Article
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The awakening of Aragonese Humanism in Curial and Guelfa
Francis RASSELI
Original title: O despertar do Humanismo Aragonês em Curial e Guelfa
Published in Manifestations of the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Curial and Guelfa, History and Literature, Humanism, Novel Cavalry, Representation.
When we glimpse the slow turning off of the medieval lights in the fifteenth century, we see the gradual transformation (and secularization) of the code values that guided that civilization (ethics, morality, courtesy, Christian education, etc.). In this sense, literature offers the historian, who focuses on transition time, a remarkable promontory where we can observe the interpenetration of different historical times, as taught Fernand Braudel (1902-1985). That is why the study of the cavalry novel (realistic) Curial and Guelfa allows this unveiling of life in the high layers of that century. Life in the courts, civilized life, polished life. Thus, it is in our interest to analyze how the author of the novel built a certain idealized image of their own past, as forged in a text (beautifully written) an ideal chivalrous – under the humanist guise – to take as paradigmatic model King Peter III, the Great (1239-1285) of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona. For this, we will use of the (first) translation into Portuguese made by Ricardo da Costa (by invitation of the Universitat d'Alacant) to the International project IVITRA, that was published in the University of Santa Barbara (California). Our theoretical framework is based on the concept that the real power of the Middle Ages was built by cultural advertisements of heralds that lived in the cuts, thesis defended by José Manuel Nieto Soria. Besides that, we use the concept of representation exposed by Roger Chartier (1945- ).
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The allegorical interpretation of myths: from origins to Plato
Loraine OLIVEIRA
Original title: A interpretação alegórica de mitos: das origens a Platão
Published in Manifestations of the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Allegory, Interpretation, Myths, Philosophical discourse, truth.
The aim of this paper is to present some of the main aspects of allegory understood as hermeneutical practice. Allegory takes as certain that the text to be interpreted possesses some truth content. At the same time that the first allegorical interpretations of Homer and Hesiod appear, there also appear harsh criticisms of their poems. Such criticisms can be grouped under two main headings: the demythologization of the cosmos and the immorality of gods. Plato has behind him two centuries of disputes about the meaning of the poems, and clearly stands against allegorical practice, even though he does not abandon myths. What happens is that he displaces the truth content of the text: truth is not to be sought in poetry anymore, but in philosophical discourse.
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Ramon Llull and the Liber contra Antichristum
Esteve JAULENT
Original title: Raimundo Lúlio e o Livro contra o Anticristo
Published in Ramon Llull. Seventh centenary
Keywords: Faith and Reason, Liber contra Antichristum, Logic, Metaphysics, Ramon Llull, Theology and Philosophy.
A superficial interpretation of the “Book Against the Antichrist” may lead to several misunderstandings of Llull’s thought regarding the relation between Philosophy and Theology: this is particularly true for Llull’s purported rationalism that would despise knowledge through faith and lead to a false equivalence among religions. This article presents a new approach to Llull’s works from a metaphysical and a logical point of view: while holding the truths of faith in abeyance, Llull draws exclusively rational consequences which, however, correspond to revealed truths.
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Isabel de Villena, a very special and feminine theological look
Lola ESTEVA DE LLOBET
Original title: Isabel de Villena, una mirada teológica en femenino muy singular
Published in Isabel de Villena (1430-1490)
Keywords: Coadjuvants women, Redemption, Trinity theologie.
The traditional reception from on of the classical works referents of European spirituality, el Vita Christi, by Ludolf de Sajonia, hass been transformed by the writings of Isabel de Villena, who in her book, la Vita Christi, offers a new point of view, human and humanistic at the same time: the life of Christ develops in a theological threatsense of trinity experience where women at as adjuvant of Christ Redemption.
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Two readings of Mary’s life: the Vita Christi by Isabel de Villena and Vida de la sacratíssima verge Maria, by Miquel Peres
Carme ARRONIS I LLOPIS
Original title: Dos lecturas de la vida de María: la Vita Christi de Isabel de Villena y la Vida de la sacratíssima verge Maria de Miquel Peres
Published in Isabel de Villena (1430-1490)
Keywords: Devotional Literature, Isabel de Villena, Life of Mary, Marian Literature, Miquel Peres, Vita Christi.
The Vita Christi by Isabel de Villena and La vida de la sacratíssima verge Maria by Miquel Peres are two devotional works appeared in Valencia in the late Fifteenth Century, and both are characterized by its Marian subject. However, they have been never analyzed together in search of possible dependencies or divergences. This work exposes for the first time how, despite the thematic proximity, each author offers a different text in order to present the role of the Virgin in the evangelical facts.
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Narrative as a Vehicle for Group Cohesion: Experiential Learning, Collective Experience and Sublimation in the Vita Christi by Isabel de Villena
Miryam CRIADO LÓPEZ-PICAZO
Original title: La narración como vehículo de cohesión grupal: aprendizaje experiencial, experiencia colectiva y sublimación en la Vita Christi de Isabel de Villena
Published in Isabel de Villena (1430-1490)
Keywords: Franciscan literature, Isabel de Villena, Vita Christi.
This article explores narrative strategies used by Isabel de Villena to achieve her educational objectives: to move, to channel behaviors and, ultimately, to strengthen interpersonal bonds and, therefore, the emotional interconnection of her community. Furthermore, by examining the construction of characters such as Mary and Mary Magdalene, this study also shows the effectiveness of experiential learning, collective experience and sublimation in the process of instruction and indoctrination of the Poor Clares of the Holy Trinity Monastery in the fifteenth century.
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Isabel de Villena and the fifteenth-century spirituality
Roxana RECIO, Antonio CORTIJO OCAÑA
Original title: Isabel de Villena y la espiritualidad del siglo XV
Published in Isabel de Villena (1430-1490)
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The Unicorns – Virtue and Treason – An enigmatic iconographic proposal by Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Patricia GRAU-DIECKMANN
Original title: Los Unicornios – Virtud y Traición – enigmática propuesta iconográfica de Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Published in Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Peninsula Cultural History
Keywords: Alchemical Hermetic Androgyne, Bestiary, Hunting of the unicornio, Salvador Dalí, Unicorn.
“Whether or not a real unicorn existed, it may not itself be as exciting or as important as the things that men dreamed, thought and wrote about it” (Shepard). Of all the stories woven around the mythical figure of the unicorn, one that is repeated over and over again is that only a true virgin can be used as a decoy. Her aroma leaves the unicorn defenseless in front of the hunter who would kill it for its valuable horn. An unexpected iconography is the one proposed by Salvador Dalí in his small statue of The Unicorn.
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The Templars in France: Between History, Heritage, and Memory
Philippe JOSERAND
Published in Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Peninsula Cultural History
Keywords: France, Historiography, Memory, Myth, Templar Order, XIIth-XXIth Centuries.
A comprehensive scholarly study of the Templars in France has not been published yet. Yet their order, from the outset, was closely linked to the French present space: most brethren were born there, and the langue d’oïl rapidly stood as the official tongue of the institution. For two centuries, the Templars used the Capetian kingdom as the main operations base to act in the Latin East and to sustain their singular vocation merging prayer and warfare into the same religious move. After the trial which opened in 1307 on King Philip the Fair’s initiative, the Templar order, although suppressed, did not entirely disappear from the French landscape: some buildings remained and, even more, a myth took shape, from which an historiography gradually emerged. This scientific movement strengthened from the end of the twentieth century and it now allows to shed new light on the French Templar presence, and to question the generally accepted ideas in order to better understand a medieval reality, which is still fascinating, but often strangely evoked.
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Adoubement and Chivalry in the Feudal West: Gautier d’Arras’s Eracle (c. 1159-1184)
Guilherme Queiroz de SOUZA
Original title: Adoubement e Cavalaria no Ocidente feudal: o Eracle (c. 1159-1184) de Gautier d’Arras
Published in Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Peninsula Cultural History
Keywords: Adoubement, Eracle, Feudal West, Gautier d’Arras, chivalry.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the adoubement and the Chivalry in the Feudal West, through the emphasis on the romance Eracle, written by the French cleric Gautier d’Arras between 1159 and 1184. In this work, the protagonist hero is submitted to the adoubement (rite of passage) to join the Chivalry, category considered by some historians as the dominant institution during the Feudalism. We study the evolution and stages of the rite, as well as the main chivalric virtues (courage, loyalty and prudence), the concepts of largesse and prodomie and the art of war. For this, we utilize comparatively works of the 11-12th centuries.
