Article
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Colors in the work of Nicholas of Cusa
Marica COSTIGLIOLO
Original title: I colori nell’opera di Niccolò Cusano
Published in Mirabilia Journal 31 (2020/2)
Keywords: Art, Colors, Middle Ages, Nicholas of Cusa, Perception.
When we think about colour and its meanings, we must consider the historical path that colours have gone through, and how they have changed over the course of history. Until the seventeenth century, those who dealt with the perception of colour mainly analyzed its nature, its organization in a system of relationships. From Newton onwards, the understanding of colour is analyzed starting from the relationship of the mechanisms of vision and perception. In Nicholas of Cusa work, we find both perspectives. On the one hand, Cusanus is interested in the mechanism of sight, on the other hand there are numerous metaphors with light and divine light. The philosopher's discourse therefore addresses both an analysis of the mechanism of perception and a broader discourse that becomes a theological and mystical metaphor. In this sense, his work proves to be a rich source also in the context of the history of colours and in general in the history of art.
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The just war in St. Thomas de Aquinas and its reflections in History
Gilberto Callado de OLIVEIRA
Original title: A guerra justa em Santo Tomás de Aquino e seus reflexos na História
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Keywords: Crusades, Just war, Lawfulness of war, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas.
In the face of current offensive and preventive wars, based on ideological and economic values, Thomist philosophy and theology are very important, not only in considering the fundamentals of just war, but also applying the theory of private wars as a possible key to giving origin of a new international order. Augustine of Hippo was certainly the creator of the doctrine of just defensive war based on Christian principles, but, taken up by Aquinas, it acquired the idea of an offensive holy war, which involves the protection of justice and the honour of God.
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Disease, Sin and Soul Medicine in the preaching of Saint Anthony (c. 1195-1231)
Gustavo Cambraia FRANCO
Original title: Doença, pecado e medicina da alma na pregação de Santo Antônio (c. 1195-1231)
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Keywords: Body, Disease, Medicine, Saint Anthony of Lisbon, Sin.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideas of Saint Anthony of Lisbon, a XIIIth century Franciscan preacher, about diseases and their relationship with the medieval doctrine of sin and vices. The theme is exposed from evangelical passages and a series of related biblical accounts, explained by Saint Anthony, which contain references to diseases and physical sickness. His sermons emphasize, through the exegesis of the allegorical and moral senses, that the human body and its five senses are open doors to vices, by which the human soul, and even the body itself, are infected and affected by various physical and spiritual illnesses. So, only the medicine of Christ and of his preachers, the continuous exercise of virtues and penitential practices have the power to heal and regenerate man to its original state of health.
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The friendship, a political problem. Manueline construction of aristocratic bond
Federico J. ASISS-GONZÁLEZ
Original title: La amistad, un problema político. Construcción manuelina del vínculo aristocrático
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Keywords: Don Juan Manuel, Friendship, Nobility, Politics.
Friendship is presented before our eyes as a kind of universal bond, as the ideal way to bond with the rest of human beings. Its deployment over time, the loyalty or fidelity with which it solidifies friendly relations seem a topic more proper to ethics than to politics, although decades ago Jacques Derrida revealed it to us as a political issue. However, this work of unveiling that requires us to fully understand the nature of this bond was not such for don Juan Manuel. In his works, friendship occupies a specific function within the discourse on nobility. In fact, the friendship resulted from a pact, as requested by the Fuero de Castiella, between noblemen in order to pacify their relations and to proceed with their political struggles. In this article we propose to analyze the characteristics of this link in the Manueline texts or, in other words, to understand what is friendship for Don Juan Manuel and how it is articulated within the representation of his sector.
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The Formation of a Carolingian Emotional and Sensory Community
Gerardo RODRÍGUEZ
Original title: La conformación de una comunidad emocional y sensorial carolingia
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Keywords: Carolingian councils, Carolingian sensory marks, Emotional community, Emotional marks, Sensory community.
What emotional and sensory models are possible to historically identify and rebuild? How do such models conform? How do emotional and sensory communities arise? What sources are available to replenish issues related to senses and emotions? From what historiographic perspective should be carried out these investigations, which are at the forefront of both theoretical and methodological renewal? I will answer these questions considering that it is necessary to define concepts and analyze the selected documentation based on these conceptual definitions. The questions referred to the theoretical and methodological framework will be raised from the emotional and sensory turns of the Human and Social Sciences of the last thirty years; the historical context will be the Carolingian world of the second half of the eighth century; the selected documentation, the Carolingian councils. This cross between the history of emotions, the history of the senses, the beginnings of the Carolingian cultural renewal and conciliar provisions will allow me to reconstruct the emotional and sensory communities of an era, as to culturally and socially construct products, in the historical context mentioned above.
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The festive sensory model of John II of Castile (1406-1454)
Martina Magali DIAZ SAMMARONI
Original title: El modelo sensorial festivo de Juan II de Castilla (1406-1454)
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Keywords: Castile, Festivities, Fifhteen century, John II, Senses.
If we want to know and be able to understand how medieval men and women perceived, felt and thought their world, we have to turn our gaze to their festivities and the role that the senses played in them. Spaces for the exchange and circulation of a wide range of sacred, profane and magical practices, they presented themselves as unique opportunities for the manifestation of power by kings and nobles, especially in the late middle Ages. From the thirteenth century, the records of the different court’ celebrations show a growing artistic spectacularity associated with the intention of transmitting and reinforcing official ideology by evoking images aimed at making an impact and generating a strong sense of identity. In the fifthteen century, this can be clearly seen during the reign of John II (1406-1454) of Castile, signified by conflicts with the nobility, as well as by the war against the Moors of Granada. At this juncture there was a renaissance of the ideals of chivalrous and warrior’s life reflected in the multiplication of the organization of tournaments, jousting, reeds and other games. On this basis, through the contributions of the History of the senses – a transdisciplinary perspective that brings together the contributions of History, as well as Anthropology – we will analyse the Chronicle of the Falconer of John II, by Pedro Carillo de Huete, in order to identify and analyse how vision, taste, hearing, touch and smell intervened in the configuration of a particular festive sensory model.
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Tamerlane’s female court. Sensory and power from the perspective of Ruy González de Clavijo (1403-1406)
Laura CARBÓ
Original title: La corte femenina de Tamorlán. Sensorialidad y poder desde la perspectiva de Ruy González de Clavijo (1403-1406)
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Keywords: 15th century, Embassy to Tamerlan, Materiality, Power, Senses.
Ruy González de Clavijo starred, together with a team of ambassadors, the second mission sent by Henry III of Castile to Tamerlan in 1403, whose round trip itinerary spans three years. Clavijo's meticulous account includes the timurid protocol deployment, which often has the women of the court as protagonists. The ambassadors' approach to the women's world was eminently sensory: the five senses came to the aid of the travel story, with visual, tactile, auditory, tasteful, olfactory experiences that allowed the narrator to communicate the experiences occurred in the presence of women. In addressing to "sensory" we mean both the material world and the sensory experience itself. The historical study will focus on the’ representations of medieval objects (clothing, meals, setting, organization of spaces, buildings) and the consideration of its users, simultaneously addressing both the intellectual and material substrates of medieval culture. This study of the particular feminine spaces allows showing a relationship between culture, materiality and power in a temporal and spatial arc reduced to the itinerary of the embassy.
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Membership marks. The worshipers of Dionysus and her sensory traces
María Cecilia COLOMBANI
Original title: Las marcas de la pertenencia. Las adoradoras de Dioniso en las huellas sensoriales
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Keywords: Bacchae, Bodies, Movement, Sensory marks.
The work traces the marks of the Dionysian thiasos as it appears in The Bacchae 1-134, fundamentally attending the relevant news of the choir. We do it from a theoretical installation model that seeks to relieve the sensory marks present in the Dionysian phenomenon. The polysemy of the god's thiasos as a moment of approach and fusion with the divinity provides us with a series of sensory elements of extreme wealth. Our project is to show how this body sensorial impacts two fundamental brands: strength and movement. The living body of the bacchante is movement captured from a visual dimension that, not only the texts but also the attic ceramic vessels, have helped to recreate from what we could call a visual metaphor. The visual impact of the ménade reflects a flexible, frantic body of ecstatic possession. The images we will analyse impact the view from its polysemy significance. The head, the torso, the hair, the feet, constitute the network of images that enter into a game of multiple meanings, which constitute the essence of Dionism. The ritual that unfolds in the festive dimension summons a second sensory mark: the auditory one. Indeed, festive excitement and divine possession generate a loudness that floods the tragic stage. From the Dioniso Bromio brand itself, which refers to the bellow of the god, to the musical instruments of dance, the sound accompanies the closeness of the god and his faithful within the framework of an auditory metaphor of marked symbolic repercussion.
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The sound of evil in two reflections of Francisco de Vitoria
Javier CHIMONDEGUY
Original title: La sonoridad del mal en dos relecciones de Francisco de Vitoria
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Keywords: Dominicans, Evil, Mundialization, Sonority.
The present article seeks to interpret the concept of evil in the School of Salamanca in the first half of the XVIth century. Making an overview of the concept of evil related to the soundscape and the sensorial perception relying on the relections taught by the theologian from Burgos in the University of Salamanca.
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The senses are hidden in documents
Gerardo RODRÍGUEZ; Gisela CORONADO SCHWINDT
Original title: Los sentidos se nos esconden en los documentos
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
