On the Prehistory of Cretan Icon Painting

Frankokratia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 108-164
Author(s):  
Michele Bacci
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
A Chain

Abstract The present paper offers some thoughts on the complex issue of Italianate elements in Cretan icon painting by emphasizing the extent to which they can be considered to stem from motifs worked out in the mid-to-late fourteenth century in the wider, fluid space between Venice and the Eastern Mediterranean. It focuses on a cluster of Marian panels that, on account of their mixed Byzantine and Western character, have been hitherto confined to the margins of art-historical research and improperly labeled as works of a so-called “Adriatic” school. The critical reassessment of these works illuminates the ways in which innovative compositional, iconographic, and stylistic solutions were developed by masters well acquainted with both Palaiologan and Venetian art, and reproduced in a chain of replicas, some of which can be reasonably attributed to Cretan workshops.

scholarly journals The chain tower in Kyrenia’s harbour, Cyprus

X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Camiz ◽  
Marika Griffo ◽  
Seda Baydur ◽  
Emilia Valletta
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Structure From Motion ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
The North ◽  
Golden Horn ◽  
North Side ◽  
A Chain ◽  
The City

In the Middle Ages a chain suspended between two towers defended the entrance of Kyrenia’s little harbour, like the chain across the Golden Horn in Constantinople. William de Oldenburg, who visited Cyprus in 1211 during the reign of King Hugh I, referred to Kyrenia as “a small town well-fortified, which has a castle with walls and towers”. He perceived the chain tower as part of Kyrenia’s fortification system in that time. The Byzantines had already fortified the city, but in the thirteenth century, during the Longobard war, before the siege of the city, Frederick II’s party, under the direction of Captain Philippo Genardo, improved the defences of the city. The chain tower is still visible today in the north side of the old Kyrenia harbour. It consists of an 8,15 m diameter cylindrical tower and a 1,5 m diameter pillar on top of it. The tower was supporting a chain attached on the other side to another structure. The fortifications on the north side terminated against the harbour in a square tower or bastion holding the chain to be raised and lowered by means of a windlass. The paper includes the digital photogrammetric survey of the chain tower using a structure from motion software, the historical research and the comparison with other coeval harbour defence constructions of the eastern Mediterranean.

Late Helladic IIIA 2 Pottery from Mycenae

1965 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 159-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth French
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Previous Article ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

The L.H. IIIA 2 period according to Furumark's chronology covers the fourteenth century, a crucial phase in Mycenaean history and, whatever absolute dates are eventually assigned to the period, the pottery belonging to it marks the vast expansion of Mycenaean trade throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. It is therefore extremely important to determine what pottery must and what pottery may belong to L.H. IIIA 2. The definition of L.H. IIIA 1 pottery adopted in a previous article enables us to deal with the beginning of the period. The division between L.H. IIIA 2 late and L.H. IIIB 1 can be placed, in terms of the pottery from settlement sites, at one of two points. The earlier would be the introduction of the vertical (as compared with horizontal or diagonal) Whorl-Shells. This was suggested by Mackeprang. The later point, and the one adopted in this discussion, is the introduction of the Deep Bowl (FS 284) and in unpainted ware the Conical Kylix (FS 274). This later terminus seems preferable as a more radical and easily recognizable development.

“Ridiculousness and Risibility”

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-149
Author(s):  
Eric Lawee
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
Jewish Intellectual

The religiocultural setting that looms largest in tracing critical receptions of the Commentary is the veritable Babel of Jewish intellectual and literary expression in the eastern Mediterranean. Something unprecedented occurs in the writings of scholars with certain or highly probable eastern Mediterranean (Byzantine) affiliations: the Commentary is subjected to intense and at times systematic criticism from a position of frank superiority. The critics focus on two things: misguided exegesis, especially as expressed in the Commentary’s surfeit of midrash, and thse scandalously unscientific understanding of the Torah that Rashi is charged with promoting. The main focus in this chapter falls on Revealer of Secrets (Ṣafenat pa‘neaḥ), a Torah commentary by the fourteenth-century Eleazar Ashkenazi, who stands as the earliest datable figure to adopt a stance of arrant scorn toward Rashi. Study of his work provides a window into a world of rhetorically intense resistance to Rashi elaborated more fully by other scholars.

How Exceptional Is the History of Violence and Criminal Justice in the United States? Variation across Time and Space as the Keys to Understanding Homicide and Punitiveness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randolph Roth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Long Span ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Violence ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter contends that American exceptionalism is a far more complex issue than it initially appears. Which nations are exceptional? When, and in what ways? Once the question of exceptionalism is asked over a long span of time, its answer is almost always fluid and complicated. Hence, the chapter turns to comparative historical research in isolating the most important causes of incidents like homicide and punitive penal policies, by showing that those causes recur again and again in the presence of certain phenomena. It asserts that history shows that the relationship between crime and punitiveness is far from simple.

The Great Ruling Family of the Fourteenth Century: Muṣāhara in the Age of Ibn al-Khaṭīb

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 306-339
Author(s):  
Josef Ženka
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

Muṣāhara (affinity/relation by marriage) represented one of the essential distinctions of the ruling elite of fourteenth-century Granada. Ibn al-Khaṭīb understood its importance for life in Granada and he felt the need to mention it whenever two people were related by marriage. His perception has been taken as one of the most fundamental for historical research, as he drew on his personal experience in Granada. This study first defines the concept of the ruling elite of fourteenth-century Granada. Within this group, the concept of muṣāhara as understood by Ibn al-Khaṭīb is further elaborated. The definition of muṣāhara is followed by the description of its actual use among the families close to the office of the vizier (wazīr) and by Ibn al-Khaṭīb himself. The history of one of these families (al-Fihrī) has been hailed as an exceptional example of the “ruling elite family” that included contemporaries and adversaries of Ibn al-Khaṭīb. The example of the al-Fihrī family shows how strong and active their position was during the rule of every fourteenth-century emir. Consequently, this study demonstrates that the extensive Granadan families similar to those known from the fifteenth century had existed and cooperated with each other before this time.

Philip Harris (1926-2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (03) ◽  
pp. 371-373
Author(s):  
Michael Hodgetts
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Reading Room ◽  
The West ◽  
Birkbeck College ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Printed Books ◽  
History Of ◽  
West European

Philip Harris, who died on 21 July 2018 at the age of ninety-one, was born in Woodford, Essex, and educated at St Anthony’s School in Woodford (1932-7), St Ignatius College in London (1937-44), Birkbeck College, London, and the Institute of Historical Research. In 1953 he was awarded an M.A. for a thesis on ‘English Trade with the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late 16th Century’. From 1947 onwards he was on the staff of the British Museum (of which the Library was then part), becoming Assistant Secretary in 1959, Deputy Superintendent of the Reading Room in 1963 and Deputy Keeper in 1966. He was in charge in turn of the Acquisitions, the English and North European, and the West European Branches of the Department of Printed Books. In 1998 he published his History of the British Museum Library, the fruit of more than ten years’ research after his ‘retirement’ in 1986.1 His final project there, almost complete when he died, was on the Old Royal Library donated to the Museum by George II.2 At his funeral the first reading was read by a former head of the Chinese Department there.

The Mercenary Companies, the Papacy, and the Crusades, 1356–1378

Traditio ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 253-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Housley
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Holy War ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
First Crusade ◽  
Leading Role

During the second half of the fourteenth century most of France and many parts of Italy faced a social problem of massive proportions in the activities of the routiers, unemployed and rampaging mercenary soldiers. The popes of the period, Innocent VI, Urban V, and Gregory XI, took a leading role in attempts to deal with this daunting problem, and the purpose of this article is to examine one of the chief instruments which they employed, the crusade. The place of the mercenary companies in the crusading movement was paradoxical. On several occasions from 1357 onwards the popes issued crusading indulgences to those who fought against the routiers on the grounds that they presented a serious threat to the well-being of the Christian community, the populus christianus. But the popes also hoped to use the companies in the service of Christian Holy War by persuading them to travel to the eastern Mediterranean, to Hungary or to Granada, to fight the Muslims. Both approaches sprang from long-established papal policy towards those considered as Christendom's internal foes. When the curia tried to bring about the destruction of the routiers by offering spiritual rewards to their opponents it placed the mercenaries in the roll-call of Christian rebels and excommunicates combatted by means of the crusade, alongside the emperor Frederick II, Peter II of Aragon, the Visconti, and others. And when it attempted to send the companies beyond the frontiers of Christendom, it was adopting a strategy which dated back at least as far as the First Crusade. So both aspects of papal policy towards the routiers were highly traditional. They were also unsuccessful, which raises important questions about the way the later Avignon popes thought about and exercised their power. In the mid-thirteenth century the popes successfully resisted the ambitions of the Staufen and destroyed their might; a century later they proved unable to contain the companies. Was this because the Avignon papacy was out-of-date in its policies, because it failed to appreciate and adjust to the profound changes which had occurred in society and government? In broader terms, does traditionalism in this instance betoken the ideological bankruptcy which some scholars have seen as a leading characteristic of the papacy in the fourteenth century? In order to answer these questions I shall first examine the nature of the threat which was posed by the companies, then look in detail at the two aspects of the policy adopted by the curia in response to it.

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