Brepols Online Books Medieval Miscellanea Original Archive v2016 - bobar16mimeo

Historians have considered medieval oligarchic groups as part of a hierarchical social structure in urban societies. Frequently the interpretation of oligarchy as an isolated faction makes it difficult to understand its capacity in processes of incorporation and integration. M. Asenjo-González’s study of different cities in Northern Castile - Segovia, Soria, Valladolid and Toledo — attempts to identify bonding processes and the relationships among individuals or groups. In the city of Cuenca, J. A. Jara-Fuente stresses the importance of mechanisms for the attribution of social spaces of projection (related to individuals, lineages or collectivities), because it is through the analysis of the social expectations and of the degree of satisfaction reached in that process that other patterns of relationship come to light. Y. Guerrero-Navarrete deals with the connections between financial groups and the oligarchic policy of the elite in the case of Burgos. In Granada, A. Galán-Sánchez analyzes the Islamic elites’ behaviour, considering their economic and political interests, related to the goodwill of the Christian conquerors, and, their functions as representatives of the second-class citizens who were the moriscos. F. Sabaté focuses his research on the social consequences of the merchant oligarchy investments in the urban surroundings that contributed to establishing a flow of capital between the city and the region in Catalonia. E. Ramírez-Vaquero analyzes aspects of great relevance such as the relationship that oligarchies had with other systems linked to the noble and court spheres in the cities of Navarra. Finally Marc Boone offers an historiographic reflection on Iberian urban elites and analyzes some comparative perspectives about oligarchy and patronage in the Late Middle Ages.

Chassé d’Afrique par les invasions vandales et installé à Constantinople vers le début du VIe siècle, Priscien a engagé une refonte de la grammaire antique en faisant confluer ses principaux courants, la tradition grammaticale romaine et les apports grecs issus de la philologie alexandrine, auxquels il a intégré des recherches menées dans d’autres domaines de l’analyse de la parole, en rhétorique et en philosophie.

La création de la première grammaire moderne est ainsi d’abord une synthèse, qui correspond dans la partie orientale de l’Empire aux espoirs qu’au même moment, à Rome, Boèce et son cercle plaçaient dans l’hellénisme pour renouveler la vie intellectuelle d’une partie occidentale tombée aux mains des Barbares.

Auteur à multiples dimensions, chez qui se croisent les spécificités et les ambiguïtés de l’Antiquité tardive, Priscien a été le passeur par qui l’époque médiévale a eu connaissance des éléments les plus complexes de la description linguistique antique. Son influence a été immense durant tout le Moyen Âge et ses échos sont perceptibles jusque dans la tradition classique.

Malgré cela, aucune traduction dans une langue moderne n’a encore été faite des principaux textes de Priscien, et la période actuelle commence seulement à mesurer l’importance et l’originalité de cet auteur.

Le présent volume est la première mise au point d’ensemble et dresse un état des recherches à l’issue du colloque international Priscien (ENS Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon, 10 - 14 octobre 2006). Ses 40 articles présentent les points de vue transversaux d’antiquisants, de linguistes, d’historiens et de médiévistes. Réparties en six sections, les contributions traitent successivement de la position historique de Priscien et de la transmission de ses œuvres, des sources et du contenu de son texte majeur, les Institutions Grammaticales, de ses scripta minora et de la réception de sa doctrine du Haut Moyen Âge à la Renaissance.

L’ouvrage comporte une bibliographie globale et plusieurs index (auteurs anciens et modernes, manuscrits, passages cités, concepts et termes).

Dietrich de Freiberg a peu à peu trouvé sa place dans l’historiographie philosophique du Moyen Âge. Dans l’histoire de sa découverte et de sa promotion sur les devants de la scène scientifique, un rôle essentiel revient à Kurt Flasch, à qui rend hommage ce volume recueillant les contributions prononcées à l’occasion de son soixante-quinzième anniversaire. Elles tentent un bilan des recherches récentes sur le dominicain allemand et attestent l’appartenance de Dietrich à l’histoire de l’aristotélisme médiéval, nullement invalidée par le statut de maître en théologie à Paris (en 1296/7), ni par le fait que le dominicain n’ait pas laissé de commentaire des œuvres du Stagirite.

This book thrusts the reader into the intellectual turmoil of medieval Europe. In interrelated studies of largely unexplored material dating from the ninth through to the fourteenth centuries, the contributors explore changes in functions and forms of liturgical poetry and music, and of biblical interpretation.

Although the twelfth century constitutes the main focus, the phenomena dealt with here had roots in earlier times and remained in circulation in later centuries. The cultural heritage of the Carolingian intellectuals tied to the palace school of Charles the Bald is examined in a liturgical context. Forms and ideas from this period were reused and transformed in the twelfth century, as represented here by sequences, tropes, Abelard’s poetry, the Gloss to Lamentations, and ritual representations or ‘liturgical drama’. The two final chapters treat fourteenth-century uses and understandings of Boethius’s De institutione musica and the new genre of sequence commentaries, both dealing with later medieval views on music theory and liturgical poetry from an earlier period, thus connecting the end of the book to its beginning. The sections are interspersed with philosophical reflections on overriding themes of the contributions. The volume concludes with an anthology of poetic texts in Latin with English translations and musical transcriptions.

The holding of the 2005 annual colloquium of the SIEPM in Kyoto, Japan, presented the opportunity to explore the very foundations of communication: the word in all its aspects. Whether mental concepts, as Aristotle had claimed, were the same for all people, whether from the East or the West; how these mental concepts were transformed into words; how words affected the concepts (e.g. in regard to the colour spectrum); how angels communicated with one another, and whether any words were appropriate for talking about God; whether words for things arise merely from convention, or have an essential relationship to what they describe; what exactly do the words for individuals, species and genera describe; why words can have powerful effects; what is the relationship between the inner word and the spoken word. The essays in this volume explore these questions largely from the texts of medieval Western philosophers and theologians from Boethius to Meister Eckhart, but some Hebrew and Arabic texts are also taken into consideration. The contexts range from the lively debates in the Parisian schools of the early twelfth century, through the subtle arguments of thirteenth and fourteenth century scholars, to mystical writings of the fifteenth century. Running as a thread through the essays are the translations and commentaries of Boethius on the Vetus logica of Aristotle, and the divine word of the Bible. The combination of contributions of Japanese scholars with both younger and more established scholars from the Western tradition ensures a rich and varied approach to this subject.

Les nouveautés culturelles qui se répandent en Europe latine aux xii e et xiii e siècles sont les expressions les plus hautes d’une longue période de croissance. Bien que déjà largement documentée, cette expansion pluriséculaire mérite d’être reprise et précisée.

Un cercle vertueux s’est enclenché aux alentours de l’an mil dans l’Europe latine, sans qu’il y ait simultanéité de dates et de rythmes sur tout le territoire. Pour être multiples, les composantes de cet essor se réduisent à un même thème: ce sont autant de triomphes de l’homme européen sur son environnement et sur lui-même: amélioration de l’outillage et des techniques agricoles, poussée démographique, défrichements, nouveaux sites de peuplement, renouveau urbain, renforcement de l’artisanat, essor de l’économie monétaire, développement et diffusion de l’écrit, promotion des langues vernaculaires.

Véhicule déterminant du nouveau savoir, les traductions surviennent dans un monde latin à l’essor multiforme. Elles l’accompagnent et le transfigurent. Elles en décuplent les possibilités. Elles expriment un engouement dévorant pour l’étude, dont en retour elles accroissent l’intensité et rehaussent le niveau. Les clercs sont aspirés par cette spirale, dont le terme marque la fin du Moyen Âge. Les acquis des siècles précédents servent aux hommes du xv e à renouer directement avec l’hellénisme et avec le classicisme latin, tout en franchissant les océans d’une terre maintenant centrée sur le soleil.

La polysémie du mot «monde» rend compte de la totalité des nouveautés qui, apparues au cours du xii e siècle de Europe latine, transforment en quelques cent ans le continent: le xii e siècle latin s’est transfiguré en véritable Nouveau Monde.

In questo volume sono editi gli atti del I seminario organizzatonel 2006 dal Centro interuniversitario per la storia e l’archeologia dell’alto medioevo (SAAME). Al centro del seminario è stato un tema di grande importanza per storia italiana: la conquista franca del regno longobardo e le sue conseguenze in tutti i campi, dai mutamenti politici - indagati soprattutto dal punto di vista della loro rappresentazione - ai mutamenti nell’insediamento rurale e urbano (dalle campagne toscane a capitali come Roma e Ravenna), a quelli nelle attività artistiche (la costruzione di edifici di prestigio) e culturali (epigrafia, documenti, codici, produzione normativa), nella circolazione monetaria (le zecche, i mancosi) e nei flussi commerciali (con in primo piano l’Adriatico). Inoltre si è tentato di inserire la ‘transizione’ italiana, ossia il passaggio della penisola sotto la dominazione carolingia, nell’ambito di un quadro europeo, prendendo in considerazione, con alcuni affondi tematici, la Turingia, la Baviera, l’Austrasia e infine la Spagna, dove è avvenuta un’altra fondamentale transizione, quella tra Visigoti e Musulmani.

Il titolo del libro, che fa riferimento ad una data precisa fornita dalla storia politica, l’anno 774, può apparire paradossale per presentare i risultati di un seminario nel corso del quale sono state interrogate allo stesso modo fonti scritte e fonti archeologiche, e va inteso in senso soprattutto simbolico, come un’ovvia allusione ad un altro anno cardine, il 751, anch’esso oggetto di indagini recenti. Ma al tempo stesso tale riferimento è utile per ribadire l’assoluta necessità di coordinare insieme, ai fini della ricostruzione del passato, i tempi e i risultati della storia politica (in questo caso il passaggio dai Longobardi ai Carolingi), dell’archeologia, della numismatica, della storia della documentazione scritta, della storia dell’arte e di tutte le altre storie.

The essays in this important and fascinating collection explore the genealogical literature of late-medieval Britain and France in relation to issues of identity, the transmission of power, and cultural, socio-political, and economic developments. By analyzing the mechanics of cultural and political inheritance and the processes of shaping a sense of identity and descent, the essays in this volume direct the reader towards a complex understanding of genealogical literature and its relationships with other genres, one which will further debate and research in these areas. The present collection presents an interdisciplinary approach to the genealogical literature of the late-medieval period, and brings together specialists in the fields of history, cultural history and literature to raise questions of gender, genre, and theoretical approaches. Broken Lines is also the first book-length study of genealogical literature to date, an exciting intervention into this emerging field of interest.

In considering the construction of medieval sermons, the term ‘construction’ has many meanings. Those studied here range from questions about sermon composition with the help of artes praedicandi or model collections to a more abstract investigation of the mental construction of the concepts of sermon and preacher. Sermons from a range of European countries, written both in Latin and vernaculars, are subjected to a broad variety of analyses. The approach demonstrates the vitality of this sub-discipline. Most of the essays are more occupied with literary and philological problems than with the religious content of the sermons. While many focus on vernacular sermons, the Latin cultural and literary background is always considered and shows how vernacular preaching was in part based on a more learned Latin culture. The collection testifies both to the increasing esteem of the study of vernacular sermons, and to a revival in the study of all those things contained in a preacher’s ‘workshop’, ranging from rhetorical invention, medieval library holdings and study-aids, through to factors that are crucial for the successful delivery of the sermon, such as the choice of language, mnemonic devices and addressing the audience. The interdisciplinary approach remains ever-present, not only in the diversity of the academic disciplines represented, but also within individual essays. The volume is based on a conference held in Stockholm, 7-9 October 2004.