Brepols Online Books Medieval Miscellanea Collection 2021 - bob2021mime

This book provides a series of studies concerning unique medieval texts that can be defined as ‘books of knowledge’, such as medieval chronicles, bestiaries, or catechetic handbooks. Thus far, scholarship of intellectual history has focused on concepts of knowledge to describe a specific community, or to delimit intellectuals in society. However, the specific textual tool for the transmission of knowledge has been missing. Besides oral tradition, books and other written texts were the only sources of knowledge, and they were thus invaluable in efforts to receive or transfer knowledge. That is one reason why texts that proclaim to introduce a specific field of expertise or promise to present a summary of wisdom were so popular. These texts discussed cosmology, theology, philosophy, the natural sciences, history, and other fields. They often did so in an accessible way to maintain the potential to also attract a non-specialised public. The basic form was usually a narrative, chronologically or thematically structured, and clearly ordered to appeal to readers. Books of this kind could be disseminated in dozens or even hundreds of copies, and were often available (by translation or adaptation) in various languages, including the vernacular.

In exploring these widely-disseminated and highly popular texts that offered a precise segment of knowledge that could be accessed by readers outside the intellectual and social elite, this volume intends to introduce books of knowledge as a new category within the study of medieval literacy.

The oeuvre of Marc Boone (Ghent, 1955) has become standard reading for specialists of medieval European towns and cities, as well as for those interested in the history of state building - most notably that of the Burgundian polity. Honoring Ghent University’s venerable tradition of medieval studies begun by Henri Pirenne and building upon the work of his Doktorvater Walter Prevenier, Marc Boone also investigated taxation and the history of government spending, popular protest, and the persecution of “deviant” sexuality. Over the course of his rich career, he served as president of the European Association of Urban History and as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of Ghent University. For more than twenty years, he taught the introductory course on historical criticism to every first-year student of the faculty, and thus had a major impact on the pensée critique of generations of young minds. Upon the occasion of his retirement in 2021, his former students have compiled this collection of some of his best historical essays, half of which have been translated from French and Dutch into English.

Humanity has always shown a keen interest in the pathological, ranging from a morbid fascination with ‘monsters’ and deformities to a genuine compassion for the ill and suffering. Medieval and early modern people were no exception, expressing their emotional response to disease in both literary works and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in the plastic arts. Consequently, it becomes necessary to ask what motivated writers and artists to choose an illness or a disability and its physical and social consequences as subjects of aesthetic or intellectual expression. Were these works the result of an intrusion in their intent to faithfully reproduce nature, or do they reflect an intentional contrast against the pre-modern portrayal of spiritual ideals and, later, through the influence of the classics, the rediscovered importance and beauty of the human body?

The essays contained in this volume address these questions, albeit not always directly but, rather, through an analysis of the societal reactions to the threats and challenges that essentially unopposed disease and physical impairment presented. They cover a wide range of responses, variable, of course, according to the period under scrutiny, its technological moment, and the usually fruitless attempts at treatment.

Si la notion de mystique semble aller de soi pour le Moyen Âge, ce semble être par suite d’un malentendu. Car si l’historiographie du xixe siècle flétrissait volontiers de ce mot ce qui, dans la littérature médiévale, lui semblait mièvre, irrationnel ou extravagant, les auteurs médiévaux se servent quant à eux de l’adjectif “mystique” pour désigner bien autre chose : une certaine manière d’interpréter les Écritures (sens mystique), une façon de discourir sur Dieu (théologie mystique), une appartenance à la même Église (corps mystique). Il convient donc de revenir aux textes, en leur posant ces questions. Quand le mot “mystique” est-il employé dans des œuvres médiévales, et que veut-il dire ? À l’inverse, dans les œuvres dites aujourd’hui “mystiques”, comment ce qui relève de cette catégorie est-il nommé, défini, compris par les auteurs eux-mêmes ? Est-il pertinent d’enclore dans un même genre des textes aussi divers que les visions, la littérature de dévotion, les analyses de la contemplation, les itinéraires de l’âme vers Dieu, la Théologie mystique du pseudo-Denys ? De la fin de l’époque patristique aux début de la Renaissance, le sens du mot “mystique” est-il resté stable, ou bien a-t-il évolué ? Au fond, peut-on dire que la notion moderne de mystique a son origine dans les temps médiévaux ?

The volume discusses Central European and Eastern Central European historiographies of the High and Late Middle Ages. It deals with histories written in a time which brought about a profound differentiation of medieval societies in these regions. As new social classes achieved economic and political power, the demand for reassuring identifications grew more pressing. Narratives of the past were tailored specifically for distinct social groups, often using vernacular languages instead of the universal language of elite education, Latin.

The volume pays attention to the interplay between languages and focuses on the strategies that individual works developed in order to balance the many alternative modes of identification. Filling a significant scholarly gap, the volume offers important insights into narratives of identification written in Latin and in the various vernaculars emerging as the new political languages of the period.

Les modes de pensée et de représentation médiévaux sont profondément marqués par l'usage de reprises et de régularités attendus et reconnaissables, qui sont sources de tensions productives entre expression individuelle et normes collectives, changement et continuité, création et convention. De façon très générale, toute formule se caractérise par un figement ou une régularité plus ou moins marquée laissant la place, en creux, à l'innovation. La définition de la formule se décline différemment en fonction de la discipline considérée, et cet ouvrage propose une réflexion interdisciplinaire sur ses différentes acceptions et sur les recoupements que l’on peut observer entre elles. En outre, un échange entre plusieurs intervenants, poursuivant une discussion sous forme de table ronde à l’occasion du colloque international organisé à Perpignan en 2014, vient clore le volume et propose un premier aperçu synthétique de l’emploi de la notion pour les différentes disciplines concernées : codicologie, diplomatique, épigraphie, histoire, histoire de l’art, littérature, linguistique, musicologie.

Ce travail sera prolongé par de futures publications dans la même collection, dans l’espoir que l’effort de clarification voulu permettra à d’autres d’explorer encore plus avant la notion de formule et de continuer à attester de sa fécondité pour les études médiévales.

When war ended, the hard work began. Crusader warfare was only the beginning, for after peace came huge and often fundamental changes for individuals and societies. First it was necessary to establish firm and secure agreements between enemies, and take care of prisoners of war and refugees. Soon followed new legal systems, and new social groups emerged as old and new families intermarried, or entire segments of the population became subordinates under new rulers. And in a longer time perspective, the entire physical landscape was changed to conform to and express the beliefs and values of the conquerors.

The military expeditions of the medieval crusades are well studied, at different times and in many diverse areas, but the consequences for individuals and societies much less. This book opens up a new research area, and contributes with 11 studies covering the Middle Eastern crusader states, the Mediterranean, and the Baltic Sea.

Drawing inspiration from the scholarship of Professor Michael Herren, founding editor of The Journal of Medieval Latin, this florilegium of studies advances our understanding of the dynamics of Latin and vernacular literature and learning in the early medieval world. Taken together, the papers gathered in this volume cast light on authors, poets, glossators, and compilers at work as they grappled with linguistic and literary ambitions and challenges, while negotiating their use of ancient authorities to address contemporary concerns.

Mary of Burgundy (r. 1477-1482) occupies an important place in the history of late medieval and Early Modern Europe, yet her life and principate have received relatively little scholarly attention. They are, however, key to the history both of the Low Countries and of Europe, since her marriage to Maximilian of Austria united the Habsburgs with the Valois-Burgundy dynasty, giving them vast territories on the borders of France. In this book, some of the best specialists in the field contribute to a better understanding of Mary’s principate, its features, and its long-term perception. In the first part, the authors address the issue of Mary’s contested legitimacy as a late-medieval female ruler: law, literature, visual art and theatrical representations are examined as means of communication, strengthening or weakening her authority. In the second part, the authors examine some of Mary’s governmental tools and the agents behind them. Finally, the last part questions the ways in which Mary’s power and her principate have been represented and reinterpreted in subsequent eras, often with political or social intent, beginning with Maximilian’s long regency and reign immediately after her death, right up to modern-day Belgium.

From bread and wine to holy water, and from oils and incense to the relics of saints, the material objects of religion stood at the heart of medieval Christian practice, bridging the gap between the profane and the divine. While theoretical debates around the importance of physicality and materiality have animated scholarship in recent years, however, little attention has been paid to finding solid, empirical evidence upon which to base such discussions.

Taking medieval Denmark as its case study, this volume draws on a wide range of different fields to explore and investigate material objects, spaces, and bodies that were employed to make the sacred tangible in the religious experience and practice of medieval people. The contributions gathered here explore subjects as diverse as saints’ relics, sculptures, liturgical vessels and implements, items used for personal devotion, gospel books, and the materiality of Christian burials to explore the significance of objects that moved the souls, bodies, hearts, and minds of the faithful. In doing so, they also open new insights into religion and belief in medieval Denmark.