scholarly journals Arbor Praedicandi. Some Remarks on Dispositio in Mediaeval Sermons (on the Example of Sermo 39 “Semen Est Verbum Dei” by Mikołaj of Błonie)

Terminus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (Special Issue 2) ◽  
pp. 169-195
Author(s):  
Lidia Grzybowska
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Middle Ages

The main aim of this paper is to present the motif of a tree-shaped compositional scheme called arbor picta (arbor praedicandi) and to show it against the field of rhetorical elements such as dispositio and memoria as found in mediaeval sermons. The basic sources for the analysis of this question are two fourteenth-century theoretical treatises on the art of preaching (manuals: Libellus artis preadicatorie by Jacobus de Fusignano and Tractatulus solennis de arte et vero modo praedicandi by Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas), and one of the sermons from the collection de tempore of a fifteenth-century Polish preacher, Mikołaj of Błonie (Dominica sexagesime: sermo 39 “Semen est verbum Dei”). The problems of arbor praedicandi, which are part of a broader field of study on the structure of sermons, editorial methods of texts and mnemonics, were the subject of interest of many researchers such as H. Caplan, O.A. Dieter, S. Khan, S. Wenzel. In Poland, this issue has not yet become a subject of proper study. In order to analyse this scheme in the treatises of Jacobus de Fusignano and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas, as well as in the exemplary sermon, the paper briefly outlines the existence of topics and images of the tree in the writings of the Middle Ages (e.g. lignum vitae, arbor sapientiae, arbor amoris). Then fragments from the manuals of Jacobus de Fusignano and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas are presented in which the authors discussed the scheme in question and explained its importance for the practice of preaching. An analysis of a practical example—here: sermo 39 from Mikołaj of Błonie’s collection de tempore—shows the creative use of the tree scheme in the sermon by the Polish preacher (with the speculative assumption that Mikołaj of Błonie knew Jacobus’s theory of preaching). Particular attention is also paid to the circumstances of the development of the art of preaching in the late Middle Ages in Poland. Finally, the importance of the concept of the sermon as a tree for the elements of rhetoric such as dispositio/divisio/partito and memoria is emphasised. In this study, it is shown that the use of the tree scheme in presenting abstract concepts and structuring texts allowed preachers and their audiences to visualise vague and often difficult ideas, as well as to describe their relationship within the subjects of the sermons. Therefore, the use of the scheme in the Middle Ages had great significance for ars memorativa and the didactic dimensions.

The Kārimī Merchants

1956 ◽  
Vol 88 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ashtor
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Additional Material ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Middle Ages

The important rôle which the Kārimī merchants played in Oriental trade at the end of the Middle Ages has been touched upon by some outstanding orientalists. The last to treat the subject exhaustively was W. J. Fischel in his paper “Über die Gruppe der Kārimī-Kaufleute”, published in 1937 in the series Analecta Orientalia (of the Pontifical Bible Institute) no. 14. The Arabic historical works of the later Middle Ages contain, however, additional material, which partly corroborates and partly modifies Fischel's conclusions. A good many of the notices on the Kārimīs to be quoted in this paper are taken from the hitherto unpublished chronicle Inbā' al-ghumr bi-abnā al-'umr of Ibn Ḥajar al-'Asqalānī (d. 1449), MS. Constantinople, Yeni Cami 814 and the Who's Who of the fifteenth century composed by al-Sakhāwī (d. 1497) and called ad-Ḍau' al-lāmi' fī a'yān al-qarn al-tāsi' (Cairo, 1353–55).

scholarly journals Die Benennung und Bestimmung der Räume im südlichen Repräsentativteil des Geschosses des zweiten „Hochmeisterpalastes“ auf der Marienburg im Mittelalter im Lichte der Schriftquellen

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 315-340
Author(s):  
Sławomir Jóźwiak ◽  
Janusz Trupinda
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Intended Use ◽  
Written Sources ◽  
The Middle Ages

Nomenclature and intended use of the rooms of the southern (representative) part of the upper floor of the “palace” of Grand Masters in the Marienburg Castle in the Middle Ages on the basis of written sources   The analyses carried out in this article concerning the southern part of  the upper floor of the new (second) “palace” of the Teutonic Order’s superiors in the late Middle Ages allow to formulate several important conclusions. First of all, the building certainly existed before 11 September 1392, but it cannot be ruled out that it was erected at the beginning of the 1370s. In the fifteenth-century sources, its entire southern representative part (looking from the so-called Low and High Halls) along with five rooms of different sizes located there, were referred to as the “Summer (or, less often, Winter) chamber (gemach)”. This name comes from the most characteristic interiors located there: the “Summer Refectory” / “Great Summer Hall” in the western part and the Winter Refectory in the central part. The thorough analysis of medieval written sources carried out in this article allows for the formulation of the thesis that the chamber located in the easternmost part of the southern part of the “palace”, supported by two columns, should be  identified as the “Minor Summer Hall” (aula minor estivalis), which was recorded in the transumpt of 14 May 1456. Thus, all the suggestions concerning this interior and its supposed intended use in the discussed period, hitherto put forward by the researchers who have so far formulated their conclusions in isolation from the written accounts of the period, should be rejected. This name comes from the most characteristic interiors located there: the "Summer Refectory" / "Great Summer Hall" in the western part and the Winter Refectory in the central part. The thorough analysis of medieval written sources carried out in this article allowed for the formulation of the thesis that the chamber located in the easternmost part of the southern part of the "palace", supported by two columns, should be  identified as the "Minor Summer Hall" (aula minor estivalis), which was recorded in the transumpt of 14 May 1456. Thus, all the suggestions concerning this interior and its supposed intended use in the discussed period,  hitherto put forward by the researchers who have so far formulated their conclusions in isolation from the written accounts of the period, should be rejected.

Priests, cattle and men

1987 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 508-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Documented Case ◽  
The North ◽  
Semantic Development ◽  
Technical Terms ◽  
The Middle Ages

It is about three-quarters of a century since themaryannu(maryanni) of Mitanni and its dependencies, appearing in Hittite and Egyptian records of the second millennium B.C., were first discussed in connexion with the IndoIranians. In 1910 H. Winckler interpreted the word as a title belonging to Aryan infiltrators from the north, who had come to form an aristocracy among the Hurrians; and he recorded the suggestion by F. C. Andreas connecting it with Vedicmárya‘ young man, man, hero ’. Subsequently W. F. Albright presented a carefully documented case for considering themaryannuto be primarily ‘chariot-warriors’, arguing that from about 1700 to 1200 B.C. ‘chariots played the same role in warfare that cavalry did later, and the chariot-warriors occupied the same social position that was held by the⃛ feudal knights of the Middle Ages’. He further pointed out, with regard to Vedicmárya, that a semantic development from ‘young man’ to ‘warrior’ is widely attested. Thereafter R. T. O'Callaghan adduced yet more evidence from Egyptian and cuneiform sources to confirm that ‘from the mid-fifteenth century to the midtwelfth century B.C., and from the Mitanni kingdom down through Palestine beyond Ascalon, the termmaryannuis to be understood primarily as a noble who is a chariot-warrior’. The area was one where Indo-Aryan names occur at about the same period; and in the fourteenth-century Kikkuli treatise from Boghaz-köy, on the training of chariot-horses, Indo-Aryan technical terms appear. There were solid grounds therefore for thinking that Indo-Aryans, bringing with them horses from the Asian steppes, had played a leading part in developing chariotry in the Near East at that time, and that it was this which enabled a group of them to become locally dominant there.

scholarly journals Knowledge of the weather in the Middle Ages: Libellus de disposicione totius anni futuri1

2018 ◽  
pp. 53-78
Author(s):  
Marilina Cesario
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Middle Ages

In this chapter Marilina Cesario addresses the subject of weather forecasting in the Middle Ages as revealed in the meteorological prognostics that survive abundantly from throughout the period but particularly from the eleventh century onwards. The chapter focuses in particular on one fifteenth-century medical manuscript from Germany containing an anthology of seven Latin weather texts. Cesario edits and translates the texts for the first time and offers detailed discussion of them. She finds that these treatises contribute to their manuscript’s overarching interest in natural philosophy and that they were mostly given theoretical rather than practical usage, having their place in a context of academic learning (eruditio). One item stands out from the others, however, a puzzling salt prognostication found uniquely here. This text relies not, it is argued, on erudite knowledge but on knowledge acquired empirically and appears to have been designed for practical use.

The Aerial Battle in the Toledot Yeshu and Sodomy in the Late Middle Ages

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 493-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Mazo Karras
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Activity ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Latin Translation ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Latin Version ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract Thomas Ebendorfer’s fifteenth-century Latin translation of a Hebrew Toledot Yeshu text is the earliest extant Latin version to include a full narrative from the birth of Jesus to the events following the crucifixion, and predates existing Hebrew versions. After reviewing the place of Ebendorfer’s work in the textual tradition of the Toledot, the article examines carefully the work’s account of the aerial battle between Jesus and Judas, in comparison to other versions. Ebendorfer includes the detail of sexual intercourse between the two, which is absent in many later versions. In the context of a discussion of Christian and Jewish attitudes toward male–male sexual activity in the Middle Ages, the article concludes that while this detail was in Ebendorfer’s exemplar, he could have elaborated on it in a way that indicates this was a particularly Christian concern.

When the Jews Learned Logic from the Pope: Three Medieval Hebrew Translations of theTractatusof Peter of Spain

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Manekin
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Similar Work ◽  
Jewish Students ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
The Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Hebrew

The ArgumentIt is well known that theTractatusof Peter of Spain (later Pope John XXI) was one of the most popular logic textbooks in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Less known is theTractatus'sconsiderable reputation and diffusion among the Jews, as evidenced by five translations, two commentaries, and what appears to be anabbreviatio— if not of theTractatusitself, then of a similar work. The present article attempts to understand the phenomenon of theTractatus'spopularity and offers an analysis of the three translations whose authors are known — those by Shemaryah ha-Ikriti (Greece, early to mid-fourteenth century), Abraham Abigdor (late fourteenth century), and Judah b. Samuel Shalom (either Italy or Spain, mid-fifteenth century) — and their subsequent fate. The more popular versions of Abraham Abidgor and Judah Shalom provided Jewish students, many of whom would likely become physicians, with a grounding in logic comparable to that of their Christian counterparts.

Religious Women

2020 ◽  
pp. 284-299
Author(s):  
Sigrid Hirbodian
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Religious Women ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Women's Communities ◽  
Religious Lives ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter explores how the identities of religious women in the late Middle Ages were projected and perceived. Beyond the life led by regular nuns, the Middle Ages saw the emergence of many different opportunities for women who wished to lead religious or ‘pious’ lives. The focus is on women who, in terms of Church law, belonged somewhere between the secular and the religious, but who thought of themselves as leading religious lives—in particular, secular canonesses and beguines. The example of Strasbourg is used to demonstrate the varieties of women’s religious communities existing at a given time (here the second half of the fifteenth century) in a single place. It argues that regional circumstances, along with the support of influential religious and secular personalities, shaped the various monastic landscapes and largely defined the religious identity of women’s communities.

Truth in the Middle Ages

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
William Of Ockham ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Heavy Hitters ◽  
Necessary Truth ◽  
Human Effort ◽  
The Middle Ages

There was enormous debate in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries over the nature of truth and our relation to it. This chapter presents the central positions and debates, ultimately rooted in ancient theories from Aristotle and Augustine, but magnificently transformed by medieval interests. Topics considered include the metaphysical and the propositional status of truth, the paradigm of scientific knowledge as necessary truth known with certainty and evidentness, and the debates over how truth is cognized, which concern whether illumination from God is required or whether by human effort alone truth can be accessed. Major figures in these debates include many of the medieval period’s heavy-hitters, including Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and Duns Scotus. Finally, in the fourteenth century, from William of Ockham and John Buridan emerges a new paradigm: the theory of semantic truth.

scholarly journals Pastoral evaluation on the Basotho’s view of sexuality: Revisiting the views on sexuality of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther and John Calvin

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Semenya
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Middle Ages

This article examines the Basotho’s views on sexuality within a theological context as wellas the conflict between Christianity and cultural beliefs. Most Basotho have strong opinions on the subject of sexuality and those views undoubtedly emanate from the Basotho culture,which makes it necessary to evaluate them. The issue of sexuality is always a topic of discussion amongst people and did not go unnoticed by church fathers, like Augustine. Thomas Aquinas also expressed an interest in the topic in the Middle-Ages. Likewise, reformers of the calibre of Martin Luther and John Calvin espoused views on sexuality. Itis clear that the aforementioned theologians made a marked contribution toward shapingthe current views on sexuality, especially amongst theologians of this age and this is thereason for revisiting their views in this article examining the Basotho view on sexuality.In examining Basotho views on sexuality, the writer of this article will then discuss andevaluate the views of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin with special reference tosexual intercourse, sexual intercourse within matrimony, extramarital sexual intercourseand also the unmarried state. 

Cracking the Code: the Warden Abbey Morses, Luxury Metalwork and Patronage at a Cistercian Abbey in the Late Middle Ages

2011 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
pp. 175-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Carter
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Cistercian Order

AbstractThe three copper-gilt and enamel plaques from Warden Abbey are the most important examples of late medieval metalwork from an English Cistercian abbey. They are currently exhibited at the British Museum and dated to the mid-fifteenth century. A reinterpretation of the monograms decorating the plaques allows their patron to be identified as Abbot Walter Clifton (c1377–97). An analysis of the plaques’ style and iconography also suggests a late fourteenth-century date. Clifton's personal devotions and an unusual aspect of the plaques’ iconography can be explained by reference to the spirituality of the Cistercian Order. The plaques’ closest parallel is a roundel decorated with the badge of Richardii. Evidence from inventories and comparison with Continental material suggests that the Warden plaques were, in all probability, morses, used to fasten a cope.

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