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The Emergence of Ambrosiaster

Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe

in Ambrosiaster's Political Theology

The chapter begins by explaining that two major Latin works, a set of Commentaries on all the Pauline epistles save Hebrews, and 127 Quaestiones on the Old and New Testaments are now known as the ... More

The chapter begins by explaining that two major Latin works, a set of Commentaries on all the Pauline epistles save Hebrews, and 127 Quaestiones on the Old and New Testaments are now known as the work of a single author, an anonymous author who has for over 300 years been referred to as Ambrosiaster. There have been several distinct stages in the emergence of Ambrosiaster. In the earliest phase of their circulation, portions of the Quaestiones and Commentaries were attributed by their readers to various different authors or they were said to be written anonymously. This confusion over the authorship of Ambrosiaster's works is further reflected in the manuscript tradition.Less

Ambrosiaster's Ecclesiastical Context

Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe

in Ambrosiaster's Political Theology

This chapter explores Ambrosiaster's position in and attitude towards the Roman church in the 370s and 380s. Some of the Quaestiones in particular contain clues that leads to the belief that they ... More

This chapter explores Ambrosiaster's position in and attitude towards the Roman church in the 370s and 380s. Some of the Quaestiones in particular contain clues that leads to the belief that they originated as sermons or lectures, and the possibility that Ambrosiaster wrote homiletic texts suggests he was, in fact, a cleric. The Quaestiones are given precedence in this analysis, because they are less uniform in nature than the Commentaries and contain more clues to the circumstances of their composition and delivery.Less

Remembrance of Things Lost: Ethnohistory

Diana de Armas Wilson

in Cervantes, the Novel, and the New World

This chapter turns to Cervantes's posthumously published Persiles, the novel that most strenuously references America and on which he wagered his posthumous literary fame. The novel's opening ... More

This chapter turns to Cervantes's posthumously published Persiles, the novel that most strenuously references America and on which he wagered his posthumous literary fame. The novel's opening ‘Barbaric Isle’narrative invites readers into a world of slavery and cannibalism. The discussion here also examines the role of Inca Garcilaso, the so-called ‘Herodotus of the Incas’ in this atrocious world. It furthermore examines the oft-remarked presence in Cervantes of the Royal Commentaries of the Incas. This chapter both documents and augments the role of Inca Garcilaso as Cervantes's main precursor in ‘barbaric’ scriptures.Less

Introduction

Wilfrid Prest

in William Blackstone: Law and Letters in the Eighteenth Century

This introductory chapter sets the scene and provides a rationale for the book as a whole. Various reasons are offered to explain why the author of such a major work as the Commentaries has yet to ... More

This introductory chapter sets the scene and provides a rationale for the book as a whole. Various reasons are offered to explain why the author of such a major work as the Commentaries has yet to receive anything like adequate attention from biographers and historians. Besides reviewing Blackstone's fluctuating reputation, and the state of the currently available literature on the man and his career, there is some discussion of problems of evidence and the influence of Blackstone's own autobiographical account, as represented in the authoritative ‘Memoirs’ compiled by his brother-in-law James Clitherow. The chapter concludes with a brief outline of the book's main aims, as being in particular to provide a contextualized account of Blackstone's life, told so far as possible without the benefit of hindsight. The relationship between biographer and subject is also discussed.Less

‘A Great and Able Lawyer’ (1761–69)

Wilfrid Prest

in William Blackstone: Law and Letters in the Eighteenth Century

This chapter deals with aspects of Blackstone's domestic, family and private life, his role as husband and father, his diet, alcoholic intake, lack of exercise, and martyrdom to gout. Besides ... More

This chapter deals with aspects of Blackstone's domestic, family and private life, his role as husband and father, his diet, alcoholic intake, lack of exercise, and martyrdom to gout. Besides maintaining an active presence in and around his home in the borough of Wallingford, Blackstone kept up a busy commuting existence to and from London and Oxford. His law lectures had become a celebrated institution, but shrinking enrolments and the threat of pirate publication led him to publish in book form. The highly favourable reception accorded the first two books of the Commentaries on the Laws of England helped boost Blackstone's professional profile, while his resignation from the Vinerian chair freed him to devote more time and attention to his practice and parliamentary responsibilities.Less

‘Amicitia’

Luciano Canfora and Julian Stringer (eds)

in Julius Caesar: The People's Dictator

The functioning of Roman public life depended on amicitia. The fulcrum of the political groups, amicitia also humanised and strengthened relations between representatives of different alignments. ... More

The functioning of Roman public life depended on amicitia. The fulcrum of the political groups, amicitia also humanised and strengthened relations between representatives of different alignments. According to some, it explains Roman politics: it was certainly a determining factor also because the political class had a single provenance. Indeed, ‘the conservative Roman voter could seldom be induced to elect a man whose name had not been known for centuries as a part of the history of the Republic’. Cicero reflects on amicitia in a famous treatise, in which he asserts categorically that true amicitia must be disinterested. He fails to acknowledge that amicitia founded on mutual interest and benefit may be in every sense perceived as amicitia and to all intents the same. One should look therefore not to Cicero's De amicitia for an understanding of amicitia, but rather to Caesar's Commentaries on the civil war.Less

Blackstone's Theoretical Intentions

John Finnis

in Philosophy of Law: Collected Essays Volume IV

The introductory discourse in Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765), and its definition of law, has usually been read as focused on the thesis that unjust laws are not laws. But ... More

The introductory discourse in Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765), and its definition of law, has usually been read as focused on the thesis that unjust laws are not laws. But that was not Blackstone's point, and his theoretical intentions, as manifested in the highly deliberated architecture of the Commentaries (traced in historical origin and structural and linguistic detail in the chapter), were much more interesting and complex. Like the main body of the natural law tradition, his interest lay in the various forms of derivation of positive from natural law (moral principle). His works' fruits in William Jones 1781 Essay on Bailments are methodologically superior to Bentham's work from 1776 onwards.Less

William Blackstone (1723–1780)

Lisa L. Moore, Joanna Brooks, and Caroline Wigginton (eds)

in Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions

In his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769), Sir William Blackstone articulated the legal doctrine of coverture or feme covert (l“covered woman”). According to Blackstone, women lose the ... More

In his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769), Sir William Blackstone articulated the legal doctrine of coverture or feme covert (l“covered woman”). According to Blackstone, women lose the right to make their own contracts and own their own property upon marriage; those rights are transferred to their husbands. He also calls on husbands to discipline their wives like “children” or “servants.” This chapter features Blackstone’s “Of Husband and Wife,” which is part of Commentaries on the Laws of England.Less

The Idea of Principle in Scots Criminal Law

Lindsay Farmer

in Essays in Criminal Law in Honour of Sir Gerald Gordon

This chapter tries to articulate some of the ideas about principle — or the uses of the term — that are embedded in doctrinal writings on Scots criminal law. It then examines conceptions of principle ... More

This chapter tries to articulate some of the ideas about principle — or the uses of the term — that are embedded in doctrinal writings on Scots criminal law. It then examines conceptions of principle in the literature of Scots criminal law, from Baron Hume's Commentaries to Gordon's Criminal Law, looking at the different conceptions of principle and their implications for the substantive criminal law. In so doing, it argues that Gordon's justly celebrated treatise on Criminal Law was primarily organised around an idea of principle that was in important respects alien to Scots criminal law, but that his distinctive and important contribution lies in the way that he was able in this work to graft this conception onto the more native and traditional ideas of principle that had informed the earlier development of Scots criminal law.Less

Defining Commentary

Paul White

in Jodocus Badius Ascensius: Commentary, Commerce and Print in the Renaissance

The chapter examines aspects of the history and theory of commentary, and places Badius’s own commentary practice within these contexts. It focuses in particular of the tradition of grammatica ... More

The chapter examines aspects of the history and theory of commentary, and places Badius’s own commentary practice within these contexts. It focuses in particular of the tradition of grammatica associated with the grammarians of Late Antiquity: Servius, Donatus, Diomedes. The chapter distinguishes between the designations used for different types of humanist commentary in the Renaissance, and narrows the focus to Badius’s own ‘familiar commentary’ (familiaris interpretatio). In his commentaries, on medieval and religious texts as well as on humanist and classical authors, Badius maintained an identifiably ‘humanist’ approach which was nevertheless firmly grounded in a long tradition of pedagogical commentary, bringing out the moral meanings of a text through a close examination of grammar and style. The chapter examines the defining features of this type of commentary, its composition and uses, and analyses the figurative language Badius used to characterize his commentary text.Less

Contemporary American Harshness: Rejecting Respect for Persons

James Q. Whitman

in Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe

This chapter refers to Blackstone's Commentaries to further examine Blackstone's interpretation of the place that the respect for persons holds in the ... More

This chapter refers to Blackstone's Commentaries to further examine Blackstone's interpretation of the place that the respect for persons holds in the law. Blackstone believed that common law rejected the notion of “respect of persons”—the Christian term used in the New Testament to depict how Christ refused to respect the differences in social classes—since the common law did not account for social rank and position. With this, common law is described not merely as Christian, but as something enlightening. The chapter explains that America's criminal justice system rejects this respect of persons because it aims to treat people equally, and that this approach veers away from treating offenders with respect.Less

Blackstone, an English Institutist: Legal Literature and the Rise of the Nation State

John W Cairns

in Law, Lawyers, and Humanism: Selected Essays on the History of Scots Law, Volume 1

The publication of Blackstone’s Commentaries in the 1760s initially gained a favourable reception. However, the criticisms made in 1776 by Bentham in the Fragment on Government did such serious ... More

The publication of Blackstone’s Commentaries in the 1760s initially gained a favourable reception. However, the criticisms made in 1776 by Bentham in the Fragment on Government did such serious damage to Blackstone’s reputation that, in the nineteenth century, among many scholars, his standing was low. This chapter argues that an important way of understanding Blackstone’s book is as an institutional work. This argument is developed in three parts: first, institutional writings as a genre will briefly be discussed; second, the recognition of this genre in England will be described; and third, Blackstone’s status as an institutional writer will be argued for, and the solution this provides to some of the problems related to his Commentaries will be demonstrated.Less

Introduction: F. W. Walbank, Polybius, and the Decline of Greece

Bruce Gibson and Thomas Harrison

in Polybius and his World: Essays in Memory of F.W. Walbank

This chapter takes as its starting-point Walbank's writings on Greek decline. Far from having renounced his political interests in order to write his commentary on Polybius, Walbank's examination of ... More

This chapter takes as its starting-point Walbank's writings on Greek decline. Far from having renounced his political interests in order to write his commentary on Polybius, Walbank's examination of the decline of ancient societies (both Greek and Roman) is deeply embedded within Walbank's wider political and social concerns. Though the 1930s and 1940s was the period where Walbank's historiography is most obviously engaged with contemporary concerns, echoing his interest in historians such as Rostovtzeff and De Sanctis, engagement with the contemporary world remains a significant but underrated element of his scholarship throughout his career. Drawing extensively on Walbank's unpublished papers (now held in Liverpool), this chapter seeks to set the poise and objectivity of Walbank's achievement as an ancient historian in counterpoint with a pervasive and long-lasting element of his work, the continuing topicality of ancient history in the modern world.Less

‘A piece of work which would occupy some years…’ Oxford University Press Archive Files 814152, 814173, 814011

John Henderson

in Polybius and his World: Essays in Memory of F.W. Walbank

This chapter examines the history of Walbank's engagement with Polybius and subsequently with his commentary on Polybius, whose origins and development towards publication is charted against the ... More

This chapter examines the history of Walbank's engagement with Polybius and subsequently with his commentary on Polybius, whose origins and development towards publication is charted against the materials held in the archives of Oxford University Press, and against Walbank's career and his unpublished memoir, Hypomnemata. As well as showing how the history of scholarship can be illuminated by the study of publication practice, the sustained examination of correspondence between the Press and Walbank (and involving other scholars as well) demonstrates how Walbank's initial plan of writing on Tacitus' Histories came to metamorphose into a commentary on Polybius. His skilful correspondence with the Press over decades thus enabled him to ensure that his commentary had the necessary scale and physical scope of three substantial volumes that such a project of 'long-distance writing' needed.Less

: Blackstone's Liberal Education for Law and Politics

in The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism

This chapter focuses on the influence of Sir William Blackstone's training of lawyers and judges in liberal constitutions and states that he also had an important influence on liberal politics. ... More

This chapter focuses on the influence of Sir William Blackstone's training of lawyers and judges in liberal constitutions and states that he also had an important influence on liberal politics. Contrary to the portrait of him painted by Jeremy Bentham and others impatient for progress toward more radical reforms of liberal constitutionalism, he understood the Commentaries as embodying a reform project in English law. The contempt of Blackstone's critics is proportional, ironically, to this striking achievement in the history of Anglo-American and modern law. Blackstone like Montesquieu would get the benefits of modern philosophy as evident in the Commentaries' subsequent discussion of the state of nature, or of Beccaria on a precise scale of punishments. Analysis of Blackstone's debt to Montesquieu confirms that such “public spirit” represents the jurisprudence of The Spirit of the Laws—not least with regard to the role of the judicial power in a complex constitution of liberty.Less

: A Gothic and Liberal Constitution: Blackstone's Tempering of Sovereignty

in The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism

This chapter compares the common law by Blackstone to a Gothic castle that gradually renovated, but not replaced, by respectful craftsmen as Blackstone places constitutional structures above ... More

This chapter compares the common law by Blackstone to a Gothic castle that gradually renovated, but not replaced, by respectful craftsmen as Blackstone places constitutional structures above immediate utility, both as a matter of the rule of law and to promote the ultimate utility for liberty and liberalism of such enduring principles. Blackstone adopted to a large extent Lord Hawkesbury's less jingoistic, but still patriotic mode, mostly citing Montesquieu for general principles of liberty, and when citing him on specific laws, French or otherwise, usually doing so in support of English law. Blackstone is as much a positivist as Hobbes or was “a forerunner of Austinian jurisprudence” as judged by the jurisprudence of the Commentaries that is too complex and balanced. Therefore, Blackstone's introductory discourse quietly places judicial power at the center of his theory of constitutional and statutory interpretation.Less