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A Spectacle for a Spanish Princess
The Festive Entry of Joanna of Castile into Brussels (1496)
On the evening of 9 December 1496 Princess Joanna Infanta of Castile reaches the outskirts of Brussels where a procession of secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries welcomes her. After having been married to Philip the Fair in Lier Joanna travelled to Brussels by herself. Equipped with torches and processional crosses the citizens accompany her all the way to the heart of the city the large market square with its magnificent town hall. The Berlin manuscript 78 D5 is the first illustrated report of an entry concentrating on one single lady. The manuscript is a treasure to all those interested in urban culture of the Early Modern period. The author of the festival booklet compares the well-lit city with the splendours of Troy and Carthage. Twenty-eight stage sets or Tableaux Vivants and an elaborate procession mirror the costly intellectual program presented to the sixteen-year-old princess. The carefully planned theatrical productions underscore themes of marriage female virtues and the politics of war and peace. The program includes entertainments soundscapes and pyrotechnic amusements. The Latin texts are made available in English translation. The entire manuscript with its sixty-three folios is reproduced in colour. Eleven leading scholars present their new findings on this spectacular entry from an interdisciplinary approach.
The Tables of 1322 by John of Lignères
An Edition with Commentary
Medieval astronomers used tables to solve most of the problems they faced. These tables were generally assembled in sets which constituted genuine tool-boxes aimed at facilitating the task of practitioners of astronomy. In the early fourteenth century the set of tables compiled by the astronomers at the service of King Alfonso X of Castile and León (d. 1284) reached Paris where several scholars linked to the university recast them and generated new tables. John of Lignères one of the earliest Alfonsine astronomers assembled his own set of astronomical tables mainly building on the work of previous Muslim and Jewish astronomers in the Iberian Peninsula especially in Toledo. Two major sets had been compiled in this town: one in Arabic the Toledan Tables during the second half of the eleventh century and the Castilian Alfonsine Tables under the patronage of King Alfonso.
This monograph provides for the first time an edition of the Tables of 1322 by John of Lignères. It is the earliest major set of astronomical tables to be compiled in Latin astronomy. It was widely distributed and is found in about fifty manuscripts. A great number of the tables were borrowed directly from the work of the Toledan astronomers while others were adapted to the meridian of Paris and many were later transferred to the standard version of the Parisian Alfonsine Tables. Therefore John of Lignères’ set can be considered as an intermediary work between the Toledan Tables and the Parisian Alfonsine Tables.
La tradition manuscrite du recueil "De Verbis Domini" jusqu'au XIIe siècle
Le recueil De uerbis Domini (VD) compte outre quelques pièces inauthentiques ou de provenance douteuse 51 homélies augustiniennes. Pour vingt-sept d'entre elles il est notre source unique; pour le texte de vingt et un sermons il est un témoin parmi d'autres mais indépendant et de toute façon appréciable. Seuls les serm. 52 (VD n° 63) 71 (VD 11) et 112 (VD 33) font exception: tels qu'on les lit dans VD ils dérivent d'une collection antique dont il existe à côté de VD une tradition directe. Ces trois dernières pièces ne sont pas dénuées d'intérêt au contraire: on peut en reconstituer le texte VD primitif ce qui crée un fondement solide pour observer les modifications textuelles de VD tout au long de la lignée manuscrite.
L'étude du recueil entamée par P.-P. Verbraken a été poursuivie après sa mort par R. Demeulenaere - qui avait été son adjoint dans ses investigations pendant les dernières années de sa vie - B. Coppieters 't Wallant et L. De Coninck; ces chercheurs ont pu disposer de ses papiers et de ceux de C. Lambot conservés à l'abbaye de Maredsous.
La publication actuelle décrit l'histoire du texte VD et s'applique en même temps à distinguer les principaux témoins de chaque branche de l'arbre généalogique. Elle couvre la totalité des mss. VD conservés d'avant 1100 ainsi que ceux du XIIe siècle qui reproduisent une ancienne forme textuelle et/ou structure globale du recueil n'ayant pas survécu ailleurs. Il s'agit d'une cinquantaine de mss. en tout - plus de la moitié étant analysés ici pour la première fois.
Sur base d'une collation des sermons 52 71 et 112 dont on fournit en annexe une nouvelle édition munie d'un riche apparat les auteurs identifient les familles branches et rameaux de la tradition à l'aide de quarante tables de concordances. Des reproductions photographiques montrent des accidents matériels survenus dans des mss.-sources et ayant eu ensuite des répercussions sur l'histoire du texte. L'ouvrage comporte une bibliographie exhaustive et deux index (la liste des mss. et celle des variantes significatives).