scholarly journals Four Roman Libraries

2014 ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Philip Harvey
Keyword(s):  
The City ◽  

While attending a conference of Carmelite librarians in Rome in January 2011, the author visited many libraries. This is an account of four of these libraries, all significant in their own ways to the life of the City and to the history of the church.

Author(s):  
Н. Н. Грибов ◽  
Т. А. Марьенкина ◽  
Н. В. Иванова

В статье представлены предварительные результаты первых масштабных археологических исследований в нижней части Нижегородского кремля. Раскоп, заложенный в зоне воссоздания храма Святого Симеона Столпника, вскрыл культурные отложения двух периодов - XIII - начала XV в. и XVI - середины XVIII в. Впервые средневековая усадебная застройка Нижнего Новгорода зафиксирована на таком элементе волжской долины, как береговой склон. Выдающееся значение для нижегородской археологии имеют обнаружение стратифицированных культурных напластований XIII - начала XV в. и зафиксированный на стратиграфических разрезах перерыв в активном освоении городской территории, соответствующий большей части XV в. Предложена реконструкция истории освоения раскопанного участка. Выяснилось, что связанный с храмом малоизвестный нижегородский Симеоновский монастырь вряд ли существовал до строительства Нижегородского кремля. Наиболее раннее, предположительно, монастырское сооружение, возникшее после исчезновения усадебной застройки XIII - начала XV в., датировано концом XV - серединой XVI в. С этим периодом связано строительство деревянного моста, обеспечивавшего транспортное сообщение между «нагорным» и приречным районами города. Обнаружение остатков этого свайного сооружения существенно корректирует известную реконструкцию застройки кремлевской территории начала XVII в., выполненную по письменным источникам. Дано обоснование времени функционирования обнаруженного некрополя Симеоновского монастыря в пределах середины XVI - начала XVIII в., приведена общая характеристика изученных погребений. В общеисторическом контексте материалы исследований представляют интерес для изучения процессов, сопровождающих превращение удельных городских центров в города Московской Руси. The article presents preliminary results of the first large-scale archaeological research in the lower part of the Nizhniy Novgorod Kremlin. The excavation, laid in the area of the reconstruction of the Church of St. Simeon the Stylite, uncovered cultural layer of two periods - the XIII - early XV centuries and the XVI - mid XVIII centuries. For the first time, the medieval estate development of Nizhniy Novgorod was recorded on such an element of the Volga valley as the coastal slope. The discovery of stratified cultural strata of the XIII - early XV centuries and the break in the active development of urban territory recorded on stratigraphic sections, corresponding to most of the XV century, are of outstanding significance for Nizhniy Novgorod archeology. The reconstruction of the history of development of the excavated site is proposed. It turned out that the little-known Nizhniy Novgorod Simeon monastery associated with the temple hardly existed before the construction of the Nizhniy Novgorod Kremlin. The earliest, presumably, monastic structure that arose after the disappearance of the manor buildings of the XIII -early XV centuries., dated to the end of the XV - mid XVI centuries. This period is associated with the construction of a wooden bridge that provided transport links between the «Nagorny» and riverine districts of the city. The discovery of the remains of this pile structure significantly corrects the well-known reconstruction of the Kremlin territory of the beginning of the XVII century, made according to written sources. The justification for the functioning of the necropolis discovered Simeon monastery in the middle of the XVI century - beginning of the XVIII centuries, the general characteristics of the studied burials. In the general historical context, the research materials are of interest for studying the processes that accompany the transformation of specific urban centers into cities of Muscovite Russia.


Author(s):  
Henk Ten Napel

In the centre of the City of London one can find the Dutch Church Austin Friars. Thanks to the Charter granted in 1550 by King Edward VI, the Dutch refugees were allowed to start their services in the church of the old monastery of the Augustine Friars. What makes the history of the Dutch Church in London so special is the fact that the church can lay claim to being the oldest institutionalised Dutch protestant church in the world. As such it was a source of inspiration for the protestant church in the Netherlands in its formative years during the sixteenth century. Despite its long history, the Dutch Church is still alive and well today. This article will look at the origin of this church and the challenges it faced and the developments it experienced during the 466 years of its existence.


Author(s):  
Bohdan Tykhyi

The article is devoted to the history of the monastery of the Order of Bernardines in Berezhany in Ternopil region. The analysis of the architectural features of the complex is main purpose of the work. The monastery is located in the northwest corner of the city. The territory of the was surrounded by defensive bastion fortifications. The monastery fortifications were a part of the city defensive lines. The mountain, on which the monastery located, is called - "St. Nicholas Mountain". On the place of the present monastery was a boyar's manor in the XIV century, and then the orthodox church of St. Nicholas.The construction of a defensive complex of monastic buildings began in 1630. The Bernardine complex includes - the Catholic Church of St. Nicholas, the house of the monastery cells, defensive walls and ramparts. The complex occupied the highest position in the north-western wing of the city's defense system. It was an important strategic point that controlled the Lviv-Berezhany road. The construction of all the objects of the monastery lasted 112 years until 1742.In 1809–1812, the Austrian authorities liquidated the city's powerful defenses. In particular, the ramparts and bastions that were on the territory of the monastery were eliminated. Today there is only a fragment of a defensive wall and a moat on the southern slope of the mountain, which separated the territory of the monastery from the urban areas of the New Town. The fortifications of the monastery are shown on the map of 1720 by Major Johann von Fürstenhof. The bastion belt of the monastery had underground structures. In 2010, murals were found in the interior of the church. According to the author, the carved stone decoration of the church (columns, capitals) was made by the sculptor Johann Pfister (in 1630–1642). The altars, with carved figures of saints, were probably made by the artist Georg Ioan Pinzel from Buchach. The architecture of the monastery's defensive structures needs further research. In the temple there are several valuable icons of the prophetic series of iconostasis. These are works originating from the famous Krasnopushchany iconostasis by Gnat Stobynsky and Fr. Theodosius of Sichynskyi. This iconostasis was donated in 1912 by Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi. Restoration work on the monastery began in 2007 after a visit by President Victor Yushchenko. First of all, the roof of the temple was repaired. Work is underway to restore and recreate the interior of the temple. Archaeological research of lost fortifications needs special attention.


Author(s):  
Silvia Sinicropi ◽  
Damiano Cortese ◽  
Massimo Pollifroni ◽  
Valter Cantino

This study emphasizes the history of accountancy, shedding light on its link with artistic and cultural patrimony, an issue that is scarcely addressed but is nearly always a matter underlying the greatest monuments of our civilization. As a case study, this study focuses on one of the significant architectural monuments of the City of Turin: the “Church of Gran Madre di Dio”; which was built to celebrate a historical and political event. Today it is a place of worship, a tourist attraction and a pilgrimage site. The current study corrects, from an accounting and historical perspective, the paucity of knowledge related to the Church of “Gran Madre di Dio”, and it also highlights the social impact its construction had upon the Turin area.


1872 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 220-240
Author(s):  
Charles Rogers

The Will of Sir Jerome Alexander, a parchment transcript of which is preserved in the Chief Probate Office, Dublin, is a document of more than ordinary interest; even with its cumbrous repetitions we owe no apology for producing it in full:–“In the name of God Amen. I, Sr Jerome Alexander of the City of Dublin, one of the unprofitable servants of Almighty God, being of a perfect sound disposing memory, praised bee God, this three and twentieth day of March in the yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the Second of that name by the grace of God of England, Scotland, Fraunce and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c. the two and twentieth, and hereby renounceing and admitting and declareing all former Wills and Testaments by mee at any time heretofore made to bee utterly void & of none effect, doe declare this to bee my last true Will and Testament in manner & form following and doe now soe declare it to bee. And first of all I resigne my soul into the hands of Jesus Christ my blessed Saviour and Redeemer, confidently trusting and assureing myselffe in by and through his onely merritts and mediation to receive life everlasting; and I doe hereby profess myselfe to dye as I have allways lived, a sonne of the Church of England, which is the most absolute and best forme of government in all the world,’ twere to bee heartily wished that it were practised in all the Churches of Christendome, and my body I commend unto the earth from whence it came to receive decent and comely buryall, without any greate pompe or ceremonies whatso-ever, not doubting but at the last day it shall bee raised againe and united unto my soule with it for to partake of immortall and everlasting happiness.


1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
H.A. Louw

Totius and the Book of Revelation In his sermons on the book Revelation, published in 1921, the Afrikaans theologian and poet, Prof. J.D. du Toit, better known under the pseudonym Totius, took the “futurist” view as the principal way to explain this Bible book. Elements of other views like the “historicist view” were also followed, especially in the sermon on the seven churches in Asia Minor, which regarded each church as concerned with later periods in the history of Western Europe. According to Du Toit the scene of the sealing of the servants of God (7:1-8) and of the great multitude mentioned later in the chapter (7:9-17) is set at the end of time. It should, however, be better to interpret chapter 7:1-8 as the church in John's time and the vast crowd of people from every nation as an image of the redeemed in the bliss of heaven. The multitude who comes (present tense) out of the great tribulation are those who died for their faith when Revelation was written. But the article describing the multitude in the original Greek text also seems to indicate the great trouble accompanying the end of things. For Du Toit the prostitute in chapter 17 symbolizes a city, namely Babylon. The harlot, however, had slain a great number of saints who believed in Jesus (17:6). Thus the harlot cannot be identified with Babylon. The city must be Rome, the contemporary representative of the cruel empires which, through the ages have enslaved people by brute force. Rome also killed saints who served Christ. Du Toit’s greatest shortcoming in his explanation of the Book of Revelation was that he did not see that the book Revelation is rooted in a given historical situation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-261
Author(s):  
Matthew Peattie

This article discusses previously undocumented examples of music for the old Beneventan divine office in a manuscript housed in the Archivio Storico Diocesano in Naples (Cod. Misc. 1, fasc. VII). The breviary, which was copied at the scriptorium of Santa Sofia, Benevento, in 1161, transmits two unica—canticle antiphons for the feast of St. Mercurius—in Beneventan style. It also preserves a Beneventan-style antiphon for the Holy Twelve Brothers of Benevento that is not transmitted in previously published sources of Beneventan chant. The discovery of music in Beneventan style for St. Mercurius is of importance to the history of the old Beneventan rite, as it attests to the continued production of the distinctive formulaic style of the Beneventan rite into the later eighth century. The relics of Mercurius, a military saint of Byzantium, were enshrined at the altar of Santa Sofia at Benevento in 768, and Mercurius was adopted as patron of the court, the church of Santa Sofia, and the city of Benevento. Despite the establishment of the cult of St. Mercurius in the second half of the eighth century, until now no musical record has indicated the presence of old Beneventan music for this feast (there is no extant Beneventan mass proper for Mercurius, and the documented sources for the divine office preserve only Romano-Beneventan or neo-Gregorian-style music). I consider the St. Mercurius antiphons within the context of the musical style of the old Beneventan rite and argue that they should be included in the Beneventan canon on the basis of musical style. As pitch-specific exemplars of the distinctive formulaic style of the Beneventan chant, this source is of particular value to the study of Beneventan pitch and modality. Notated in fully heightened Beneventan neumes on a staff line, these antiphons are among the few surviving witnesses of the old Beneventan repertory that preserve the distinctive modal properties of the repertory in pitch-specific notation. I introduce the music of these antiphons and consider their importance as witnesses to the continued production and copying of Beneventan music from the late eighth to the twelfth centuries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 189-224
Author(s):  
Gerard O'Daly

This chapter analyses Books 15–18, which present the two cities in history, stressing that two types of human being, self-centered or God-centered, may represent allegorically the two cities: Cain and Abel are human prototypes of the two cities. The Jews, a prophetic image of the city of God, are a part of the earthly city. Biblical history is selectively outlined, with concentration on texts that are prophetic (including the tower of Babel, the Flood, Isaac and Jacob narratives). Augustine’s synchronization of biblical and secular history, using Eusebius’ Canons and their continuation by Jerome, is examined. The sequence of empires, Assyrian (confused by Augustine with Babylon) and Roman, is traced, and the oddity of Sicyon as representative of Greece is explained. Jewish prophecies contrived to relate to Christ and the Church are highlighted. The concept of the Church as a ‘mixed body’ of true and false members becomes prominent.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kieran D. Taylor

The relief of Belgian refugees in Britain is an emerging area of study in the history of the First World War. About 250,000 Belgian refugees came to Great Britain, and at least 19,000 refugees came to Scotland, with the majority hosted in Glasgow. While relief efforts in Scotland were co-ordinated and led by the Glasgow Corporation, the Catholic Church also played a significant role in the day-to-day lives of refugees who lived in the city. This article examines the Archdiocese of Glasgow's assistance of Belgian refugees during the war. It considers first the Catholic Church's stance towards the War and the relief of Belgian refugees. The article then outlines the important role the Church played in providing accommodation, education and religious ministry to Belgian refugees in Glasgow. It does this by tracing the work of the clergy and by examining popular opinion in Catholic media. The article establishes that the Church and the Catholic community regarded the relief and reception of Belgian refugees as an act of religious solidarity.


1976 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Craig A. Robertson

The growth of subjectivity in the religious life of the later Middle Ages, in discipline and worship as well as doctrine, both without and within the corporation of the clergy, was an important motif in the history of the Church in England. A more personal interpretation of religious obligations affected even matters of bedrock importance to the life of the organized church, such as the duty of tithing. Of particular interest in this connection in England was the cause célèbre created in London in the 1420's by a maverick Franciscan, William Russell, who preached that under certain conditions lay persons might devote their personal tithes at will to any pious or charitable use. Russell's sermon led to his condemnation as a heretic. But the reasons for the extraordinary controversy that he stirred up become clear only when one recognizes the place of his sermon in a long dispute between the parish clergy of London and their parishoners about the precise obligation of personal tithes in the city.The prosecution of William Russell before Archbishop Henry Chichele and the Convocation of Canterbury was an odd affair and, in spite of their prolixity, its records leave unsolvable riddles for medievalists. The process against Russell comprises the longest trial in Archbishop Chichele's register—perhaps in that of any medieval Archbishop of Canterbury. Minutes of the prosecution and wordy ancillary documents fill all or parts of twenty-six folio pages of the register (fifty-two printed pages in the splendid printed edition of E.F. Jacob). Yet in reading this material one gathers hardly more than a crabbed impression of the learned proofs and literary citations that Russell mustered in defense of this teaching on personal tithes. What is most striking to a reader of this transcript is the vehemence with which Archbishop Chichele and his clergy in the Convocation prosecuted this errant friar, in whose sermon they saw a clear and present danger to the endowment of London parish churches.


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