“Bella festa si fa ncelu”: Jesuits and Musical Traditions in the Heart of the Mediterranean

Still today, in Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, the three main islands of the western Mediterranean, there is a great flourishing of orally transmitted devotional songs which can be traced back to the acculturation processes brought about by Jesuit missionaries in the early modern era. Adopting an ethnomusicological approach, our essay focuses on some significant case studies, aiming to contribute to the discussion about Jesuits and music both in a contemporary and in a historical perspective. On the one hand, we observe the special consideration given today to some widespread popular religious songs that are commonly regarded as “historical Jesuit heritage.” On the other hand, we investigate historical sources, looking for traces of past music practices and hints about the relationships between Jesuit missionaries and traditional musicians. Rather than provide definitive answers, our purpose is to raise questions about the inherent complexity of the interpretation of past musical practices, and about the thought-provoking interconnections between these practices and the variegated music scenarios of the present day.

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From "Dragonology" to Meteorology: Aristotelian Natural Philosophy and the Beginning of the Decline of the Dragon in China

Early Science and Medicine ◽

10.1163/157338209x425614 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 14 (1-3) ◽

pp. 340-368 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Qiong Zhang

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Natural Philosophy ◽

Aquatic Animal ◽

The Core ◽

Chinese Scholars ◽

Jesuit Missionaries ◽

Early Modern Era ◽

Modern Era

AbstractThe cult of the dragon in China, which expressed itself not only in the ritual sacrifices to the dragon kings during drought and floods but also in the rationalization of the dragon's power to make rain by many serious thinkers from diverse intellectual persuasions, was first subjected to sustained criticism during the early modern era as part of an "enlightenment" drive against popular cults and "superstitions" led by some of the Jesuit-inspired Chinese scholars. This paper examines how these critics drew on Aristotelian conceptions of nature and meteorological theories introduced by the Jesuit missionaries to attack the core ideas of the traditional dragon lore and their underlying cosmology. It argues that the de-animated and rigidly stratified view of nature articulated by this small but clearly discernable group of Chinese critics can be seen as marking the beginning of the decline of the dragon, the allegedly semi-divine aquatic animal which swims, walks, flies, and makes rain.

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Anatomy and Visual Thinking in the Early Modern Era: Interdisciplinarity between Art and Medicine

The Journal of Art Theory & Practice ◽

10.15597/17381789201520061 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 62-91

Author(s):

Youngsil Sohn ◽

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Visual Thinking ◽

Art And Medicine ◽

Early Modern Era ◽

Modern Era

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Philosophic Pride

10.23943/princeton/9780691152080.001.0001 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Christopher Brooke

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Political Thought ◽

Historical Context ◽

Vital Role ◽

Intellectual Life ◽

Marcus Aurelius ◽

Hugo Grotius ◽

History Of ◽

Early Modern Era ◽

Modern Era

This is the first full-scale look at the essential place of Stoicism in the foundations of modern political thought. Spanning the period from Justus Lipsius's Politics in 1589 to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile in 1762, and concentrating on arguments originating from England, France, and the Netherlands, the book considers how political writers of the period engaged with the ideas of the Roman and Greek Stoics that they found in works by Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. The book examines key texts in their historical context, paying special attention to the history of classical scholarship and the historiography of philosophy. The book delves into the persisting tension between Stoicism and the tradition of Augustinian anti-Stoic criticism, which held Stoicism to be a philosophy for the proud who denied their fallen condition. Concentrating on arguments in moral psychology surrounding the foundations of human sociability and self-love, the book details how the engagement with Roman Stoicism shaped early modern political philosophy and offers significant new interpretations of Lipsius and Rousseau together with fresh perspectives on the political thought of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes. The book shows how the legacy of the Stoics played a vital role in European intellectual life in the early modern era.

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