FROM THE MONARCHY TREE TO NATION: THE USE OF METAPHORS IN EARLY MODERN FRENCH POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article examines three legal treatises written between the late 16th and late 18th centuries, whose authors used the language of metaphors, analyzing also the way this language was reflected in images. Both jurists and artists tried to demonstrate to their readers and spectators that society was unified and, at the same time, consisted of estates unequal in their status. For this purpose, metaphors of the human body, tree, army, and family were used. Over the period under discussion, the attitude towards metaphors changed significantly. Although the possibility of using the language of metaphors to adequately describe and know society was put into doubt more than once in the 17th and 18th centuries, contemporaries did not abandon this language. In the 18th century, many of the usual metaphors were rethought in Enlightenment literature, as well as in journalism and propaganda texts published on the eve of the French Revolution. The body metaphor received a new interpretation within the framework of the social contract concept, while the image of France as the king’s spouse was transformed into the figure of Marianne the Republic.

THE HOUSE OF SCHOLARSHIP, THE SEEDS OF KNOWLEDGE, THE TREASURY OF SCIENCE: RHETORICAL IMAGERY AND SOCIAL METAPHORS OF 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES WESTERN EUROPEAN ACADEMIC COMMUNITIES

The article scrutinizes the ideas about the academic communities typical for the Latin world of the 13th and 14th centuries. It focuses on the ‘metaphorical vocabulary’ of academic corporations that was formed at that time within the framework of the Ars Dictaminis and was widely used to substantiate the status of university communities. These metaphors significantly supplemented the vague legal concepts that described academic communities (studium/studium generale, universitas). The most widespread metaphors of higher education institutions included such images as house of scholarship, seeds of knowledge, and treasure. All of them had deep roots in the Holy Scripture, but became widespread thanks to ‘exemplary’ texts included in rhetorical manuals and summae. With their help, social reality was interpreted within the framework of rhetoric as an epistemic system, often overlapping with the spheres of law and theology. The paper considers these metaphors in the context of their distribution, within the networks of local political and cultural ties drawing on cases of two Iberian universities – those of Lisbon (founded between 1288 and 1290) and Lleida (founded in 1300).

A VISUAL METAPHOR OF THE MEDIEVAL SOCIETY IN THE LATE 15th - EARLY 16th CENTURIES RUSSIAN “IN THEE REJOICETH” ICONS

The author examines the “In Thee rejoiceth” icons as visual sources that make it possible to reconstruct the ideal model of medieval society in the Moscow culture of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. This icon type, which includes the scenes of “Human race” collective praying to the Mother of God, is of Russian origin. Unlike other works of that time typologically close to it (“The Intercession”, “The Congregation of Our Lady”, “The Congregation of All Saints”, etc.), the “In Thee rejoiceth” icons demonstrate a historical connection to religious and socio-cultural facts of the Muscovy state. They clearly express the idea of Muscovy enjoying special patronage of the Mother of God, whose cult was actively developed in Moscow, the city that, as was believed at the Grand Dukes’ court, inherited the traditions and the spiritual authority of Constantinople. The depiction of the “Human race” in the “In Thee rejoiceth” icons can be viewed as a metaphorical image of the capital city community consisting of different groups of clergy and laity. This image corresponded to the ideas of the authorities and the population of the Russian state that existed under Ivan III and Vasili III.

THE WORLD BETWEEN PARADISE AND HELL: “FEAST OF THE THREE KINGS” BY H. BOSCH (Rev.: Maizuls M.R. Between Christ and Antichrist: “The adoration of the Magi” by H. Bosch. M.: Alpina non-fiction, 2021. 238 p.)

The review pays special attention to the features of early Modern spiritual world and ideas of the Other by looking at the figures depicted on the triptych by Hieronymus Bosch. Paintings with biblical plots can give us information not only on the religious culture, but also on the secular world where the painter was living, displaying new discoveries of science, new lands and societies previously unknown to Europeans.

STOICISM AND ITS METAPHORS IN EARLY MODERN EMBLEM BOOKS

The moral and social doctrine of Stoicism, well known among Early Modern humanists, was popularized in the emblem books of the time. The tool of this popularization was the visual metaphor capable of conveying abstract ideas through concrete images. The main stoic notions (such as virtue, apatheia as a complete freedom from passions, constancy, patience, etc.) have found extremely diverse metaphorical equivalents in the visual language of emblems, where inanimate objects (e.g. rock, flint, anvil, tongs, cube, scales) as well as living creatures (kingfisher, turtledove, bear) could equally function as metaphors. Emblematics, being a kind of ars inveniendi, acted as a mechanism for inventing new metaphors to express old meanings. However, some traditional metaphors dating back to antiquity (for example, Plato’s comparison of the human soul to a chariot pulled by two horses – “reason” and “emotion”) were also rethought in the spirit of the Stoic doctrine.

THE USE OF BODY METAPHOR IN DESCRIBING THE SOCIAL IN CHRISTINE DE PIZAN’S “THE BOOK OF THE BODY POLITIC”

The article analyzes «The Book of the Body Politic» (1404–1407) by Christine de Pizan to show how she updated the metaphor of body politic traditional for the Middle Ages, and what were the reasons for the creation of this treatise. In it, Christine excluded the clergy from the tripartite social order scheme: in the political body the sovereign replaced the pope and the clergy. Instead of the Church playing the leading role as the ‘soul’ of society, the author introduced humanistic concepts of "good arising from the virtue" and "morals". Christine also included the third estate in the political life of a kingdom, providing its stratification and hierarchization, and giving a profound description of its role in the body politic. The metaphorical concept of " body politic" broke away from the ecclesiastical and mystical connotations and took root in the secular, political-philosophical tradition.

THUS FATE KNOCKS AT THE DOOR: PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER’S ‘THE FAT KITCHEN’ AND ‘THE THIN KITCHEN’ AS A METAPHOR OF SOCIAL MOBILITY

The engravings "The Fat Kitchen" and "The Thin Kitchen" (1563), based on drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (circa 1525-1569), immediately became very popular in the Netherlands and remained popular throughout the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries. They were copied and served as a source of inspiration; their composition and individual motives were borrowed both in graphics and in painting. The secret of their success was a combination of an original and vivid artistic program with already known motives, tackling urgent problems of society alongside with scenes from the everyday life of peasants and ordinary townspeople that were growing ever more popular then. In this article, I show that the iconographic analysis of engravings based on drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder enables us to interpret them as a metaphor for social mobility. The artist shows us how a person's actions affect his social status. The engravings were designed both for those who could identify themselves with those depicted (wealthy peasants or artisans), and for those who belonged to the new bourgeois elite of the Netherlands. By placing “The Fat Kitchen” and “The Thin Kitchen” in the context of the contemporary and subsequent visual tradition and identifying iconographic borrowings, allusions and innovations, it is possible to clarify the form in which the the mid-16th century Netherlandish art expressed the values and norms of the emerging middle class.

FROM ‘GREEKLING’ TO ‘THUNDERBOLT’: THE MANY NICKNAMES OF EMPEROR JULIAN

The article discusses the nicknames of Emperor Julian. An analysis of the onomastic tradition makes it possible not only to assess the perception of certain aspects of the emperor's activities by various layers of late Roman society at different stages of his political career, but also to trace the metamorphoses of the image of the last open pagan on the throne of the Roman Empire in the later tradition.

Metaphors of Society: The Medieval and Early Modern Social Imagination (In Lieu of an Introduction)

The article serves as an introduction to the publication of papers presented at the conference on Social Entities and their Metaphorical Interpetations. It raises the question of how people described social structures in the Middle Ages and Early Modern time, when no abstract concept of society existed, and the principles of its stratification were completely different in comparison to ours. According to the author, in order to enter the realm of social imagination of the past, we should remember that people then interpreted the structure of society mainly in terms of metaphors, using figures such as human body, chess, tree, wheel, etc. It is these metaphors that are analyzed in the articles based on conference papers and published below. The authors try to analyze social order images described in various written and visual sources.

THE CRUSADES IN THE ARABIC RENAISSANCE POETRY AND PROSE

The article examines the works of the greatest Arab artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the poet Ahmad Shawqi and the novelist Jirji Zeydan, containing references to the era of the Crusades. An analysis of the work of these authors shows that, contrary to the view prevailing in modern historiography, that Arab artists began to actively refer to the Crusades era only in the second half of the 20th century, already in the Arab poetry and prose of the 19th century, numerous references to this era are found. Ahmad Shawki in his poems presents the Crusades as a time of glorious victories of Muslims, which should inspire contemporaries to fight Europeans. In his works both Muslim commanders known to Europeans and the Egyptian naval commander Husam al-Din Lulu, the savior of Mecca and Medina from the crusaders, the hero of the Arab folk tradition, appear as examples of ideal military leaders. Jirji Zeidan's writings are also characterized by a romantic view of the Crusades. The writer portrays this era as the time of noble rulers, such as Salah ad-Din and Richard the Lionheart, who were able to decide the fate of the Middle East on equal terms.