A Letter of Murad III to the Doge of Venice, of 1580

1952 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-383
Author(s):  
Paul Wittek
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Antique Dealer

Thanks to the kindness of Dr. Andreas Tietze I have at my disposal the illustrated catalogue recently issued by the Istanbul antique dealer Nurettin Yatman (“Eski Istanbul”, Meşrutiyet cadd. 185, Beyoǧlu). It shows among others, in a reproduction just readable by a practised and self-sacrificing eye, an Ottoman document (wrongly ascribed to the fifteenth century) with a richly decorated, wonderfully executed ṭurā(apparently in various colours) of Murad III (1574–1595). An “imperial cypher” of such splendour may, indeed, be expected in an “imperial letter” (nāme-i Tumāyūn) to a foreign sovereign, for such is this document of March 1580, addressed to the Doge of Venice. On the other hand, the eleven lines of the text are written in ordinary dīvānī without calligraphic pretensions; this may be due to the fact that the letter was, as we shall see, to be presented not by a messenger of the sultan but by an agent of the person in whose favour it was issued.

scholarly journals The vow of Ivan Crnojevic to the Virgin Mary in Loreto under the shadow of the ottoman conquest

Balcanica ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Valentina Zivkovic
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
The Other ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Institutional Organization

This paper looks at the circumstances in which Ivan Crnojevic, a fifteenth-century ruler of Zeta (historic region in present-day Montenegro), made a vow to the Virgin in a famous pilgrimage shrine, the Santa Casa in Loreto (Italy), where he was in exile fleeing another Ottoman offensive. The focus of the paper is on a few issues which need to be re-examined in order to understand Ivan?s vow against a broader background. His act is analyzed in the context of the symbolic role that the Virgin of Loreto played as a powerful antiturca protectress. On the other hand, much attention is paid to the institutional organization of Slavs (Schiavoni) who found refuge in Loreto and nearby towns, which may serve as a basis for a more comprehensive understanding of the process of religious and social adjustment of Orthodox Slav refugees to their new Catholic environment.

The Literature on War: Part II

1942 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-346
Author(s):  
William O. Shanahan
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Present Survey ◽  
Military Literature ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The French Revolution

“It is a great advantage to princes to have perused (military) histories in their youth, for in them they read at length of such assemblies and of the great frauds and deceptions and perjuries which some of the ancients have, practised on one another, and how they have taken and killed those who put their trust in such security. It is not to be said that all have used them, but the example of one is sufficient to make several wise and to cause them to wish to protect themselves.” For present-day democracies this advice of Philippe de Commynes, the fifteenth century French historian, has a pointed meaning. Only when the liberties of free peoples are threatened can their interest in war and armies be aroused. Tyrants and autocrats, on the other hand, never neglect the study of the role of war in statecraft. If we are to remain free the lessons of war must be studied continually. With this principle in mind the present survey of military literature is intended to suggest some of the important books that have been written since the French Revolution.

Judicial Control of Official Discretion

1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Judicial Control ◽  
As You Like It ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
And Control ◽  
Governmental Action

When men reflect about government, whether practically or academically, they always turn up, if they think deeply enough, two central problems: first, how to ensure that government shall do what it is supposed to do, and secondly, how to ensure that it shall not do other things. One is the problem of efficiency, the other the problem of control; and around the two is built most, perhaps all, of the so-called science of politics. At some periods the need for control seems the more vital and pressing. It seemed so to Englishmen, for example, during the two centuries following the accession of the Stuarts. At other times and places the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, and in fifteenth century Europe, as in contemporary Italy, the dominant desire was for government strong enough and untrammelled enough to stem successfully a rising tide of disorder. Each age strikes its own balance in favor of one principle or the other, and thereby touches the opposite principle into action to redress the balance at some new point of readjustment.The competing claims of efficiency and control have often expressed themselves in the form of controversy concerning the comparative merits of government by discretion and govern-ment by law—or, in Harrington's phrase, a government of laws and a government of men. In this form the conflict has left its mark everywhere on political thought since Aristotle. Discretion means freedom for government to choose among possible alternatives of action. As one judge has said, “In honest plain language it means ‘Do as you like.’” It is thus a condition of efficiency, but it is very apt to exact the price of arbitrariness. Law, on the other hand, requires that government shall act by set rule, shall limit itself to a particular way of acting in each particular situation. It seeks to eliminate choice in favor of certainty; it narrows the possible range of governmental action in order that such action may be predicted and controlled in advance.

“Apply to Muslims What Was Said of the Jews:” Popes and Canonists Between a Taxonomy of Otherness andInfidelitas

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan K. Stantchev
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Specific Target ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Law ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The One ◽  
Inherent Ambiguity

This article analyzes the targets of papal policies on Christians' relations with non-(Roman)Christians contained in canon law'sOn Jews, Saracens, and Their Servantsin a historical period that has attracted comparatively little attention: the mid-thirteenth to the late fifteenth century. It argues the inherent ambiguity of the normative discourse on “proper” relations with “infidels.” On the one hand, popes and canonists faithfully preserved a taxonomy of otherness inherited from the church's ancient past. On the other hand, they often reduced all difference to the pastoral distinction between flock and “infidels.” The conflation of non-Christians occurred in multiple ways: through the explicit extension of a specific policy's targets, overt canonistic discussion, the tacit application of the law to analogous situations, or its simplification for use in the confessional. As a result, a number of policies aimed originally at a specific target were applied to all non-Christians. In the course of the later Middle Ages, a whole group of policies meant to define Christians' proper relations with others became potentially applicable against all non-Christians. In the words of a widely, if regionally disseminated, penitential work, all that was said of the Jews applies to the Muslims and all that was said of heretics, applies to schismatics.

Major English Acting Troupes to 1583

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Whitfield White
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Early Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Career Opportunities ◽  
The One ◽  
High Level

This study argues that English acting troupes enjoyed liveried status in royal or noble households from about the mid-fifteenth century, their early development inhibited by the continuing power of court minstrels. Challenging the persisting view that patronized troupes evolved from minstrelsy or absorbed much of its fare, the study concludes that players rivaled minstrels in popularity as touring entertainers until the 1530s, when acting companies became dominant. On the one hand, early Tudor players remained dependent on patrons for protection, prestige, and career opportunities; they were intermittently censored and served as propagandists. On the other hand, the high level of professionalization that Queen Elizabeth’s Men and similar troupes would later enjoy already existed in that many made a living from full-time acting, owned their playscripts, and determined their own touring itineraries.

Thomas Cyrcetur, a Fifteenth-century Theologian and Preacher

1986 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Ball
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Pastoral Work ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The University

Thomas Cyrcetur belonged to the second generation of anti-Wycliffite theologians. He must have been born c. 1376, and was a Fellow of Merton College in 1395 or 1396 and until at least 1401. He had graduated BD by December 1417, and probably left the university for residence in Somerset about 1418/19. The immediate Wycliffite threat had thus passed by the time of his Oxford career, and he was not involved in scholastic polemic against Wyclif. On the other hand, he was little influenced by the new orthodox outlook which developed in the universities and in London from the 1420s onwards. He had left Oxford by the time of the publication of Dr Thomas Walden's (alias Netter's) Doctrinale antiquitatum ecclesie, with its new patristic approach to combating heresy, and he shows no sign of acquaintance with that work, although it achieved immediate success. He had long ceased to reside in the university, and was of advanced years, by the time of the opposition to Bishop Pecock in the 1440s and 1450s, which was led by a group of theologians, many from Cambridge but including some Oxford men, whose approach appears also to have been patristic as well as consciously orthodox, and whose best-known member is Thomas Gascoigne. Cyrcetur's approach to theology remained conservative, but it was also pastoral. Even before he graduated BD he took an interest in pastoral work.

scholarly journals Law manuscripts from fifteenth-century Iceland

Gripla ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 165-198
Author(s):  
Stefan Drechsler
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Manuscript Production ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Texts ◽  
Textual Content ◽  
Further Development

This article discusses a number of interdisciplinary aspects of Icelandic law manuscripts, produced in the fifteenth century, which contain important vernacular legal codes dealing with secular and ecclesiastical matters in medieval Iceland, such as Jónsbók and Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar. In this article, it is argued that a continuity of law manuscript production exists in Iceland following the Black Death in 1402–04; this is seen in several ways: indications are found in textual and artistic parts of the manuscripts, as well as in para-texts that accompany the law texts in the margins. With particular focus on the manuscript AM 136 4to (Skinnastaðabók), this article discusses four distinctive cross-disciplinary features of fifteenth-century Icelandic law manuscripts: the adaptation and further development of textual contents initially found in law manuscripts dating back to previous centuries, select types of layouts chosen by the initial scribes, the book painting, and the use of the margins by later users and owners for comments and discussion on the textual content. The article concludes that with the changing Scandinavian politics in the late fourteenth century, Icelandic law manuscripts in the fifteenth century were first and foremost written for, and inspired by, domestic productions. While texts related to Norwegian royal supremacy and trade are rarely featured, the texts most used for domestic issues appear more frequently. On the other hand, statutes and concordats occur as regularly in these manuscripts as they do in earlier works, which indicates ongoing contact with the Norwegian Archdiocese of Niðaróss during the fifteenth century.

PRICES AND WAGES IN ENGLAND The cheaper linens used in the fifteenth century were French and these were easily accessible through import to Southampton. From the early sixteenth century holland came into general use except during the period 1620–40. The various linens bore no general price relation to each other, for fineness and width determined rates. From 1691 no quantities were entered in the accounts. Although there is an abundance of entries the lack of detailed information makes tabulation difficult. It cannot be said with certainty that any one kind was purchased continuously over the whole period. So many different prices occur for tablecloths and towels, for instance, and purchases are so irregular that it is impossible to disen­ tangle a series with any apparent homogeneity for either purpose till after 1550. On the other hand purchases for aprons, etc. (series A) become obscure before this date. Linen and canvas bought for similar purposes at similar prices are used to supplement each other in several of the tables. Entries for linen are printed in italics when inserted in a series mainly for canvas and canvas is printed in italics when inserted in a series mainly for linen. The width of any cloth is only specifically mentioned once : linen for tablecloths in 1395 at 4d. per ell is stated to be 3/4 ell wide. The measurements of two linen table­ cloths are also given in this year as 6 ells by 1 ell (Flemish, 5s. 2d.) and 6 yds. by 1 yd. (5s.). Apart from this year the only evidence of any widths is afforded by the occasional description of “ wide ” or “ narrow.” In the series tabulated all the cloth is recorded by the ell (except lockram 1643–48) and is probably all foreign. The ell measure cannot be taken as proof of foreign origin, however, since pannus vernaculus is recorded by the ell in 1631–40. Diaper is recorded usually by the yard but entries are irregular and for varying purposes, widths and/ or qualities ; no series can therefore be formed. Irish linen is mentioned only in 1468 and 1477, cheaper in price than canvas for aprons, etc. (series A).

2013 ◽  
pp. 116-116
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Foreign Origin ◽  
Apparent Homogeneity

On the Origins of the Autonomous Russian Church

1950 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-246
Author(s):  
Elie Denissoff
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Consciousness ◽  
Popular Opinion ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Church ◽  
The One

Two principal facts dominate the history of Moscow in the second half of the fifteenth century: the winning of independence, and religious emancipation. On the one hand, Moscow shook off the secular yoke of the Tartars and became a State; on the other hand, the Russian Church withdrew from the guardianship of the mother Byzantine Church. Religious aspirations and the awakening of a national consciousness were then intimately bound together and strengthened each other by the interplay of their mutual influences. But, while the Moscow principality was consolidating itself and realizing its desire for political autonomy, the religious situation remained indecisive for a much longer time. The Russian soul felt itself abandoned and ill at ease with the ecclesiastical independence that came to it with the fall of Byzantium. Opposing currents divided popular opinion, and diverse influences sometimes had the most unexpected consequences. We have tried to unravel some of these currents and some of these influences in the pages that follow.

scholarly journals La signoria dell’ospedale di Sant’Andrea di Vercelli su Larizzate

2021 ◽  
pp. 107-131
Author(s):  
Antonio Olivieri
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hospital Employees ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

The paper examines the case of the acquisition and management of the farm of Larizzate, near Vercelli, by the hospital of Sant'Andrea of Vercelli, in a period going from the twenties of the thirteenth century to the early fifteenth century. A comparison between the data provided by the agrarian pacts and the data made available by the periodical accounts that recorded the trend of the give and take between the owner and the dependent farmers shows the discrepancy between the services due and actually paid by the hospital employees in Larizzate. An analysis of the account books reveals, on the one hand, the great importance of the work carried out by the employees for the hospital to offset the debts accrued by the former towards the latter; on the other hand, the importance of the works for the construction and restoration of the defensive structures with which the farm was equipped. These fortifications were an expression of the lordly power exercised by the institution over the population gravitating around the farm, which can also be seen, albeit in a discontinuous manner, from other sources.

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