BOB2025MOME

L’île Saint-Honorat de Lérins accueille des religieux depuis le début du Ve siècle. Il s’agit d’un haut lieu du monachisme, témoin des expériences ascétiques insulaires qui se développent en Occident durant l’Antiquité tardive. Le caractère exceptionnel de Lérins tient aussi à la longue durée d’occupation du site par des religieux. Ce n’est qu’à partir de 2005 qu’ont été entreprises des recherches archéologiques d’envergure sur l’île : fouilles et archéologie du bâti, qui font de Lérins la seule île monastique pour laquelle il existe des vestiges archéologiques remontant de façon assurée aux premières expériences ascétiques occidentales. En présentant ce dossier, l’ouvrage de Yann Codou apporte un éclairage inédit sur la genèse du monachisme en Occident, où des expériences érémitiques cohabitent, au sein de l’espace insulaire, avec des formes de vie plus collectives. Les données restituent également les dynamiques du monachisme au cours du haut Moyen Âge et dans les siècles suivants, en particulier le processus de communautarisation du monachisme. L’architecture est ici un document historique à part entière, qui dialogue avec les sources écrites. Les multiples monuments qui composent le paysage insulaire offrent un terrain de choix pour comprendre des mécanismes de construction identitaire, fondés sur la création et la réinterprétation des espaces sacrés. Les enjeux de la recherche dépassent largement l’histoire de la seule communauté lérinienne pour s’inscrire dans une réflexion sur l’organisation des espaces monastiques et leurs mutations tout au long du Moyen Âge.

Vers 1280, Arnaud de Villeneuve publie une courte démonstration à la fois philosophique, théologique et médicale de l’illusion de ces lettrés musulmans, juifs et chrétiens qui prétendaient pouvoir, selon les instructions de manuels de magie alors en vogue, commander aux démons pour obtenir d’eux la réalisation des vœux les plus divers - ce que l’on appelait la nigromancie. Cette édition bilingue est la première en français d’un document représentatif aussi bien du rationalisme aristotélicien que de la médecine galénique qui accompagnèrent le développement de l’enseignement scolastique. Olivier Rimbault commente Arnaud de Villeneuve en historien, en philosophe et en anthropologue. Il montre en effet ce que la rationalité des Modernes doit à cette longue période paradoxale et méconnue qu’est le Moyen Âge, et de cette synthèse tire des parallèles avec la nôtre, mettant en évidence l’irrationnel à l’œuvre dans nos propres croyances les plus « scientifiques » et réhabilitant en conclusion une forme de « magie philosophique » qui pourrait répondre aux défis du XXIe siècle.

La météorologie ancienne et médiévale se distingue de son équivalent contemporain par un domaine d’études autrement plus vaste, s’étendant bien au-delà des phénomènes atmosphériques. Le premier livre des Météorologiques d’Aristote aborde en effet des sujets aussi divers que l’action de la sphère céleste sur la région terrestre, les liens entre mouvement, lumière et production de chaleur, les rapports quantitatifs entre les quatre éléments, la formation des comètes et de la Voie lactée, l’origine et le mouvement des fleuves, les variations périodiques dans la répartition entre mers et terres sèches. Fondée sur l’analyse d’une grande quantité de textes inédits, et prenant la forme d’un voyage de la Lune à la Terre, la présente étude explore les débats que ces sujets ont suscités chez les maîtres scolastiques qui, de la fin du XIIe au milieu du XVe siècle, se sont confrontés au texte aristotélicien dans le cadre de leur enseignement à la Faculté des arts.

This volume offers a fresh approach to the structure of Bonaventure’s thought. Ruben Martello argues that Bonaventure employs the Genesis creation account as an overarching framework and fecund source for understanding nature, theology, and even Scripture itself. Beginning with Bonaventure’s view of the literal meaning of Scripture, the reception of the hexaëmeron is traced chronologically in a number of major theological works. Bonaventure is interpreted in light of the hexameral commentarial tradition like Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram, and filtered through Dionysian and Victorine inspired hermeneutics. It is proposed that reading Genesis in Bonaventure may clarify a number of contemporary disputed theological, exegetical and epistemological concerns. This study also unpacks the Bonaventurian understanding of the distinctive senses of the 'image' and 'likeness' of God, aiding in the articulation of a rich theological anthropology.

Le héraut d’armes est un personnage incontournable du Moyen Âge occidental. Spécialiste des tournois, présent au côté du prince lors des grandes cérémonies, constamment sur les routes pour porter des lettres aux différents souverains, il est aussi l’un des meilleurs connaisseurs de la noblesse occidentale.

L’émergence de ces officiers dans la société de cour est fulgurante. Apparus à la fin du XIIe siècle au sein du groupe des jongleurs et des ménestrels, ils se mettent dès la fin du XIVe siècle au service des grands seigneurs, des villes et des princes pour devenir au dernier siècle du Moyen Âge une véritable institution, en France, en Angleterre ou en Bourgogne.

Les Pays-Bas bourguignons offrent sans aucun doute un des meilleurs exemples de l’épanouissement de l’office d’armes au sein d’une cour médiévale. Véritables porte-voix du duc, chargés de prononcer les déclarations de guerre et de publier la paix, les hérauts sont omniprésents dans la conduite de la guerre ou dans la diplomatie de Philippe le Bon et de Charles le Téméraire. Baptisés du nom de provinces bourguignonnes, vêtus de leur cotte d’armes, ils représentent l’État bourguignon autant que le duc lui même, jusqu’à en devenir son avatar.

Au cœur d'un renouvellement de l'approche des sources de l'histoire médiévale, la comptabilité domaniale publique connait depuis une quinzaine années la faveur des historiens des institutions et des origines de l'État. Les registres de comptes sont ainsi reconnus comme une source intrinsèque et non plus seulement comme une base de données factuelles alimentant de vastes synthèses historiques. En région lorraine, les registres de comptes des prévôts du comté-duché de Bar, par la richesse des collections chronologiques, permettent cette approche nouvelle où le document comptable, dans sa dimension codicologique et administrative, participe pleinement au renforcement des liens entre centre et périphérie et à l’élaboration des dynamiques de gouvernement.La lecture et l’étude précise des registres de la prévôté de Longwy permettent de pénétrer au cœur des rouages administratifs de l'État barrois au temps de la régence de Yolande de Flandre, de la Peste Noire et du début de la guerre de Cent Ans en Lorraine. Apparaît alors, en pleine lumière, la genèse du compte domanial, instrument de pouvoir pour les décideurs centraux et preuve de la manière de servir pour les administrateurs locaux : prévôts, châtelains et clercs jurés. Mais la gestion domaniale ne saurait se passer d’une phase de contrôle administratif. L’examen des comptes, véritable tradition barroise, va peu à peu s’institutionnaliser et revêtir un caractère hautement technique avec la création d’un organe de gouvernement d’une importance majeure : la Chambre des Comptes. Cette dernière fait alors basculer les comptes et le contrôle comptable dans une nouvelle dynamique : celle de la construction de l'État.

In his magnum opus De Trinitate, the twelfth-century canon Richard of St. Victor offers sustained reflection on core dogmatic claims from the Athanasian creed. At the heart of the treatise is Richard’s argument for exactly three divine persons. Starting with the necessity of a single, maximally perfect divine substance, Richard reasons along four steps: (i) God must have maximal charity, or other-love; (ii) to be perfectly good, delightful, and glorious, God’s other-love must be shared among at least two, and (iii) among at least three, divine persons; (iv) the metaphysics of divine processions and love each ensure the impossibility of four divine persons. For Richard, Scripture and trustworthy church authorities already provide certainty in these truths of faith. Even so, as an act of ardent love, Richard contemplates the Trinity as reflected in creation. From this epistemic point of departure, he supports his conclusions from common human experience alone.

Recently, philosophers of religion have employed Richard’s trinitarian reflection as a springboard for constructive work in apologetics and ramified natural theology. His unique and meticulous approach to the Trinity has garnered attention from scholars of medieval and Victorine studies, recognizing the novelty and rigour of his philosophical theology.

This volume presents the first focused exploration of Richard’s central thesis in De Trinitate, combining historical context with philosophical scrutiny. It confronts the most challenging aspects of his argument, presenting Richard’s insights as not merely intriguing but also profoundly compelling. His thesis, if validated, promises to significantly enrich modern dialogues on the philosophical and theological dimensions of the Trinity.

Peter Abelard (1079-1142), famous for his unhappy love story with Heloise, which he wrote down in his autobiographical work Historia calamitatum, was among the most respected scholars of his time. Brilliant as a philosopher and theologian, he was one of the co-founders of scholasticism, seeking to elucidate theological facts through logic.Scito te ipsum is one of the most important texts of the twelfth century. Only in the later phase of his life and work did Abelard decide to separate moral themes from his overall theological schema, and to dedicate a monograph to them under the guiding concepts of "sin" (First Book) and "obedience before God" (Second Book, unfinished). As Ethica nostra it was intended to provide a Christian conception alongside a philosophical ethics, and to summarise the results of his previous studies.

Along with Abelard’s entire theology, this treatise was also condemned as heretical by Pope Innocent II, and was long considered lost. Since its rediscovery in the 18th century, it has met with lively interest both from a theological and also from a philosophical point of view. The historical aspects of the work and its integration into Abelard’s complete works receive special attention in the introduction to this volume, which presents the Latin text from the Corpus Christianorum (CC CM 190) with a new English translation.

In the remotest corners of the Roman Empire, large crowds were as beguiled by spectacles as their Roman counterparts. Provincial spectacles however, did not share the technical wonders of flying machines, elephant dressage and synchronised swimming seen at imperial extravaganzas. Is it this lack of the sensational that accounts for the relative paucity of scholarly attention paid to regional spectacles and in particular, their sponsors?

When spectacles are viewed purely as entertainment, the messy realities of institutionalized social, economic and political power that regulated them are obscured. A clearer understanding of the spectacle can therefore be achieved by contextualizing it in the big picture of regional and provincial life against the backdrop of Roman power and control. The spectacle itself was highly political in its aims and intent. Access to sponsorship of a spectacle similarly relied on hierarchies of political power and privilege, and consequently required strategic negotiation of candidacy, promises, expenditure and recognition. Rivalry, competition and emulation was endemic.

This epigraphic analysis, focusing on the western Roman Empire (Italy, Gaul and North Africa) during the Imperial period, identifies the milieux of provincial sponsors, their strategies and quest for public honours.

In recent years a lively debate has developed on the features of Byzantine historiography. The increasingly dominant tendency today is to treat historical texts more as pleasant literary narratives than as systematic historical accounts of the political and military history of Byzantium. The present study aims to contribute to this debate by revisiting the voices of the Byzantine authors themselves, focusing on the extant historical prefaces from the Early, Middle, and Late Byzantine eras. This seemed timely, more than a century after the publication of Ηeinrich Lieberich’s fundamental work on Byzantine historiographical proems.

Obviously, not all prefaces are of equal interest: some serve a purely conventional function, while others are composed more thoughtfully and merit more careful attention. The book’s goal is twofold: firstly, to outline the details of the prefatory function of the Byzantine historiographical proems as microtexts; secondly, to detect and evaluate the theoretical views expressed by the authors of each period regarding the genre of Byzantine historiography. This will expand our knowledge of how the Byzantines wrote (praxis) and thought (culture) about historiography.

The Physiologus is the ancestor of the bestiary, a collection of chapters describing animal qualities and behaviours, usually with an allegorical meaning, which proliferated especially in England in the late Middle Ages. While much scholarly attention has been directed to the bestiary, the history of the transmission of the Physiologus has hardly been investigated. Evidence of the circulation of this treatise in the early medieval period is certainly scanty, since only two brief versions dating from this period have been preserved, one in Old English and another one in Latin. However, this monograph shows further proof of the knowledge of the Physiologus in Anglo-Saxon England. It also reveals the relationship of the only two surviving texts and their connection to the main Continental recension of the time. This study therefore demonstrates that the popularity of bestiaries in the later Middle Ages was largely due to the prominence that its predecessor, the Physiologus, enjoyed in the preceding period.

Codificata a partire da una sezione specifica del corpus aristotelico, la logica rappresentava nel Medioevo latino quell’"arte delle arti" (ars artium) che studiava le regole del ragionamento corretto e le era riconosciuta una universalità di tipo strumentale. Come notato sin dai primi biografi e commentatori, Dante dimostra in svariate occasioni una maestria e una padronanza della materia del tutto degne, per dirla col Boccaccio, di un «maraviglioso loïco». Giustamente celebri sono i versi di Inferno XXVII in cui «un d’i neri cherubini», con un raffinato ragionamento, strappa l’anima di Guido da Montefeltro all’impotente San Francesco («forse / tu non pensavi ch’io loïco fossi!», v. 123); ma è soprattutto nel Convivio, nella Monarchia e nella controversa Questio de aqua et terra che l’Alighieri sfoggia una competenza difficilmente riducibile alla consultazione occasionale di qualche ‘manuale’. Questo studio analizza sistematicamente i passaggi dell’opera dantesca riconducibili a questo specifico ambito disciplinare; e offre una panoramica sugli ambienti culturali in cui il Poeta avrebbe verosimilmente potuto formarsi (Firenze, Bologna, la Toscana occidentale, la marca Trevigiana). Da un lato, quindi, si inserisce nel fortunato filone di studi che si è occupato di valutare la conoscenza che Dante poté avere delle dottrine di Aristotele e dei suoi interpreti. Dall’altro, tenta di ricostruire i tempi, i luoghi e i modi in cui, «peregrino, quasi mendicando», poté acquisire tale competenza specialistica. In tal modo, non viene solo illuminato un lato inesplorato di questo eccezionale «amatore di sapienza», ma viene anche offerto uno scorcio privilegiato sullo stato delle conoscenze filosofiche in Italia fra XIII e XIV secolo.

This is the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis to demonstrate that the representation of Infancy cycles on twelfth-and-thirteenth-century baptismal fonts was primarily a northern predilection in the Latin West directly influenced by the contemporary military campaigns. The Infantia Christi Corpus, a collection of approximately one-hundred-and-fifty fonts, verifies how the Danish and Gotland workshops modified and augmented biblical history to reflect the prevailing crusader ideology and rhetoric that dominated life during the Valdemarian era in the Baltic region. The artisans constructed the pictorial programs according to the readings of the Mass for the feast days in the seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphanytide. The political ambitions of the northern leaders and the Church to create a Land of St. Peter in the Baltic region strategically influenced the integration of Holy Land motifs, warrior saints, militia Christi and martyrdom in the Infancy cycles to justify the escalating northern conquests.

Neither before nor after, in the history of baptismal fonts, have so many been ornamented with the Infancy cycle in elaborate pictorial programs. A brief revival of elaborate Infancy cycles occurs on the fourteenth and fifteenth century fonts commissioned for sites previously located in the Christian borderlands east of the Elbe River with the rise of the Baltic military orders and the advancement of the Church authority. This extraordinary study integrates theological, liturgical, historical and political developments, broadening our understanding of what constituted northern crusader art in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Ugo Eteriano da Pisa (ca. 1110/1120-1182) costituisce una particolarissima figura di intellettuale occidentale: dopo una prima formazione nelle scuole logiche di Parigi, egli si ambienta a Bisanzio alla corte di Manuele Comneno, a tal punto da diventare bilingue (greco-latino), e da familiarizzarsi a fondo con la tradizione teologica e filosofica bizantina e con il pensiero antico. È autore, fra l’altro, di opere dottrinali dedicate alle psicologia (De anima), alla controversia contro i Bogomili orientali oltre che di un importante opuscolo legato alla controversia cristologica bizantina del 1166 (De minoritate). L’opera che è qui presentata con traduzione e sussidi esegetici è il De sancto et immortali Deo, un trattato in tre libri composto in via definitiva fra 1175 e 1177 su esortazione di Manuele Comneno e dedicato alla difesa del Filioque. Polemizzando contro i più importanti sostenitori della posizione antifilioquista degli orientali (in prima battuta Nicola di Metone e Fozio), Ugo Eteriano fa ampio ricorso non solo alla tradizione teologica latina (Agostino e gli altri autori sostenitori della processione dello Spirito ab utroque) ma attinge a piene mani anche ai testimonia di tutti quei padri greci che potrebbero in qualche modo avallare la posizione latina. Punto di interesse dell’opera sta anche nel rinnovato rapporto con la filosofia secolare: fra le fonti citate, in parte dal greco in parte da traduzioni latine, figurano Aristotele e i suoi commentatori greci, Platone, Plotino, gli autori neoplatonici, che sono rivisitati alla luce della passione per la logica e di un forte interesse per l’Organon già sviluppati nel corso della iniziale formazione parigina.

History is today an established academic discipline, characterized by the use of footnotes and references to support claims. However, attempts to codify history and impose disciplinary rigour were made in the Middle Ages, even before the introduction of the modern apparatus. One such attempt was the use of the source mark, a precursor of the modern footnote. Initially used in the works of lawyers and theologians, the source mark indicated that a text and its ideas belonged to a named authority. The application of the source mark to historical writings marked a change in the way history was perceived.

This volume explores how history was transformed into a discipline by focusing on four key twelfth-and thirteenth-century sources: the anonymous Status Imperii Iudaici, the Chronicle of Hélinand of Froidmont, the Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, and Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum Historiale. By focusing on these four texts and examining the influences of surrounding disciplines such as law and theology, the author explores how these historical writers drew on a wide range of different sources of information to provide a truthful account of the past. Furthermore, the aim of producing a reliable narrative was combined with an awareness of the status of the author. Through these case studies, this volume offers a fascinating reassessment of our modern understanding of the origins of the study of history.

The Pore Caitif is a popular, late-fourteenth-century, carefully crafted compilation of biblical, catechetical, devotional and mystical material drawing on patristic and medieval sources, in Middle English, consisting of a Prologue and a variable number of sections of differing lengths according to each manuscript, assembled probably by a clerical writer for an increasing literate lay readership/audience.The Prologue sets out the reason for writing and its overall structure as an integrated ladder leading the reader to heaven. The text begins with basic catechetical instruction modelled on John Peckham’s Lambeth Constitutions of 1281 before continuing with more affective material, meditating, for example, on the Passion, and concludes with a treatise on virginity, leading the reader from an active to a contemplative way of life.

The Pore Caitif was written about the time the Lollards were starting to propagate their programme of universal vernacular education. The writer believes in the need to educate his readers in the truths necessary for salvation without necessarily subscribing to Lollard positions.   

Although referred to in a number of secondary articles and books, and serving as the focus of three doctoral dissertations, an edition of the work was not published until 2019. Penkett's publication is the first Modern English translation based on the 2019 publication and is in a readily accessible format for the modern reader, accompanied by a series of ground-breaking essays.

The chronicle of Henry of Livonia has long been recognized as the single most important source on the early history of Livonia and Estonia in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.

The chronicler describes in great detail how the people of the region were subjected to intense campaigns of crusading and mission from the 1180s until the 1220s, primarily at the hands of ecclesiastical and secular powers of Northern Germany (Saxony), Denmark and Sweden. The chronicler himself, a German cleric named Henry (Henricus), was not only active in recording the events that happened around him. He also took a very active role as a missionary and interpreter among the indigenous population as well as joining the armies of crusaders on campaign, making this chronicle both a first-hand account and a very intriguing narrative. Papal missionary politics and theological ideas are intermingled in the chronicle with detailed descriptions of military campaigns, raids and sieges, making the entire chronicle a fascinating read.

The aim of this book is to clarify the ways in which Henry construes the historical events that he describes, portraying them as the continuation of a form of sacred history that was initiated by God in biblical times and continued by clerics and crusaders among Henry’s own peers.

Hildebert of Lavardin is one of the great poets of the Middle Ages, praised for his elegant style by his contemporaries and by modern scholars alike. He occupies a seminal position in the revival of learning in the late Middle Ages known as the Twelfth Century Renaissance, and his mastery of classical Latin style was so refined that some of his works were long considered products of Antiquity. This collection of Hildebert's biblical epigrams and short poems introduces English-speaking readers to the best works of this neglected poet and places them in the context of his life and literary career. The translations attempt to bring the reader as close as possible to experiencing these poems in their original Latin while still being readable and comprehensible, facilitated by notes and commentary. Hildebert's poetry is sometimes challenging, dense and complicated, yet his rhetoric is often beautiful, even magnificent.