scholarly journals Heaven and the Sphaera Mundi in the Middle Ages

2000 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 10-35
Author(s):  
Edgar Laird
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
The Middle Ages

This paper examines the development of the idea of heaven in relation to the sphaera mundi - the sphere of the world - in medieval literature. The sphaera mundi is a model of the cosmos that at its most elementary is very simple indeed. At the centre of it is the earth, so small as to be virtually a dot in comparison to the whole or even to the smallest star. Earth is surrounded by the sea, which in turn is surrounded by air, as also air is surrounded by fire. Surrounding the fire is a sphere that 'bears' the moon, and around that sphere are others, like layers of an onion, bearing the other planets: Mercury, then Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Then come the sphere bearing the fixed stars and, beyond it, one or more others. All these spheres together constitute the sphere of the world.

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.

Solar Motion and Lunar Eclipses in Philolaus’ Cosmological System

Apeiron ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk L. Couprie
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Internal Logic ◽  
Wrong Side ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Solar Motion ◽  
Length Of The Day

Abstract In this paper, three problems that have hardly been noticed or even gone unnoticed in the available literature in the cosmology of Philolaus are addressed. They have to do with the interrelationships of the orbits of the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon around the Central Fire and all three of them constitute potentially insurmountable obstacles within the context of the Philolaic system. The first difficulty is Werner Ekschmitt’s claim that the Philolaic system cannot account for the length of the day (νυχϑήμερον). It is shown that this problem can be solved with the help of the distinction between the synodic day and the sidereal day. The other two problems discussed in this paper are concerned with two hitherto unnoticed deficiencies in the explanation of lunar eclipses in the Philolaic system. The Philolaic system cannot account for long-lasting lunar eclipses and according to the internal logic of the system, during lunar eclipses the Moon enters the shadow of the Earth from the wrong side. It is almost unbelievable that nobody, from the Pythagoreans themselves up to recent authors, has noticed these two serious deficiencies, and especially the latter, in the cosmology of Philolaus the Pythagorean.

Flights of Imagination: Avicenna’s Phoenix (ʿAnqā) and Bedil’s Figuration for the Lyric Self

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-72
Author(s):  
Jane Mikkelson
Keyword(s):  
First Person ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Philosophical System ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
The Phoenix

Abstract The phoenix (ʿanqā) appears in the philosophy of Avicenna (d.1037) as his example of a “vain intelligible,” a fictional being that exists in the soul, but not in the world. This remarkable bird is notable (along with the Earth, the moon, the sun, and God) for being a species of one. In this essay, I read the poetry Bedil of Delhi (d.1720) in conversation with the philosophical system of Avicenna, arguing that the phoenix in Bedil’s own philosophical system functions as a key figuration that allows him simultaneously to articulate rigorous impersonal systematic ideas and to document his individual first-personal experiences of those ideas. The phoenix also plays a metaliterary role, allowing Bedil to reflect on this way of doing philosophy in the first person—a method founded on the lyric enrichment of Avicennan rationalism. Paying attention to the adjacencies between poetry and philosophy in Bedil, this essay traces the phoenix’s transformations from a famous philosophical example into one of Bedil’s most striking figurations in his arguments about imagination, mind, and self.

Ibn al-Ḥadib’s Tables for Finding True Syzygy

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-446
Author(s):  
Bernard R. Goldstein ◽  
José Chabás
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Important Work ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Middle Ages

Isaac ben Solomon Ibn al-Ḥadib (or al-Aḥdab) emigrated from Castile to Sicily no later than 1396. In astronomy, his most important work, written in Hebrew, is The paved way ( Oraḥ selula), a set of tables for the motions of the Sun and the Moon. Here, we focus attention on his unusual tables for finding the difference in time and the difference in longitude between mean and true syzygy, where syzygy refers to the conjunction and opposition of the Sun and the Moon. It is shown that he took into account the effect of Ptolemy’s second lunar model on the velocity of the Moon at syzygy, which was done by very few astronomers in the Middle Ages. It is also noteworthy that he took some parameters from the zij of al-Battānī and others from the Parisian Alfonsine Tables, using them inconsistently in these tables.

scholarly journals The Ebstorf Map: tradition and contents of a medieval picture of the world

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Pischke
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract. The Ebstorf Map (Wilke, 2001; Kugler, 2007; Wolf, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009a, b), the largest medieval map of the world whose original has been lost, is not only a geographical map. In the Middle Ages, a map contained mystic, historical and religious motifs. Of central importance is Jesus Christ, who, in the Ebstorf Map, is part of the earth. The Ebstorf Map contains the knowledge of the time of its creation; it can be used for example as an atlas, as a chronicle of the world, or as an illustrated Bible.

scholarly journals GAME PHENOMENON IN MEDIEVAL CULTURE

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
The World ◽  
Poetic Text ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Performing Art ◽  
The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages added their own ludological culture traditions to those which they had inherited from the Ancient Ages. First of all, such notions were connected with the form of existence and perceiving the Christianity which was a basis for the whole civilization. Epistemological notions of those times were also built in accordance to those norms of world outlook. A cognitive act of an individual was understood as entrance of the subject to the world of general tragic game where he is risen up from sensual forms of being to being of over-sensual beauty, which is defined only through forms of mental cognition and through beauty to over-essential being of its Creator. Philosophical thought of the Middle Ages inherited the Platonic ludological tradition. According to these notions, personal creativity of an individual (artistic, scientific etc.) was understood as being identical with cognition and perceived only as reproduction, retrieval of what had already been programmed by the Creator, that is, as a game and through the game. The brightest page of the Middle Ages is connected with chivalry and its comprehension because the phenomenon of chivalry is the top of medieval culture, its ethical and esthetical ideal, which was over-thought by its self-consciousness as a form of game. Distribution of roles covered all main manifestations of individual’s life. Therefore even usual outside manifestation of any personal emotions by an individual in his public life (happiness, satisfaction, anger, despair, sadness and so on) was subject to this “role dictate”. So, a sphere of public emotions display by an individual was also predetermined by imperativeness of his own social role he was playing. We can speak about consciousness of those times perceiving a poetic text as a played game and author art as predominantly performing art. Then constancy of plots and anonymity of works, which is a feature of medieval literature, becomes more understandable; as every author perceived it as a script and tried to play his role as best as possible; his role was written down as a corresponding    text. Moreover, we should add that a similar game was predetermined also by some other peculiarities of medieval mentality. The reason is that medieval people tried to identify themselves with a certain sample which had already had a certain approbation, to achieve full self-expression and make this self-expression understandable for the society. A role was determined and a model of behavior was built according to the admitted interpretation of this sample and its allegoric meanings (most often, there were widely known Biblical images). These established forms of self-expression made processes of understanding and interpersonal dialogue easier.

scholarly journals 'POET'S THEATER'

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3SE) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Sandhya Gangarade
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Red Color ◽  
The World ◽  
Forest Division

The creator, the Creator, the creator, by whatever name, calls the ultimate power that colors the sky blue, the earth green, the sun gold and the moon silver. The colors of Pushpavali in the forest division are countless and the colors of water creatures in the ocean are amazing. Colorless water is also the miracle of the same and the white, black and red color of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati is also an expression of the same. Some also create 'Kavirmanishi Paribhu Swayambhu', the poet of the world of life, nature's colors with full sensibility Does. In poetry, there are mainly three basic colors - white, black, white, black and red. सृष्टा, रचेता, विधाता जिस भी नाम से पुकारें उस परम शक्ति को जो आकाश को नीला, धरती को हरा, सूरज को स्वर्ण और चाँद को रजत रंग में रंग देता है। वन प्रान्तर में पुष्पावलि के रंग अनगिनत है और सागर में जल-जीवों के रंग अद्भुत। रंगहीन जल भी उसी का चमत्कार है और गंगा, यमुना और सरस्वती का श्वेत, श्याम और लाल रंग भी उसी की अभिव्यक्ति है।कवि भी रचेता है ‘कविर्मनीषी परिभू स्वयंभू’ जीवन के जगत के, प्रकृति के रंगो को कवि पूरी संवेदन शीलता से संयोजित करता है। काव्य में मुख्य रूप से तीन रंग आधारभूत रंग है- श्वेत, श्याम, रतनान-सफेद, काला और लाल।

scholarly journals Global Middle Ages ou as virtudes do anacronismo. A lição do texto medieval

2019 ◽  
Vol 02 ◽  
pp. 117-149
Author(s):  
Carlos Carreto
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literature Mapping ◽  
History Of Literature

Has the Middle Ages invented globalization or revealed a clear consciousness of globality? On the other hand, may this anachronistic notion prove to be an appropriate and productive operative and analytical concept for rethinking medieval literature beyond its territorial and linguistic boundaries and the epistemological view of the world imposed by a (neo)positivist conception of the history of literature? Mapping the medieval literature in a global perspective implies a methodological repositioning and a process of deterritorialization of the concepts themselves that leads us to reinvest motives, forms, structuring notions (from the chivalric queste to the concept of romance as translatio, passing through the status of the marvelous) with new meanings and, consequently, new cultural and poetic implications.

Father Chaucer’s Heirs

2019 ◽  
pp. 212-228
Author(s):  
Samantha Katz Seal
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Knight's Tale ◽  
The Middle Ages

In conclusion to this book, Chapter 6 looks at the Middle Ages’ model of reproductive perfection—fathers producing sons—to identify how even in the most ideal of circumstances, men cannot gain a true authority upon the earth. For from the Monk’s Tale to the Knight’s Tale to the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Chaucer makes men confront how poorly they resemble the quality of their fathers. Each generation becomes a siring of loss, a gradual descent into something worse than its progenitor. And yet, Chaucer agues, there is nothing else for men within the world. To reproduce in the pursuit of authority is a doomed quest, one that he himself will repent of in the Retractions. But there is nothing more human than the desire to create something that will last beyond one’s death, to hope in a future posterity even knowing the odds against its realization.

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