scholarly journals Reversals in Wartime: Alcuin and Charlemagne discuss Retrograde Motion

2021 ◽  
pp. 14-53
Author(s):  
Tom McLeish ◽  
Mary Garrison
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Planetary Motion ◽  
General Sense ◽  
Retrograde Motion ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Epistemological Challenge ◽  
Alcuin Of York

The apparent retrograde motion of the planets was a puzzle for astronomers from the ancient world to the final establishment of heliocentric cosmology in the early modern period, but enjoyed an especially rich discussion in the Carolingian Renaissance. We explore the first stirrings of an eighth-century response to this epistemological challenge in a remarkable series of letters between Alcuin of York and Charlemagne, sent while the latter was on campaign against the Saxons in 798 CE. Their exchange constitutes the longest discussion of the phenomenon of Mars' retrograde motion in the West up to that date. Our consideration of the relevant letters explores Alcuin's ability to marshal diverse and complex explanatory narratives and observational traditions around the problem of the retrograde motion of the planet Mars, even as he was unable to fully reconcile them. Attention to his ultimately unsuccessful (and at times contradictory) attempts at explanation suggest that he relied on knowledge from sources beyond those previously recognized, which we identify. Charlemagne's curiosity about the matter can be located in the much longer context of an ancient tradition of imperial and royal concern with heavenly phenomena; at the same time, the exchange with Alcuin heralds the ninth-century expansion of astronomy away from the computists' preoccupation with the solar and lunar calendrical data required to calculate the date of Easter and towards a more wide-ranging curiosity about observed planetary motion irrelevant to Easter dating and computistical calculations. Alcuin's functional, if not geometrical, assumption of the centrality of the sun in his explanation merits a further examination of the more general sense in which lost ancient heliocentric ideas sustained early medieval echoes.

scholarly journals The Game of the Sphere or of the Universe — a Spiral Race Game from 17th century France

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Adrian Seville
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Planetary Motion ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Tycho Brahe ◽  
Classical Knowledge ◽  
The Universe

Abstract Simple race games, played with dice and without choice of move, are known from antiquity. In the late 16th century, specific examples of this class of game emerged from Italy and spread rapidly into other countries of Europe. Pre-eminent was the Game of the Goose, which spawned thousands of variants over the succeeding centuries to the present day, including educational, polemical and promotional variants.1 The educational variants began as a French invention of the 17th century, the earliest of known date being a game to teach Geography, the Jeu du Monde by Pierre Duval, published in 1645. By the end of the century, games designed to teach several of the other accomplishments required of the noble cadet class had been developed: History, the Arts of War, and Heraldry being notable among them. A remarkable example of a game within this class is the astronomical game, Le Jeu de la Sphere ou de l’Univers selon Tycho Brahe, published in 1661 by E(s)tienne Vouillemont in Paris. The present paper analyses this game in detail, showing how it combines four kinds of knowledge systems: natural philosophy, based on the Ptolemaic sphere; biblical knowledge; astrology, with planetary and zodiacal influences; and classical knowledge embodied in the names of the constellations. The game not only presents all four on an equal footing but also explores links between them, indicating some acceptance of an overall knowledge-system. Despite the title, there is no evidence of the Tychonian scheme for planetary motion, nor of any Copernican or Galilean influence. This game is to be contrasted with medieval race games, based on numerology and symbolism, and with race games towards the end of the Early Modern period in which science is fully accepted.

Early Modern Period

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don S. Lemons
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Planetary Motion ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Kepler's Laws ◽  
Boyle’S Law ◽  
Kepler’S Laws

The early modern period (1543-1785) contributed many physical concepts that are simple enough to be conveyed with a diagram. Copernicus’s heliocentric universe (1543), Galileo’s discovery of the mountains on the moon (1610), Kepler’s laws of planetary motion (1620), Boyle’s law (1662), Newton’s theory of color (1666), and Bernoulli’s principle (1733) are but six of the eighteen topics covered in this period. Experiments and observations that generated measurements became the norm.

scholarly journals Tracing the Influence of Ming-Qing Buddhism in Early Modern Japan: Yunqi Zhuhong’s Tract on Refraining from Killing and on Releasing Life and Ritual Animal Releases

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 889
Author(s):  
Barbara R. Ambros
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Edo Period ◽  
Early Modern Japan ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Ming Buddhism

This essay traces the Japanese reception of Zhuhong’s Tract on Refraining from Killing and on Releasing Life in the early modern period. Ritual animal releases have a long history in Japan beginning in the seventh century, approximately two centuries after such rituals arose in China. From the mid-eighth century, the releases became large-scale state rites conducted at Hachiman shrines, which have been most widely studied and documented. By contrast, a different strand of life releases that emerged in the Edo period owing to the influence of late Ming Buddhism has received comparatively little scholarly attention despite the significance for the period. Not only may the publication of a Sino–Japanese edition of Zhuhong’s Tract in 1661 have been an impetus for Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi’s Laws of Compassion in the late-seventeenth century, but also approximately thirty Japanese Buddhist texts inspired by Zhuhong’s Tract appeared over the next two and a half centuries. As Zhuhong’s ethic of refraining from killing and releasing life was assimilated over the course of the Edo and into the Meiji period, life releases became primarily associated with generating merit for the posthumous repose of the ancestors although they were also said to have a variety of vital benefits for the devotees and their families, such as health, longevity, prosperity, and descendants.

scholarly journals Hadīth as Common Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Klasova
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Mulla Sadra ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Four Books ◽  
The Subject

The ḥadīth about the creation of the Intellect has enjoyed a high status in the Shīʿī tradition and opens one of the four books of the Shīʿī ḥadīth canon, al-Kulaynī’s (d. 329/940) al-Kāfī. It appears also in many Sunnī works and has traveled among other Muslim groups, changing its meaning and form over time and generating several commentaries. Ḥadīths are usually studied in a jurisprudential context, as forming the basis for legal positions; in this article, I study the ḥadīth not as a legal text with a fixed meaning but as a literary text with a meaning that is changeable. First, I revisit previous scholarly views on the provenance of the ḥadīth. I argue that it first circulated in Basran society in the late second/eighth century as a popularized version of the Muʿtazilī tenet ofobligation (taklīf) before being written down as a ḥadīth. I then follow its later journey among different groups in the medieval period as it changed forms and meanings and in the early modern period as it became the subject of commentaries by the Shīʿī philosopher Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640) and by the Sunnī scholar Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī (d. 1205/1791). The translation of the two commentaries can be found in the Appendix. The ḥadīth’s intersectarian dissemination and fluid nature make it an excellent case study for exploring the literary side of the ḥadīth genre, which served as common discourse for different Islamic sects and intellectual and social groups over the centuries.

scholarly journals Russia, Cradle of the Gael

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 149-161
Author(s):  
John Carey ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
New Learning

The pseudohistorical doctrines that the early Gaels had close relations with the Israelites, that their ancestry connects them with ancient Egypt, and that they came to Ireland from Spain, have been variously exploited for propaganda purposes over the centuries — the last of these traditions, indeed, is still widely believed to reflect an actual Iron Age migration. The idea that the Gaels were Greeks has received less attention, although a recent extended study by Bart Jaski has gone some way toward redressing the balance. But there is another doctrine which has, so far as I can tell, played no part in constituting contemporary ideas of Irish identity: the assertion that the first patriarch of the Gaels was the ruler of Scythia — roughly speaking the regions lying to the north of the Black Sea, including what are now Russia and Ukraine. This idea can be traced back at least as far as the eighth century: how and why did it originate? In this paper I will review the conjectures which have so far been put forward as answers to this question, and will consider the associations which the concept ‘Scythian' had in the sources on which the Irish scholar(s) responsible for originating the doctrine are likeliest to have drawn. The paper will proceed to look at the ways in which Scythia was imagined by the medieval Irish. Lebor Gabála gives us some notion of the geography of Scythia and of the lands adjacent to it: this can be supplemented from ancient sources, and from Irish geographical writings. There is also an intriguing account of dynastic warfare in Scythia extending over several generations, until the proto-Gaels were finally driven into exile: this is evidently modeled on the alternating kingship of the Northern and Southern Uí Néill in Ireland, suggesting at least one way in which the Irish thought of the Scythians as primeval counterparts of themselves, and of Scythia as a sort of ‘Ireland in the east’. Finally, I intend to look at Irish scholarship in the early modern period, to see whether access to the new learning had any impact on the conception of Scythian origins. As is well known, the easternmost extension of Irish peregrinatio brought Gaelic monks to Kiev in the eleventh century. Little is known of their mission, and it can probably be adequately explained simply in terms of the adventurous restlessness of the peregrini themselves. It is tempting, however, to imagine that a part of their motivation may have been — as it was when their English missionary counterparts sought out the ‘Old Saxons’ — a desire to bring light to the land of their own origins.

From Craft to Institution: Accounting in Italy from the Middle ages to the Early Modern Period

2012 ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Volkova
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Professional Field

The article describes the evolution of accounting from the simple registration technique to economic and social institution in medieval Italy. We used methods of institutional analysis and historical research. It is shown that the institutionalization of accounting had been completed by the XIV century, when it became a system of codified technical standards, scholar discipline and a professional field. We examine the interrelations of this process with business environment, political, social, economic and cultural factors of Italy by the XII—XVI centuries. Stages of institutionalization are outlined.

Becoming “Indians”: The Jesuit Missionary Path from Italy to Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-50
Author(s):  
Camilla Russell
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Jesuit Missions ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Italian Provinces ◽  
Jesuit Missionaries ◽  
Jesuit Missionary

The Jesuit missions in Asia were among the most audacious undertakings by Europeans in the early modern period. This article focuses on a still relatively little understood aspect of the enterprise: its appointment process. It draws together disparate archival documents to recreate the steps to becoming a Jesuit missionary, specifically the Litterae indipetae (petitions for the “Indies”), provincial reports about missionary candidates, and replies to applicants from the Jesuit superior general. Focusing on candidates from the Italian provinces of the Society of Jesus, the article outlines not just how Jesuit missionaries were appointed but also the priorities, motivations, and attitudes that informed their assessment and selection. Missionaries were made, the study shows, through a specific “way of proceeding” that was negotiated between all parties and seen in both organizational and spiritual terms, beginning with the vocation itself, which, whether the applicant departed or not, earned him the name indiano.

History of Ardalānids (1590-1810) by Sharaf al-Dīn bin Shams al-Dīn

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-79
Author(s):  
Sara Zandi Karimi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Critical Translation

This article is a critical translation of the “History of the Ardalānids.” In doing so, it hopes to make available to a wider academic audience this invaluable source on the study of Iranian Kurdistan during the early modern period. While a number of important texts pertaining to the Kurds during this era, most notably the writings of the Ottoman traveler Evliya Chalabi, focus primarily on Ottoman Kurdistan, this piece in contrast puts Iranian Kurdistan in general and the Ardalān dynasty in particular at the center of its historical narrative. Thus it will be of interest not only to scholars of Kurdish history but also to those seeking more generally to research life on the frontiers of empires.Keywords: Ẕayl; Ardalān; Kurdistan; Iran.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIDîroka Erdelaniyan (1590-1810)Ev gotar wergereke rexneyî ya “Dîroka Erdelaniyan” e. Bi vê yekê, merema xebatê ew e ku vê çavkaniya pir biqîmet a li ser Kurdistana Îranê ya di serdema pêş-modern de ji bo cemawerê akademîk berdest bike. Hejmareke metnên girîng li ser Kurdên wê serdemê, bi taybetî nivîsînên Evliya Çelebî yê seyyahê osmanî, zêdetir berê xwe didine Kurdistana di bin hukmê Osmaniyan de. Lê belê, di navenda vê xebatê de, bi giştî Kurdistana Îranê û bi taybetî jî xanedana Erdelaniyan heye. Wisa jî ew dê ne tenê ji bo lêkolerên dîroka kurdî belku ji bo ewên ku dixwazin bi rengekî berfirehtir derheq jiyana li ser tixûbên împeretoriyan lêkolînan bikin jî dê balkêş be.ABSTRACT IN SORANIMêjûy Erdellan (1590-1810)Em wutare wergêrranêkî rexneyî “Mêjûy Erdellan”e, bew mebestey em serçawe girînge le ser Kurdistanî Êran le seretakanî serdemî nwê bixate berdest cemawerî ekademî. Jimareyek serçawey girîng le ser kurdekan lew serdeme da hen, diyartirînyan nûsînekanî gerîdey ‘Usmanî Ewliya Çelebîye, ke zortir serincyan le ser ‘Kurdistanî ‘Usmanî bûwe. Em berheme be pêçewanewe Kurdistanî Êran be giştî, we emaretî Erdelan be taybetî dexate senterî xwêndinewekewe. Boye nek tenya bo twêjeranî biwarî mêjûy kurdî, belku bo ewaney le ser jiyan le sinûre împiratoriyekan twêjînewe deken, cêgay serinc debêt.

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