Claire Taylor Jones, Ruling the Spirit: Women, Liturgy, and Dominican Reform in Late Medieval Germany. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018, pp. viii, 224.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 432-432
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Germany ◽  
The One ◽  
Late Medieval Germany ◽  
Careful Assessment

The interaction between mystically inspired beguines and nuns on the one hand and the friars as their confessors, on the other, that is, the male authorities in the late Middle Ages, certainly requires careful assessment because many different factors come into play here. In her monograph, Claire Taylor Jones pursues a host of different aspects pertaining to this complex issue in order to gain a grasp of those female writers particularly in the female Dominican monasteries in the Southwest of Germany and their male colleagues, or spiritual confessors, especially Heinrich Seuse and Johannes Tauler. She draws heavily from the Nuremberg Dominican convent of St. Katherine’s library (15th century), but this actually depends on the various chapters included here. It becomes very clear, however, that the notion of women’s lack of Latin needs to be reviewed carefully considering that that library contained ca. 726 manuscripts, of which 161 were in Latin.

Pastoral Power and Algorithmic Governmentality

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Pastoral Power ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The One

This paper contributes to inquiries into the genealogy of governmentality and the nature of secularization by arguing that pastoralism continues to operate in the algorithmic register. Drawing on Agamben’s notion of signature, I elucidate a pair of historically distant yet archaeologically proximate affinities: the first between the pastorate and algorithmic control, and the second between the absconded God of late medieval nominalism and the authority of algorithms in the cybernetic age. I support my hypothesis by attending to the signaturial kinships between, on the one hand, temporality and authority in our contemporary conjuncture, and, on the other, obedience and submission in Christian thought from late antiquity and the late Middle Ages. I thereby illustrate the hidden genealogical continuities between theological-pastoral technologies of power and technocratic-algorithmic modalities of governance. I conclude by suggesting that medieval counter-conducts may be redeployed in our present circumstances for emancipatory ends.

The Devil Wears White: Teutonic Knights and the Problem of Evil in Polish Historiography

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-155
Author(s):  
Adam Kożuchowski
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
The One ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Teutonic Knights

This paper addresses the intersection of moral condemnation, national antagonism, and civilizational critique in the images of the Teutonic Order as presented in Polish historical discourse since the early nineteenth century, with references to their medieval and early modern origins. For more than 150 years, the Order played the role of the archenemy in the historical imagination of Poles. This image is typically considered an element of the anti-German sentiment, fueled by modern nationalism. In this paper I argue that the scale and nature of the demonization of the Teutonic Knights in Polish historiography is more complex, and should be interpreted in the contexts of pre-modern religious rhetoric on the one hand, and the critique of Western civilization from a peripheral or semi-colonial point of view on the other. The durability and flexibility of the black legend of the Order, born in the late Middle Ages, and adapted by Romantic, modern nationalist, and communist historians, makes it a unique phenomenon, surpassing the framework of modern nationalism. It is the modern anti-German stereotype that owes much to this legend, rather than the other way around.

Virtual Segments: The Hexachordal System in the Late Middle Ages

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFANO MENGOZZI
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sight Singing ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Music ◽  
Basic Distinction ◽  
Medieval Music Theory

ABSTRACT Music-theoretical writings from the 13th to the 15th centuries maintained a basic distinction between two types of major sixth, customarily labeled hexachordum and deductio (or proprietas). The term hexachordum, more frequently called tonus (or semitonus) cum diapente, designated the interval of a major of minor sixth, frequently expressed by pitch letters only (such as G-e and A-F) and discussed independently of Guidonian solmization. On the other hand, proprietas and deductio indicated a ““virtual segment”” (the set of six syllables ut-la) that could be employed for the purpose of sight singing. Neither set challenged the conceptual primacy of the seven claves, expressed by the letters A-G. Hexachordum was routinely described as a portion of the octave, and the late-medieval notion of proprietas still reflected the principle of octave duplication, which had regulated musical practice since pre-Guidonian times. The ““two-tier”” model of diatonic space encountered in medieval music theory, based on the superimposition of Guido's six syllables onto the seven pitch letters, came to an end in the late 15th century, when authors such as Ramos de Pareja and Franchino Gafori began describing the Guidonian deductio——which they called hexachordum——as the primary mode of organization of the gamut that had superseded the Greek tetrachordum.

Christianity’s Content: (Neo)Platonism in the Middle Ages, Its Theoretical and Theological Appeal

Numen ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 245-270
Author(s):  
Willemien Otten
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Meister Eckhart ◽  
Marguerite Porete ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
The One ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

The development of medieval Christian thought reveals from its inception in foundational authors like Augustine and Boethius an inherent engagement with Neoplatonism. To their influence that of Pseudo-Dionysius was soon added, as the first speculative medieval author, the Carolingian thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena (810–877ce), used all three seminal authors in his magisterial demonstration of the workings of procession and return. Rather than a stable ongoing trajectory, however, the development of medieval Christian (Neo)Platonism saw moments of flourishing alternate with moments of philosophical stagnation. The revival of theTimaeusand Platonic cosmogony in the twelfth century marks the achievement of the so-called Chartrian authors, even as theTimaeusnever acquired the authority of the biblical book of Genesis. Despite the dominance of scholastic and Aristotelian discourse in the thirteenth century, (Neo)Platonism continued to play an enduring role. The Franciscan Bonaventure follows the Victorine tradition in combining Augustinian and Dionysian themes, but Platonic influence underlies the pattern of procession and return — reflective of the Christian arc of creation and salvation — that frames the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Echoing the interrelation of macro- and microcosmos, the major themes of medieval Christian Platonic thought are, on the one hand, cosmos and creation and, on the other, soul and self. The Dominican friar Meister Eckhart and the beguine Marguerite Porete, finally, both Platonically inspired late-medieval Christian authors keen on accomplishing the return, whether the aim is to bring out its deep, abyss-like “ground” (Eckhart) or to give up reason altogether and surrender to the free state of “living without a why” (Marguerite), reveal the intellectual audacity involved in upending traditional theological modes of discourse.

scholarly journals Die Illusion der ›einfachen Form‹

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-404
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Simple Form ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
The One

Abstract Saints’ lives occupy a fluctuating position between cult and art which challenges their claim to be a devout and unpretentious ‘simple form’. The following contribution traces the interplay in the genre between scepticism toward rhetoric on the one hand and fascination with it on the other. The greater the importance that attaches to a surplus of rhetoric and narration, the more contradictory the narrative order mandated by the genre becomes, and the more testing the conditions under which saints’ lives are narrated. The specific interference of religious and literary modes of speaking is illustrated from examples of narrative saints’ lives from the late middle ages. What tensions does the genre’s ambivalent attitude to rhetoric give rise to when telling stories about saints through the act of narratively transforming the miraculous?

Christine de Pizan, The Book of the Cyte of Ladyes, trans. by Brian Anslay, ed. by Hope Johnston. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 457. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014, lxiv, 622 pp., 10 b/w ill.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 431-431
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Christine De Pizan ◽  
The Other ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Renaissance Studies ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

On the one hand, this new edition, or rather translation, of Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies (1405) certainly deserves to be reviewed in Mediaevistik because Christine still falls squarely into the late Middle Ages. On the other, the publication date of this translation, 1521, places it certainly outside of that period. However, a translation is always an important mirror of the reception history, which proves to be particularly rich in Christine’s case. Brian Anslay’s English translation was the first and only one to appear in print (by Henry Pepwell), at least before the twentieth century. However, we know of twenty-seven surviving manuscripts, whereas there are only five copies of Anslay’s printed work available. It is worth noting that the issues addressed here by Christine, helping women to find their own realm and identity, was apparently of significance also for her male audience since Anslay was sponsored by Richard Grey, third earl of Kent.

Dubius in fide fidelis est? Doubt and Assurance in Late Medieval Catholicism

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 186-202
Author(s):  
Robert N. Swanson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Definitive Statement ◽  
The Church

The canon law dictum that ‘dubius in fide infidelis est’ offers a seemingly definitive statement on the place of doubt and uncertainty in medieval Catholicism. Yet where Catholic teaching was open to question, doubt was inseparable from faith, not merely as its obverse but as part of the process of achieving faithfulness – the trajectory outlined by Abelard in the twelfth century. The challenge for the Church was not that doubters lacked faith, but that having tested their doubts they might end up with the wrong faith: doubt preceded assurance, one way or the other. That problem is addressed in this essay by a broad examination of the ties between faith and doubt across the late Middle Ages (from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries), arguing that uncertainty and doubt were almost unavoidable in medieval Catholicism. As the starting points in a process which could lead to heresy and despair, they also had a positive role in developing and securing orthodox faith.

The Phenomenon of Dynasties of Jewish Doctors in the Mamluk Period (1250–1517)

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Amir Mazor ◽  
Efraim Lev
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Origin ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Stark Contrast ◽  
Mamluk Period ◽  
The One

Abstract This article discusses the phenomenon of dynasties of Jewish physicians in the Late Middle Ages in Egypt and Syria. Based on Muslim Arabic historiographical literature on the one hand, and Jewish sources such as Genizah documents on the other, this paper reconstructs fourteen dynasties of Jewish physicians that were active in the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). Examination of the families reveals that the most distinguished dynasties of court physicians were of Jewish origin, and had to convert to Islam during the Mamluk period. Moreover, the office of the “Head of the Physicians” was occupied mainly by members of these convert Jewish dynasties. This situation stands in stark contrast to the pre-Mamluk period, in which dynasties of unconverted Jewish court physicians flourished. However, Jewish sources reveal that dynasties of doctors who were also communal leaders continued to be active also during the Mamluk period.

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