Sarah Kay
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226436739
- eISBN:
- 9780226436876
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226436876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book explores the relations between humans and other animals as they appear to a reader of medieval bestiaries, given that almost all of them are realized as parchment books and that parchment, ...
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This book explores the relations between humans and other animals as they appear to a reader of medieval bestiaries, given that almost all of them are realized as parchment books and that parchment, although made from animal skin, looks much like human skin. Using Didier Anzieu’s concept of the Skin Ego and a theory of reading as assuming a second skin, the book explores how a supposedly human identity can be challenged by a reading process that inserts the reader into an animal skin. It examines the treatment of bestiary creatures in relation to the pages on which their entries are copied, showing how bestiarists’ teachings may be confirmed or undermined by the interaction between a text’s content, which is often focused on animals’ skins, their illustrations, which often outline or highlight those skins, and its material support, an actual instance of skin. The pages of many different manuscripts, transmitting numerous bestiary versions, are read closely in order to bring out possible interconnections between word, image, and parchment. Each chapter addresses an aspect of human-animal relations that is thematized both by medieval bestiaries and by modern theorists of the posthuman such as Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Derrida. In-depth coverage of Latin and French bestiary versions produces a new overall account of the development of the Physiologus tradition in Western Europe, one which attributes more importance to Continental traditions than previous Anglophone scholarship.Less
This book explores the relations between humans and other animals as they appear to a reader of medieval bestiaries, given that almost all of them are realized as parchment books and that parchment, although made from animal skin, looks much like human skin. Using Didier Anzieu’s concept of the Skin Ego and a theory of reading as assuming a second skin, the book explores how a supposedly human identity can be challenged by a reading process that inserts the reader into an animal skin. It examines the treatment of bestiary creatures in relation to the pages on which their entries are copied, showing how bestiarists’ teachings may be confirmed or undermined by the interaction between a text’s content, which is often focused on animals’ skins, their illustrations, which often outline or highlight those skins, and its material support, an actual instance of skin. The pages of many different manuscripts, transmitting numerous bestiary versions, are read closely in order to bring out possible interconnections between word, image, and parchment. Each chapter addresses an aspect of human-animal relations that is thematized both by medieval bestiaries and by modern theorists of the posthuman such as Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Derrida. In-depth coverage of Latin and French bestiary versions produces a new overall account of the development of the Physiologus tradition in Western Europe, one which attributes more importance to Continental traditions than previous Anglophone scholarship.
Richard Hillier
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198147862
- eISBN:
- 9780191672330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198147862.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
In Historia Apostolica 2. 506–550, Paul arrives in Corinth on a mission of baptism and conversion. Arator takes up the character of Aquila, who with ...
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In Historia Apostolica 2. 506–550, Paul arrives in Corinth on a mission of baptism and conversion. Arator takes up the character of Aquila, who with his wife Priscilla had welcomed Paul into his house. He recounts the story that the eagle, when old, restores itself to youth by basking in the sun and then bathing three times in a stream. The account is to be found in the Physiologus, a collection of edifying fabulous anecdotes from natural history, the earliest version of which was written, probably in Egypt, in 2nd century AD. The eagle subjects itself to the heat of the sun and the cleansing of the water. Arator is also aware of the moralization; rebirth comes from the light and warmth of the true sun, the Sun of Righteousness, although again he is more interested in the regenerative power of the consecrated but real water used in baptism than in the metaphorical spring which is the word of God.Less
In Historia Apostolica 2. 506–550, Paul arrives in Corinth on a mission of baptism and conversion. Arator takes up the character of Aquila, who with his wife Priscilla had welcomed Paul into his house. He recounts the story that the eagle, when old, restores itself to youth by basking in the sun and then bathing three times in a stream. The account is to be found in the Physiologus, a collection of edifying fabulous anecdotes from natural history, the earliest version of which was written, probably in Egypt, in 2nd century AD. The eagle subjects itself to the heat of the sun and the cleansing of the water. Arator is also aware of the moralization; rebirth comes from the light and warmth of the true sun, the Sun of Righteousness, although again he is more interested in the regenerative power of the consecrated but real water used in baptism than in the metaphorical spring which is the word of God.
Richard Hillier
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198147862
- eISBN:
- 9780191672330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198147862.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Is it possible that there were specific works of which Arator had first-hand knowledge and upon whose contents he drew during the writing of the ...
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Is it possible that there were specific works of which Arator had first-hand knowledge and upon whose contents he drew during the writing of the Historia Apostolica? There are undoubtedly works which were well known at the time Arator was writing, and it comes as no surprise that these are the works with which Arator would seem to have been most familiar. One work which poses a problem is the Physiologus, where there is also a fable of the eagle's rebirth. The amount of material devoted to baptism in the Historia Apostolica far exceeds the amount contained in the text it purports to explain. And so, just as Arator began his commentary by departing from the text of the Acts of the Apostles and including an account of the saving events which alone made the subsequent acts of baptism and conversion possible, namely the descensus and resurrection of Christ, so in the closing lines of the work he looks beyond the final words of Acts to the ministry and imminent martyrdom of Peter and Paul.Less
Is it possible that there were specific works of which Arator had first-hand knowledge and upon whose contents he drew during the writing of the Historia Apostolica? There are undoubtedly works which were well known at the time Arator was writing, and it comes as no surprise that these are the works with which Arator would seem to have been most familiar. One work which poses a problem is the Physiologus, where there is also a fable of the eagle's rebirth. The amount of material devoted to baptism in the Historia Apostolica far exceeds the amount contained in the text it purports to explain. And so, just as Arator began his commentary by departing from the text of the Acts of the Apostles and including an account of the saving events which alone made the subsequent acts of baptism and conversion possible, namely the descensus and resurrection of Christ, so in the closing lines of the work he looks beyond the final words of Acts to the ministry and imminent martyrdom of Peter and Paul.
Jason Scully
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198803584
- eISBN:
- 9780191842009
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198803584.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter shows that the primary source for Isaac’s eschatology is John the Solitary’s depiction of the life of the future world. According to John, transformation in the future world represents ...
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This chapter shows that the primary source for Isaac’s eschatology is John the Solitary’s depiction of the life of the future world. According to John, transformation in the future world represents the fulfillment of God’s promise of future glory and forms the basis of the hope that should define the life of the monk. Isaac’s selection and use of the same Pauline biblical phrases used by John, such as “hope to come,” “way of the new life,” and “inner man,” together with John’s non-biblical serpent analogy reveals Isaac’s dependence on John’s eschatological formulations. The main difference between John and Isaac is that while John encouraged monks to obtain knowledge of the future world in order to provide them with hope amidst their current struggles, Isaac explicitly states that perfect Christians can experience the transformation of the future world while still in this world.Less
This chapter shows that the primary source for Isaac’s eschatology is John the Solitary’s depiction of the life of the future world. According to John, transformation in the future world represents the fulfillment of God’s promise of future glory and forms the basis of the hope that should define the life of the monk. Isaac’s selection and use of the same Pauline biblical phrases used by John, such as “hope to come,” “way of the new life,” and “inner man,” together with John’s non-biblical serpent analogy reveals Isaac’s dependence on John’s eschatological formulations. The main difference between John and Isaac is that while John encouraged monks to obtain knowledge of the future world in order to provide them with hope amidst their current struggles, Isaac explicitly states that perfect Christians can experience the transformation of the future world while still in this world.
