A controversial written by Arnaldus de Villa Nova (1242-1311)
Noeli Dutra ROSSATTO
Original title: Um escrito polêmico de Arnaldo de Vilanova (1242-1311)
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Arnold of Vilanova, Crown of Aragon, Franciscans, Joachim of Fiore, Middle Ages.
I present to the reader the translation of the text De gladius iugulans thomatistas (The sword that slaughters the thomatists) of the Catalan philosopher, doctor and alchemist Arnold of Vilanova (1242-1311). The text teaches the tension between the ideas of the Spiritual Franciscans of the Late Middle Ages, usually linked to the thought of the Calabrian Abbot Joachim of Fiore (12th century) and the scholasticism of the Dominicans. From the contact of Arnold of Vilanova with the Aragonese Court, we have the link between three important themes for the current studies of the presence of medieval political ideas in Latin-American colonial: the Feasts of the Empire of the Divine of Luso-Brazilian tradition, the Franciscans and the Joachimites. In terms of content, the translated text summarizes the main topics covered in the works of the Catalan philosopher, including: the figurative interpretation of writing and its application to the reading of history, evangelical poverty in Franciscan discussion of using poverty (usus pauper) and the biblical prophecies about the end of time and the coming of the Antichrist.
A fame et impidemia libera nos, Domine! Mortality Crisis in Medieval Europe A fame et impidemia libera nos, Domine!
Mário Jorge da Motta BASTOS
Original title: A fame et impidemia libera nos, Domine! Crises de Mortalidade na Europa Medieval
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Keywords: Medieval History, Middle Ages, Mortality Crisis, Plague.
In this article, we propose to historicize the intense and, why not say, suffered incidence of the successive impacts produced by the mortality crisis in medieval societies of Western Europe – with special emphasis on those arising from epidemics of bubonic plague and famines –, considering particularly the epidemic cycle initiated by the pandemic that, between 1348 and 1352, afflicted three continents, as well as its incidence in the kingdom of Portugal between the 14th and 16th centuries. We intend to consider its main vectors, evolution, motivations and consequences in the context of a civilization that was experiencing the crisis that determined its decline.
A kind of joy: the Wise King games
Braulio VÁZQUEZ CAMPOS
Original title: Manera de alegría: los juegos del Rey Sabio
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
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.
A look at the alterity between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. The perception of the other in some medieval and modern texts (1200-1600)
Marica COSTIGLIOLO
Original title: Uno sguardo sull’alterità tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. La percezione dell’altro in alcuni testi medievali e moderni (1200-1600)
Published in Mirabilia Journal 34
Keywords: Alterity, Colonialism, Diversity, Islam, Middle Ages, New World, Renaissance.
The concept of otherness is complex and layered. To understand how the Western world has received, rejected, or dominated the Other is crucial for the understanding of the construction of the Western cultural identity and for trying to find the motivations that have brought Europe to a politics of colonialism that has characterized social, economic, and political relations up to modern times. In this short essay I analyse some medieval and modern works to trace the textual strategies that testify the passage from the perception of difference as a possible source of threat, of danger, to its delegitimization to existence and consequently to the “justified” dominion over the other.
About he name of St. Mary of Blaquerna: some questions and answers
Júlia BUTINYÀ
Original title: Sobre el nom de santa Maria de Blaquerna: algunes preguntes i respostes
Published in Idea and image of royal power of the monarchies in Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Crown of Aragon, Mariology, Middle Ages, Ramon Llull.
About the name of the Virgin who is identified with the protagonist of the first novel of Ramon Llull, Romanç d’Evast e Blaquerna, several contributions have been made lately; here we add some new and formulate some questions. Because to the hypothesis established about the image as coming from the church of the palace of Constantinople, I added that of Corfu as its original place. Now, the fact of having found two churches with the same name in the area of the Ionian Sea enhances the value and influence of the primitive image, as well as its original location in Corfu.
Absolute vision and vision of the Absolute in Nicholas of Cusa
Claudia D’AMICO
Original title: Visión absoluta y visión de lo absoluto en Nicolás de Cusa
Published in Mystic and Millenarianism in Middle Ages
Keywords: Absolute vision, Middle Ages, Mystical vision, Neoplatonism, Nicholas of Cusa.
Introducing the topic of the mystical vision, Nicholas of Cusa becomes the heir of the Neoplatonic tradition while he supposes as the foundation of such a view the same absolute vision. However, his thought is characterized by a parallelism between absolute and human vision to the point that the man can make himself visible the vision of God only by means of selfcontemplation of the dynamism of his own vision.
Angelus or The touch of the Virgin: the Music in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (13th century) by King Alfonso X
Bárbara Dantas
Original title: Angelus ou O toque da Virgem: a Música nas Cantigas de Santa Maria (séc. XIII) do rei Afonso X
Published in Music in Middle Ages and Early Modernity
Keywords: Alfonso X, Architecture, Art, Cantigas de Santa María, Middle Ages, Music, Poetry.
Harmonious as a song, the Galician-Portuguese poetry, systematized by the zéjel metric, was the basis of the poetry of Cantigas de Santa Maria, a compilation that contains reports of miracles and praises to the Virgin performed in the second half of the 13th century at the request of the castilian king Alfonso X (1221-1284), creator, sponsor and supervisor of the work. In Cantigas, reality is overcome by imagination without limits and the relation of poetry with two other artistic forms (Music and image) makes it literary support in which the themes of the songs to the Virgin were formed. Music and image share with the poetry a sensitivity capable of expressing in different ways certain reports of miracles or praise. For this article, I present to you the Cantiga 276 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria. From iconographic and architectural analyzes, I realized the association between church bells, the architecture of the sanctuary towers where they are housed and the melody of the Angelus (The Virgin's Touch).
Apotropaic Middle Ages laughter: Visions of the Sacred Obscene in Classical Greece
Manuel ÁLVAREZ JUNCO
Original title: La risa apotropaica medieval: visiones de lo obsceno sagrado de la Grecia Clásica
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
Keywords: Apotropaic, Classical Greece, Evil eye, Middle Ages, Romanesque, Sacred obscene.
In classical Greece, the images of the apotropaic –protector against evil eye, satanic spirits or misfortune–, together with their magical and sacred aspects, combined the grotesque, the obscene and the laughable. This article delves into the analysis of this surprising conjunction in the symbolic visualizations of that culture, pointed out by some authors as belonging to the “sacred”. It also analyzes them as a possible origin of the images of explicit obscenity of the carvings on the exteriors of many buildings of the European Middle Ages, such as the spinaries, sheelas, double-tailed mermaids, moons, gargoyles, caganers, etc.
Architecture in the Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso X (13th century): Huelva, the Islam and the triumph of the Virgin Mary
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: Arquitetura nas Cantigas de Santa Maria de Afonso X (séc. XIII): Huelva, o Islã e o triunfo da Virgem Maria
Published in
Keywords: Architecture, Islam, Middle Ages, Virgin Mary, War.
The Cantigas de Santa Maria by king Alfonso X is a work with three artistic expressions: music, literature and painting. There are about 420 songs with reports of miracles and praises to the Virgin written in galician-portuguese and accompanied by illuminations that represent words in images. The focus will be to demonstrate the presence of architectural forms in the text and the illumination of the Cantiga 273, the miracle report of the city of Huelva-Andalusia. The architecture as a record of the defeats and victories occurred in the battles between christians and moors during the centuries of the Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the pacific artistic syncretism of that time.
Army, game, and social order: an approach to the cosmic metaphor of the justification of war in De bello by Juan de Legnano
Emiliano ALDEGANI; Lucía GARCÍA ALMEIDA
Original title: Ejército, juego y orden social: una aproximación a la metáfora cósmica de la justificación de la guerra en De bello de Juan de Legnano
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
Keywords: Game, Huizinga, Legnano, Middle Ages, War.
The aim of this paper is to point out the articulation between the celestial order and the military order expressed in the work of the medieval jurist John of Legnano (14th century) in the Tractatus de Bello, de Represaliis et de duello. In the introduction to his book, he states that ‘human war’ reflects war in the divine order, which leads the author to justify the military conflicts present in his time as coming from God, a hypothesis that he supports based on the testimonies offered by the Gospels. Thus, in the first chapter, he divides war into Spiritual, celestial, or human warfare and Corporal, universal or warfare. In addition, some central ideas of the medievalist Johan Huizinga, in his work Homo ludens, on the sacred meaning of victory in the context of medieval military confrontations, which is deeply related to the meaning of victory in the game, will be recovered. Based on this key reading, the aim is to contextualise Legnano's conception within the framework of the canonical understandings of the foundations of war conflicts that prevailed in the late medieval period.
