Religious Women

2020 ◽  
pp. 284-299
Author(s):  
Sigrid Hirbodian
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Religious Women ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Women's Communities ◽  
Religious Lives ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter explores how the identities of religious women in the late Middle Ages were projected and perceived. Beyond the life led by regular nuns, the Middle Ages saw the emergence of many different opportunities for women who wished to lead religious or ‘pious’ lives. The focus is on women who, in terms of Church law, belonged somewhere between the secular and the religious, but who thought of themselves as leading religious lives—in particular, secular canonesses and beguines. The example of Strasbourg is used to demonstrate the varieties of women’s religious communities existing at a given time (here the second half of the fifteenth century) in a single place. It argues that regional circumstances, along with the support of influential religious and secular personalities, shaped the various monastic landscapes and largely defined the religious identity of women’s communities.

scholarly journals Die Benennung und Bestimmung der Räume im südlichen Repräsentativteil des Geschosses des zweiten „Hochmeisterpalastes“ auf der Marienburg im Mittelalter im Lichte der Schriftquellen

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 315-340
Author(s):  
Sławomir Jóźwiak ◽  
Janusz Trupinda
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Intended Use ◽  
Written Sources ◽  
The Middle Ages

Nomenclature and intended use of the rooms of the southern (representative) part of the upper floor of the “palace” of Grand Masters in the Marienburg Castle in the Middle Ages on the basis of written sources   The analyses carried out in this article concerning the southern part of  the upper floor of the new (second) “palace” of the Teutonic Order’s superiors in the late Middle Ages allow to formulate several important conclusions. First of all, the building certainly existed before 11 September 1392, but it cannot be ruled out that it was erected at the beginning of the 1370s. In the fifteenth-century sources, its entire southern representative part (looking from the so-called Low and High Halls) along with five rooms of different sizes located there, were referred to as the “Summer (or, less often, Winter) chamber (gemach)”. This name comes from the most characteristic interiors located there: the “Summer Refectory” / “Great Summer Hall” in the western part and the Winter Refectory in the central part. The thorough analysis of medieval written sources carried out in this article allows for the formulation of the thesis that the chamber located in the easternmost part of the southern part of the “palace”, supported by two columns, should be  identified as the “Minor Summer Hall” (aula minor estivalis), which was recorded in the transumpt of 14 May 1456. Thus, all the suggestions concerning this interior and its supposed intended use in the discussed period, hitherto put forward by the researchers who have so far formulated their conclusions in isolation from the written accounts of the period, should be rejected. This name comes from the most characteristic interiors located there: the "Summer Refectory" / "Great Summer Hall" in the western part and the Winter Refectory in the central part. The thorough analysis of medieval written sources carried out in this article allowed for the formulation of the thesis that the chamber located in the easternmost part of the southern part of the "palace", supported by two columns, should be  identified as the "Minor Summer Hall" (aula minor estivalis), which was recorded in the transumpt of 14 May 1456. Thus, all the suggestions concerning this interior and its supposed intended use in the discussed period,  hitherto put forward by the researchers who have so far formulated their conclusions in isolation from the written accounts of the period, should be rejected.

The Aerial Battle in the Toledot Yeshu and Sodomy in the Late Middle Ages

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 493-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Mazo Karras
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Activity ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Latin Translation ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Latin Version ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract Thomas Ebendorfer’s fifteenth-century Latin translation of a Hebrew Toledot Yeshu text is the earliest extant Latin version to include a full narrative from the birth of Jesus to the events following the crucifixion, and predates existing Hebrew versions. After reviewing the place of Ebendorfer’s work in the textual tradition of the Toledot, the article examines carefully the work’s account of the aerial battle between Jesus and Judas, in comparison to other versions. Ebendorfer includes the detail of sexual intercourse between the two, which is absent in many later versions. In the context of a discussion of Christian and Jewish attitudes toward male–male sexual activity in the Middle Ages, the article concludes that while this detail was in Ebendorfer’s exemplar, he could have elaborated on it in a way that indicates this was a particularly Christian concern.

scholarly journals Arbor Praedicandi. Some Remarks on Dispositio in Mediaeval Sermons (on the Example of Sermo 39 “Semen Est Verbum Dei” by Mikołaj of Błonie)

Terminus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (Special Issue 2) ◽  
pp. 169-195
Author(s):  
Lidia Grzybowska
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Middle Ages

The main aim of this paper is to present the motif of a tree-shaped compositional scheme called arbor picta (arbor praedicandi) and to show it against the field of rhetorical elements such as dispositio and memoria as found in mediaeval sermons. The basic sources for the analysis of this question are two fourteenth-century theoretical treatises on the art of preaching (manuals: Libellus artis preadicatorie by Jacobus de Fusignano and Tractatulus solennis de arte et vero modo praedicandi by Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas), and one of the sermons from the collection de tempore of a fifteenth-century Polish preacher, Mikołaj of Błonie (Dominica sexagesime: sermo 39 “Semen est verbum Dei”). The problems of arbor praedicandi, which are part of a broader field of study on the structure of sermons, editorial methods of texts and mnemonics, were the subject of interest of many researchers such as H. Caplan, O.A. Dieter, S. Khan, S. Wenzel. In Poland, this issue has not yet become a subject of proper study. In order to analyse this scheme in the treatises of Jacobus de Fusignano and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas, as well as in the exemplary sermon, the paper briefly outlines the existence of topics and images of the tree in the writings of the Middle Ages (e.g. lignum vitae, arbor sapientiae, arbor amoris). Then fragments from the manuals of Jacobus de Fusignano and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas are presented in which the authors discussed the scheme in question and explained its importance for the practice of preaching. An analysis of a practical example—here: sermo 39 from Mikołaj of Błonie’s collection de tempore—shows the creative use of the tree scheme in the sermon by the Polish preacher (with the speculative assumption that Mikołaj of Błonie knew Jacobus’s theory of preaching). Particular attention is also paid to the circumstances of the development of the art of preaching in the late Middle Ages in Poland. Finally, the importance of the concept of the sermon as a tree for the elements of rhetoric such as dispositio/divisio/partito and memoria is emphasised. In this study, it is shown that the use of the tree scheme in presenting abstract concepts and structuring texts allowed preachers and their audiences to visualise vague and often difficult ideas, as well as to describe their relationship within the subjects of the sermons. Therefore, the use of the scheme in the Middle Ages had great significance for ars memorativa and the didactic dimensions.

scholarly journals Staročeské sumáře v biblích 15. století

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kateřina Voleková
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Holy Writ ◽  
Biblical Translation ◽  
The Middle Ages

Old Czech Summaries in Fifteenth-Century BiblesThis article focuses on some non-biblical texts accompanying Old Czech Bible translations in the Middle Ages. The oldest translation of the entire Bible into Old Czech, which comes from the 1350s, included a particular type of non-biblical texts: prefaces to biblical books. The following Old Czech revisions and new translations of the Bible were provided, to varying degrees, with other textual aids, such as the lists of Mass readings. In this paper, we focus on the so-called capitula, summaries of individual chapters of particular biblical books. In the Middle Ages, the capitula were an aid providing orientation in the text for the study of the Holy Writ in Latin. During the revision of the Czech biblical translation at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, chapter summaries in Latin were also translated. However, they are only preserved in their entirety in one manuscript, the second volume of the Litoměřice-Třeboň Bible. Other Old Czech Bibles included biblical summaries only exceptionally and selectively; the Old Czech chapter summaries survived in nine biblical manuscripts, mainly before individual chapters of selected books of the Old Testament. They were primarily intended to familiarise readers with the content of the text. The biblical summaries deserve a critical edition and further research, especially for their Old Czech vocabulary, reflecting the formation of biblical language and style in the late Middle Ages. Staroczeskie streszczenia w piętnastowiecznych tłumaczeniach BibliiNiniejszy artykuł jest poświęcony tekstom towarzyszącym staroczeskim przekładom Biblii z okresu średniowiecza. Pierwszy staroczeski przekład całej Biblii, pochodzący z lat pięćdziesiątych XIV wieku, zawierał również szczególny rodzaj tekstu: przedmowy do poszczególnych ksiąg. Zarówno jego zmodyfikowane wersje, jak i nowe przekłady, były (w różnym stopniu) zaopatrzone w teksty pomocnicze, na przykład listy czytań mszalnych. Przedstawiona analiza omawia tzw. capitula, czyli streszczenia poszczególnych rozdziałów ksiąg biblijnych. W średniowieczu stanowiły one jedyną w swoim rodzaju pomoc, umożliwiającą orientację w treści łacińskiego tekstu Pisma Świętego. Podczas modyfikacji czeskiego przekładu Biblii na przełomie XIV i XV wieku przetłumaczono również łacińskie streszczenia; zachowały się one w całości tylko w jednym manuskrypcie – drugim tomie Biblii litomierzycko-trzebońskiej. Inne biblie staroczeskie zawierały takie streszczenia tylko w wybranych rozdziałach; zachowały się one w dziewięciu manuskryptach, gdzie w większości przypadków poprzedzają poszczególne rozdziały wybranych ksiąg Starego Testamentu. Ich głównym celem było zapoznanie czytelnika z treścią tekstu biblijnego. Streszczenia, o których mowa, zasługują na krytyczne opracowanie i dalsze badania, zwłaszcza ze względu na staroczeskie słownictwo, odzwierciedlające formowanie się języka i stylu biblijnego w okresie późnego średniowiecza.

Forma Dat Esse

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-446
Author(s):  
Sylvain Roudaut
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Progressive Decline ◽  
De Trinitate ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract This paper offers an overview of the history of the axiom forma dat esse, which was commonly quoted during the Middle Ages to describe formal causality. The first part of the paper studies the origin of this principle, and recalls how the ambiguity of Boethius’s first formulation of it in the De Trinitate was variously interpreted by the members of the School of Chartres. Then, the paper examines the various declensions of the axiom that existed in the late Middle Ages, and shows how its evolution significantly follows the progressive decline of the Aristotelian model of formal causality.

A Crooked Mirror for Princes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavlína Rychterová
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Bourgeois Culture ◽  
Mirrors For Princes

This chapter examines the growing importance of the vernacular languages during the later Middle Ages in shaping the form, content, and audiences of political discourse. It presents a famously wicked king of the late Middle Ages, Wenceslas IV (1361–1419), as a case study and traces the origins of his bad reputation to a group of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century writings. These have often been dismissed as fictions or studied solely as literature, but in fact they represent new modes of articulating good and bad kingship. The chapter shows that, in the context of an increasingly literate bourgeois culture, especially in university cities, these vernacular works transformed Latin theological approaches to monarchy, while rendering mirrors for princes and related literatures accessible to an unprecedented audience.

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