Brepols Online Books Medieval Miscellanea Collection 2021 - bob2021mime

Urban hierarchy means a new study approach that focuses on the reciprocal concurrence of relationships between urban centers, their complementarity, opposition, support and ongoing collaboration. The goal is to go beyond the single analysis of a city and focus on the interaction between towns and cities and to distinguish their dynamics and the degree of specialization within a political framework. The final objective is to provide a comprehensive historical analysis as urban history requires, open to the advantages of interdisciplinarity and the contributions of the international researchers that will take part in the session. The processes of urban hierarchization are not only vital for observing the dynamics of cities, but also for studying in depth the response capabilities of the urban systems in the face of new challenges and stimuli. These aspects of the historical analysis of cities are still quite unexplored and, therefore, they will receive a great deal of attention in the book. The initial regional frameworks will not exclude small towns and rural centers since, even though they may look less potentially relevant, they might display greater specific development. Thanks to a renewed methodology and special attention to the empirical basis, it is possible to improve our knowledge of the urban systems of European regions at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Early Modern Era, shedding light on some aspects of the medieval past that will also influence other scientific areas of humanities.

The Victorines were scholars and teachers of philosophy, liberal arts, sacred scripture, music, and contemplation at the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris. This collection focuses on the three greatest Victorines: Hugh (d. 1141), who established the direction of the school; Richard (d. 1173), who developed Victorine contemplation; and Thomas Gallus (d. 1246), who culminated Victorine contemplative thought and transmitted it to other schools, especially the Franciscans. They offer an innovative revival of the Christian spiritual and intellectual tradition for their reforming pastoral mission in their urban setting and for the Church.

Their contemporaries saw the Victorines as beacons of spiritual love and intellectual richness. Later reformers and thinkers held their writings as touchstones of contemplative love, including, for example, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Jean Gerson, Thomas à Kempis, the Devotio Moderna, and many others. The writings of the Victorines found broad appeal among later medieval readers, as well as praise among early modern reformers, Protestant and Catholic alike. In recent decades, the Victorines have returned to scholarly attention and renewed appreciation. Scholarly studies, critical editions, and translation projects reveal the treasures of Victorine thought and spirituality.

This volume showcases the findings of recent research and scholarly advances in Victorine studies, offering new readers a status quaestionis of the field. It also features new research by eminent experts in Victorine thought that points out promising directions for future research, thus offering important new findings for established specialists.

This volume is an introduction to eleven of the main medieval Eastern Christian historians used by modern scholars to reconstruct the events and personalities of the crusading period in the Levant. Each of the chapters examines one historian and their work(s), and first contains an introductory examination of their life, background and influences. This is then followed by a study of their work(s) relevant to the Crusades, including the reasons for writing, themes, and methodology. Such an approach will allow modern researchers to better understand the background and contexts to these texts, and thus to reconstruct the past in a more nuanced and detailed way. Written by eleven eminent scholars in their fields, and examining chronicles written in Armenian, Greek, Syriac, and Arabic, this book will be essential reading for anybody engaged in research on the Crusades, as well as Eastern Christian and Islamic history, and medieval historiography.