scholarly journals “Ars sine scientia” or rather “Ars sine geometria”? The debate of 1400 on the elevation of Milan cathedral

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Giulia Ceriani Sebregondi

The construction of Milan Cathedral from 1386 was one of the most important episodes in the history of Italian and European architecture because of the uniqueness of the building itself — the largest Gothic church ever constructed in Italy — and because of the presence of some of the most authoritative architects of the late Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries in Europe (Lombard, French, German).The documentation about the discussions on how to build the Duomo in the late Trecento and early Quattrocento, especially on the structural choices to be made and the different Lombard and Northern building-site practices, made famous to English readers in a celebrated article by James Ackerman, is extraordinarily rich and extensive, permitting considerations on the relationship between medieval architectural ideals and an actual project.The paper focuses on the famous discussions of 1400, in part a re-run of those of 1392. It will be argued that famous criticism by the French expert Jean Mignot of Milanese architects involving the terms ars and scientia could have a very different meaning from the one generally accepted in the literature. Consequently, it will result that Mignot wanted to return to the original project proposed by Gabriele Stornaloco, which embodied the desired correspondence between the sacred architecture and the perfect God’s world.All of which, could be of some interest to medievalists in general, and to those concerned with architectural theory and with the relationship between Gothic architecture and literature in particular.

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 63-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Ceriani Sebregondi ◽  
Richard Schofield

AbstractThe construction from 1386 of Milan Cathedral, the largest Gothic church ever constructed in Italy, was one of the most important episodes in the history of Italian and European architecture. The documentation of the lateTrecentoand earlyQuattrocentodiscussions over how to build the Cathedral is extraordinarily rich and extensive, and permits a consideration of the project from many points of view including the relationship between medieval architectural theory and an actual project. At the same time, any enquiry has to contend with the copious modern literature and the conclusions that have been reached hitherto – often erroneously in our view – about many of the most salient points. We thus re-examine published and unpublished documentation and the existing literature, analysing especially the format of the building's elevation, the proposals by Gabriele Stornaloco and Jean Mignot, and the drawings attributed to Antonio di Vincenzo. We also reconsider the notions ofarsandscientiawhich have previously been misinterpreted in discussions of the cathedral documentation.


Author(s):  
Jesse Schotter

The first chapter of Hieroglyphic Modernisms exposes the complex history of Western misconceptions of Egyptian writing from antiquity to the present. Hieroglyphs bridge the gap between modern technologies and the ancient past, looking forward to the rise of new media and backward to the dispersal of languages in the mythical moment of the Tower of Babel. The contradictory ways in which hieroglyphs were interpreted in the West come to shape the differing ways that modernist writers and filmmakers understood the relationship between writing, film, and other new media. On the one hand, poets like Ezra Pound and film theorists like Vachel Lindsay and Sergei Eisenstein use the visual languages of China and of Egypt as a more primal or direct alternative to written words. But Freud, Proust, and the later Eisenstein conversely emphasize the phonetic qualities of Egyptian writing, its similarity to alphabetical scripts. The chapter concludes by arguing that even avant-garde invocations of hieroglyphics depend on narrative form through an examination of Hollis Frampton’s experimental film Zorns Lemma.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-58
Author(s):  
Emilio Dabed

This article sheds new light on the political history of legal-constitutional developments in Palestine in the fourteen years following the Oslo Accord. It examines the relationship between the unfolding social, political, and economic context in which they arose, on the one hand, and PA law-making and legal praxis, on the other. Focusing on the evolution of the Palestinian Basic Law and constitutional regime, the author argues that the “Palestinian constitutional process” was a major “battlefield” for the actors of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Thus, changes in the actors' political strategies at various junctures were mirrored in legal-constitutional forms, specifically in the political structure of the PA. In that sense, the constitutional order can be understood as a sort of “metaphoric representation” of Palestinian politics, reflecting, among other things, the colonial nature of the Palestinian context that the Oslo process only rearticulated. This perspective is also essential for understanding the evolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after Oslo.


Author(s):  
Patrick Donabédian

Two important spheres of the history of medieval architecture in the Anatolia-Armenia-South-Caucasian region remain insufficiently explored due to some kind of taboos that still hinder their study. This concerns the relationship between Armenia and Georgia on the one hand, and between Armenia and the Islamic art developed in today’s Turkey and South Caucasus during the Seljuk and Mongol periods, on the other. Although its impartial study is essential for a good understanding of art history, the question of the relationship between these entities remains hampered by several prejudices, due mainly to nationalism and a lack of communication, particularly within the countries concerned. The Author believes in the path that some bold authors are beginning to clear, that of an unbiased approach, free of any national passion. He calls for a systematic and dispassionate development of comparative studies in all appropriate aspects of these three arts. The time has come to break taboos.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tautvydas Vėželis

This article examines the problem of overcoming nihilism in Heidegger’s dialogue with Jünger. It is suggested that nihilism is manifested in various forms and is the deep logic of the whole history of European civilization. One of the main aims of this paper is to outline the relationship of nihilism and Nothing in Heidegger’s dispute with Jünger, viewing how Heidegger distinguishes his approach from Jünger’s point of view. Heidegger, on the one hand, treats nihilism as consummation of the Western metaphysical tradition, on the other hand, identifies Nothing itself as the shadow of Being, which cannot be overcome in the traditional dialectical thinking manner.


1949 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Seiler

The results of a field survey of herpes zoster over a period of 18 months are described and the difficulties of such a survey mentioned.A total of 246 patients with herpes zoster, only 16% of whom had attended hospital, is reported. It is calculated that the yearly incidence in the population was approximately 2 per 1000.Full investigation and ‘follow up’ was undertaken in 184 cases. These are classified according to the site of the zoster—the dorsal, supra-orbital and cervical regions being affected in almost 90%, the dorsal region alone accounting for 53·3%.Herpes generalisatus occurred in 7, or 38%, of the cases, recurrent herpes zoster in 6, or 3·3%, while there was one case of motor paralysis affecting lower limb.The majority of patients were apparently well at the onset of the zoster, but 27 had some associated disease; 5 gave a history of trauma prior to the onset and 2 were related to pregnancy.The seasonal and geographical distribution is given and, while the numbers are too small for statistical analysis, the disease in 1947 showed two peaks of higher incidence, the one in May and the other in October. Crowding or density of population did not appear to be important, and the disease occurred sporadically rather than in epidemic form.There was a higher proportion of female cases, but when related to the population as a whole no sex differentiation was observed. Of the patients 60% were over 45 years of age.There was no evidence that housing conditions or occupation were of aetiological significance or that the disease was more common among any particular section of the community.Eleven patients had been associated with other cases of herpes zoster before developing the disease, while 3 gave a suggestive history of prior contact with chickenpox.A condition indistinguishable from chickenpox occurred among the contacts of 10 patients, 12 individuals being affected, and there was one instance of concurrent herpes zoster and chickenpox. Other infections such as mumps, measles and rubella, while as common in association with the onset of herpes zoster, were not so frequently found as the chickenpox condition amongst contacts of the disease.The results of the survey as regards the relationship of chickenpox and herpes zoster are discussed. It is considered that the evidence does not favour a significant association with chickenpox prior to the onset of herpes zoster, but that the facts are consistent with the view that a condition indistinguishable from chickenpox may follow contact with herpes zoster. It is suggested, however, that this may be a generalized manifestation of the virus of zoster rather than true chickenpox.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Danailov ◽  

The report compares the form-formation principles, key to the architecture of the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts (1983/89) Columbus, Ohio – of the American Peter Eisenmann – with some of the techniques used in the spatial – compositional solution of the destroyed Sofia monument “1300 Years Bulgaria” (1980/81–2017). The text refers to the 80’s of the twentieth century and the creative approaches, distinctive for some of the lastest „large-scale monuments“ realized in Bulgaria. These approaches are considered in the light of one opened architectural theory, absolutely oppositional to the one typical to our country at this time. The comparison aims to are to expand, within this date, the scope of the spatial-artistic analysis, committed to the relationship between the architecture, sculpture and the surrounding environment.


Traditio ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 493-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myron P. Gilmore

During the last decade the works of Professor Guido Kisch have made an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of the legal thought of the sixteenth century, particularly to the school represented by the University of Basel. His articles and monographs have dealt with the biographical and literary history of significant scholars as well as with the rival schools of interpretation represented by ‘mos italicus' and ‘mos gallicus.' Building on these earlier studies, Professor Kisch has now produced a major work of more comprehensive scope, which goes beyond biographical and methodological questions to the analysis of significant change in substantive legal doctrines. Convinced that the age of humanism and the reception of Roman law saw the formation of some of the most important modern legal concepts, he centers his research on the evolution of the theory of equity with due attention, on the one hand, to the relationship between sixteenth-century innovation and the historic western tradition and, on the other, to the interaction between the academic profession and the practicing lawyers.


1995 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-39
Author(s):  
O. Wright

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.


1995 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-205
Author(s):  
I.J.J. Spannenberg

AbstractA number of overviews on the Biblical Sciences in South Africa have recently appeared. This article pays special attention to the one written by F E Deist (1994) Ervaring, rede en metode in Skrifuitleg: 'n Wetenskapshistoriese ondersoek na Skrifuitleg in die Ned Geref Kerk 1840-1990. Deist identifies two epistemological traditions in the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk): naive realism and critical realism, and indicates the 'ebb and flow' of these traditions in the history of the Biblical Sciences. Since the seventies critical realism has experienced a high tide. The article discusses the effects that this high tide has for the relationship between the Biblical Sciences and Dogmatics, the Biblical Sciences and the Reformed confessions of faith, and the Biblical Sciences and the Christian religion.


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