THE MARVELOUS BETWEEN DANTE AND BOCCACCIO

Traditio ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 213-254
Author(s):  
JAMES C. KRIESEL
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Status ◽  
Present Life

In the late Middle Ages, authors of fiction, historical texts, and travel narratives discussed issues related to the places and spaces of marvels. Writers debated whether local, western occurrences could be as wondrous — and thus worthy of being recorded in writing — as foreign, eastern phenomena. This article explores how Boccaccio's engagement with Dante was intertwined with evolving views of the marvelous. It proposes that Boccaccio, following Dante, likened his writings to natural marvels to defend the status of literature, a mode of discourse sometimes considered unnatural or fraudulent. In addition, this research examines how Boccaccio drew on marvels to highlight differences between the properties and ethics of Dante'sComedyand these aspects of hisDecameron. In addressing these topics, Boccaccio was inspired by late medieval Latin historians, who foregrounded the novelty of their texts by self-consciously writing about western marvels. In theDecameron,Boccaccio recalled ideas about local marvels to champion the dignity of his erotic, mundane stories in comparison to Dante's otherworldly, divine poem. Boccaccio thus also reminded readers not only to wonder about future, eternal matters, but to cherish the experiences of this our present life.

Holy Land or Holy Lands? Palestine and the Catholic West in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance

2000 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 228-249
Author(s):  
Norman Housley
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Electrical Charge ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Physical Setting ◽  
The Status ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Church

In one passage in his famous account, Friar Felix Faber described how ‘some dull and unprofitable pilgrims’ to Jerusalem in 1480 mocked the excited behaviour of the devout in the courtyard in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, ‘calling them fools, hypocrites and Beghards’. The incident is revealing of the spectrum of reactions provoked by the experience of the Holy Land in late medieval and Renaissance Europe. Here more than anywhere else, tension was generated by the inescapable paradox of Christology, God become man, and the conflicts which it set up between the immanent and the representational, the universal and the elect, the eschatological and the timeless. This occurred, moreover, within a physical setting which constantly reminded the sensitive pilgrim of the difficulty of reconciling the Old and New Dispensations. But the same electrical charge which caused the Holy Land as sacred space to provoke diverse and at times contradictory responses, endowed the Holy Land as idea with a remarkable attraction. There took place a number of different ‘migrations of the holy’, to use John Bossy’s phrase. To a large extent the status of the geographical Holy Land was weakened by these developments, but in at least one respect it was strengthened.

Domina Paupertas: the praise of voluntary poverty by St. Francis of Assisi and its reflection in late medieval Spanish painting

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
José María Salvador González
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Perfect Model ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Francis Of Assisi

As is well known, St. Francis of Assisi heroically embraced evangelical poverty, renouncing material goods and living in abject poverty, in imitation of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, through his writings and oral testimonies collected by his disciples, the saint fervently urged Christians to live to some degree voluntary poverty , of which Christ was the perfect model. By basing this reading on some Poverello’s quotations, this paper intends to show the potential impact that these exhortations from San Francisco to poverty may have had in the late medieval Spanish painting, in some iconographic themes so significantly Franciscan as the Nativity and the Passion of the Redeemer. Through the analysis of a large set of paintings representing both issues, we will attempt to put into light if the teachings of St. Francis on evangelical poverty are reflected somehow in Spanish painting of the late Middle Ages.

Who Were the Scribes of Latin Manuscripts?

2020 ◽  
pp. 704-710
Author(s):  
Alison I. Beach
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
The Status ◽  
Written Word

This chapter discusses scribes from antiquity and the early Christian era through the late Middle Ages: their professions, class, gender, education, religion, age, etc. The status of scribes varied dramatically from period to period, reflecting changes in literacy and respect for the written word. The author discusses monastic attitudes towards writing, the influence of different monastic orders and reform movements on ideas about scribes, and the place of scribal activity in Universities and secular bureaucracies.

Time and the Testator, 1370–1540

2002 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 133-144
Author(s):  
Judith Middleton-Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Past ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Perception Of Time ◽  
Limited Duration ◽  
At Will

There were many ways in which the late medieval testator could acknowledge time. Behind each testator lay a lifetime of memories and experiences on which he or she drew, recalling the names of those ‘they had fared the better for’, those they wished to remember and by whom they wished to be remembered. Their present time was of limited duration, for at will making they had to assemble their thoughts and their intentions, make decisions and appoint stewards, as they prepared for their time ahead; but as they spent present time arranging the past, so they spent present time laying plans for the future. Some testators had more to bequeath, more time to spare: others had less to leave, less time to plan. Were they aware of time? How did they control the future? In an intriguing essay, A. G. Rigg asserts that ‘one of the greatest revolutions in man’s perception of the world around him was caused by the invention, sometime in the late thirteenth century, of the mechanical weight-driven clock.’ It is the intention of this paper to see how men’s (and women’s) perception of time in the late Middle Ages was reflected in their wills, the most personal papers left by ordinary men and women of the period.

scholarly journals Preliminary Reviews Of The Late Medieval Historical Geography Of Jizzakh (On The Basis Of Written Sources And Archaeological Data)

2020 ◽  
Vol 02 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Pardaev Ahrorqul Hasanovich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Modern City ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Geographical Locations ◽  
Written Sources

The article examines the historical medieval towns, fortresses and other geographical areas of the Jizzakh oasis based on written sources and data obtained from archeological excavations. As a result of scientific analysis, the geographical locations of the Jizzakh Horde and its environs, which are the location of the modern city of Jizzakh in the late Middle Ages, have been clarified.

scholarly journals LATE MEDIEVAL MONUMENTS IN THE MATSUTA GLADE OF THE DIGOR GORGE

Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 101-119
Author(s):  
Г.Н . Вольная (Керцева)
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Project Construction ◽  
History Of

Материальная культура позднего средневековья Дигорского ущелья Северной Осетии недостаточно хорошо изучена по сравнению с другими периодами. В статье впервые представлен комплекс археологических памятников, расположенных на Поляне Мацута Дигорского ущелья: памятники, их расположение, история изучения. Цель исследования – рассмотреть Поляну Мацута как погребальный и культовый комплекс, где находятся позднесредневековые полуподземные склепы, каменные ящики, менгиры, цырты, «нартовский» ныхас, поселения кобанского и аланского периодов. Это памятники являются почитаемыми у местного населения, упоминаются в нартовском эпосе. В статье использовались полевые методы исследования, метод анализа и аналогий. В статье представлен авторский материал спасательных раскопок 2020 г. «Грунтового могильника Мацута I, средневековье» XVI-XVIII вв. в зоне реализации проекта «Строительство фельдшерско-акушерского пункта в с. Мацута». Могильник представляет собой погребения в каменных ящиках. Всего было раскопано 75 ящиков, в которых покойные лежали вытянуто на спине головой на запад с широтными отклонениями. Некоторые ранние погребения сопровождаются обрядом кремации. Погребальный обряд находит аналогии в горной Балкарии. Для погребального обряда характерно отсутствие керамической посуды в погребениях. Над ранними погребениями могильника была устроена тризна с кремацией и большим количеством фрагментированной керамики, скорее всего местного производства. Погребальный инвентарь достаточно беден и характерен для горнокавказской культуры позднего средневековья. Во взрослых погребениях найдены одежда, обувь, пояса, головные уборы, пояса; в женских – украшения; в мужских – ножи, оселки. В детских погребениях (в большинстве случаев) слева от головы обнаружены только куриные яйца, либо погребальный инвентарь совсем отсутствует. Отмечается высокая детская смертность. Детские погребения составляют почти 50% от всего числа раскопанных погребений. The material culture of the late middle ages of the Digor gorge in North Ossetia is not well studied in comparison with other periods. The article presents for the first time a complex of archaeological monuments located in The Matsuta Glade of the Digor gorge: monuments, their location, and history of study. The purpose of the study is to consider the Matsuta Glade as a funerary and cult complex, where there are late medieval semi-underground crypts, stone boxes, menhirs, tsyrts, "nartovsky" Nykhas, settlements of the Koban and Alan periods. These monuments are revered by the local population, mentioned in the Nart epic. The article uses field research methods, the method of analysis and analogies. The article presents the author's material of rescue excavations in 2020 of the "Ground burial ground of Matsuta I, middle ages" of the XVI-XVIII centuries in the area of the project "Construction of a paramedic and midwifery station in the village of Matsuta". The burial ground is a burial in stone boxes. In total, 75 boxes were excavated, in which the deceased lay stretched out on their backs with their heads facing West with latitude deviations. Some early burials are accompanied by a cremation ceremony. The funeral rite finds analogies in the mountainous Balkaria. The funeral rite is characterized by the absence of ceramic dishes in the burials. A funeral feast with cremation and a large amount of fragmented pottery, most likely of local production, was built over the early burials of the burial ground. The grave goods are rather poor and typical for mountain Caucasian culture of the late middle ages. In adult burials found clothes, shoes, belts, headwear, belts; women's jewelry; the men's knives, whetstones. In most children's burials, only chicken eggs are found to the left of the head, or there is no burial equipment at all. Children's funerals account for almost 50% of the total number of excavated graves.

Urban growth and royal interventionism in late medieval Castile

Urban History ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Del Val Valdivieso
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
The State ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Urban Conflicts

ABSTRACTThroughout the late Middle Ages, Castilian towns underwent a process of rapid economic and political growth which the monarchy sought to control. Accordingly, the monarchy reoriented its policies towards the towns. It attempted to impose the figure of the ‘corregidor’, the representative and defender of royal interests; it intervened wherever possible in the appointment of local government offices; it played its part in urban conflicts, alternately supporting opposing factions in an effort to take advantage of the situation and secure its own interests; and finally, the state established regulations governing economic activity. The process of royal intervention culminated under the Catholic monarchs (1474–1504) with what can be considered as a royal triumph.

‘Inordinata locutio’: Blasphemy in Pastoral Literature, 1200–1500

Traditio ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 135-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin D. Craun
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Pastoral Literature ◽  
The Way

Forbidden language, like forbidden knowledge, has always had its attractions. Of its many varieties, the inordinata locutio of blasphemy, speech which violates fundamental norms in the way it represents God, has held no small appeal for people in times of widespread religious practice. The late Middle Ages offers no exception to these two commonplaces of modern thought, judging from the number of civil statutes designed to extirpate blasphemy and from the stringent measures drawn up by influential clerics like Jean Gerson. This animus against blasphemy among the lettered, both lay and clerical, means that few blasphemous utterances, few of the words judged as blasphemous by someone other than the speaker, have come down to us. Preachers and compilers of catechetical handbooks, like theologians and glossators, are as silent about the actual words of blasphemers as they are eloquent about their temerity. Even the collectors of exempla, whose tales provide so much information about religious life, rarely record so much as a blasphemous phrase in their repertoire of tales about blasphemers. Perhaps these late medieval writers shared the reticence of the author of the Book of Job, who, according to the Priest (ps.- Jerome), wrote benedixerit for maledixerit, inverting the literal sense ‘quod non fuit ausus scriptor historiae ore suo in Deum dicere verbum blasphemiae.’

Nationalist historiography and the English and Gaelic worlds in the late middle ages

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (97) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven G. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Coverage ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Much more so than in modern times, sharp cultural and social differences distinguished the various peoples inhabiting the British Isles in the later middle ages. Not surprisingly these differences and the interaction between medieval forms of culture and society have attracted considerable attention by historians. By comparison with other fields of research, we know much about the impact of the Westminster government on the various regions of the English polity, about the interaction between highland and lowland Scotland and about the similarities and differences between English and Gaelic Ireland. Yet the historical coverage of these questions has been uneven, and what at first glance might appear obvious and promising lines of inquiry have been largely neglected — for example the relationship between Gaelic Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, or between Wales, the north of England and the lordship of Ireland as borderlands of the English polity. No doubt the nature and extent of the surviving evidence is an important factor in explaining this unevenness, but in fact studies of interaction between different cultures seem to reflect not so much their intrinsic importance for our understanding of different late medieval societies as their perceived significance for the future development of movements culminating in the present.

Medieval Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Arithmetic Geometry ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Elementary Composition ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Poetics ◽  
The University ◽  
Level Of Instruction

Modern scholarship on the medieval Latin arts of poetry and prose has focused on a number of treatises written in the 12th and 13th centuries: Matthew of Vendôme’s Ars versificatoria; Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s Poetria nova, Documentum, and Summa de coloribus; Gervase of Melkley’s Ars versificaria or poetica; John of Garland’s Parisiana Poetria; and Eberhard the German’s Laborintus. Other documents have received attention as well, notably commentaries and glosses. The art of composition in both verse and prose also evolved as new conceptions of the art emerged. In the 13th century, Latin translations and commentaries on Aristotle’s Poetics led to revisions of the Horatian art in the 14th century; treatises that reflect this development begin with the anonymous Long Documentum, renamed Tria sunt, and Mathias of Linköping’s Poetria, based on instruction Mathias received while studying at the University of Paris. The traditional conception of the art of poetry was derived from rhetorical treatises attributed to Cicero, notably the De inventione and the Rhetorica ad Herennium. The medieval treatises adapted a traditional order of parts in rhetoric: topical invention, disposition based on natural chronological order or artificial rearrangement of the chronological order, amplification and abbreviation using figures and tropes common in ornamentation, and eventually Aristotelian notions of imagination as a poetic faculty. Inclusion of these parts indicates the scope and level of instruction in the treatises. Accordingly, the study and practice of poetic composition in classrooms progressed from elementary composition and study to imitation of exemplary masterpieces. Such instruction fit well into the stages in medieval pedagogy from grammar, rhetoric, and logic on to arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, and beyond to philosophy and theology. The scope of the art on these virtually graded levels of instruction led to study, interpretation, imitation, and, ultimately, emulation of perceived ancient and medieval masterpieces like Virgil’s Aeneid, Horace’s lyrics, Bernardus Silvestris’s Cosmographia, and Alan of Lille’s Anticlaudianus and De planctu Naturae, among others. Introductions to specific works (accessus ad auctores) include model works that exemplify the art’s evolution from Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages. Classbooks and other anthologies collected poems and passages for study and imitation on the student level. Finally, the Latin art found its way into some treatises written for vernacular languages. These diverse documents—commentaries, model works, accessus, classbooks and anthologies, authorial statements inserted into their own writings, vernacular treatises, and other documents—enhance our understanding of medieval poetics.

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