II.—The Sources and Mediæval Versions of the Peace-Fable

PMLA ◽  
1907 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-55
Author(s):  
H. Carrington Lancaster

Although the Middle Ages usually drew upon Classic tradition in the formation of their fable literature, they at times created new themes whose popularity equalled that of many older rivals. Of no small importance among such stories are those that deal with the false peace declared by a fox in order to deceive a seemingly simple-minded bird. The numerous versions of this fable that have come down to us since the middle of the eleventh century evidence strong interrelation, in spite of individual differences of character, scene, or action. The various forms become so well established by the beginning of the sixteenth century that a history of the fable is sufficiently complete if it comes down to the end of the Middle Ages. It is the object of this article to show what versions of the Peace-Fable existed before the sixteenth century, whence they arose, and what are their relations to one another. The following is a list of the mediaeval versions:—

2007 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-304
Author(s):  
Michael Frassetto

AbstractThroughout the Middle Ages Augustine of Hippo's doctrine of witness shaped theological attitudes toward the Jews and moderated Christian behavior toward them. Despite the importance of this doctrine, Christian authors sometimes turned away from the doctrine to create a new theological image of the Jew that justified contemporary violence against them. The writings of Ademar of Chabannes (989-1034) demonstrate the temporary abandonment of Augustine's doctrine during a time of heightened apocalypticism and attacks on the Jews. Ademar's writings thus reveal an important moment in the history of relations between Christians and Jews in the Middle Ages.


1961 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Makdisi

The history of Baghdad in the second half of the eleventh century is dominated by the name of the great Saljūqid minister, Niẓām al-Mulk, a name linked to an extensive network of institutions founded by him throughout the lands of the eastern caliphate: the Niẓāmīya colleges. Most widely known among them was the college in Baghdad, founded in 457/1065 and inaugurated in 459/1067. The renown of the Niẓāmīya of Baghdad, both in medieval oriental sources as well as in studies undertaken by modern Oriental and Western scholars, is such that it is the first institution likely to come to the mind of a person familiar with the period's history. Whenever historians have put their efforts into the field of Muslim education in the Middle Ages, whether in a general or specialized way, they have seldom failed to mention the fame of the college. Efforts have been made to establish the list of its professors and the most famous among its students; approximations have been made as to the date of its disappearance; investigations have been pursued to determine its exact location on Baghdad's east side; causes of its decline have been proposed; a whole treatise and other learned articles have been devoted to the history of this college alone.


1993 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-442
Author(s):  
Melissa Franklin

The most elusive and perhaps famous argument in the history of the philosophy of religion was put forth in the eleventh century by St Anselm. Now known as the ontological argument, it is based on the idea that God is that being greater than which is inconceivable. Although historically debate focused on the issue of whether existence is a property, or a perfection, required in our concept of such a being, recently it has taken a back seat to the examination of the indisputable attributes a perfect being must exemplify if He exists. Traditionally such attributes include: omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, immutability and so forth. The first challenge to the accepted attributes was posed in the Middle Ages; it is the oldest and probably the best known paradox in the philosophy of religion: Can God create a stone so heavy that even He cannot lift it? Whatever the answer is, apparently He is not Almighty. A slightly different version of the omnipotence paradox was advanced in 1955 by J. L. Mackie who questioned whether an omnipotent being could ‘make things He cannot subsequently control’.Both versions are intended to show that the concept of omnipotence suffers from internal incoherence and is therefore inapplicable to any being.


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-480
Author(s):  
Adam Knobler

Abstract Anthropologists such as Mary Helms have noted a historical linkage between the phenomena of perceived distance and perceived power. In this article I apply this paradigm to the history of European imperial expansion between the twelfth and the sixteenth century. In the Middle Ages, European popes and kings imbued the mythic ruler Prester John with great power in part because he was unseen and believed to live at a great distance. By associating the Mongols, and the Ethiopians after them, with Prester John, both of these peoples became an embodiment of this distance/power paradigm in Western European eyes. Latins hoped that the Mongols or Ethiopians would use their “power” to assist the West in their crusading battles in the Holy Land. When the Portuguese and Spanish began their voyages of expansion, they applied the same paradigm to the peoples they encountered in Asia, Africa and the Americas. When distance between Europe and these other continents was breached, however, the Iberian view of the others’ power diminished. Simultaneously, the Spanish and Portuguese perception of their own power increased as they, not “Prester John”, became the conquerors of distance.


2000 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 65-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Ryan

Abstract‘Well are ye called the Free People.' – BagheeraBARTOLUS of Sassoferrato (1314–1357) is as famous to legal historians and specialists in the history of political ideas as he is unkown outside those areas of research. His obscurity is owed not to his mind but to his genre: the commentary on Justinian'sCorpus Iuris Civilis, and the occasional monograph of more systematic yet still legalistic lineaments. Of the thousands of lawyers who studied, taught and applied Roman law from its rediscovery in the late eleventh century to the end of the middle ages, there are perhaps three or four who command universal respect, some of whom we shall encounter in what follows. Only Bartolus radiates the nimbus of genius. In the realm of political ideas, he has – perversely, perhaps – best been served by Anglophone historiography, beginning with the classic study published in 1913 by C.N.S. Woolf, continuing by way of Walter Ullmann's numerous articles and most recently subjected to a full-scale analysis by Joseph Canning in his study of the ideas of Bartolus' most famous pupil, Baldus de Ubaldis (d. 1400).


Slovene ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-93
Author(s):  
Dmitrii M. Bulanin

There are different opinions about when and under which circumstances the baptism of Rus took place. Opinions were differing already in the sixteenth century, when a version extracted from the Chronicle by Joannes Zonaras has been added to the assumptions that existed on this point. According to Zonaras’ version, during the reign of Emperor Vasily the Macedonian a bishop has been sent to Rus in order to convert the pagans. The pagans started to express doubts about the Christian faith, and the bishop, at their request, had to throw the Gospel into the fire. The book miraculously remained unharmed, and the barbarians adopted the Christianity. This story penetrated into the Moscow literary corpus through two channels — with a selection from the Chronicle’s Serbian translation, this selection being called “Paralipomenon”, and with the translation of excerpts from the Chronicle that were made by Maxim the Greek. The learned abba suggested to start the history of Russian Christianity from the Gospel’s Miracle, and not with the capture of Korsun, the event about which Greek sources say nothing. The shocking proposal of Maxim the Greek was not accepted. Still, the Miracle with the Gospel entered into the series of incidents, that were considered to constitute the long history of Rus baptism. The episode was regularly reproduced first in Muscovy historical compilations, and then in West Russian anti-Catholic polemical writings. The multi-steps (up to six stages) Christianization, stretched for two centuries and overwhelmed with different legends troubles the mind of historians who operate with the categories of modernism. From their point of view stretching of the kind is identical to a devaluation of the baptism sacrament. On the contrary, in the Middle Ages this situation was perceived as a sign of the inexhaustible mercy from the side of the Providence toward beloved nation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 229-260
Author(s):  
Alessandro Rovetta

Gaetano Cattaneo (1771-1841), founder of the Numismatic Cabinet of Brera, inherited in 1815 from Giuseppe Bossi the historiographical materials that the secretary of the Brera Academy had collected with the aim to create a work dedicated to the history of Lombard art. Cattaneo also devoted himself to the project of a History of the arts and artists of the Lombard school, which never came to light, although its preparation is largely documented by his correspondence with Italian and foreign scholars, such as Cicognara, De Lazara and Passavant. A trace of Cattaneo’s work survives in an unpublished manuscript, kept in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. In a schematic form, the document reconstructs the history of architecture in Lombardy from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century, though it was supposed to be continued until the early nineteenth century. The information provided by Cattaneo about the origins of the different “epoche”, in which he divides the developments of Lombard architecture, as to the distinctive structural and stylistic characteristics or as to the masters and their main works offer a very interesting insight into the Milanese historiographical consciousness in the time between French domination and Restoration. The essay considers in particular the judgment on the different phases of the Middle Ages, with particular regard to the profile of Longobard architecture and the origins of the Milan Cathedral. In this case both local debates and the work of Seroux D’Agincourt are fundamental for Cattaneo. Another significant theme is the judgment on the architecture of the sixteenth century in Lombardy, which re-evaluates Leonardo, resizes Bramante and, above all, censors the protagonists of the Borromean age, from Galeazzo Alessi to Francesco Maria Richino. In this respect, the internal debate at the Brera school of architecture and the historiographical positions of Carlo Bianconi and Giuseppe Bossi played an important role, other significant latest sources such as Francesco Antonio Albuzzi and Venanzio De Pagave. The essay reports the complete edition of Cattaneo’s text according to the Ambrosian copy, which was probably made by his collaborator Carlo Zardetti.


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Gregorovius ◽  
Annie Hamilton

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Gregorovius ◽  
Annie Hamilton

Author(s):  
Jack Tannous

In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual conversion to Islam. This book argues that key to understanding these dramatic religious transformations are ordinary religious believers, often called “the simple” in late antique and medieval sources. Largely agrarian and illiterate, these Christians outnumbered Muslims well into the era of the Crusades, and yet they have typically been invisible in our understanding of the Middle East's history. What did it mean for Christian communities to break apart over theological disagreements that most people could not understand? How does our view of the rise of Islam change if we take seriously the fact that Muslims remained a demographic minority for much of the Middle Ages? In addressing these and other questions, the book provides a sweeping reinterpretation of the religious history of the medieval Middle East. The book draws on a wealth of Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources to recast these conquered lands as largely Christian ones whose growing Muslim populations are properly understood as converting away from and in competition with the non-Muslim communities around them.


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