The Thirteenth-Century Animal Turn: Medieval and Twenty-First-Century Perspectives, by Nigel Harris

Saam Trivedi ponders the Sangita Ratnakara by the Ayurveda physician Sarangadeva. In this thirteenth-century manuscript, Sarangadeva asserts that Sound, identical to the Absolute, is the only fundamental thing in the universe and that all other things are illusory or, at best, some derivative or other manifestation of Sound. While the twenty-first century, non-monist Trivedi is critical of this claim, he finds much to be fascinated by, and, in his dissection of the main points of the Sangita Ratnakara, he offers the reader an imagining of sonic monism that, while far-removed from the orthodoxy of today’s acoustics and natural sciences, might one day come to be seen as inspiration for the latest scientific ideas concerning sound.

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A Pre-Modern Description of Emergence: Albertus Magnus on Human Foetal Development

KronoScope ◽

10.1163/15685241-12341238 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 245-256

Author(s):

Dennis Costa

Keyword(s):

Thirteenth Century ◽

First Century ◽

Philosophical Psychology ◽

Foetal Development ◽

Emergent Systems ◽

Foetal Life ◽

Human Psyche ◽

Twenty First Century

AbstractBoth the theory and the terminology of Albertus Magnus’s philosophical psychology in the thirteenth century bear an extraordinary resemblance to twenty-first century descriptions of emergent systems. In Albert’s description of the temporal drama of human foetal life, the emergent, ‘intellectual’ energies of humanpsychêoranimaor soul cannot be at all predicated on the material or psychic agents that give rise to them. Though standing in a real continuity with those natural, causal agents, human psyche knows itself as existing discontinuously from them and as enacting, in and through the dimension of time, kinds of knowledge and types of experience which display complex potentialities that appear to be irreducible, or, at the least, not fully measurable: in art, in science, and also in cultic action.

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An Old Materialism

Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies ◽

10.1215/10829636-8219554 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 269-291

Author(s):

Johannes Wolf

Keyword(s):

Thirteenth Century ◽

First Century ◽

New Approach ◽

Binary Logic ◽

The Status ◽

Katherine Group ◽

Material Turn ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

Divine Truth

This article takes a new approach to the conflicts represented in the thirteenth- century saints’ lives of the Katherine Group. Identifying saints and idols as contrasting poles in these conflicts, it argues that the category of sentience is a key distinguisher that is consistently employed to denigrate idols and idolators. Pagan antagonists are systematically identified as nonagential and material; by contrast, the saints communicate divine truth unimpeded and resist attempts to disrupt their highly integrated performances. The category of sentience is shuttled to-and-fro between parties as various antagonists attempt to reduce the saint to the status of an object. While superficially victorious, the saints finally fall prey to the binary logic of hagiography: to triumph over interrogation, torture, and death, the saint ultimately sacrifices her own sentience. This analysis reveals the investments of a medieval theory of sentience with implications for both hagiography at large and the twenty-first-century material turn.

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The Thirteenth-Century Animal Turn: Medieval and Twenty-First-Century Perspectives by Nigel Harris

Arthuriana ◽

10.1353/art.2021.0037 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 108-110

Author(s):

Karl Steel

Keyword(s):

Thirteenth Century ◽

First Century ◽

Twenty First Century

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La fortificación hispanomusulmana de la madīna de Burriana (Castellón)

X ◽

10.4995/fortmed2020.2020.11344 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

José Manuel Melchor Monserrat

Keyword(s):

Thirteenth Century ◽

Eleventh Century ◽

First Century ◽

Historical Events ◽

Construction Technique ◽

Defensive Structure ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

The Relationship ◽

Commercial Center

The Spanish-Muslim fortification of the Burriana’s medina (Castellón)This communication aims to publicize the latest archeological findings related to the Spanish-Muslim wall of Burriana, obtained thanks to the interventions carried out throughout the twenty-first century, in which new sectors and towers of the wall have been evidenced, and that they also clarify some ancient historical and archaeological news about the fortification. We highlight the documentation of the construction technique of the wall, which provides interesting data on its chronology, recently established around the eleventh century. The relationship between the defensive structure and other recent archaeological findings associated with this period are examined, such as some necropolis and elements of the urban plot. Finally, an analysis of the historical and territorial context of the defensive structure and the Spanish-Muslim city will be carried out, since Burriana’s medina was an important administrative and commercial center, a stopping point on the land route between Tortosa and Valencia, and cited as an amal that also had a seaport, according to some sources. We do not forget that the madīna is also a prominent enclave in the historical events related to the Christian razzias of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and in the subsequent process of conquest of the kingdom of Valencia at the beginning of the thirteenth century, as reflected in the chronicles of the time.

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