Kevin Madigan
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195322743
- eISBN:
- 9780199785407
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195322743.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Theologians have always struggled to understand how humanity and divinity coexisted in the person of Christ. Proponents of the Arian heresy, which held that Jesus could not have been fully divine, ...
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Theologians have always struggled to understand how humanity and divinity coexisted in the person of Christ. Proponents of the Arian heresy, which held that Jesus could not have been fully divine, found significant scriptural evidence of their position. The defenders of orthodoxy, such as Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome, and Augustine, believed that these biblical passages could be reconciled with Christ's divinity. Medieval theologians such as Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure, also grappled with these texts when confronting the rising threat of Arian heresy. They too faced the need to preserve Jesus' authentic humanity and to describe a mode of experiencing the passions that cast no doubt upon the perfect divinity of the Incarnate Word. However, they also confronted an additional obstacle. The medieval theologians had inherited from the Greek and Latin fathers a body of opinion on the passages in question, which by this time had achieved normative cultural status in the Christian tradition. However, the Greek and Latin fathers wrote in a polemical situation, responding to the threat to orthodoxy posed by the Arians. As a consequence, they sometimes found themselves driven to extreme and sometimes contradictory statements. These statements seemed to their medieval successors either to compromise the true divinity of Christ, his true humanity, or the possibility that the divine and human were in communication with or metaphysically linked to one another. As a result, medieval theologians also needed to demonstrate how two equally authoritative but apparently contradictory statements could be reconciled. This book examines the arguments that resulted from these dual pressures and finds that, under the guise of unchanging assimilation and transmission of a unanimous tradition, there were in fact many fissures and discontinuities between the two bodies of thought, ancient and medieval. Rather than organic change or development, the book finds radical change, trial, novelty, and even heterodoxy.Less
Theologians have always struggled to understand how humanity and divinity coexisted in the person of Christ. Proponents of the Arian heresy, which held that Jesus could not have been fully divine, found significant scriptural evidence of their position. The defenders of orthodoxy, such as Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome, and Augustine, believed that these biblical passages could be reconciled with Christ's divinity. Medieval theologians such as Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure, also grappled with these texts when confronting the rising threat of Arian heresy. They too faced the need to preserve Jesus' authentic humanity and to describe a mode of experiencing the passions that cast no doubt upon the perfect divinity of the Incarnate Word. However, they also confronted an additional obstacle. The medieval theologians had inherited from the Greek and Latin fathers a body of opinion on the passages in question, which by this time had achieved normative cultural status in the Christian tradition. However, the Greek and Latin fathers wrote in a polemical situation, responding to the threat to orthodoxy posed by the Arians. As a consequence, they sometimes found themselves driven to extreme and sometimes contradictory statements. These statements seemed to their medieval successors either to compromise the true divinity of Christ, his true humanity, or the possibility that the divine and human were in communication with or metaphysically linked to one another. As a result, medieval theologians also needed to demonstrate how two equally authoritative but apparently contradictory statements could be reconciled. This book examines the arguments that resulted from these dual pressures and finds that, under the guise of unchanging assimilation and transmission of a unanimous tradition, there were in fact many fissures and discontinuities between the two bodies of thought, ancient and medieval. Rather than organic change or development, the book finds radical change, trial, novelty, and even heterodoxy.
Alexander Broadie
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198240266
- eISBN:
- 9780191680137
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198240266.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics, History of Philosophy
Medieval logicians advanced far beyond the logic of Aristotle and the aim of this book is to show how far that advance took them in two central areas. This book focuses upon the work of some of the ...
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Medieval logicians advanced far beyond the logic of Aristotle and the aim of this book is to show how far that advance took them in two central areas. This book focuses upon the work of some of the great figures of the 14th century, including Walter Burley, William Ockham, John Buridan, Albert of Saxony, and Paul of Venice, and deals with their theories of truth, conditions, and validity conditions. It reveals how much of what seems characteristically 20th-century logica was familiar long ago. This book, in its second edition, provides full accounts of supposition of intentional contexts, and of medieval syllogistics.Less
Medieval logicians advanced far beyond the logic of Aristotle and the aim of this book is to show how far that advance took them in two central areas. This book focuses upon the work of some of the great figures of the 14th century, including Walter Burley, William Ockham, John Buridan, Albert of Saxony, and Paul of Venice, and deals with their theories of truth, conditions, and validity conditions. It reveals how much of what seems characteristically 20th-century logica was familiar long ago. This book, in its second edition, provides full accounts of supposition of intentional contexts, and of medieval syllogistics.
Emma Dillon
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199732951
- eISBN:
- 9780199932061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732951.003.0108
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This short epilogue looks beyond the specific topic of the book to suggest ways in which the approaches developed may speak to larger issues current in musicology and medieval studies. Specifically, ...
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This short epilogue looks beyond the specific topic of the book to suggest ways in which the approaches developed may speak to larger issues current in musicology and medieval studies. Specifically, it emphasizes why the pursuit of a history of sonic experience may be desirable in the contemporary climate of these fields.Less
This short epilogue looks beyond the specific topic of the book to suggest ways in which the approaches developed may speak to larger issues current in musicology and medieval studies. Specifically, it emphasizes why the pursuit of a history of sonic experience may be desirable in the contemporary climate of these fields.
Theodore Markopoulos
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199539857
- eISBN:
- 9780191716317
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199539857.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Historical Linguistics
This book investigates the development of three future‐referring constructions in Greek, namely “μέλλω / œχω / θέλω + Infinitive / complement clause” in the classical (5th–4th c. BC), the ...
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This book investigates the development of three future‐referring constructions in Greek, namely “μέλλω / œχω / θέλω + Infinitive / complement clause” in the classical (5th–4th c. BC), the Hellenistic–Roman (3rd c. BC–4th c. AD), the Early Medieval (5th–10th c. AD), and the Late Medieval period (11th–15th c. AD). Despite their co‐occurrence in all these periods, it is shown for the first time that these constructions were increasingly differentiated in terms of their semantic, syntactic, and sociolinguistic properties. The analysis sheds new light on these developments, since large parts are based on hitherto unknown material, drawn especially from papyri and non‐literary documents. The investigation is based on the functional–typological perspective of grammaticalization, and it pays particular attention to a variety of—often neglected—factors, such as language contact. The typological predictions concerning future‐referring forms are found lacking in some respects, and various modifications are proposed accordingly.Less
This book investigates the development of three future‐referring constructions in Greek, namely “μέλλω / œχω / θέλω + Infinitive / complement clause” in the classical (5th–4th c. BC), the Hellenistic–Roman (3rd c. BC–4th c. AD), the Early Medieval (5th–10th c. AD), and the Late Medieval period (11th–15th c. AD). Despite their co‐occurrence in all these periods, it is shown for the first time that these constructions were increasingly differentiated in terms of their semantic, syntactic, and sociolinguistic properties. The analysis sheds new light on these developments, since large parts are based on hitherto unknown material, drawn especially from papyri and non‐literary documents. The investigation is based on the functional–typological perspective of grammaticalization, and it pays particular attention to a variety of—often neglected—factors, such as language contact. The typological predictions concerning future‐referring forms are found lacking in some respects, and various modifications are proposed accordingly.
Ranald Michie
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199280612
- eISBN:
- 9780191712784
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280612.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book presents a history of the global securities market. It is the product of over thirty years of research. It covers many aspects of the history of the securities markets from its beginnings ...
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This book presents a history of the global securities market. It is the product of over thirty years of research. It covers many aspects of the history of the securities markets from its beginnings in Medieval Venice through Amsterdam and London to its operations in Tokyo and New York today. It integrates the history of both stocks and bonds, established and emerging markets, stock exchanges and over-the-counter trading, and the crises and continuity that have made the global securities market such a force in the world over the centuries.Less
This book presents a history of the global securities market. It is the product of over thirty years of research. It covers many aspects of the history of the securities markets from its beginnings in Medieval Venice through Amsterdam and London to its operations in Tokyo and New York today. It integrates the history of both stocks and bonds, established and emerging markets, stock exchanges and over-the-counter trading, and the crises and continuity that have made the global securities market such a force in the world over the centuries.
Sanford Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195374728
- eISBN:
- 9780199871506
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374728.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This study of C. S. Lewis’s popular Space Trilogy—Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), and That Hideous Strength (1945)—departs from the prevailing emphasis upon Lewis’s affection for ...
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This study of C. S. Lewis’s popular Space Trilogy—Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), and That Hideous Strength (1945)—departs from the prevailing emphasis upon Lewis’s affection for the “Medieval Model” of the universe and situates Lewis’s work in the context of modern intellectual, cultural, and political history. It demonstrates that Lewis did not simply dismiss the modern “Developmental Model,” as is often assumed, but discriminated carefully among different kinds of evolutionary theory and the manner in which they influenced modern thinking about human nature, social practice, and religious conviction. It also shows that the “unfallen” imaginary worlds that Lewis constructs on Mars and Venus are derived not only from classical and medieval sources but also from the transfiguration or “taking up” of the same modern evolutionary paradigm he is ostensibly putting down. This perspective on the Space Trilogy (an appendix is devoted to the abortive “Dark Tower”) brings out the enduring relevance of Lewis’s “scientific romances” to contemporary concerns on a wide variety of issues, including our relations to the natural world and the other species with whom we share Earth, the ethical and political problems surrounding the emerging revolution in bio-technology, and the seemingly intractable struggle between religious and naturalistic worldviews in the twenty-first century. Far from a simple struggle between an old-fashioned Christian humanism and a newfangled heresy, Lewis’s Space Trilogy is the searching effort of a modern religious apologist to sustain and enrich the former through critical engagement with the latter.Less
This study of C. S. Lewis’s popular Space Trilogy—Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), and That Hideous Strength (1945)—departs from the prevailing emphasis upon Lewis’s affection for the “Medieval Model” of the universe and situates Lewis’s work in the context of modern intellectual, cultural, and political history. It demonstrates that Lewis did not simply dismiss the modern “Developmental Model,” as is often assumed, but discriminated carefully among different kinds of evolutionary theory and the manner in which they influenced modern thinking about human nature, social practice, and religious conviction. It also shows that the “unfallen” imaginary worlds that Lewis constructs on Mars and Venus are derived not only from classical and medieval sources but also from the transfiguration or “taking up” of the same modern evolutionary paradigm he is ostensibly putting down. This perspective on the Space Trilogy (an appendix is devoted to the abortive “Dark Tower”) brings out the enduring relevance of Lewis’s “scientific romances” to contemporary concerns on a wide variety of issues, including our relations to the natural world and the other species with whom we share Earth, the ethical and political problems surrounding the emerging revolution in bio-technology, and the seemingly intractable struggle between religious and naturalistic worldviews in the twenty-first century. Far from a simple struggle between an old-fashioned Christian humanism and a newfangled heresy, Lewis’s Space Trilogy is the searching effort of a modern religious apologist to sustain and enrich the former through critical engagement with the latter.
Denis J. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199207145
- eISBN:
- 9780191708893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207145.003.0013
- Subject:
- Biology, Plant Sciences and Forestry
The classical and medieval periods of 1800 BCE to 1500 CE were characterized by some limited technical innovation in agriculture, but little progress was made in crop improvement as global ...
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The classical and medieval periods of 1800 BCE to 1500 CE were characterized by some limited technical innovation in agriculture, but little progress was made in crop improvement as global populations ceased their expansion, which had been occurring since the early Holocene. Babylonian and Assyrian imperial rulers established a much-copied precedent of introducing new crops from conquered regions and in producing manuals for agricultural management. From 500 to 50 BCE, Greek naturalists began systematically to study plant biology and publish their findings, but this first blooming of scientific methodology proved short lived. Later cultures tended to reinterpret old knowledge rather than create it anew. From 700 CE, the expanding Muslim empires introduced many improvements into Mediterranean farming from the Near East, most notably in their Iberian realm of Al Andalus. Medieval farming in Europe was relatively stagnant and declined further after 1320 CE during the Little Ice Age.Less
The classical and medieval periods of 1800 BCE to 1500 CE were characterized by some limited technical innovation in agriculture, but little progress was made in crop improvement as global populations ceased their expansion, which had been occurring since the early Holocene. Babylonian and Assyrian imperial rulers established a much-copied precedent of introducing new crops from conquered regions and in producing manuals for agricultural management. From 500 to 50 BCE, Greek naturalists began systematically to study plant biology and publish their findings, but this first blooming of scientific methodology proved short lived. Later cultures tended to reinterpret old knowledge rather than create it anew. From 700 CE, the expanding Muslim empires introduced many improvements into Mediterranean farming from the Near East, most notably in their Iberian realm of Al Andalus. Medieval farming in Europe was relatively stagnant and declined further after 1320 CE during the Little Ice Age.
Geri L. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813033365
- eISBN:
- 9780813038889
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813033365.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
One of the most popular genres created and performed by Medieval troubadours and trouvères was the pastourelle. Though it varied greatly in its details, the genre was dominated by the following ...
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One of the most popular genres created and performed by Medieval troubadours and trouvères was the pastourelle. Though it varied greatly in its details, the genre was dominated by the following theme: a passing knight encounters and attempts to seduce a shepherdess who, in turn, defends herself against his advances in a variety of ways. The brilliance of the artists who manipulated the genre was revealed in their ability to innovate, synthesize, and elaborate upon the constraints of the form. This book examines the genre in the hands of three Medieval masters: Adam de la Halle, Jean Froissart, and Christine de Pizan. The author explores the very different ways in which these individuals engaged with the form and subject matter of the pastourelle and transformed it, variously, into a stage for their dramatic artistry, a forum for their responses to social and ideological conditions, and, ultimately, into a distinctive statement bearing their individual mark. The result sheds new light on the evolving concept of author in the Middle Ages.Less
One of the most popular genres created and performed by Medieval troubadours and trouvères was the pastourelle. Though it varied greatly in its details, the genre was dominated by the following theme: a passing knight encounters and attempts to seduce a shepherdess who, in turn, defends herself against his advances in a variety of ways. The brilliance of the artists who manipulated the genre was revealed in their ability to innovate, synthesize, and elaborate upon the constraints of the form. This book examines the genre in the hands of three Medieval masters: Adam de la Halle, Jean Froissart, and Christine de Pizan. The author explores the very different ways in which these individuals engaged with the form and subject matter of the pastourelle and transformed it, variously, into a stage for their dramatic artistry, a forum for their responses to social and ideological conditions, and, ultimately, into a distinctive statement bearing their individual mark. The result sheds new light on the evolving concept of author in the Middle Ages.
Richard Ashdowne and Carolinne White (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780197266083
- eISBN:
- 9780191851476
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it ...
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This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it was nevertheless used extensively for a wide variety of functions from religion, literature, and philosophy to record-keeping and correspondence. It existed alongside a number of everyday native spoken languages, including English, Anglo-Norman French, and Welsh. The chapters examine Latin with regard to the many multilingual contexts in which it was used, looking beyond narrow comparisons with its Roman ancestor to see what medieval users did with Latin and the diverse effects this had on the language. The fifteen chapters are divided into three parts. The first part considers important examples of Latin usage in Britain during four successive periods, pre-Conquest, the 12th, long-14th, and 15th and 16th centuries. In the second part, examples of different spheres of use are examined, including the law, the church, music, and science (and its assimilation of Arabic). In the final part the use of Latin is considered alongside the many native languages of medieval Britain, looking at how the languages had different roles and how they influenced each other. In all the many contexts in which Latin was used, its use reveals continuity matched with adaptation to circumstance, not least in the development of new vocabulary for the language. Between these two poles users of Latin steered a course that suited their own needs and those of their intended audience.Less
This collection considers key issues arising from the use of Medieval Latin in Britain from the 6th to 16th centuries. Although in this period Anglo-Latin was not the native language of its users, it was nevertheless used extensively for a wide variety of functions from religion, literature, and philosophy to record-keeping and correspondence. It existed alongside a number of everyday native spoken languages, including English, Anglo-Norman French, and Welsh. The chapters examine Latin with regard to the many multilingual contexts in which it was used, looking beyond narrow comparisons with its Roman ancestor to see what medieval users did with Latin and the diverse effects this had on the language. The fifteen chapters are divided into three parts. The first part considers important examples of Latin usage in Britain during four successive periods, pre-Conquest, the 12th, long-14th, and 15th and 16th centuries. In the second part, examples of different spheres of use are examined, including the law, the church, music, and science (and its assimilation of Arabic). In the final part the use of Latin is considered alongside the many native languages of medieval Britain, looking at how the languages had different roles and how they influenced each other. In all the many contexts in which Latin was used, its use reveals continuity matched with adaptation to circumstance, not least in the development of new vocabulary for the language. Between these two poles users of Latin steered a course that suited their own needs and those of their intended audience.
Victor J. Katz and Karen Hunger Parshall
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149059
- eISBN:
- 9781400850525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149059.003.0005
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter takes a look at the scope of mathematics in Ancient and Medieval China. Although the Chinese engaged in numerical calculation as early as the middle of the second millennium BCE, the ...
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This chapter takes a look at the scope of mathematics in Ancient and Medieval China. Although the Chinese engaged in numerical calculation as early as the middle of the second millennium BCE, the earliest detailed written evidence of the solution of mathematical problems in China is the Suan shu shu (or Book of Numbers and Computation), a book discovered in a tomb dated to approximately 200 BCE. The Suan shu shu was part of the Chinese intellectual culture shaped in part by China's tempestuous political history. Within this history, Chinese mathematicians—who seemingly worked in isolation and in widely disparate parts of the country—gradually developed new methods for treating various problems that their works needed to contain. Here, the chapter discusses various mathematical explorations set out by Chinese scholars, such as the Chinese remainder problem.Less
This chapter takes a look at the scope of mathematics in Ancient and Medieval China. Although the Chinese engaged in numerical calculation as early as the middle of the second millennium BCE, the earliest detailed written evidence of the solution of mathematical problems in China is the Suan shu shu (or Book of Numbers and Computation), a book discovered in a tomb dated to approximately 200 BCE. The Suan shu shu was part of the Chinese intellectual culture shaped in part by China's tempestuous political history. Within this history, Chinese mathematicians—who seemingly worked in isolation and in widely disparate parts of the country—gradually developed new methods for treating various problems that their works needed to contain. Here, the chapter discusses various mathematical explorations set out by Chinese scholars, such as the Chinese remainder problem.
Konrad Hirschler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474408776
- eISBN:
- 9781474418812
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474408776.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
The written text was a pervasive feature of cultural practices in the medieval Middle East. At the heart of book circulation stood libraries that experienced a rapid expansion from the twelfth ...
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The written text was a pervasive feature of cultural practices in the medieval Middle East. At the heart of book circulation stood libraries that experienced a rapid expansion from the twelfth century onwards. While the existence of these libraries is well known our knowledge of their content and structure has been very limited as hardly any medieval Arabic catalogues have been preserved. This book discusses the largest and earliest medieval library of the Middle East for which we have documentation – the Ashrafiya library in the very centre of Damascus – and edits its catalogue. This catalogue shows that even book collections attached to Sunni religious institutions could hold rather unexpected titles, such as stories from the 1001 Nights, manuals for traders, medical handbooks, Shiite prayers, love poetry and texts extolling wine consumption. At the same time this library catalogue decisively expands our knowledge of how the books were spatially organised on the bookshelves of such a large medieval library. With over 2,000 entries this catalogue is essential reading for anybody interested in the cultural and intellectual history of Arabic societies. Setting the Ashrafiya catalogue into a comparative perspective with contemporaneous libraries on the British Isles this book opens new perspectives for the study of medieval libraries.Less
The written text was a pervasive feature of cultural practices in the medieval Middle East. At the heart of book circulation stood libraries that experienced a rapid expansion from the twelfth century onwards. While the existence of these libraries is well known our knowledge of their content and structure has been very limited as hardly any medieval Arabic catalogues have been preserved. This book discusses the largest and earliest medieval library of the Middle East for which we have documentation – the Ashrafiya library in the very centre of Damascus – and edits its catalogue. This catalogue shows that even book collections attached to Sunni religious institutions could hold rather unexpected titles, such as stories from the 1001 Nights, manuals for traders, medical handbooks, Shiite prayers, love poetry and texts extolling wine consumption. At the same time this library catalogue decisively expands our knowledge of how the books were spatially organised on the bookshelves of such a large medieval library. With over 2,000 entries this catalogue is essential reading for anybody interested in the cultural and intellectual history of Arabic societies. Setting the Ashrafiya catalogue into a comparative perspective with contemporaneous libraries on the British Isles this book opens new perspectives for the study of medieval libraries.
Thomas Prendergast and Stephanie Trigg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526126863
- eISBN:
- 9781526142009
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526126863.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book destabilises the customary disciplinary and epistemological oppositions between medieval studies and modern medievalism. It argues that the twinned concepts of “the medieval” and ...
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This book destabilises the customary disciplinary and epistemological oppositions between medieval studies and modern medievalism. It argues that the twinned concepts of “the medieval” and post-medieval “medievalism” are mutually though unevenly constitutive, not just in the contemporary era, but from the medieval period on. Medieval and medievalist culture share similar concerns about the nature of temporality, and the means by which we approach or “touch” the past, whether through textual or material culture, or the conceptual frames through which we approach those artefacts. Those approaches are often affective ones, often structured around love, abjection and discontent. Medieval writers offer powerful models for the ways in which contemporary desire determines the constitution of the past. This desire can not only connect us with the past but can reconnect present readers with the lost history of what we call the medievalism of the medievals. In other words, to come to terms with the history of the medieval is to understand that it already offers us a model of how to relate to the past. The book ranges across literary and historical texts, but is equally attentive to material culture and its problematic witness to the reality of the historical past.Less
This book destabilises the customary disciplinary and epistemological oppositions between medieval studies and modern medievalism. It argues that the twinned concepts of “the medieval” and post-medieval “medievalism” are mutually though unevenly constitutive, not just in the contemporary era, but from the medieval period on. Medieval and medievalist culture share similar concerns about the nature of temporality, and the means by which we approach or “touch” the past, whether through textual or material culture, or the conceptual frames through which we approach those artefacts. Those approaches are often affective ones, often structured around love, abjection and discontent. Medieval writers offer powerful models for the ways in which contemporary desire determines the constitution of the past. This desire can not only connect us with the past but can reconnect present readers with the lost history of what we call the medievalism of the medievals. In other words, to come to terms with the history of the medieval is to understand that it already offers us a model of how to relate to the past. The book ranges across literary and historical texts, but is equally attentive to material culture and its problematic witness to the reality of the historical past.
Christopher I. Beckwith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155319
- eISBN:
- 9781400845170
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155319.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other ...
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This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other cultures that had the same constitutive elements but did not develop science. These are the control cases, which include India, Tibet, China, and the Byzantine Empire. The first civilization in the world to develop a full scientific culture was medieval Western Europe. It led directly to the scientific revolution—during which some changes to the details of the constituent elements took place—and continued on down to modern science. The essential elements of medieval science were introduced to Western Europe via Classical Arabic civilization. The chapter describes the appearance of science in Medieval Latin Europe and the decline of science in the medieval Islamic world.Less
This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other cultures that had the same constitutive elements but did not develop science. These are the control cases, which include India, Tibet, China, and the Byzantine Empire. The first civilization in the world to develop a full scientific culture was medieval Western Europe. It led directly to the scientific revolution—during which some changes to the details of the constituent elements took place—and continued on down to modern science. The essential elements of medieval science were introduced to Western Europe via Classical Arabic civilization. The chapter describes the appearance of science in Medieval Latin Europe and the decline of science in the medieval Islamic world.
Michael Lapidge and Peter Matthews
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263204
- eISBN:
- 9780191734205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263204.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Vivienne Law acquired a mastery of the field of late antique and early Medieval Latin grammar, her first task was to familiarise herself with the early medieval manuscripts in which grammatical texts ...
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Vivienne Law acquired a mastery of the field of late antique and early Medieval Latin grammar, her first task was to familiarise herself with the early medieval manuscripts in which grammatical texts were transmitted. This task necessitated constant travel to British and continental libraries in order to provide herself with transcriptions of grammatical texts; it also necessitated the acquisition of a huge collection of microfilms of grammatical manuscripts. Her work on these manuscripts soon revealed a vast and uncharted sea of unedited and unstudied grammatical texts, for the most part anonymous. A major component of her life's work was the attempt to chart this sea. Her earliest publications reveal a profound experience of grammatical manuscripts and a refusal simply to reiterate the opinions of earlier scholars. All these publications report new discoveries, such as previously unknown Old English glosses to the Ars grammatica of Tatwine, an early 8th-century Anglo-Saxon grammarian; or unsuspected aspects of the relationship between Anglo-Saxon and continental learning as revealed in the transmission of the grammars of Boniface and Tatwine; or the true nature of the jumbled and misunderstood grammar attributed to the early Irish grammarian Malsachanus.Less
Vivienne Law acquired a mastery of the field of late antique and early Medieval Latin grammar, her first task was to familiarise herself with the early medieval manuscripts in which grammatical texts were transmitted. This task necessitated constant travel to British and continental libraries in order to provide herself with transcriptions of grammatical texts; it also necessitated the acquisition of a huge collection of microfilms of grammatical manuscripts. Her work on these manuscripts soon revealed a vast and uncharted sea of unedited and unstudied grammatical texts, for the most part anonymous. A major component of her life's work was the attempt to chart this sea. Her earliest publications reveal a profound experience of grammatical manuscripts and a refusal simply to reiterate the opinions of earlier scholars. All these publications report new discoveries, such as previously unknown Old English glosses to the Ars grammatica of Tatwine, an early 8th-century Anglo-Saxon grammarian; or unsuspected aspects of the relationship between Anglo-Saxon and continental learning as revealed in the transmission of the grammars of Boniface and Tatwine; or the true nature of the jumbled and misunderstood grammar attributed to the early Irish grammarian Malsachanus.
Lindy Brady
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781784994198
- eISBN:
- 9781526128386
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784994198.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England is the first study of the Anglo-Welsh border region in the period before the Norman arrival in England, from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. ...
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Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England is the first study of the Anglo-Welsh border region in the period before the Norman arrival in England, from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Its conclusions significantly alter our current picture of Anglo/Welsh relations before the Norman Conquest by overturning the longstanding critical belief that relations between these two peoples during this period were predominately contentious. Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates that the region which would later become the March of Wales was not a military frontier in Anglo-Saxon England, but a distinctively mixed Anglo-Welsh cultural zone which was depicted as a singular place in contemporary Welsh and Anglo-Saxon texts. This book studies how the region of the Welsh borderlands before 1066 was depicted in a group of texts from early medieval Britain which have traditionally been interpreted as reflecting a clear and adversarial Anglo/Welsh divide. Chapters focus on some of the most central literary and historical works from Anglo-Saxon England, including Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Latin and Old English Lives of St. Guthlac, the Old English Exeter Book Riddles, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. These texts depict the Welsh borderlands region differently than the rest of Wales — not as the site of Anglo/Welsh conflict, but as a distinct region with a mixed culture. Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England alters our understanding of how the Anglo-Saxons and Welsh interacted with one another in the centuries before the Norman arrival. It demonstrates that the region of the Welsh borderlands was much more culturally coherent, and the impact of the Norman Conquest on it much greater, than has been previously realised.Less
Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England is the first study of the Anglo-Welsh border region in the period before the Norman arrival in England, from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Its conclusions significantly alter our current picture of Anglo/Welsh relations before the Norman Conquest by overturning the longstanding critical belief that relations between these two peoples during this period were predominately contentious. Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates that the region which would later become the March of Wales was not a military frontier in Anglo-Saxon England, but a distinctively mixed Anglo-Welsh cultural zone which was depicted as a singular place in contemporary Welsh and Anglo-Saxon texts. This book studies how the region of the Welsh borderlands before 1066 was depicted in a group of texts from early medieval Britain which have traditionally been interpreted as reflecting a clear and adversarial Anglo/Welsh divide. Chapters focus on some of the most central literary and historical works from Anglo-Saxon England, including Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Latin and Old English Lives of St. Guthlac, the Old English Exeter Book Riddles, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. These texts depict the Welsh borderlands region differently than the rest of Wales — not as the site of Anglo/Welsh conflict, but as a distinct region with a mixed culture. Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England alters our understanding of how the Anglo-Saxons and Welsh interacted with one another in the centuries before the Norman arrival. It demonstrates that the region of the Welsh borderlands was much more culturally coherent, and the impact of the Norman Conquest on it much greater, than has been previously realised.
J. A. Burrow
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117551
- eISBN:
- 9780191670985
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117551.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Medieval Europe inherited from antiquity a rich and varied tradition of thought about the aetates hominum. Scholars divided human life into three, four, six, or seven ages, and so related it to ...
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Medieval Europe inherited from antiquity a rich and varied tradition of thought about the aetates hominum. Scholars divided human life into three, four, six, or seven ages, and so related it to larger orders of nature and history in which similar patterns were to be found. Thus, the seven ages correspond to and are governed by the seven planets. These ideas flowed through the Middle Ages in many channels: sermons and Bible commentaries, moral and political treatises, encyclopaedias and lexicons, medical and astrological handbooks, didactic and courtly poems, tapestries, wall-paintings, and stained-glass windows. The author's account of this material, using mainly but not exclusively English medieval sources, includes a consideration of some of the ways in which such ideas of natural order entered into the medieval writer's assessment of human behaviour. The book ends by showing how medieval writers commonly recognize and endorse the natural processes by which ordinary folk pass from the joys and folly of youth to the sorrows and wisdom of old age.Less
Medieval Europe inherited from antiquity a rich and varied tradition of thought about the aetates hominum. Scholars divided human life into three, four, six, or seven ages, and so related it to larger orders of nature and history in which similar patterns were to be found. Thus, the seven ages correspond to and are governed by the seven planets. These ideas flowed through the Middle Ages in many channels: sermons and Bible commentaries, moral and political treatises, encyclopaedias and lexicons, medical and astrological handbooks, didactic and courtly poems, tapestries, wall-paintings, and stained-glass windows. The author's account of this material, using mainly but not exclusively English medieval sources, includes a consideration of some of the ways in which such ideas of natural order entered into the medieval writer's assessment of human behaviour. The book ends by showing how medieval writers commonly recognize and endorse the natural processes by which ordinary folk pass from the joys and folly of youth to the sorrows and wisdom of old age.
Orri Vesteinsson
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207993
- eISBN:
- 9780191677885
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207993.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History, History of Religion
In this historical study of High-Medieval Iceland, the author investigates the influence of the Christian Church on the formation of the earliest state structures in Iceland, from the conversion in ...
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In this historical study of High-Medieval Iceland, the author investigates the influence of the Christian Church on the formation of the earliest state structures in Iceland, from the conversion in 1000 to the union with Norway in 1262. In the history of mankind, states and state structures have usually been established before the advent of written records. As a result historians are rarely able to trace with certainty the early development of complex structures of government. In Iceland, literacy and the practice of native history writing had been established by the beginning of the twelfth century; whereas the formation of a centralized government did not occur until more than a hundred years later. The early development of state-like structures has therefore been unusually well chronicled, in the Icelandic Sagas, and in the historical records of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Based on this material, this book contributes to the discussion on the formation of states.Less
In this historical study of High-Medieval Iceland, the author investigates the influence of the Christian Church on the formation of the earliest state structures in Iceland, from the conversion in 1000 to the union with Norway in 1262. In the history of mankind, states and state structures have usually been established before the advent of written records. As a result historians are rarely able to trace with certainty the early development of complex structures of government. In Iceland, literacy and the practice of native history writing had been established by the beginning of the twelfth century; whereas the formation of a centralized government did not occur until more than a hundred years later. The early development of state-like structures has therefore been unusually well chronicled, in the Icelandic Sagas, and in the historical records of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Based on this material, this book contributes to the discussion on the formation of states.
Henry Phelps Brown
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198286486
- eISBN:
- 9780191596773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198286481.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This chapter on the early principles of equality and inequality starts by looking at the ancient Greek view of inequality––the Greeks having been very conscious of the differences between people's ...
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This chapter on the early principles of equality and inequality starts by looking at the ancient Greek view of inequality––the Greeks having been very conscious of the differences between people's ways of life. It goes on in the next section to discuss progression to the idea of ‘equality before the law of nature’. This began with the view developed by the Greeks that all things behave according to the laws of their own beings, and continued on to the Roman view of equality according to the law of nature, in which the challenge to inequality was sustained. The last section of the chapter looks at the mediaeval view of inequality.Less
This chapter on the early principles of equality and inequality starts by looking at the ancient Greek view of inequality––the Greeks having been very conscious of the differences between people's ways of life. It goes on in the next section to discuss progression to the idea of ‘equality before the law of nature’. This began with the view developed by the Greeks that all things behave according to the laws of their own beings, and continued on to the Roman view of equality according to the law of nature, in which the challenge to inequality was sustained. The last section of the chapter looks at the mediaeval view of inequality.
Rebecca Maloy
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190071530
- eISBN:
- 9780190071561
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190071530.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Songs of Sacrifice argues that liturgical music—both texts and melodies—played a central role in the cultural renewal of early Medieval Iberia. Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Christian ...
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Songs of Sacrifice argues that liturgical music—both texts and melodies—played a central role in the cultural renewal of early Medieval Iberia. Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Christian worship on the Iberian Peninsula was structured by rituals of great theological and musical richness, known as the Old Hispanic (or Mozarabic) rite. Much of this liturgy was produced during the seventh century, as part of a cultural and educational program led by Isidore of Seville and other bishops. After the conversion of the Visigothic rulers from Arian to Nicene Christianity at the end of the sixth century, the bishops aimed to create a society unified in the Nicene faith, built on twin pillars of church and kingdom. They initiated a project of clerical education, facilitated through a distinctive culture of textual production. The chant repertory was carefully designed to promote these aims. The creators of the chant texts reworked scripture in ways designed to teach biblical exegesis, linking both to the theological works of Isidore and others, and to Visigothic anti-Jewish discourse. The notation reveals an intricate melodic grammar that is closely tied to textual syntax and sound. Through musical rhetoric, the melodies shaped the delivery of the texts to underline words and phrases of particular liturgical or doctrinal import. The chants thus worked toward the formation of individual Christian souls and a communal, Nicene identity. The final chapters turn to questions about the intersection between orality and writing and the relationships of the Old Hispanic chant to other Western plainsong traditions.Less
Songs of Sacrifice argues that liturgical music—both texts and melodies—played a central role in the cultural renewal of early Medieval Iberia. Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Christian worship on the Iberian Peninsula was structured by rituals of great theological and musical richness, known as the Old Hispanic (or Mozarabic) rite. Much of this liturgy was produced during the seventh century, as part of a cultural and educational program led by Isidore of Seville and other bishops. After the conversion of the Visigothic rulers from Arian to Nicene Christianity at the end of the sixth century, the bishops aimed to create a society unified in the Nicene faith, built on twin pillars of church and kingdom. They initiated a project of clerical education, facilitated through a distinctive culture of textual production. The chant repertory was carefully designed to promote these aims. The creators of the chant texts reworked scripture in ways designed to teach biblical exegesis, linking both to the theological works of Isidore and others, and to Visigothic anti-Jewish discourse. The notation reveals an intricate melodic grammar that is closely tied to textual syntax and sound. Through musical rhetoric, the melodies shaped the delivery of the texts to underline words and phrases of particular liturgical or doctrinal import. The chants thus worked toward the formation of individual Christian souls and a communal, Nicene identity. The final chapters turn to questions about the intersection between orality and writing and the relationships of the Old Hispanic chant to other Western plainsong traditions.
Allen Fromherz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780748642946
- eISBN:
- 9781474418850
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748642946.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This book tells stories of interaction, conflict, and common exchange between Berbers, Arabs, Latins, Muslims, Christians, and Jews in North Africa and Latin Europe. Examining shared commerce, ...
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This book tells stories of interaction, conflict, and common exchange between Berbers, Arabs, Latins, Muslims, Christians, and Jews in North Africa and Latin Europe. Examining shared commerce, slavery, mercenary activity, art, and intellectual and religious debates, this book argues that North Africa was an integral part of western Medieval history. It argues that North Africa and Europe together experienced the Twelfth Century Renaissance and the Commercial Revolution. When Europe was highly divided during twelfth century, North Africa was enjoying the peak of its power, united under the Berber Almohad Empire. In the midst of a common commercial growth throughout the medieval period, North Africa and Europe also shared in a burst of spirituality and mysticism. This growth of spirituality occurred even as representatives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam debated and defended their faiths, dreaming of conversion even as they shared the same rational methods. The growth of spirituality instigated a Second Axial Age in the history of religion. Challenging the idea of a Mediterranean split between Islam and Christianity, the book shows how the Maghrib (North Africa) was not a Muslim, Arab monolith or as an extension of the exotic Orient. North Africa, not the Holy Land to the Far East, was the first place where Latin Europeans encountered the Muslim other and vice versa. Medieval North Africa was as diverse and complex as Latin Europe. North Africa should not be dismissed as a side show of European history. North Africa was, in fact, an integral part of the story.Less
This book tells stories of interaction, conflict, and common exchange between Berbers, Arabs, Latins, Muslims, Christians, and Jews in North Africa and Latin Europe. Examining shared commerce, slavery, mercenary activity, art, and intellectual and religious debates, this book argues that North Africa was an integral part of western Medieval history. It argues that North Africa and Europe together experienced the Twelfth Century Renaissance and the Commercial Revolution. When Europe was highly divided during twelfth century, North Africa was enjoying the peak of its power, united under the Berber Almohad Empire. In the midst of a common commercial growth throughout the medieval period, North Africa and Europe also shared in a burst of spirituality and mysticism. This growth of spirituality occurred even as representatives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam debated and defended their faiths, dreaming of conversion even as they shared the same rational methods. The growth of spirituality instigated a Second Axial Age in the history of religion. Challenging the idea of a Mediterranean split between Islam and Christianity, the book shows how the Maghrib (North Africa) was not a Muslim, Arab monolith or as an extension of the exotic Orient. North Africa, not the Holy Land to the Far East, was the first place where Latin Europeans encountered the Muslim other and vice versa. Medieval North Africa was as diverse and complex as Latin Europe. North Africa should not be dismissed as a side show of European history. North Africa was, in fact, an integral part of the story.
