scholarly journals Reconstructing a Middle Dutch Alexander Compilation

Fragmentology ◽  
10.24446/vpsb ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Schoenaers ◽  
Laurent Breeus-Loos ◽  
Farley P. Katz ◽  
Remco Sleiderink

This article provides a first description, edition and analysis of Antwerp, University Library, Special Collections, MAG-P 64.19. This fragment is the sole known remnant of a Middle Dutch compilation of stories about Alexander the Great copied by the well-known Ferguut scribe (ca.1350). Our research shows that this compilation comprised Dutch versions of the Voeux du paon and the twelfth-century Fuerre de Gadres, which was previously unknown to have been translated into Dutch. We advance the possibility that the Stuttgart and Brussels fragments of Alexanders geesten and Roman van Cassamus, which were also copied by the Ferguut scribe, belonged to a second copy of this compilation, providing a continuous narrative about the life of Alexander. In this respect, the Dutch compilation resembles contemporary manuscripts of the Roman d'Alexandre in which Alexandre de Paris' vulgate compilation was complemented with various amplifications. The combination of pre-existing Dutch stories into one (semi)coherent narrative is also similar to the famous Lancelot compilation, a collection of Arthurian narratives created in Brabant in approximately the same period. The fragment thus sharpens our understanding of the role of compilations in the dissemination of Middle Dutch chivalric romance.

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-138
Author(s):  
Jelani Harun ◽  

Mir’at al-Tullab by Syeikh Abdul Rauf Singkel is one of the masterpieces in the history of Malay writing in Aceh. The work written in 1661 demonstrates knowledge of Shari’ah law including the subjects on commercial law, matrimonial law and criminal law. The major idea that runs through the whole work is that of the role of sultan and ulama in preserving Islamic laws of the state. The importance of Mir’at al-Tullab is reflected in the large number of manuscripts that are available. In spite of its importance, there is still a lack of studies of the work especially those based on several Jawi manuscripts that are known to exist in Leiden University Library. This article is a preliminary study of five manuscripts of Mir’at al-Tullab kept in the Special Collections, Leiden University Library, and to identify basic features of the Islamic laws in Aceh in the mid-seventeenth century based on the manuscripts. Mir’at al-Tullab portray an early example of the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh as to replace the adat law practices that existed before. Keywords: Mir’at al-Tullab, Syeikh Abdul Rauf Singkel, history of Malay, Islamic law, manuscripts


Author(s):  
Megan Bryson

This book follows the transformations of the goddess Baijie, a deity worshiped in the Dali region of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, to understand how local identities developed in a Chinese frontier region from the twelfth century to the twenty-first. Dali, a region where the cultures of China, India, Tibet, and Southeast Asia converge, has long served as a nexus of religious interaction even as its status has changed. Once the center of independent kingdoms, it was absorbed into the Chinese imperial sphere with the Mongol conquest and remained there ever since. Goddess on the Frontier examines how people in Dali developed regional religious identities through the lens of the local goddess Baijie, whose shifting identities over this span of time reflect shifting identities in Dali. She first appears as a Buddhist figure in the twelfth century, then becomes known as the mother of a regional ruler, next takes on the role of an eighth-century widow martyr, and finally is worshiped as a tutelary village deity. Each of her forms illustrates how people in Dali represented local identities through gendered religious symbols. Taken together, they demonstrate how regional religious identities in Dali developed as a gendered process as well as an ethno-cultural process. This book applies interdisciplinary methodology to a wide variety of newly discovered and unstudied materials to show how religion, ethnicity, and gender intersect in a frontier region.


Quaerendo ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-303
Author(s):  
Segheliin van Iherusalem

AbstractThe Middle Dutch verse romance Segheliin van Iherusalem has survived in the following known extant copies: a manuscript (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, MS. Germ. fol. 922, fos. 71r.-122v., on the basis of the watermarks dated by the present author c. 1412-15); an incunabulum (Ghent University Library, Res. 1405 (between 1483 and 1486)); five post-incunabula, all printed in Antwerp (1511-40) and now in The Hague (2 copies), Leiden, Vienna and Paris; and a mid fifteenth-century excerpt (Brussels, Royal Library, Hs. II 116, fos. 2v.-5r.). These sources, all rhyming texts, are described here, and the excerpt is given in full. The gap still facing students of the Segheliin has thus been filled. Both manuscript and incunabulum are incomplete at the end. The text in the sixteenth-century editions differs widely from that of the manuscript version. For its part the incunabulum departs from the text of the post-incunabula with a version (perhaps closer to the original?) which in very many places tends towards the manuscript version, being something of a watershed between the two traditions. Preliminary investigation of the linguistic levels in the text, carried out on the basis of changes in the rhyme words, points to a Flemish and probably more specifically west or south-west Flemish base level (possibly the area where Ingvaonic and Brabantish meet (the region of the Dender), above which there is at least a Brabantish level. This fact, combined with the possibility of an interpretation of the Segheliin to some extent in terms of the context of the medieval veneration of the Cross and the Blood of Christ, more than suggests that the story is of Flemish origin.


Traditio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 143-178
Author(s):  
ANNA MINARA CIARDI

The phrase per clerum et populum (“by clergy and people”) was traditionally used to describe how the election of a bishop had been or should be undertaken. Over the course of the twelfth century this changed. Ecclesiastical legislation was step by step revised and codified. The aim of the reformers was to safeguard the autonomy of the Church and to reduce lay influence. The purposes of this article are, first, to examine legal terminology in the context of episcopal appointments from 1059 to 1215, with special reference to the formula per clerum et populum and the role of cathedral chapters as electoral bodies; second, to examine how episcopal appointments were actually undertaken and what terminology was used in the kingdom of Denmark until circa 1225; and, third, to share some ideas about the development of canon law in the context of “cathedral culture.” My conclusions are, first, that the mode of election per clerum et populum was gradually replaced and eventually became invalid, parallel to a legal development where cathedral chapters became the “proper” electoral body; second, that the monastic ideals of ecclesiastical freedom prompted by the reformers are evident in normative texts from cathedral chapters in Denmark already in the first quarter of the twelfth century; and, finally, that the legal developments strongly contributed to the formation of capitular institutions and a specific cathedral culture, which was rooted in monasticism but also differed from it, not least with regard to its legal functions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-55
Author(s):  
E. Haven Hawley

Curators are partners with printing historians, collectors, and conservators, as well as with communities, in selecting, preserving, and interpreting cultural heritage. Uncovering the role of a technology such as mimeography reveals more than a history of a specific machine or technical process. It secures a better understanding about social experience by authenticating accounts about how diverse groups communicated with their own communities and to others. Special collections professionals need to be archaeologists to recover evidence from and to best preserve 20th-century publications. Current tools for studying recent print artifacts are insufficient. Thus, collaborating to generate methods for analysis is an . . .


Author(s):  
GEORGINA HERRMANN ◽  
JOE CRIBB

This introductory chapter discusses the coverage of this book, which is about the history of Central Asia after its conquest by Alexander the Great and before the introduction of Islam. It explores the role of the nomads in the shaping of Central Asia, describes major cities and the arrangement of buildings, and explores the region's experience with a series of invasions. The chapter analyses the role of money as a marker of cultural continuity and change and discusses religious iconography and temples.


Author(s):  
Carol M. Meale

The manuscripts discussed here, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner MS 407 and New Haven, Yale University Library, Beinecke 365, were produced roughly contemporaneously and within a relatively small geographical area. Tanner is the work of one man, Robert Reynes of Acle, and is noted for the eclecticism of its contents. Beinecke, meanwhile, was the work of two scribes, the first anonymous, the second Robert Melton of Stuston. The first copyist’s work is largely religious and exemplary; Melton’s contributions are non-literary, consisting of prayers and copies of accounts and deeds relating to his role of steward to the Cornwallis family. Study of content is complemented by analysis of the structure of each book while comparison of the dramatic texts lends particularity to the taxonomic distinctions which must be drawn between them.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document