Brepols Online Books Other Monographs Archive v2016 - bobar16moot

Andrew of St Victor († 1175) was an exegete of a rare quality who set out to expound Scripture according to its literal sense, guided by the examples of Jerome and Hugh of Saint Victor.

The books of Samuel and Kings had a great influence on the spirituality and theology of the Middle Ages. To the medieval mind, they were more than just historical accounts; they attested to an important period in God’s dealings with this world. When interpreted typologically, they could also relate to other periods in the history of salvation. Yet before such higher spiritual wisdom could be attained, students at the school of Saint Victor first had to study the scriptural texts at the most basic level of allegorical interpretation: their historical, or literal, sense. The Commentary on Samuel and Kings offers such a literal explanation and gives an opportunity to study Andrew at work: as a critical researcher, who used concepts of grammar, literary theory, and science to elucidate the text and who made Jewish exegesis available to Christian scholarship, and as a compiler. His meticulous scholarship on the literal sense of Scripture formed an important component of the curriculum of the school at Saint Victor, where thorough learning was seen as a preparation for mystical knowledge and spiritual understanding.

The source text of this volume appeared in the series Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaeualis as Andreas de Sancto Victore - Expositio hystorica in librum Regum (CCCM 53A). References to the corresponding pages of the edition are provided in the margins of this translation.

Frans van Liere holds a Ph.D. in medieval studies from Groningen University and is Professor of History at Calvin College (USA). His critical edition of the latin text appeared in 1996.

Voilà trois cent cinquante ans mourait, à l’âge de trente-six ans, le « vrai » Cyrano de Bergerac, personnage et auteur atypique encore peu connu du grand public. En 2005, en commémoration de sa disparition, un colloque international réunissant les meilleurs connaisseurs de l’homme et de l’écrivain se tenait à Sannois - la ville où il avait souhaité finir ses jours. La rencontre, dont on trouvera les actes dans ce volume, sut tenir toutes ses promesses, s’interrogeant sur la personnalité énigmatique et attachante de Cyrano, ses idées et ses idéaux, cherchant à percer les mystères de son oeuvre. Notre époque, à la mémoire sélective, a oublié que ce fut longtemps un auteur à succès, de référence. Cependant nous sommes de plus en plus nombreux à le relire et à étudier ses écrits. Rostand, qui n’est pas le moindre parmi les admirateurs de Cyrano, apprécierait certainement que nous rendions à son modèle la place qu’on lui doit dans l’histoire de la littérature française. Qui peut encore ignorer Cyrano ?

When Bartolomeo Sacchi ('Platina', 1421-1481) wrote his Vitae pontificum (Lives of the Popes) and presented it to Pope Sixtus IV in 1475, he surely could not have imagined how influential it would become over the centuries. His was the first papal history composed as a humanist Latin narrative and, as such, marked a distinct breakthrough in relation to the Liber pontificalis, the standard medieval chronicle of the papacy. Whatever Platina's intentions for the book, it soon came to be regarded as the official history of the Roman pontiffs. After the editio princeps of Venice 1479, updated and extended editions continued to be produced until late in the eighteenth century.

The largely untold story of Platina's Lives of the Popes and its fortuna is the focus of this book. The Lives were particularly popular because of Platina's frank criticisms of papal behaviour which did not live up to his humanist moral values. He reminded the popes that they were mere human beings and urged them not to indulge in luxury and nepotism. Catholics, whether or not they agreed with such indictments, read the Lives eagerly, while Protestants naturally appreciated Platina's fault-finding approach towards the papacy. The role which censorship played in the reception of the Lives was previously unknown. This book examines the censorship process (1587-1592) in detail, including a critical edition of the assessments and corrections by English and Italian censors newly uncovered in the Vatican and in Milan.

This object-based study concentrates on scientific instruments made in Louvain between c. 1530 and c.1600, a period in which the university fell from the peak of its importance into a state of decline. The instruments are characterised by elaborate decoration and by numerous technical innovations. The book comprises two parts: an introduction followed by a catalogue raisonné of almost ninety instruments from the Louvain masters, both signed and unsigned ones. The introduction outlines the circumstances of the foundation of this ‘Louvain school of instrument makers’, which entailed the merging of an intellectual center (based in the university) and a material culture (based in the workshops). A similar symbiosis occurred elsewhere in Europe, but never on the scale of Louvain. The presence of the Spanish Court in Brussels around 1540-1550 helped to provide the workshops with important commissions. Their role as a Maecenas is also discussed. The most important instrument makers were Gerard Mercator, Michael Piquer, Gualterus Arsenius, Adrian Descrolières and Adrian Zeelst. Little was previously known about these men - apart perhaps from Mercator - and even less about the output of their workshops. This book attempts to present for the first time a comprehensive survey of these workshops and how they may have influenced one another.

La violence semble une composante permanente de la vie urbaine au Moyen-Age. Dans l'espace clos que ménagent les remparts, une société particulière s'est constituée en effet, que des dissensions multiples écartèlent. Jeunes et vieux, laïcs et clercs s'y adonnent également, partageant les rivalités politiques, les querelles d'intérêt, les rancœurs des laissés-pour-compte, ou les haines que développent parmi les populations chrétiennes la présence de minorités juives ou arabes. Quelles que soient ces manifestations - rixes, assassinats, viols, crimes crapuleux, attentats contre les forces de l'ordre, insultes ou blasphèmes - la violence trouve en ville le support de solidarités constituées et s'inscrit dans les rythmes quotidiens : ceux de l'habitation, de la rue, ou des multiples lieux de rencontre qu'offre la cité. Les temps exceptionnels de la fête ou de la révolte exaspèrent ses accès, la rendent sauvage et passionnelle. Pour la prévenir ou la maîtriser afin qu'elle se maintienne en deçà d'un seuil de tolérance, les autorités imaginent bien des procédés, depuis les instances de conciliation ou les prédications de paix jusqu'à la répression policière, en dépit des faiblesses qu'elle présente. Cependant, les peines et les exécutions publiques, qui légitiment les manifestations officielles de la pire cruauté, traduisent une interprétation sélective du crime et un jugement inégal des violents. Tolérée lorsqu'elle exprime le style de vie des notables, la violence est réprimée avec ardeur quand elle se charge d'une menace pour l'ordre politique ou social. A la fin du Moyen-Age, au moment où la puissance de l'Etat se veut démonstrative, la seconde interprétation devient plus fréquente et marginalise une fraction de la population urbaine dont on exagère ou redoute les excès.