Article

1. “The Pleasure of the Text”: The Parliament of Fowls as the Site of Bliss for Chaucer and his Readers

   Oya BAYILTMIŞ ÖĞÜTCÜ

   Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages

   Keywords: Bliss, Parliament of Fowls, Roland Barthes, Textual pleasure, Writerly neurosis.

   Roland Barthes’s arguments in The Pleasure of the Text have brought a literary outlook to the concept of pleasure. For him, texts that do not have a closure (‘indecisive texts’) create pleasure both in the author and the reader due to polysemy resulting from writerly neurosis. Hence, the body of the text, like a physical body, becomes a site of pleasure. Chaucer’s the Parliament of Fowls presents such a site of bliss through the love debate among the birds where Chaucer depoliticises and satirises the medieval estate structure. Moreover, left open-ended, the text creates Barthesian bliss for both Chaucer and his readers. Thus, the aim of this paper is to elucidate and evaluate Chaucer’s the Parliament of Fowls as the source of textual pleasure.

2. From the Cantigas de Amor to the Cantigas de Santa Maria: The Appellatives of the Dame in Galician-Portuguese Troubadour Poetry

   Marina KLEINE

   Original title: Das cantigas de amor às Cantigas de Santa Maria: os apelativos da dama na lírica galego-portuguesa

   Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages

   Keywords: Alfonso X., Appellatives, Cancioneiro da Ajuda, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Galician-Portuguese troubadour poetry.

   This paper aims to study the different forms of nominating the beloved woman, or dame, who constitutes the troubadours’ object of devotion in Galician-Portuguese love poetry, both profane and religious. The analysis will be focused on the appellatives of the dame in a sample of cantigas de amor extracted from the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and in Cantigas de Santa Maria’s cantigas de loor.

3. Ascensio in Deum per vestigia et in vestigiis. The St. Bonaventure’s immanent Aesthetics and its possible reflections in the iconography of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi

   José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ

   Original title: Ascensio in Deum per vestigia et in vestigiis. La Estética inmanente de San Buenaventura y sus posibles reflejos en la iconografía de la Basílica de San Francisco en Asís

   Published in Monastic and Scholastic Philosophy in the Middle Ages

   Keywords: Aesthetics, Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Created world, God, Iconography, Medieval Philosophy, St. Bonaventure, Vestige.

   In his Itinerarium mentis in Deum (1259), St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) discusses the six degrees (with a seventh of ecstatic enjoyment) by which man can and should ascend from the created world to contemplate God. In this paper we will analyze only the first two grades of this Itinerarium, which constitute both of them what we might call the “immanent aesthetic” of St. Bonaventure. Highlighting then two of the central theses of this “immanent aesthetic”, we shall try to show the possible reflections that these theses may have had in the iconography of some frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

4. The Peace and the War, the War and the Peace in Marsilio of Padua

   Moisés Romanazzi Tôrres

   Original title: A Paz e a Guerra, a Guerra e a Paz em Marsílio de Pádua

   Published in The chivalry and the art of war in the Ancient and Medieval World

   Keywords: Marsiglio of Padua, Peace, War.

5. The Knights, Infantry (Peonage), Crossbowman in the Middle Ages as the Customary Laws the local communities of Guarda, Santarém, Évora and Beja in Portugal

   Alice Tavares Durán

   Original title: El estatuto de los Caballeros Villanos, Peones y Ballesteros en la Edad Media, según los Fueros Extensos de los concejos portugueses de Guarda, Santarém, Évora y Beja

   Published in The chivalry and the art of war in the Ancient and Medieval World

   Keywords: Crossbowman, Customary Law, Infantry (Peonage), Knights.

6. The medieval chivalry and the first formation of the James I as chivalry-king in the Llibre dels Fets (c. 1252-1274)

   Luciano José Vianna

   Original title: A cavalaria medieval e a formação inicial de Jaime I como rei cavaleiro no Llibre dels Fets (c. 1252-1274)

   Published in The chivalry and the art of war in the Ancient and Medieval World

   Keywords: James I, Llibre dels Fets, chivalry.

7. The figure of Francesc de Vinatea in the kingdom of Valencia. From the royal chronicle to the archival records (1331-1332)

   Vicent BAYDAL SALA

   Original title: A figura de Francesc de Vinatea no reino de Valência. Da crônica real aos documentos arquivísticos (1331-1332)

   Published in Relations between History and Literature in Ancient and Medieval World

   Keywords: 14th century, Chronicles, Crown of Aragon, Francesc de Vinatea, Kingdom of Valencia.

   Francesc de Vinatea was called a medieval hero by the liberal historiography and he still occupies an important position in the collective imagination of the Valencian society. This consideration comes from the facts narrated in the chronicle of Pedro IV of Aragon, which, however, we now know that were altered by the monarch himself to improve his image. This manipulation is what we intend to reveal in this text, by comparing the narrative of the chronicle with archival data extracted from the Aragonese royal chancery documents.

8. Alfred the Great and the holy lineage of Wessex: the construction of a myth of origins in Anglo-Saxon England

   Elton O. S. MEDEIROS

   Original title: Alfred o Grande e a linhagem sagrada de Wessex: a construção de um mito de origem na Inglaterra anglo-saxônica

   Published in Relations between History and Literature in Ancient and Medieval World

   Keywords: Alfred, Anglo-Saxons, England, Myth, Society.

   In the end of 9th century, the actions taken by King Alfred the Great were decisive for the survival of the Anglo-Saxon England against the Vikings. His cultural revival would change the Anglo-Saxon society, reinforcing the defenses of the kingdom, the politics and enable the unification of England in the mid-10th century under king Athelstan’s reign. However, the main reason behind this revival was not cultural but a spiritual. For this task, inspired by the works like Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, a myth of origins was forged. A myth that said the Anglo-Saxons were the spiritual heirs of the Hebrews of Old Testament. And their kings would be descendent of a holy lineage of a mysterious forth son of Noah. In this article we will analyze the elements of this myth, how was its construction and its importance for the Alfredian period.

9. Beyond and the marginalized: notes on their relationship on the Castilian hagiographies in the XIII Century

   Andréia Cristina Lopes Frazão da SILVA and Thalles Braga Rezende Lins da SILVA

   Original title: O Além e os marginalizados: apontamentos sobre sua relação nas hagiografias castelhanas do século XIII

   Published in Paradise, Purgatory and Hell: the Religiosity in the Middle Ages

   Keywords: After-life, Devil, Hagiography, Iberian Peninsula, Marginalized.

   In this article, we analyze two hagiographies written in the second half of the XIII century, known as Milagros de Nuestra Señora and Liber Mariae. Both were written in the kingdom of Castile, respectively, by Gonzalo de Berceo and Juan Gil de Zamora, clergy members with university education. However, the last was a Franciscan, who maintained relations with royalty, while the first was a priest with strong links with the monastic life. In their writings, the moral and didactical appeal directed to the Christians believers is also remarkable. Thus, through a comparative perspective and considering the historical context of the period, we will examine the representations of the marginalized present in the selected hagiographies, making some parallels between the place of the miracles, their social situation and their postmortem fate. For a better understanding of the question, we are also resorting to the associations that are made on the texts between the marginalized and the characters of the Virgin and the Devil, justly because they exemplify the models of inclusion or exclusion in these narratives.

10. The new concept of the Crusades in the Catalan novel Curial e Güelfa (still about the first Humanism)

    Júlia BUTIÑYÀ I JIMÉNEZ

    Original title: El nou concepte de creuada al segle XV a través de la novel—la catalana Curial e Güelfa (encara sobre el primer Humanisme)

    Published in The Middle Ages and the Crusades