteenth century. In this process, translation played a very special role: in a number of significant instances we can identify in the undertaking of a specific translation a policy of acquisition of classical - and by definition authoritative - texts that contributed to the building of an intellectual library for the emerging nation. At the same time, the transmission of ideas and texts across Europe constructed a diasporic and transnational culture: the emerging vernacular cultures acquired not only the classical Latin models, incorporating them in their own intellectual libraries, but turned their attention also to contemporary, or near-contemporary, vernacular texts, conferring on them, through the act of translation, the status of classics. Through the examination of case studies, that take into account both literary and scientific texts, this volume offers an overview of how early modern Europe developed its vernacular national literatures, following the model suggested in the late Middle Ages, through a process of acquisition and translation.

From shape-shifting Merlin to the homunculi of Paracelsus, the nine fascinating essays of this collection explore the contested boundaries between human and non-human animals, between the body and the spirit, and between the demonic and the divine. Drawing on recent work in animal studies, posthumanism, and transhumanism, these innovative articles show how contemporary debates about the nature and future of humanity have deep roots in the myths, literature, philosophy, and art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The authors of these essays demonstrate how classical stories of monsters and metamorphoses offered philosophers, artists, and poets a rich source for reflection on marriage, resurrection, and the passions of love. The ambiguous and shifting distinctions between human, animal, demon, and angel have long been contentious. Beasts can elevate humanity: for Renaissance courtiers, horsemanship defined nobility. But animals are also associated with the demonic, and medieval illuminators portrayed Satan with bestial features. Divided into three sections that examine metamorphoses, human-animal relations, and the demonic and monstrous, this volume raises intriguing questions about the ways humans have understood their kinship with animals, nature, and the supernatural.

Comment les hommes et les femmes du premier Moyen Âge formaient-ils des communautés lorsqu’ils se trouvaient vivre près de l’eau - sur les littoraux, dans les zones humides ou le long des fleuves, mais aussi dans les îles ? La familiarité entretenue avec le milieu aquatique, objet de crainte ou source d’opportunités, signifie que les groupes humains « faisaient communauté » autrement, mais aussi que l’historien appréhende ces phénomènes d’une manière différente. Cela est vrai de toutes les communautés qui, dans la pratique des interactions quotidiennes, se formaient près de l’eau, grâce à elle ou face à elle : communautés d’habitants, communautés cléricales ou monastiques, communautés fondées sur une activité commune comme le commerce ou la pêche. Les douze contributions que compte ce livre constituent les actes d’un colloque tenu à Boulogne-sur-Mer en mars 2017. Leurs auteurs s’attachent à croiser les sources écrites et archéologiques pour offrir un regard équilibré sur des espaces et une période qui semblent à première vue moins bien documentés que d’autres. La question de la construction et de l’existence des communautés « du bord de l’eau » y est traitée à travers toute l’Europe latine, du vii e au xi e siècle, sur ses versants adriatique (à travers les lagunes de Venise et de Comacchio), atlantique (du littoral ibérique à l’Angleterre en passant par l’île de Noirmoutier) et septentrional (des Fens d’Est-Anglie à la mer Baltique et dans les emporia des mers du Nord), ainsi que dans la vallée de la Saône (de Lyon à Tournus).

The question of personality is a problematic one, beset by complications of cultural distance, the layers of the past, and the limitations of the source material.

Recognising these difficulties, this volume draws together character sketches based upon historical narratives and a range of sources, including architecture, liturgical manuscripts, chronicles, and hagiographical material, to show a multifaceted range of means by which historians can construct, reconstruct, and deconstruct episcopal power through the person of the bishop.

Building on a previous volume of essays, Episcopal Power and Local Society in Medieval Europe, 900-1400, which examined the construction, augmentation, and expression of episcopal power in local society, this second volume seeks to uncover the impact of the personalities behind that power. Through essays dealing with the construction of cultural and political personalities, the shadows they cast, and the contexts that forged them, this volume brings to life the careers of bishops across medieval Europe from c. 900 to c. 1480. This geographical range and broad time span throws up the similarity in applications and bene ts of interdisciplinarity which can be applied to ecclesiastical history, and presents a fascinating range of case studies for consideration.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, games were not an idle pastime, but were in fact important tools for exploring, transmitting, enhancing, subverting, and challenging social practices and their rules. Their study, through both visual and material sources, offers a unique insight into medieval and early modern gaming culture, shedding light not only on why, where, when, with whom and in what conditions and circumstances people played games, but also on the variety of interpretations that they had of games and play. Representations of games, and of artefacts associated with games, also often served to communicate complex ideas on topics that ranged from war to love, and from politics to theology.

This volume offers a particular focus onto the type of games that required little or no physical exertion and that, consequently, all people could enjoy, regardless of age, gender, status, occupation, or religion. The representations and artefacts discussed here by contributors, who come from varied disciplines including history, literary studies, art history, and archaeology, cover a wide geographical and chronological range, from Spain to Scandinavia to the Ottoman Turkey and from the early medieval period to the seventeenth century and beyond. Far from offering the ‘last word’ on the subject, it is hoped that this volume will encourage further studies.

The present volumes contain a number of studies first presented at the XIV International Congress of the Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale, July 24-28, 2017, Porto Alegre, Brazil - which happened to be the first SIEPM Congress in Latin America and the first in the Southern Hemisphere. In 65 essays on current research questions in Latin, Jewish, and Arabic Philosophy, and Early Modern Scholasticism, the contributors explore the general theme of "Homo - Natura - Mundus: Human Beings and their Relationships," and lead us to new perspectives. These essays relate to the following areas of interest: the human being’s self-understanding as a rational creature in multiple relationships (with God, the other, the community, the fellow and the different); the human being’s place in the natural world and the possibility of relating to nature through knowledge; medieval philosophical traditions and the challenges introduced by the "discovery" of the "New World" (dominium, war, hierarchies, and new areas of concern with respect to justice, the human good, and the law). Thus, these volumes offer a unique sample of scholarly studies that work with the idea of "relationships" in two distinct, but not opposing, directions. Firstly, they explore the ways in which human beings, according to the reach of their soul’s powers, construct their self-understanding and existence in relation to God, themselves, others and the natural world. Secondly, they explore the ways in which the philosophical bases for the understanding of these relationships were challenged by the transportation of medieval ideas to the "New World" and by the reception of these ideas in early modern times.

Throughout a distinguished career, Raymond Van Dam has contributed significantly to our understanding of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages with ground-breaking studies on Gaul, Cappadocia, and the emperor Constantine. The hallmarks of his scholarship are critical study of a wide variety of written and material sources and careful historical analysis, insightfully rooted in sociological and anthropological methodologies. The essays in this volume, written by Van Dam’s former students, colleagues, and friends, explore the dynamics between leaders and their communities in the fourth through seventh centuries. During this period, people negotiated profound religious, intellectual, and cultural change while still deeply enmeshed in the legacy of the Roman Empire. The memory of the classical past was a powerful and compelling social and political force for the denizens of Late Antiquity, even as their physical surroundings came to resemble less and less the ideals of the Greco-Roman city. These themes - leadership, community, and memory - have been central to Van Dam’s work, and the contributors to this volume build on the legacy of his scholarship. Their papers examine how leaders exercised their authority in their communities, at times exhibiting continuity with ancient patterns of leadership, but in other cases shifting toward new paradigms characteristic of a post-classical world. Taken together, the essays produce a fuller picture of the Mediterranean world and add further nuance to our understanding of Late Antiquity and early Middle Ages as a time of both continuity and transformation.

The term ‘sacred’ is often used in relation to the pre-Christian religions of Iron Age and medieval Scandinavia. But what did sacred really mean? What made something sacred for people? Why was one particular person, place, act, or text perceived to hold a sacral quality, while others remained profane? And what impact did such sacrality have on wider society, culture, politics, and economics, both for contemporaries and for future generations?

This volume seeks to engage with such questions by drawing together essays from many of the pre-eminent scholars of Old Norse in order to reinterpret the concept of the sacred in the Viking Age North and to challenge pre-existing frameworks for understanding the sacred in this space and time. Including essays from Margaret Clunies Ross, Stephen Mitchell, John Lindow, and Judy Quinn, it is a treasury of commentary and information that ranges widely across theories and sources of evidence to present significant primary research and reconsiderations of existing scholarship. This edited collection is dedicated to Stefan Brink, an outstanding figure in the study of early Scandinavian language, society, and culture, and it takes as its inspiration the diversity, interdisciplinarity and vitality of his own research in order to make a major new contribution to the field of Old Norse studies.

The three-volume project Cohesion in Multi-Ethnic Societies in Europe from c. 1000 to the Present explores and seeks to find solutions to a crucial problem facing contemporary Europe: in what circumstances can different ethnic groups co-operate for the common good? They apparently did so in the past, combining to form political societies, medieval and early modern duchies, kingdoms, and empires. But did they maintain their ethnic traditions in this process? Did they pass on elements of their cultural memory when they were not in a dominant position in a given polity?

This first volume of the project focuses on the cohesive function of memory, tradition, and identity politics in multi-ethnic societies. Featuring chapters written by authors from Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, it presents sixteen case studies of the co-habitation or co-operation of different ethnic groups from the so-called ‘peripheries’ of medieval and early modern Europe that resulted in peaceful acculturation or the birth of a new identity on the basis of multi-ethnic political society. The volume suggests that ethnic identities were consciously accepted as one among various forms of identity that were possessed by social groups: they were rarely absolutized, and members of these groups preferred pragmatic approaches in their relations with other ethnicities.

The history of the Far North is tinged by dark fantasies. A remote location, harsh climate, a boundless and often mountainous wasteland, complex ethnic composition, and strange ways of life: all contributed to how the edge of Europe was misunderstood by outsiders. Since ancient times, the North has been considered as a place that exuded evil: it was the end of the world, the abode of monsters and supernatural beings, of magicians and sorcerers. It was Europe’s last bastion of recalcitrant paganism. Many weird tales of the North even came from within the region itself, and when newly literate Scandinavians began to re-work their oral traditions into written form after 1100 AD, these myths of their past underlay newer legends and stories serving to support the development to Christian national monarchies.

The essays in this volume engage closely with these stories, questioning how and why such traditions developed, and exploring their meaning. Through this approach, the volume also examines how historiographical traditions were shaped by authors pursuing agendas of nation-building and Christianization, at the same time that myths surrounding and originating among the multi-ethnic populations of the Far North continued to dominate the perception of the region and its people, and to define their place in Norwegian medieval history.

The proceedings of the SIEPM Colloquium at Nijmegen published in this volume bring together new evidence for how the corpus of late-medieval commentaries on the Sentences, especially from the second half of the fourteenth century, contributed to the development of philosophical psychology within the discipline of theology. The relation among the faculties of the soul, the limits of knowledge, hylomorphism and the union of soul and body, intuitive and abstractive cognition, the immortality of the soul, the experience of the beatific vision, divine foreknowledge and the knowability of species are some of the topics involving psychological issues that are examined in this volume. The wealth of new information presented in this volume results from the interpretation of previously unexplored sources. The essays in this volume demonstrate that the various parts and Books of Peter Lombard’s Sentences,the standard textbook of theology in the Middle Ages, provided lecturers and commentators with a variety of loci for the discussion of philosophical topics, from the principia (Denys of Montina), the Prologue (Alfonsus Vargas of Toledo, Hugolino of Orvieto, John Regis, Francis Toti of Perugia), Book I (Gregory of Rimini, John of Mirecourt, Pierre Ceffons, Hugolino of Orvieto, Pierre d’Ailly, Peter of Candia, the Vienna Group, John Capreolus, Henry of Gorkum, Denys the Carthusian), Book II (Pierre Ceffons, Peter of Candia, Guillaume de Vaurouillon, Gabriel Biel, Denys the Carthusian), and Book III (Heymericus de Campo). This diversity, within large works on theology conceived broadly, constitutes a tradition parallel to that found in commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima in the late Middle Ages.

The environment - together with ecology and other aspects of the way people see their world - has become a major focus of pre-modern studies. The thirteen contributions in this volume discuss topics across the millennium in Europe from the late 600s to the early 1600s. They introduce applications to older texts, art works, and ideas made possible by relatively new fields of discourse such as animal studies, ecotheology, and Material Engagement Theory. From studies of medieval land charters and epics to the canticles sung in churches, the encyclopedic natural histories compiled for the learned, the hunting parks described and illustrated for the aristocracy, chronicles from the New World, classical paintings from the Old World, and the plays of Shakespeare, the authors engage with the human responses to nature in times when it touched their lives more intimately than it does for people today, even though this contact raised concerns that are still very much alive today.

The chronicles of medieval Wales are a rich body of source material offering an array of perspectives on historical developments in Wales and beyond. Preserving unique records of events from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, these chronicles form the essential narrative backbone of all modern accounts of medieval Welsh history. Most celebrated of all are the chronicles belonging to the Annales Cambriae and Brut y Tywysogyon families, which document the tumultuous struggles between the Welsh princes and their Norman and English neighbours for control over Wales.

Building on foundational studies of these chronicles by J. E. Lloyd, Thomas Jones, Kathleen Hughes, and others, this book seeks to enhance understanding of the texts by refining and complicating the ways in which they should be read as deliberate literary and historical productions. The studies in this volume make significant advances in this direction through fresh analyses of well-known texts, as well as through full studies, editions, and translations of five chronicles that had hitherto escaped notice.

The thematic frame of this issue is the anthropological notion of liminality, applied both to physical as well as imaginary places of transition in medieval art. The volume is thus dedicated to the phenomenon of the limen, the threshold in medieval culture, understood mainly as a spatial, ritual and temporal category. The structure of the book follows the virtual path of any medieval visitor entering the sacred space. While doing so, the visitor encountered and eventually crossed several "liminal zones" that have been constructed around a series of physical and mental thresholds. In order to truly access the sacred - once again both physically and metaphorically - many transitional (micro)rituals were required and were therefore given particular attention within this volume. The volume was published as proceedings of the Liminality and Medieval Art II conference, which was held in October 2018 at the Masaryk University in Brno. Authors were supposed to conceive their contributions in pairs in order to reflect on the selected topics with an interdisciplinary approach. In the end, the very same pattern was also maintained for the final publication.

La Società italiana di Filologia romanza, la Société de langues et littératures médiévales d’oc et d’oïl et la Société de Linguistique romane ont décidé d’organiser conjointement un colloque consacré au thème des « transferts culturels franco-italiens au Moyen Âge ». Le thème des transferts culturels, choisi par les trois sociétés, est apparu comme le meilleur moyen d’étudier ce qui à la fois rapproche et sépare ces deux espaces centraux de la Romania.

Le colloque a permis de contribuer au renouvellement des études comparatistes dans le domaine des lettres médiévales, favorisant une meilleure communication entre les spécialistes de la civilisation littéraire du Moyen Âge. La structuration des trois journées en cinq séances principales et deux tables rondes a également permis de réfléchir à ce sujet selon cinq approches complémentaires qui entendent tenir compte de l’ensemble des mouvements qui mettent en relation et en tension les lettres gallo-romanes et le volgare tout au long du Moyen Âge vernaculaire.

This book focuses on the city and urban politics, because historically towns have been an interesting laboratory for the creation and development of political ideas and practices, as they are also today. The contributions in this volume shed light on why, how and when citizens participated in the urban political process in late medieval Europe (c. 1300-1500). In other words, this book reconsiders the involvement of urban commoners in political matters by studying their claims and wishes, their methods of expression and their discursive and ideological strategies. It shows that, in order to garner support for and establish the parameters of the most important urban policies, medieval urban governments engaged regularly in dialogue with their citizens. While the degree of citizens’ active involvement differed from region to region and even from one town to the next, political participation never remained restricted to voting for representatives at set times. This book therefore demonstrates that the making of politics was not the sole prerogative of the government; it was always, to some extent, a bottom-up process as well.