Nikolaus of Flüe († 1487): Physiognomies of a Late Medieval Ascetic

2006 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-255
Author(s):  
Gabriela Signori
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Physical Appearance ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractDuring the fifteenth century the number of saints increased dramatically. But most of them had already been dead for centuries and were known only through the pages of their vitae. Living saints became rare, chiefly because of the unwaveringly skeptical approach towards them. Critics were always asking, How does one recognise a saint? What do "real" saints look like? What is the relationship between what is outside and what is inside, between the physical appearance and the inner self of a man? As this paper will demonstrate, it was was not so much these questions as the answers that were new.

Courting Controversy?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Swift
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Dialogic Process ◽  
Court Politics ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter uses Machaut’s JRB and JRN as a launch-pad for reading the relationship of response between Martin Le Franc’s Champion des dames (c.1442) and Complainte du livre du Champion des dames a maistre Martin le Franc son acteur, with the aim of understanding better the stakes at play in the fifteenth-century false retraction. The Champion references explicitly to Machaut’s judgment poems, and both the Champion and Complainte entertain an analogous interaction of metatextuality, intertextuality, and historical reference. This results in a similarly enticing and subtle interlacing of poetry and court politics. Le Franc and Machaut contribute distinctively to a characteristically late-medieval reflection on authorship as a dialogic process concerned as much with book reception as with its production.

scholarly journals “L’enfer, c’est les autres”: En-gendering Sin in Middle English Religious Drama. The Case of Chester

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-107
Author(s):  
Estella Ciobanu
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Religious Drama ◽  
Biblical Drama ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Gender Specific ◽  
Social Suppression

Abstract This article investigates the relationship between sin and its retribution as depicted in three Middle English biblical plays concerned with retribution, Noah’s Flood, the Harrowing of Hell and the Last Judgement, in the Chester biblical drama collection. The plays’ general tenor is, to modern sensibilities, conservative and disciplinarian with respect to social mores. Yet, studying the portrayal of sin against the plays’ social background may uncover secular mutations of the Christian conceptualisation of sin as a function of gender as well as estate. Chester’s Last Judgement dramatises sin in accordance with fifteenth-century ecclesiastical and secular developments which criminalise people along gender-specific, not just trade-specific, lines. In showing Mulier as the only human being whom Christ leaves behind in hell after his redemptive descensus, the Harrowing dooms not just the brewers’ and alehouse-keepers’ dishonesty, as imputed to brewsters in late medieval England, but women themselves, if under the guise of their trade-related dishonesty. The underside of the Chester Noahs’ cleansing voyage is women’s ideological and social suppression. Whether or not we regard the Good Gossips’ wine-drinking – for fear of the surging waters – or Mrs Noah’s defiant resistance to her husband as a performance of the sin of humankind calling for the punitive deluge, the script gives female characters a voice not only to show their sinfulness. Rather, like the Harrowing of Hell and less so the Last Judgement, Noah’s Flood, I argue, participates in a hegemonic game which appropriates one sin of the tongue, gossip, to make it backfire against those incriminated for using it in the first place: women.

scholarly journals Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD: Part I

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 42-65
Author(s):  
Mike Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Century Science

Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD is a three-part series, which provides an account of all known individual Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics in the late medieval era and details their temporalities, occupations, familial associations, and broader networks. The ultimate goal of the series is the full contextualisation of all available historical records relating to Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics alongside the genealogical record that can be extracted by twenty-first century science – that being the science of Y-DNA. The Papal Registers, in particular, record numerous occurrences of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics, predominantly in the dioceses of Cill Dalua (Killaloe) and Osraí (Ossory), from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. Yet, no small intrigue surrounds their emergence. Part I of Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD examines the context surrounding the earliest appointments of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics, which is in neither Cill Dalua nor Osraí but the diocese of Luimneach (Limerick). Once that context is understood, a pattern of associations emerges. A ‘coincidental’ twenty-first century surname match from the Fitzpatrick Y-DNA project leads to a review of the relationship between the FitzMaurice of Ciarraí (Kerry) clerics and Jordan Purcell, Bishop of Cork and Cloyne (1429-1472). The ‘coincidence’ then leads to an examination of a close Y-DNA match between men of the surnames Purcell and Hennessey. That match, coupled with the understanding that Nicholas Ó hAonghusa (O’Hennessey), elected Bishop of Lismore and Waterford (1480-1483) but with opposition, is considered a member of Purcell’s household, transforms the ‘coincidence’ into a curiosity. Part I morphs into a conversation, likely uncomfortable for some, relating to clerical concubinage, illegitimacy, and the ‘lubricity’ of the prioress and her nuns at the Augustinian nunnery of St Catherine's O’Conyll. The nunnery was located at Mainistir na gCailleach Dubh (Monasternagalliaghduff), which lay just a stone’s throw from where Bishop Jordan Purcell and Matthew Mac Giolla Phádraig, the first Mac Giolla Phádraig cleric recorded in the Papal Registers, emerged. Part I makes no judgments and draws no firm conclusions but prepares the reader for Part II by ending with some questions. Do the Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics of Osraí, who rose to prominence in the late-fifteenth century, have their origins in Deasmhumhain (Desmond)? Could the paternal lineages of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics be, at least from the mid-fourteenth century, with the house of the Geraldine FitzMaurice clerics of Ciarraí? And, could some of the modern-day descendants of the Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics be those Costigans, FitzGeralds, and Fitzpatricks who are found under haplotype R-A1488?

The One Who Comes After Me

2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 639-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Alan Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
John 1 ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Temporal Parameters ◽  
The Past ◽  
John The Baptist ◽  
Vatican City ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Studies of the past two decades have shown that late medieval and Renaissance composers participated in a culture of symbolic representation by inscribing Christian figures and concepts into musical design. One figure who has been overlooked in this line of scholarship is John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ. This essay outlines the Baptist's historical impact on the conception of Christian temporality and proceeds to demonstrate some distinct experiments in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century music for John that express his predecessory character through emblematic manipulations of temporal parameters. By the sixteenth century, several inscriptions found in Vatican manuscripts reveal that the Baptist was associated with a particular musical craft that controls masterfully the unfolding of time: the art of canon. Drawing heavily on Scripture (especially John 1:15, 27, 30) to articulate the compositional conceits, the rubrics likened the leader (dux) and follower (comes) of a canon to the relationship between John (the forerunner saint) and Jesus. The analogy intensified around the papal chapel choirbook Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella Sistina 38.

International Humanitarian Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-137
Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Sun Tzu ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
Chinese Military ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the notion that truly “civilized” people should set boundaries even in war, which was not solely confined to those who founded Western civilization. It mentions the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, whose writings about the relationship between warfare and politics anticipated much contemporary thought on civility. It also identifies some of the leading figures in the Christian Church in the West that called for restraint in combat. The chapter looks into the most significant development of codes imposing restraints on the conduct of hostilities that took place during the “age of chivalry,” which was the late medieval period that lasted from about the twelfth to the fifteenth century. It also reviews accounts of the development of contemporary international humanitarian law, starting with the battle of Solferino in 1859.

scholarly journals From Micro- to Macro-processes of Religious Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 412-439
Author(s):  
Rob Lutton
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Richard Rolle ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The article discusses the Europe-wide late medieval phenomenon of the cult of the Holy Name, using it as a case study to discuss the relationship of micro-and macro-historical transformations by scrutinizing the enormous success of a religious innovation which managed to spread to many different local contexts and social groups. After pointing out contradictions in earlier explanations of this success, the article gives a detailed reading of several different realizations of this form of devotion, discussing authors like Richard Rolle, but also religious compilations and documentary evidence. This evidence suggests that the meaning and significance of devotion to the Holy Name remained open, malleable and unstable. It therefore appears necessary to engage with the whole range of its representations, and their transmission at different social levels, in order to understand its larger significance in the religious transformations of the long fifteenth century.

The Augustinian Heart: Late Medieval Images of Augustine as a Monastic Identity

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 488-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANIK LAFERRIÈRE
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Trinity

This study focuses on fourteenth- and fifteenth-century images, commissioned by the Ordo Eremitarum Sancti Augustini, of Augustine in rapture at the Trinity, revealing a wounded heart. This imagery begins an iconographical trend within the order that portrays Augustine as the Doctor of Love and departs from the image initiated by Possidius of Augustine as the rational thinker and bishop. A comparison with contemporaneous images of Francis receiving the stigmata reveals a new understanding of the relationship of the body to fourteenth- and fifteenth-century mendicant piety, and the importance of the iconisation of the body in the Hermits' understanding of Augustine.

Sources and Resources John Bradmore and the Case of the Bitten Man: A Tantalising Link Between Three Medieval Surgical Manuscripts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S J Lang
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Summary This article examines three English surgical treatises compiled between the late fourteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries. The earliest, a Middle English treatise dated 1392, appears to have been compiled by a surgeon practising in London (MS Wellcome 564). Near contemporary with this is a Latin treatise, Philomena, compiled by London surgeon John Bradmore in the first decade of the fifteenth century (BL MS Sloane 2272). The latest of the three, dated 1446, represents a translation/adaptation of Bradmore’s Philomena into Middle English (BL MS Harley 1736). All three treatises contain anecdotes of surgical cases, and just one of these anecdotes is common to all three manuscripts. Close analysis of this story is used to explore aspects of the practice and regulation of surgery in late medieval London, and also to examine the relationship of the three treatises and the implications this has for the sharing of texts and information among surgeons.

‘POWDERED WITH ARMES YMAGES AND ANGELS’: AN EARLY TUDOR CONTRACT FOR EMBROIDERED VESTMENTS

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 143-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Jackson
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
The People ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

There are many extant examples of late medieval vestments in private and public collections in Europe and North America. Little is known, however, about the people who created them and the production methods used. A copy of a formal agreement between Sir Robert Clere and William Morton, included in the Townshend family papers, offers a rare insight into the making of a set of late fifteenth-century vestments. The document specifies the materials and the motifs to be used in making the vestments and the delivery deadline. This paper investigates the individuals mentioned in the agreement, the significance of the symbols and images chosen, and the possible motives behind the contract phraseology. Although these particular vestments no longer exist, parallels for the designs and techniques among extant examples have been used to re-create their possible appearance. Also considered is the relationship between embroiderer and mercer and the ways in which they collaborated to produce garments for royalty, the nobility and an increasing number of wealthy citizens.

A Mathematical Turn

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Oosterhoff
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
University Reform ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Nicholas Of Cusa ◽  
Devotio Moderna ◽  
Court Politics ◽  
Spiritual Reform ◽  
The University

Lefèvre described his own mathematical turn as a kind of conversion. This chapter explains what motivated his turn to mathematics, considering the place of mathematics in fifteenth-century Paris in relation to court politics and Lefèvre’s own connections to Italian humanists. But more importantly, Lefèvre’s attitude to learning and the propaedeutic value of mathematics drew on the context of late medieval spiritual reform, with its emphasis on conversion and care of the soul. In particular, Lefèvre’s turn to university reform seems to have responded to the works of Ramon Lull, alongside the devotio moderna and Nicholas of Cusa, which he printed in important collections. With such influences, Lefèvre chose the university as the site for intellectual reform.

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