Tristan the Artist in Gottfried's Poem

PMLA ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 77 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 364-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. T. H. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Gottfried Von Strassburg ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Arthurian Romance ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Grand Design ◽  
Christian Men ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Middle Ages

Although the thinkers of the Middle Ages il did not develop any theories about the function of the artist which can be compared with those of Plato or the Romantics, they had definite views on art and its relation to society. Art in its broadest sense had for them an ethical and social function which inevitably became part of the grand design of the universe. None of the great writers of romance is without consciousness of this function. In the creation of the Arthurian romance in particular they were fully aware of their responsibilities, but they interpreted them in differing ways. It seems to me that Gottfried von Strassburg realizes most fully the intellectual aspects of his responsibility and takes most note of the esthetic theories which justified the arts, and in particular music, as beneficial for Christian men and women and as leading towards that harmony of the spirit with the eternal which was regarded as the highest good.

Aristotle's Unmoved Movers

Traditio ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Merlan
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Picture ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Concentric Spheres ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Middle Ages

According to Aristotle all heavenly movement is ultimately due to the activity of forty-seven (or fifty-five) ‘unmoved movers'. This doctrine is highly remarkable in itself and has exercised an enormous historical influence. It forms part of a world-picture the outlines of which are as follows. The universe consists of concentric spheres, revolving in circles. The outermost of these bears the fixed stars. The other either bear planets or, insofar as they do not, contribute indirectly to the movements of the latter. Each sphere is moved by the one immediately surrounding it, but also possesses a movement of its own, due to its mover, an unmoved, incorporeal being. (It was these beings which the schoolmen designated as theintelligentiae separatae.) The seemingly irregular movements of the planets are thus viewed as resulting from the combination of regular circular revolutions. The earth does not move and occupies the centre of the universe. Such was Aristotle's astronomic system, essential parts of which were almost universally adopted by the Arabic, Jewish, and Christian philosophers of the Middle Ages.

Encyclopedists, medieval

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Barnish
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences ◽  
Martianus Capella ◽  
The Middle Ages

The modern encyclopedic genre was unknown in the classical world. In the grammar-based culture of late antiquity, learned compendia, by both pagan and Christian writers, were organized around a text treated as sacred or around the canon of seven liberal arts and sciences, which were seen as preparatory to divine contemplation. Such compendia, heavily influenced by Neoplatonism, helped to unite the classical and Christian traditions and transmit learning, including Aristotelian logic, to the Middle Ages. Writers in the encyclopedic tradition include figures such as Augustine and Boethius, both of whom were extremely influential throughout the medieval period. Other important writers included Macrobius, whose Saturnalia spans a very wide range of subjects; Martianus Capella, whose De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (The Marriage of Philology and Mercury) covers the seven liberal arts and sciences; Cassiodorus, who presents the arts as leading towards the comtemplation of the heavenly and immaterial; and Isidore, whose Etymologies became one of the most widely referred-to texts of the Middle Ages. These writers also had a strong influence which can be seen later in the period, particularly in the Carolingian Renaissance and again in the twelfth century.

Female Arthurians in Scandinavia: Eufemia, Christina and the Modern Female Scholar

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-60
Author(s):  
Sofia Lodén
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Study ◽  
Arthurian Romance ◽  
Queen Christina Of Sweden ◽  
Female Scholar ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract This article traces the line between the medieval female reader of Arthurian romance in Scandinavia and the female scholar of today. It draws attention to a number of female patrons and readers of Arthuriana in the Middle Ages, as well as to Queen Christina of Sweden in the seventeenth century. It also discusses the contribution of Scandinavian women to the scholarly field of Arthurian literary study.

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