Augustine of Hippo’s Doctrine of Jewish Witness in Partida 7.24 De los judios
David NAVARRO
Published in Rhythms, expressions and representations of the body
Keywords: Alfonso X, Augustine of Hippo, Fourth Lateran, Jews, Siete Partidas.
This article examines Augustine of Hippo’s Doctrine of Jewish Witness in Alfonso X’s Partida 7.24 De los judios. This Augustinian tenet, derived from traditional theological anti-Judaism, serves as the juridical principle for the first six laws of the Partida. These postulates, the most extensive and detailed of the Partida, enhance the Jews’ hermeneutical features, and denote a lenient posture toward their religious freedom and communal jurisdictional autonomy. In addition, these precepts differ from the Jews’ functional traits and the segregationist tone present in the rest of the laws of the text, drawn from the Church’s Lateran campaign and popular tradition. I posit the Augustinian Witness Doctrine represents the main legal framework in the redaction of this Partida, creating an opening for a new discussion on the monarch’s debated tolerant stance toward his Jewish subjects.
Imagining Otherness: The Pleasure of Curiosity in the Middle Ages
Anna KOŁOS
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Augustine of Hippo, Curiosity, Imagination, Order of things, Otherness, Pleasure.
The main aim of this paper is to take a closer look at both the philosophical and religious presumptions upon which the medieval concept of curiosity was premised. Such an enterprise needs to go back to Aristotle in order to fully comprehend the limitations for curiosity introduced by St. Augustine in his City of God and developed by such medieval thinkers as Isidore of Seville and Thomas of Aquinas. These conceptions will be analysed in reference to Foucauldian archeology of knowledge. Much attention should be paid to the ideas of curiositas, admiratio and studiositas.
