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Presentation
Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: Mulier aut Femina. Idealidad o realidad de la mujer en la Edad Media
Keywords: Edad Media, Idealidad, Mujer, Realidad.
Special Issue
Benedicta in mulieribus. The Virgin Mary as a paradigm of women in the patristic tradition and its possible reflection in Spanish Gothic painting
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: Benedicta in mulieribus. La Virgen María como paradigma de la mujer en la tradición patrística y su posible reflejo en la pintura gótica española
Keywords: Iconography, Mariology, Paradigm, Patristics, Spanish Gothic painting., Theology, Women.
From the first centuries of the Christian era the Virgin Mary became in respect of the believers a sublime and inimitable model of human, moral and spiritual virtues. This fact has been staged by researchers on Marian iconography as a self-evident axiom, which need not be explained or justified documentarily. Going against this uncritical stance, this paper aims to explain, through a lot of theological and patristic citations, three fundamental aspects or attributes, in which, among many others, the paradigmatic character of Mary becomes real: her supereminence in comparison with the other women, her supereminence in comparison with the other creatures, including angels and saints, and her intercession before God on behalf of human beings. We complement our study by a comparative analysis through which we attempt to relate these patristic and theological sources with some Spanish Gothic paintings in which the three mentioned aspects of the analyzed Marian doctrine could be reflected in some way.
The Virgin Mary, Theotokos, and Christ, true God and true man. The mystery of Incarnation according to Cyril of Alexandria
Eirini ARTEMI
Keywords: Christ, Christotokos, Cyril of Alexandria, Nestorius, Theotokos, Virgin Mary.
The 5th century controversy of Bishop Nestorius of Constantinople and Bishop Cyril of Alexandria centred on the Person of Jesus Christ: To what extent is Jesus human? To what extent divine? And to what extent and how are His humanity and divinity united? Christ has two natures. Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully divine. If Jesus was only human, Cyril urged, and God was elsewhere, the Incarnation, the Word became flesh (human indeed), would be meaningless. On the other hand Nestorius refused that Jesus is a God too, when he questioned the use of Τheotokos (Θεοτόκος) in the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This led to a greater dispute about his Christology, specifically, his conception of the unity of the divine and human natures of Christ. In this controversy Cyril of Alexandria became his most outspoken opponent. Cyril underlined that Christ is human and God at the same time. He has two natures in the unity of person (Hypostasis). Cyril emphasized the unity of Christ and his divinity, he held that Christ “was at once God and man,” and without “any mixture or blending.” In this way he preserved the distinction between the two natures which became so important in the definition of Chalcedon. Cyril urged that Jesus Christ is at once God and man, and he is “in the likeness of men” since even though he is God he is “in the fashion of a man”. He is God in an appearance like ours, and the Lord in the form of a slave.
From the Cantigas de Amor to the Cantigas de Santa Maria: The Appellatives of the Dame in Galician-Portuguese Troubadour Poetry
Marina KLEINE
Original title: Das cantigas de amor às Cantigas de Santa Maria: os apelativos da dama na lírica galego-portuguesa
Keywords: Alfonso X., Appellatives, Cancioneiro da Ajuda, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Galician-Portuguese troubadour poetry.
This paper aims to study the different forms of nominating the beloved woman, or dame, who constitutes the troubadours’ object of devotion in Galician-Portuguese love poetry, both profane and religious. The analysis will be focused on the appellatives of the dame in a sample of cantigas de amor extracted from the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and in Cantigas de Santa Maria’s cantigas de loor.
From Mystical-Cognitive Experience to Mystical Epistemology: Hildegard of Bingen
Georgina RABASSÓ
Original title: De la experiencia místico-cognoscitiva a la epistemología mística: Hildegarda de Bingen
Keywords: 12th Century, Experience, Feminine mysticism, Metaphysics of the senses, Rationality.
Hildegard of Bingen habitually wrote from the perspective of her visionary gift, but on occasions she also reflected on the latter. The majority of her works were written with reference to a specific mystical-cognitive experience; but she also analyses this and develops, in various passages, a mystical epistemology. At the base of her epistemology are the «interior» senses, which she locates in the soul. «Interior» vision and hearing are linked to reason and memory, through which she carries out an original intellectual activity: the auditory contemplation of truth. Thus, starting from her mystical-cognitive experience, Hildegard arrives at the formulation of a theory of mystical epistemology. Subsequently she extrapolates from this a personal hermeneutic understanding which allows her to reveal new «mysteries» of the scriptures, essential matter for the faithful, and hitherto unexplained by either the sages or the doctores, despite their erudition.
Shouting at the Angels: Visual Experience in Angela of Foligno’s Memoriale
Pablo GARCÍA-ACOSTA
Keywords: Angela of Foligno, Devotion, Franciscan Art, Memoriale, Vision..
This article is part of the scholarly revival in Angela of Foligno (c. 1248-c. 1308) studies in relation to images. With the exhibition entitled Dal visibile all’indicibile. Crocifissi ed esperienza mistica in Angela da Foligno (Foligno, October 6th, 2012 – January 6th, 2013) and the publication of the catalogue, relations between Angela’s visions and her artistic context have been examined in greater depth. However, despite the excellent essays included in the book, there is still lacking a theoretical basis to explain Angela's devotional relationship with some images and, in particular, her reception of them. The main aim of these pages is therefore to develop that theoretical background and to interpret from such a basis the events that occurred in Assisi in front of the so-called “vetrata degli angeli” (the stained glass window of the angels).
The paradoxical reality of the feminine holiness in the Castilian Middle Ages: the miracle like textual shape of the Vida de Santa María Egipciaca
Carina ZUBILLAGA
Original title: La paradójica realidad de la santidad femenina en la Edad Media castellana: el milagro como configurador textual de la Vida de Santa María Egipciaca
Keywords: Biographical frame, Castilian translation, Feminine holiness, Medieval Hagiography, Miracle.
The medieval hagiographical paradigm of the holy prostitute, analyzed in this article in the Castilian 13th century Vida de Santa María Egipciaca, reveals the paradoxical reality of the feminine holiness of the period; a reality based on the inclusive concept of the supernatural thing as possible daily experience, but that at the same time supposes the loss of any feminine attribute and the obligatory identification with Christ for the comprehension of the spiritual advance of the woman.
The medieval feminine writing: mystic, passion and transgression
Maria Simone Marinho NOGUEIRA
Original title: A escrita feminina medieval: mística, paixão e transgressão
Keywords: Feminine, Mystic, Passion, Transgression., Writing.
In this paper, we try to present some of the medieval feminine mystic, concentrating mainly on the thought of Marguerite Porete. Among other things, our intention is to show that the studied women had a strong literary culture, and also that their works oscilate between transgression and passion.
The Sacrality of Queen in the Norman Sicily. The pattern of Ordo coronationis
Mirko VAGNONI
Original title: La sacralità della regina nella Sicilia normanna. Il caso dell’Ordo coronationis
Keywords: Kingdom of Sicily, Normans, Queenship, Representation of Power, Royal Sacrality.
Generally historians have given little attention to the sacrality of the Norman queens of Sicily. Certainly, there are few sources on this subject but this paper wants to study this topic analysing a very important text for the representation of power: the Ordo coronationis written in the Norman Sicily and that describes the ritual for the coronation of a queen.
Women and the supreme power in Byzantium (5th-11th centuries). Numismatic approach
José María de FRANCISCO OLMOS
Original title: Las mujeres y el poder supremo en Bizancio, siglos V-XI. Aproximación numismática
Keywords: 5th-11th centuries, Byzantium, Empresses, Numismatics.
This paper studies the evolution of the role of Byzantine women in relation to the Empire government, with special attention to the numismatic evidence. The analyzed period goes from the beginning of the Empire in the 5th century to the middle of the 11th, with a detailed analysis of those reigns that seem most significant in the evolution of this issue, that is those of Pulcheria, Irene and the sisters Zoë and Theodora, with whom women finally became able to assume the government in their own names, without any shade of fiction, as seen on the previous cases.
PETRE, PATER PATRUM, PAPISSE PRODITO PARTUM: translation of the fragments of the first documentation of the ‘pope’ Joan
Dominique Vieira Coelho dos SANTOS, Camila Michele WACKERHAGE
Original title: PETRE, PATER PATRUM, PAPISSE PRODITO PARTUM: tradução dos fragmentos da primeira documentação referente à ‘papisa’ Joana
Keywords: Church, Popess Joan, Representation, narrative, translation.
This article’s aim is to present for the first time in Brazilian Portuguese, a translation, accompanied by the Latin text, the first three documents to mention ‘Pope’ Joan. They are a small excerpt from Chronica Universalis Mettensis, wrote by Jean de Mailly, the first to mention the Popess; Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum, document authored by Martin of Opava, which continues this report, and, finally, the lines of De Septem donis Spiritus Sancti, or Tractatus de diversis Materiis Praedicabilibus, as it will be called here, written by Stephanus de Bourbon, who also mention Joan. Also some historiographical reflections are made altogether with a brief introduction to gender studies in the Middle Ages. Unlike other countries, the Popess is still poorly studied in Brazil. However, even being a fictional character, this figure may assist us in understanding the social imaginarium related to context where these documents were produced. By translating the mentioned works, we hope to cooperate to enlarge the possibilities of researching on the Popess.
Buona e leale, esprovata e quieta: Aspects of feminine image in political-pedagogic literature at XIII Century. The treaty of De Regimine Principum from Giles of Rome
Fátima Regina FERNANDES, Eliane Veríssimo de SANTANA
Original title: Buona e leale, esprovata e quieta: Aspectos da imagem feminina na literatura pedagógico-política no século XIII. O tratado De Regimine Principum de Egídio Romano
Keywords: Castity, Feminine, Giles of Rome, Pedagogical treaties, Temperance.
The aim of this text is to analyse that the theorist Giles of Rome (1243/47-1316) constructs of the femenine in his pedagogical treaty De Regimine Principum (1277-81) for the instruction of Philip IV of France (1268-1314). Although this is a speculum that aims the royal education, Giles dedicates the First Part of the Second book for the formulation of an ideal model of women. Author of Aristotelianism-tomist influence, he considers the man, full of knowledge, natural lord of woman. The feminine image is built based on marriage, procriation, loyalty, castity and temperance.
The Alfonsine Guzman ladies. A feminine dynasty in Castile, 13th-14th centuries
Pablo MARTÍN PRIETO
Original title: Las Guzmán alfonsinas. Una dinastía femenina en la Castilla de los siglos XIII y XIV
Keywords: Alfonso X, Beatriz of Portugal, Blanca of Portugal, Guzman, Mayor Guillen.
From the mid-13th century, the relationship between Alfonso X of Castile and his mistress Mayor Guillen de Guzman gave rise to a veritable feminine dynasty, beginning with their daughter Beatriz − later Queen of Portugal through her marriage − and continued through the latter's daughter, Princess Blanca of Portugal, the grand-daughter of Mayor Guillen, well until the 1320s. In this time, the ladies belonging to this illegitimate line of Alfonso X's descent kept a special commitment to the Castilian crown, as well as to certain interests of piety and power related to this king. The continuity along this Alfonsine line of the important noble family of Guzman stands as a showcase of the public relevance of women set in a high environment.
Urraca Téllez: Social ancestry and political-religious projection of a prioress of Santo Domingo el Real de Toledo (ca. 1352 - †1431-32)
Francisco de Paula CAÑAS GÁLVEZ
Original title: Urraca Téllez: Ascendencia social y proyección político-religiosa de una priora de Santo Domingo el Real de Toledo (ca. 1352 - †1431-32)
Keywords: Gutierre Gómez, María de Casilla, Order of Preachers, Tel Fernández de Toledo, Teresa de Ayala, Trastamara royalty.
The following pages are intended to reconstruct the biography of Urraca Tellez, nun and prioress of Santo Domingo el Real in Toledo, with particular emphasis on the political, social, spiritual and cultural contexts that came together in the first stage of Santo Domingo el Real Toledo to make it one of the most prominent centers of power of the Crown of Castile in the the late Middle Ages.
The image of women in the Crónica del Halconero de Juan II
María del Pilar RÁBADE OBRADÓ
Original title: La visión de la mujer en la Crónica del Halconero de Juan II
Keywords: Castile, Chronicles, Juan II, Querelle des femmes, XVth Century.
This work analyzes the image of women in the Crónica del Halconero de Juan II. The chronicle was written during the reign of this king, and his author, Pedro Carrillo de Huete, was a courtier of the Castilian monarch. Through its study we’ll try to verify if the image that it offers of women is or not influenced by the debate concerning women that developed during the reign of Juan II.
Feminine elites in Galician towns during the Late Middle Ages
Miguel GARCÍA-FERNÁNDEZ
Original title: Las élites femeninas en las ciudades gallegas de la Baja Edad Media
Keywords: Galicia, Late Middle Ages, Towns, Urban elites, Women.
Women from different social groups lived in medieval towns. However, historians have studied more closely women working outside their homes in various trades and, far less, women that were part of the urban oligarchies. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze female elites in Galician towns during the Late Middle Ages, indicating who they were and what their role within the oligarchy was. So, we will know some names, places, relationships, public actions and attitudes to death of those female elites.
Functionalizing the feminine: the 'unnamed'sister-queen-mother-wifepenitent in Gregorius by Hartmann von Aue
Daniele Gallindo Gonçalves SILVA
Original title: Funcionalizando o feminino: a irmã-rainha-mãe-esposa-penitente ‘sem nome’ em Gregorius de Hartmann von Aue
Keywords: Gregorius, Middle High German Literature, Namenforschung.
Based on the theoretical Namenforschung by Friedhelm Debus and the Gender research by Judith Butler, this paper discusses the relationship established between the male character, theme of the narrative, and his mother/wife. Thus, our focus of analysis is the unnamed female character of Gregorius of Hartmann von Aue. We intend, therefore, to prove that there is a functionalization of this feminine in the work in question.
Woman and eroticism in the Galician-Portuguese troubadour lyric
Pedro Carlos Louzada FONSECA, Márcia Maria de Melo ARAÚJO
Original title: Mulher e erotismo na lírica trovadoresca galego-portuguesa
Keywords: Cantigas de amigo, Eroticism, Galician-Portuguese troubadour lyric.
It is an approach of the female images reproduced in the cantigas de amigo “Fui eu, madre, lavar meus cabelos” by Johan Soarez Coelho and “Levou s’ aa alva, levou s’ a velida” by Pero Meogo, both outstanding troubadours Galician-Portuguese. In the cantigas de amigo, eroticism appears as the theme of the possibility of satisfaction, of promise, of desire or its negation, and of the closeness of happiness. In this sense, it is intended in this paper to reflect on the recurring images in the lyricism of these minstrels and how ethical elements of loyalty, courage, tenderness are treated by an erotic-cultural aspect that makes the medieval nobility capable of transforming the sufferings of love into beauty, offering in this way a meaning and a suitable value for feeling.
For Man’s Ruin or Salvation. Archetypes of Feminine Power in the Poetry of G. K. Chesterton
Santiago ARGÜELLO
Original title: Para perdición o salvación del hombre. Arquetipos del poder femenino en la poesía de G. K. Chesterton
Keywords: Chesterton, Gleam, Grail, Tennyson, Woman.
The paper consists in the analysis and translation of the poem of Chesterton, “The White Witch”. In it the author sets up a contrast between two heathen goddesses –Diana and Hecate– and the Virgin Mary. Chesterton takes the issue up to criticize the interpretation of Tennyson about the medieval Grial. From it, he is able to show the connection between the Puritan model of woman with the heathen model, in contrast with the medieval one.
Misogyny and theologizing rhetoric of feminine appearance in the Middle Ages: the ascetic testimony of De cultu feminarum by Tertullian
Pedro Carlos Louzada FONSECA
Original title: Misoginia e retórica teologizadora da aparência feminina na Idade Média: o depoimento ascético do De cultu feminarum, de Tertuliano
Keywords: Female appearance, Misogyny, Patristic, Tertullian.
The concern of the early centuries of Christianity about the appearance of women is a recurring theme in the so-called patristic literature, whose doctrine was based on a vision of theological and patriarchal jurisdiction committed to certain postures and attitudes tendentiously misogynistic that had seen the woman as prone ab origine to disguise and adulteration of her image created by God. In this primeval Christian perception of the female, Tertullian (c. 160-c. 225) stands out as an author of a moralist discourse strongly religious which submits female clothing and ornaments to precepts and prescriptions theologically constituted. This article proposes to discuss the main aspects of the rhetoric of this theological cosmetology which characterizes itself as ascetically misogynist in Tertullian.
Medieval Misogyny and its echoes in the Lais of Marie de France
Ruy de Oliveira ANDRADE FILHO, Ligia Cristina CARVALHO
Original title: A misoginia medieval e seus ecos nos Lais de Maria de França
Keywords: Chivalric literature, Female images, Maria of France, Misogyny.
The Lais of Marie de France are a specific type of historical record about the medieval aristocratic society and enables us to decipher the hierarchies that govern the relationship between men and women in the period. As well explains Georges Duby, medieval society tends to present coated with a male character because, among other factors, its latent misogyny. Women were placed under male authority, convinced of their natural superiority , the men despised , mocked her sex , meanwhile feared them, after all, women were Eve’s daughters. So, Lais offer female images that cannot be ignored , since it express the author women’s idea. However , as we seek to demonstrate in this article, Maria of France reflects the representations of the Christian society aristocratic. One note here that this article does not aspire to reach the actual circumstances, but the historical significance of female images present in the Lais.
Margarita Moreira and Antonia Núñez. Inquisition and Cryptojudaism in Mexico, 1646-1647
Antonio CORTIJO OCAÑA
Original title: Margarita Moreira y Antonia Núñez. Inquisición y grupos criptojudíos en México, 1646-1647
Keywords: Antonia Núñez, Inquisition, Margarita Moreira, Mexico, Practicing Judaism.
This article analyzes two previously-unkown documents from The Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley). These documents refer to the accusation made by the Mexican Inquisition against Margarita Moreira and Antonia Núñez in 1646 and 1647 respectiveley. Both women were accused of practicing Judaism.
Articles
Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Platonism of Imperial Age and in Plotinus
Bernardo Lins BRANDÃO
Original title: A Filosofia Como Modo de Vida no Platonismo da Era Imperial e em Plotino
Keywords: Ascension, Neoplatonism, Philosophy as a way of life, Plotinus, Therapy of passions.
Philosophy is generally understood nowadays as a discursive practice, in which philosophers elaborate doctrines and arguments. But that is not the only possible view. In some contexts of Antiquity, it was also conceived as a way of life. In this paper, I analyze how the platonism of the Imperial age, specially Plotinus, saw this philosophical life and how doctrine and argument, ascension of the soul and therapy of passions was part of it.
Hávamál: annotated translation from Old Norse to Portuguese
Elton O. S. MEDEIROS
Original title: Hávamál: tradução comentada do Nórdico Antigo para o Português
Keywords: Hávamál, Medieval Scandinavia, Mythology, Poetic Edda.
Present in the manuscript of the Poetic Edda, the poem Hávamál is one of the most famous texts of the Old Norse literature. With elements which allude the mythological past of northern Europe, social practices of conduct and signs of pre-Christian religiosity. With this annotated translation done from the original idiom to Portuguese we intend to shed some new light upon this work to the modern public, whether to the scholar as to those that are taking your first contact with the poem.
Palaeochristian Art: Mirror of the worldview of the early Christians
Rosa Maria Blanca CEDILHO, Ana Paula Bernardo de SOUSA
Original title: Arte Paleocristã: espelho da visão de mundo dos primeiros cristãos
Keywords: Christianity, Iconology, Imperial Rome, Pagan Art, Paleochristian Art.
This research aims to present what are the main aspects of Paleochristian art. This artistic representation was intended to convey the gospel message and educate the followers of this new , who lived between the ages II and IV. However, according to research, it is clear that the Christian themes are mixed with pre-existing pagan art, or with classical art.