Transmission and Transformation of Kabbalistic Knowledge in Italy at the End of the Fifteenth Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Flavia Buzzetta
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Transformative Communication

Abstract The article looks at the transfer of knowledge between Judaism and Christianity in the Renaissance, a period characterized by the encounter of different cultures and belief systems. In particular, it will focus on the Christian Kabbalah, which channels various philosophical and sapiential traditions into a universal, and at the same time, plural vision of wisdom. This convergence of ideas resulted, on the one hand, in the elaboration of translations, adaptations, and vulgarization of Jewish texts and, on the other, in the development of new interpretations. This is a characteristic of the collected writings of Pierleone of Spoleto, which involved the transformative communication of Jewish translators and the creative reception of Christian humanists. Of these manuscripts, we will examine the annotations concerning the sefirot, which are an excellent example of the reinterpretation of Jewish thought through a typically humanistic perspective.

ON A FIFTEENTH CENTURY TEST FOR STERILITY

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-343
Author(s):  
T. E. C.
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
The One

Barren marriages until the present century were usually considered a sign of Divine displeasure. But as knowledge of the phsyiology of reproduction was a closed book until recently, many preternatural methods for determining whether sterility was the fault of either husband or wife may be found in the medical literature of the Renaissance. None is more fanciful than the following from an English leechbook of the fifteenth century: Knowing the default of conception, whether it belong to the man or the woman. Take two new earthen pots, each by itself; and let the woman make water in the one, and the man in the other; and put in each of them a quantity of wheatbran, and not too much, that it be not thick, but be liquid or running; and mark well the pots for identification, and let them stand ten days and ten nights, and thou shalt see in the water that is in default small live worms; and if there appear no worms in either water, then they be likely to have children in process of time when God will.1 Dawson2 writes that this and similar experiments are ancient ones and are described in Egyptian papyri.

The politics of the unities: tragedy and the Risorgimento in Byron and Manzoni

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold Anthony Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The One ◽  
Original Approach

This chapter takes an original approach to Byron’s much-discussed engagement with the early Risorgimento by focusing not on biographical aspects, but rather on formal issues. It centres on The Two Foscari in the context of the highly politicised contemporary Italian critical debates about the dramatic unities. In this fashion, it teases out the political implications of Byron’s adherence to the unities by comparing his play to Alessandro Manzoni’s Il conte di Carmagnola, which programmatically violates them. Focusing specifically on the playwrights’ representations of the fifteenth-century mercenary leader, Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola, the chapter explores these writers’ use or abuse of the unity of time, in particular. In doing so, it throws light on, and contrasts, Manzoni’s Risorgimento agenda on the one hand and Byron’s generally sceptical attitude about leadership and uncertainty about social and political change on the other.

‘Abd al-Qādir al-Marāghī and ‘Alī b. Muḥammad Binā'ī: two fifteenth-century examples of notation Part 2: Commentary

1995 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-39
Author(s):  
O. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Text Setting ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
Reliable Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
History Of Composition ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

Part 1 of this paper was concerned principally with the various problems that confront any attempt to provide a satisfactory transcription of these two examples. Given the nature of the difficulties encountered, it is clear that any generalizations we might wish to derive from them can only be tentative and provisional. Nevertheless, the paucity of comparable material, which on the one hand renders the interpretative hurdles all the more difficult to surmount, on the other makes the urge to draw at least some conclusions from the material provided by ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Marāghī and Binā'ī well-nigh irresistible. Such conclusions would involve, essentially, an assessment of the extent to which their notations shed light on the musical practice of the period and provide reliable evidence for the history of composition and styles of textsetting. But in any evaluation of this nature it is essential to avoid the temptation to confuse the sources with the speculative editorial interventions that produce the versions presented in part 1 (exs. 26–8 and 30). The area about which least can be said with regard to the naqsh notated by Binā'ī is, therefore, the nature of the text-setting, while with regard to ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Marāghī's notations it is, rather, the first topic we may consider, the relationship between melody and the underlying articulation of the rhythmic cycle.

Divinatory failure: the religious and social role of Gisu diviners

Africa ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzette Heald
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Diagnostic Systems ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Invisibility ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThe literature has tended to deal with diviners only where they have been seen to play a notable role in the transformation of social relationships. This leads us to overlook their relative social invisibility in many African societies. Yet we may gain insight into the rise of prophets and charismatic healers by looking at the other side of this story in the multitude of very humble practitioners plying their trade. This is the context in which this article explores the role of diviners among the Gisu of Uganda.The privacy of consultation, the search for distant diviners, the way they are approached only at times of crisis and as agents of private counteraction or vengeance, go some way towards explaining why it is difficult for diviners to gain recognition. Added to which are the difficulties of another order which relate to what might here be regarded as divinatory success. For divination may be seen to fail at a number of different levels: in the lack of credibility of a given practitioner, i n a lack of unanimity among those consulted and in the multiplicity of causal agents evoked.An argument put forward here is that scepticism is endemic to the system and, possibly, distinctive to it. We should ask not, as Evans-Pritchard did, how belief i s sustained despite the presence of scepticism but what it is about these beliefs which encourages scepticism. It is not useful to explore this issue in terms of the rationality question or the ‘truth’ of belief systems. If we are to draw a comparison with modern attitudes, of greater significance are the organisation and differentiation of knowledge and its relationship to power. It is suggested that diagnostic systems used by societies such as the Gisu encourage an agnostic attitude in a way i n which those of the modern West do not.In the final part of the article the social role of divination is reconsidered and some of the positive functions proposed for it are questioned. Gisu divination can be seen to have evolved into a very narrow niche whose parameters are bound, on the one hand, by the limits of belief and, on the other, by a system of interpersonal vengeance. We may say that the socially marginal attributes of diviners, exclusively concerned with the negative aspects of social relationships, represent a real social marginality. At best they are agents by which the individual may be reconciled with harshnesses imposed by his own destiny, of ancestral affliction; at worst they are agents of individual vengeance and retribution. This may be taken as more or less disqualifying them from articulating a positive, future-oriented vision on behalf of the community. Clearly it is not impossible but it is a huge jump from these humble practitioners, interpreting the present in terms of the past and trading evil with evil at an individual level, to prophets capable of formulating a positive social vision, a means forward, on behalf of a wider moral or social community.

scholarly journals Modern Theories of Wisdom: Literature Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 34-37
Author(s):  
Veronika Kondratieva ◽  
Illia Zarubin
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Emotional Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
General Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures

The article presents a theoretical analysis of modern theories of wisdom, considers the formation and essence of the concept of wisdom in psychology. At the end of the twentieth century, the interest of psychologists in the subject of wisdom began to grow. Wisdom as a concept is integral to any society, culture and time, it reveals those qualities of personality that help a person to be realized. The concept of wisdom requires theoretical justification and empirical research. In general, there are two main concepts of wisdom: one affirms the affective qualities more or less with the cognitive, inherent in man; the other focuses precisely on cognitive and reflexive abilities, ignoring emotional life. This typification has proved itself in several planes. In the history of philosophy, the understanding of wisdom had both an affective and a cognitive character, represented by East and West. Empirical studies of implicit concepts of wisdom conducted in recent years indicate the variability of perception of wisdom. In the East, the concept of wisdom is less analytical and more psychological than in the West, which requires an understanding not only of the intellectual, but also of the sensual (emotions, intuition, etc.). Cross-cultural empirical studies confirm the general difference in the perception of wisdom in different cultures. The influence of age on the manifestations of wisdom in humans should be noted separately. Research has shown that age negatively affects the intellectual component of wisdom, but is neutral to procedural knowledge. On the one hand, with age a person acquires experience that can interpret and extract new procedural knowledge from him. On the other hand, the fact that a person has life experience does not determine a person’s qualitative interpretation of what happened to him. The age factor cannot be decisive in becoming wise.

scholarly journals Rapport management under examination in the context of medical consultations in Spain and Britain

2008 ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
María de la O Hernández López
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Effective Model ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Rapport Management ◽  
Medical Consultations ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures

This paper is framed within the areas of interactional pragmatics and social psychology of language, with a twofold purpose: on the one hand, applying Rapport Management (Spencer-Oatey, 2000, 2008) to the context of medical consultations in order to disentangle crucial similarities and differences between British and Spanish interactions; with the exception of Sydow Campbell’s (2005) study, Rapport Management has not been directly approached in this context. In this sense, it constitutes both a challenge in communication studies and a step forward in a well-known theory that still remains under-explored. On the other hand, Cordella’s (2004) voices in medical consultations will prove to be related to the way interlocutors manage rapport in each culture, and therefore, different voices may be relevant in different cultures. This will lead to variation in terms of the three bases of rapport (face, rights and obligations, and interactional goals). Finally, some remarks and limitations of Rapport Management will be discussed so as to give way to a more comprehensive and effective model of communication which may explain both cultural differences and situational variation.

The Jews in Fifteenth-Century Florence and Savonarola's Establishment of a Mons Pietatis

1936 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. R. Salter
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Economic Foundation ◽  
The One ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church ◽  
Bare Minimum

No aspect of fifteenth-century Florence can be completely without interest, although a bare minimum may seem to attach to a study of the Jews during this period and of their connexion with the city finances on the one hand and the establishment of a Mons Pietatis on the other. Yet the economic foundation on which the magnificent artistic and literary superstructure rested is clearly important, and that not only for the fortunes of the Medici and other ruling, or rival, families, Strozzi, Pazzi, Tornabuoni and the like, but also where it affects the daily lives of the popolo minuto, tailors, potters and fishermen, or those craftsmen who by their labours built the church of San Spirito and the Ospedale degli Innocenti. Nor can we disregard a chapter of history which closes with some of the most direct and the most practically effective of the sermons of Savonarola.

Cardinal Cajetan and Fra Ambrosius Catharinus in the Controversy over the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin in Italy, 1515–51

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Preston
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dominican Order ◽  
Contentious Issue ◽  
Immaculate Conception ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin has a long history. This article deals with a small but important segment of this development, by providing some account of what was at stake and of the main stages by which the contest was fought out, principally within the Dominican Order, between 1515 and 1551.The development here considered is really sandwiched between two Councils, the Fifth Lateran on the one hand, and Trent on the other, at which the thought of settling a very contentious issue was first entertained and then dismissed. The need for a settlement became apparent in the fifteenth century when the increasing popularity of the doctrine exacerbated the longstanding rivalry between the Franciscans, its principal devotees, and the Dominicans, its traditional opponents. Pope Sixtus IV went some way towards satisfying the Immaculists by the constitution Cum praeexcelsa of 1476, but the constitution Grave nimis of 1483 gave some satisfaction to their opponents, because it explicitly stated that, in the case of this doctrine, the Church had not yet made up its mind.

scholarly journals The Chronology of Tell El-Daba: A Crucial Meeting Point of 14C Dating, Archaeology, and Egyptology in the 2nd Millennium BC

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 407-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Kutschera ◽  
Manfred Bietak ◽  
Eva Maria Wild ◽  
Christopher Bronk Ramsey ◽  
Michael Dee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Material ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
The Other ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures

Radiocarbon dating at the Tell el-Daba site in the Nile Delta has created an enigma for many years. Despite great efforts, the difference of about 120 yr between the chronology based on 14C dates and the one based on archaeological evidence linked to the Egyptian historical chronology has not been solved. In order to foster open discussions on this discrepancy, we present here the results of 40 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements on short-lived plant material assigned to 14 different phases of the Tell el-Daba excavation, spanning 600 yr (about 2000–1400 BC). On the one hand, the recently established agreement between 14C dates and dynastic Egypt (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2010) makes it unlikely that the problem lies in the 14C dates and/or the Egyptian historical chronology. On the other hand, the extensive archaeological evidence from Tell el-Daba linked to many different cultures in the eastern Mediterranean and to the Egyptian historical chronology provides strong evidence for an absolute chronology shifted by about 120 yr with respect to the 14C dates.

Feminist Interlegalities and Gender Justice in Sudan: The Debate on CEDAW and Islam

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liv Tønnessen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Complete Rejection ◽  
Local Solutions ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures

AbstractThe fundamental argument put forward by Islamists, who have ruled Sudan since 1989, for not signing the convention is based on cultural relativism; different cultures provide indigenous and local solutions to their women’s problems. Islam is the solution, not Western feminism. But the Islamists’ failure to ratify CEDAW should not be regarded as a complete rejection of Western feminism, however defined. Through a review of the debate on CEDAW and Islam, this article explores the entanglements of ‘Islamic’ and ‘Western’ normative legal orders. It argues that although Islamist feminists’ discourse deems Western tenets of feminism and gender equality to be unessential to Islamic societies and falsely universalising in its premises, it simultaneously draws upon them in order to demonstrate their ‘alternative’ feminism. By analysing a range of Islamist women’s positions, it becomes apparent that on the one hand they reject CEDAW and gender equality, and on the other promote issues which empower women in the Sudanese state and society. But there are important points of criticism to be made regarding Islamic solutions in a multi-religious and class-divided Sudanese society. Sudanese Islamist women’s claims on behalf of Islamic solutions for Sudanese women can paradoxically be critiqued being as universalising in its premises as so-called Western feminism.

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