scholarly journals The Body Politic Metaphor in Communal and Post-Communal Italy – Some Remarks on the Case of Lombardy

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-21
Author(s):  
Andrea Gamberini
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The One

Abstract This paper uses the body politic metaphor to explore the dialectic of power between different political players in communal and post-communal Lombardy. On the one hand, notions of corporeal links, drawing upon an ancient and venerable tradition, were key strands of public debate on state formation in the Late Middle Ages. On the other hand, there were distinctively communal and post-communal discourses based upon the body politic metaphor. My purpose is to investigate all of these aspects through analysis of the so-called “pragmatic writings” (such as letters, decrees, notarial deeds), sources usually overlooked by historians of political thought. As is shown in this paper, the novelty of this approach makes it possible to appreciate corporeal metaphors as performative tools and instruments of political action.

The Nature of Truth

1952 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28
Author(s):  
B. De Kretser
Keyword(s):  
Body Politic ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Truth ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
The One

The consideration of this problem is important for at least two reasons. In many countries there are reports of an increasing decline in public morals and of growing dishonesty and corruption in the life of the body politic. This is taking place at a time when the established religious systems are being subjected to the pressure of pseudo-scientific secularism on the one hand and the claims of modern alternative faiths on the other. Clearly the two developments are interconnected. Yet, to judge from the burden of many public utterances of responsible leaders, including the now important and significant ‘Moral Re-armament’ Group, the close dependence of moral truth and the truth about the character of reality is not realised. Most people are content to mutter the usual platitudes—‘Honesty is the best policy’, ‘Do please try to be good and speak the truth’. But the problem of truth is more complicated than our naīve moralists would have us believe.

The Devil Wears White: Teutonic Knights and the Problem of Evil in Polish Historiography

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-155
Author(s):  
Adam Kożuchowski
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
The One ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Teutonic Knights

This paper addresses the intersection of moral condemnation, national antagonism, and civilizational critique in the images of the Teutonic Order as presented in Polish historical discourse since the early nineteenth century, with references to their medieval and early modern origins. For more than 150 years, the Order played the role of the archenemy in the historical imagination of Poles. This image is typically considered an element of the anti-German sentiment, fueled by modern nationalism. In this paper I argue that the scale and nature of the demonization of the Teutonic Knights in Polish historiography is more complex, and should be interpreted in the contexts of pre-modern religious rhetoric on the one hand, and the critique of Western civilization from a peripheral or semi-colonial point of view on the other. The durability and flexibility of the black legend of the Order, born in the late Middle Ages, and adapted by Romantic, modern nationalist, and communist historians, makes it a unique phenomenon, surpassing the framework of modern nationalism. It is the modern anti-German stereotype that owes much to this legend, rather than the other way around.

Ratramn’s Eucharistic Doctrine and its Influence in Sixteenth-Century England

1965 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
J. N. Bakhuizen Van Den Brink
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Reliable Interpretation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

In the two ninth-century treatises on the Eucharist written by Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus two opinions are expressed which seem to be in complete contradiction with each other. Both, however, are founded in the liturgy of the Church and spring from the same orthodox root. Their doctrines, therefore, do not differ from each other in every detail of the argumentation. The one may be characterised as the realistic-metabolic doctrine, the other as the symbolic doctrine. J. R. Geiselmann in his penetrating studies of the eucharistic doctrine in the early Middle Ages prefers to distinguish between three tendencies: (1) the metabolism of St Ambrose and the Gallican liturgies; (2) the realism of the Roman liturgy; (3) the dynamism of St Augustine’s more spiritual doctrine. The most diverse answers were inspired by closer inquiries into the realisation of the sacrament, i.e. the question firstly how the conversion of the elements should be understood and, secondly, how the relation should be seen between the consecrated elements and the body of Christ ascended to heaven. In these answers the terminology used is not always the same, so that a reliable interpretation offers great difficulties.

scholarly journals Die Illusion der ›einfachen Form‹

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-404
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Simple Form ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
The One

Abstract Saints’ lives occupy a fluctuating position between cult and art which challenges their claim to be a devout and unpretentious ‘simple form’. The following contribution traces the interplay in the genre between scepticism toward rhetoric on the one hand and fascination with it on the other. The greater the importance that attaches to a surplus of rhetoric and narration, the more contradictory the narrative order mandated by the genre becomes, and the more testing the conditions under which saints’ lives are narrated. The specific interference of religious and literary modes of speaking is illustrated from examples of narrative saints’ lives from the late middle ages. What tensions does the genre’s ambivalent attitude to rhetoric give rise to when telling stories about saints through the act of narratively transforming the miraculous?

Christine de Pizan, The Book of the Cyte of Ladyes, trans. by Brian Anslay, ed. by Hope Johnston. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 457. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014, lxiv, 622 pp., 10 b/w ill.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 431-431
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Christine De Pizan ◽  
The Other ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Renaissance Studies ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

On the one hand, this new edition, or rather translation, of Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies (1405) certainly deserves to be reviewed in Mediaevistik because Christine still falls squarely into the late Middle Ages. On the other, the publication date of this translation, 1521, places it certainly outside of that period. However, a translation is always an important mirror of the reception history, which proves to be particularly rich in Christine’s case. Brian Anslay’s English translation was the first and only one to appear in print (by Henry Pepwell), at least before the twentieth century. However, we know of twenty-seven surviving manuscripts, whereas there are only five copies of Anslay’s printed work available. It is worth noting that the issues addressed here by Christine, helping women to find their own realm and identity, was apparently of significance also for her male audience since Anslay was sponsored by Richard Grey, third earl of Kent.

The Phenomenon of Dynasties of Jewish Doctors in the Mamluk Period (1250–1517)

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Amir Mazor ◽  
Efraim Lev
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Origin ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Stark Contrast ◽  
Mamluk Period ◽  
The One

Abstract This article discusses the phenomenon of dynasties of Jewish physicians in the Late Middle Ages in Egypt and Syria. Based on Muslim Arabic historiographical literature on the one hand, and Jewish sources such as Genizah documents on the other, this paper reconstructs fourteen dynasties of Jewish physicians that were active in the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). Examination of the families reveals that the most distinguished dynasties of court physicians were of Jewish origin, and had to convert to Islam during the Mamluk period. Moreover, the office of the “Head of the Physicians” was occupied mainly by members of these convert Jewish dynasties. This situation stands in stark contrast to the pre-Mamluk period, in which dynasties of unconverted Jewish court physicians flourished. However, Jewish sources reveal that dynasties of doctors who were also communal leaders continued to be active also during the Mamluk period.

World Ages and the Body Politic

1961 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-140
Author(s):  
H. J. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Body Politic ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Wide Spread ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe

When, at an unknown but manifestly early period, speculation regarding the duration and destiny of the world began, the thinkers of those days had two analogies to guide them, and consequently two divergent conclusions were reached. The first was the recurrent cycle of the seasons; the second, the growth, maturity, decay and death of the human and all other animal bodies. Reasoning from the one, some arrived at the conclusion that the world, at least the earth and mankind, had passed and would always continue to pass through a series of epochs, limited in number, which when they had ended would recommence, and so on indefinitely. From the other datum the result was reached that as a man dies and does not come to life again (for even the fairly wide-spread and early doctrine of reincarnation supposed only that the soul would be given a new earthly body of some kind, not that the whole individual would return), so the earth, or the universe generally, would grow old and die and that would be the end of it. It is the purpose of this paper to examine these two ideas and one or two offshoots of them as they are known to have appeared in the two classical civilizations of Europe, and especially in Greece, and if possible to draw some tentative conclusions as to which, if either, can be found more characteristic of native thought.

Pastoral Power and Algorithmic Governmentality

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Pastoral Power ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The One

This paper contributes to inquiries into the genealogy of governmentality and the nature of secularization by arguing that pastoralism continues to operate in the algorithmic register. Drawing on Agamben’s notion of signature, I elucidate a pair of historically distant yet archaeologically proximate affinities: the first between the pastorate and algorithmic control, and the second between the absconded God of late medieval nominalism and the authority of algorithms in the cybernetic age. I support my hypothesis by attending to the signaturial kinships between, on the one hand, temporality and authority in our contemporary conjuncture, and, on the other, obedience and submission in Christian thought from late antiquity and the late Middle Ages. I thereby illustrate the hidden genealogical continuities between theological-pastoral technologies of power and technocratic-algorithmic modalities of governance. I conclude by suggesting that medieval counter-conducts may be redeployed in our present circumstances for emancipatory ends.

scholarly journals SIMBOLO, MIRACOLO, TENTAZIONE. IL CIBO NELLA LETTERATURA AGIOGRAFICA MEDIEVALE PRIMA E DOPO IL SECOLO XII

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Paolo Maggioni
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
The One

The Christian religion is characterized by an ambivalent relationship with food. On the one hand, the liturgy is centered on the bread and wine, body and blood of Christ; on the other, the body, that you are forced to feed, has often been seen as an intolerable burden on the path of salvation. Despite this ambivalence, in the hagiographic literature of the early Middle Ages seems to be predominantly a negative conception of food, the trámite of every vice, to which man can not give up, while the twelfth century dominates a new idea of the body and, consequently, a different consideration of food and nutrition. Some hagiographic exempla regarding the primary foods, including bread, wine and milk, illustrate this evolution.

scholarly journals Artistic Genius versus the Hanse Canon from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age in Tallinn

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 59-80
Author(s):  
Juhan Maiste
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Working Together ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Veil ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

In the article, the author examines one of the most outstanding andproblematic periods in the art history of Tallinn as a Hanseatic city,which originated, on the one hand, in the Hanseatic tradition andthe medieval approach to Gothic transcendental realism, and onthe other, in the approach typical of the new art cities of Flanders,i.e. to see a reflection of the new illusory reality in the pictures. Acloser examination is made of two works of art imported to Tallinnin the late 15th century, i.e. the high altar in the Church of the HolySpirit by Bernt Notke and the altarpiece of Holy Mary, whichwas originally commissioned by the Brotherhood of Blackheadsfor the Dominican Monastery and is now in St Nicholas’ Church.Despite the differences in the iconography and style of the twoworks, their links to tradition and artistic geography, which in thisarticle are conditionally defined as the Hanse canon, are apparentin both of them.The methods and rules for classifying the transition from theMiddle Ages to the Modern Era were not critical nor exclusive.Rather they included a wide range of phenomena on the outskirtsof the major art centres starting from the clients and ending with the semantic significance of the picture, and the attributes that wereemployed to the individual experiences of the different masters,who were working together in the large workshops of Lübeck, andsomewhat later, in Bruges and Brussels.When ‘reading’ the Blackheads’ altar, a question arises of threedifferent styles, all of them were united by tradition and the waythat altars were produced in the large workshops for the extensiveart market that stretched from one end of the continent to the other,and even further from Lima to Narva. Under the supervision ofthe leading master and entrepreneur (Hans Memling?) two othermasters were working side by side in Bruges – Michel Sittow, whowas born in Tallinn, and the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucywere responsible for executing the task.In this article, the author has highlighted new points of reference,which on the one hand explain the complex issues of attributionof the Tallinn Blackheads’ altar, and on the other hand, placethe greatest opus in the Baltics in a broader context, where, inaddition to aesthetic ambitions, both the client and the workshopthat completed the order, played an extensive role. In this way,identifying a specific artist from among the others would usuallyremain a matter of discussion. Tallinn was a port and a wealthycommercial city at the foregates of the East where it took decadesfor the spirit of the Renaissance to penetrate and be assimilated.Instead of an unobstructed view we are offered uncertain andoften mixed values based on what we perceive through the veil ofsemantic research.

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