Marco TIBALDINI

Keywords: Ancient divinatio, Astragalomanteia, Astragals, Casting lots, Dice, Homeromanteia, Knucklebones, Lots, Medieval divination, Oracle, Sortes Monacenses, Sortes Sanctorum.

This paper analyses the complex relation between board games and divination, and the role those randomizing elements like dice and knucklebones played in it. It presents several literary quotations that show how the tradition of casting lots to take important decisions was diffused. It includes pieces of Sumerian and Akkadian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin literature referred to lots, and especially those related to the use of knucklebones and dice. It also outlines the stratification of divinatory practices based on gaming tools since the antiquity to the late Middle Age. It analyses the Astragalomanteia and Homeromanteia, and their points of contact with the Sortes Sanctorum and the Sortes Monacenses.

Mourad EL FAHLI

Original title: Sabores de Celebración: Alimentación y Festividades Públicas en Al-Andalus

Keywords: Al-Andalus, Culinary Traditions, Cultural Elements, Entertainment, Festive Celebrations, Religious Diversity.

This scholarly investigation intricately navigates the captivating juncture where festive celebrations intersect with culinary traditions within the historical context of Al-Andalus, offering nuanced insights into their pivotal function as forms of public entertainment. By immersing into historical archives, literary compositions, and culinary manuscripts, this scholarly inquiry unveils the multifaceted interplay of Islamic, Christian, and Jewish influences, culminating in a vibrant and culturally intricate culinary panorama. The analytical exploration delves into iconic celebrations such as ʿĪd al-Fitr and ʿĪd al-Adḥā, where Islamic practices seamlessly intertwined with the fabric of Arabic culinary heritage. Similarly, festivities such as al-ʿAnṣara and Nawrūz, which emanated from Christian and Jewish traditions, eloquently demonstrated the harmonious convergence of diverse cultural facets. Manifested through opulent arrays of tantalizing gastronomic offerings, these celebratory banquets embodied notions of opulence, camaraderie, and collective elation. The Andalusi disposition, oscillating between restrained modesty and opulent abundance, contributed an additional stratum of intricacy. In its essence, the cultural synthesis discernible within Al-Andalus vividly underscores how the amalgamation of multifarious culinary traditions served as a bridge between communities, facilitating the commemoration of unity during an embrace of religious diversity.

Braulio VÁZQUEZ CAMPOS

Original title: Manera de alegría: los juegos del Rey Sabio

Keywords: Alfonso X the Wise, Astrology, Astronomy, Backgammon, Chess, Dice, Game, Middle Ages, Philosophy, Political thought, Worldview.

The «Book of Games» is one of the most luxurious works to have emerged from the scriptorium in the service of King Alfonso X the Wise, but it is also one of the most content rich. It constitutes the foremost evidence of the board games played in the Castilian court in the 13th century, especially chess, backgammon, and dice. Its pages not only encompass explanations of the mechanics and strategy of these recreational activities, but also display an entire world view through allegories, metaphors, philosophical discussions, and political interpretations. This paper endeavours to dissect each of these aspects.

David PARLETT

Keywords: Abstractionism and representationalism, Ancient and medieval board games, Board and card games, Early card games, Perceptions of play, Properties of a game, Race games, Traditional and proprietary games, War games.

The perception of game pieces and boards as actors and theatres of play is a natural human propensity and has been expressed in many ways throughout the history of games. This paper explores some of the ways, with particular reference to chess and card games, that enable us to appreciate how people of the Past drew on themselves and their surroundings to breathe life into otherwise abstract procedures of formal games.

Giuliano MARCHETTO

Original title: Gioco, guerra e diritto nel De ludo scacchorum in legali methodo tractatus (1583) di Tommaso Azzi

Keywords: Diritto, Gioco, Guerra, Ordine civiltà, Umanesimo giuridico.

Il De ludo scacchorum in legali methodo tractatus (1583) del giurista Tommaso Azzi non è realmente un trattato sul gioco degli scacchi, ma un’opera che affronta varie questioni giuridiche. Tra i temi ricorrenti del De ludo troviamo il tema della guerra. La tesi di questo saggio è mostrare come la stretta connessione tra guerra, gioco degli scacchi e diritto stabilita da Azzi sia funzionale all’affermazione di una idea di guerra giusta ricalcata sul gioco. Tale guerra deve quindi possedere le caratteristiche proprie del gioco: regole severe, uno spazio limitato e ordinato in cui svolgersi, una posizione di uguaglianza tra le parti. Il trattato si inserisce così all’interno di una tradizione che, sottolineando le similitudini tra guerra e gioco, rappresenta la guerra come un fenomeno regolato, all’interno di un percorso di “civilizzazione”.

José Antonio GONZÁLEZ ALCANTUD

Original title: Juego, toros y sociedad en el mausoleo de Augusto (Roma): siglos XVI-XVIII

Keywords: 17th century, Bullfighting, Games, Giostra, Mausoleum of Augustus.

The Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome was a funerary and sacred space, which in the Middle Ages evolved into a defensive space, and in the Modern Age into a place that hosted games and shows, particularly bullfighting and chivalry (giostra). It reached its zenith at the end of the 18th century. However, its archaeological component, however, prevented the "naturalization" of game and place, as in some Roman amphitheatres in southern France, or as a spectacle, as in the case of the opera in the arena of Verona. Today, nothing reminds us of its popular past as an amphitheatre in Corea, home of Roman amusements.

Luana Talita da CRUZ

Original title: Aspectos lógicos em Boécio (480-524) e seu uso de argumentos tópicos e silogismos hipotéticos

Keywords: Boethius, Hypothetical Syllogisms, Medieval Logic, Topical Arguments.

This paper intends to draw attention to logical aspects to be found in Boethius’s works. Our intention is to highlight a connection between topical arguments and hypothetical syllogisms as well as the way Boethius uses a logical approach as the foundation of his philosophical arguments in treatises other than his commentaries on specific logical theories.

Manuel ORTUÑO ARREGUI

Original title: Las huellas del beato Ramon Llull en el Sermo IV y Sermo CXCIII del cardenal Nicolás de Cusa

Keywords: Faith and Reason, Nicholas of Cusa, Ramon Llull, Sermons.

The aim of this paper has been to present some features of the relationship between Faith and Reason based on the interest of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) in the work of Ramon Llull (1232-1316). Specifically, we have focused on two of his sermons: Sermo IV: “Fides autem catholica”, and Sermo X: “Beati mundo corde”, which represent an indisputable example of the lulian traces in the conception of the relationship between Faith and Reason in the work of the Cusan. In his analysis we discover the use of two foundations: on the one hand, the quotation of Isaiah 7, 9 to reaffirm the idea that faith is the beginning of science; and on the other hand, the use of the analogy of water and oil, which was already recognized in patristic authors, and which was generalized by St. Augustine. Augustine. In short, we can see an evolution of his thought from his youth (Sermo IV) to his maturity (Sermo X), which undoubtedly leads to the confirmation of Nicholas of Cusa's adherence to the model of lulian thought in the dialogue Faith and Reason.

Thainan Noronha de ANDRADE

Keywords: Agnolo Bronzino, Chapel of Eleonora, Neoplatonism.

Starting in 1540, Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574) commissioned a series of structural and decorative reforms in the old seat of the Republic of Florence, the Palazzo della Signoria, transforming it into the official residence of his principato. One of the first artistic commissions ordered by the duke was the chapel dedicated to his wife, Eleonora de Toledo (1522-1562), decorated in fresco by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) between 1541 and 1543. This chapel stands out as one of the earliest and most significant examples of the Florentine aesthetic language from the mid-16th century. Resulted from a series of artistic and theoretical developments that took place in the first half of the century, it is characterized by highly symbolic expressiveness whose content manifests in a polysemic manner, simultaneously incorporating various levels of meaning, including political, religious, and philosophical elements. In this sense, the present study analyzes the respective pictorial cycle considering the Neoplatonic aesthetic speculations circulating within Italian and Florentine culture, influencing contemporary conceptions of the nature of artistic beauty and its appreciation, linking this process to a broader attitude that characterized Medici patronage.

Carmen Fabiola MORENO VIDAL

Original title: Análisis iconográfico de la Portada del Templo de San Pablo, en Yuriria, Guanajuato

Keywords: Apollo, Augustinians, Caliculus, Candelieri, Façade, Hades, Heracles canephores, Yuriria.

The plateresque doorway of the temple of San Pablo in Yuriria, incorporates elements of the classical world with a clear Christological allusion where the representation of Apollo is a prefiguration of Christ and Hades of death through sin, which are in permanent struggle and for this reason they are represented as archers facing each other, sirens are evil beings who tempt with their songs and canephores are carriers of divine grace through the abundance of fruits of the earth and food dishes. The program of the theological discourse is organized in eminently didactic terms where the abundance of nutritious food for man can only be given through divine mercy. The novelty of this Façade is the profuse decoration with caliculus, these are present in all the bodies and in an infinity of compositions, in addition to incorporating in the auction the holy founder of the Augustinian order, of gigantic dimensions, making this one of the most notable convent Façade of the 16th century in Mexico.