Article
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The poetics of Love in the Roman the la Rose
Ruy de Oliveira ANDRADE FILHO, Luiz Fernando ALVES
Original title: A poética do Amor em O Romance da Rosa
Published in Nicholas of Cusa in Dialogue
Keywords: Courtly Love, Guillaume of Lorris, Jean of Meun, The Romance the la Rose, XIII Century.
We aim with this article to analyze the poetics of love in The Romance of the Rose. We think that Guillaume de Lorris’s conception of love is associated with the flourishing of the French courtly society of the XIII Century, and that Jean de Meun’s conception of love is a result of the decline of this same society. Behind the virtues offered by Guillaume to the medieval lover we find the notion of courtesy, of the art of living in society, the understanding of the poetry as a form of ethics, and the medieval poetic of desire – intimately associated with the religious mysticism appeared from the XI Century and with the troubadours’ poetry. Jean is more influenced by the Ovidian tradition of thinking about the causes and effects of love. In the first part of the poem, Guillaume idealizes the conquest of the Rose; in the second, Jean describes the cueillette of the Rose, which could be read as a rape, in an allegorical way. It is this tension between different conceptions of love in a same poem that makes possible a better comprehension of the ways people used to think and feel in the Middle Ages.
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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.
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Humour in the Game of Kings: The Sideways Glancing Warder of the Lewis Chessmen
Annika HÜSING
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Cultural Perspective, Cultural Turn, Humour, Lewis Chessmen, Odd one out.
The cultural turn of the twentieth century’s last quarter gradually led to a new approach to the classical objects of historical research. Historians nowadays are required to take on a ‘cultural perspective’ in the course of their studies. Using the example of a particular piece of the Lewis Chessmen this paper examines both the benefits and the limitations that come about with the cultural approach and cautions against a too rigid application.
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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
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
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.
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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
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
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.
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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
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
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.
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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
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
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.
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The Virgin Mary, Theotokos, and Christ, true God and true man. The mystery of Incarnation according to Cyril of Alexandria
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
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.
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The war in the Crónica del Rey Don Pedro by the Chancellor López de Ayala
Cecilia Devia
Original title: La guerra en la Crónica del Rey Don Pedro del Canciller López de Ayala
Published in The chivalry and the art of war in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Chronicles, Middle Ages, War.
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The Bellvm Africvm and the construction of the image of Julius Caesar Imperator
Michele Eduarda Brasil de Sá
Original title: O Bellvm Africvm e a construção da imagem do Imperator Júlio César
Published in The chivalry and the art of war in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Bellum Africum, Julius Caesar, imperator.
