Article
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Redemption Theology in Mystical Convent Drama: “The Already and the Not Yet” in Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo virtutum and Marcela de San Félix’s Breve festejo
Alisa J. TIGCHELAAR
Original title: A Teologia da Redenção no Drama do Mosteiro Místico: “O já e o ainda não” no Ordo virtutum de Hildegarda de Bingen e no Breve Festejo de Marcela de San Félix
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Convent, Hildegard of Bingen, Marcela de San Felix, Mysticism, Redemption theology.
This study most centrally explores the distinctly corporeal divinity that is revealed through mystical paradigms in two plays by female religious: Hildegard of Bingen’s (1098-1179) Ordo virtutum and a play convincingly attributed to Marcela de san Félix (1605-87), Breve festejo que se hizo para nuestra Madre priora y a alegrar la comunidad la noce de los reyes deste año 1653. It highlights and analyzes the fact that, in both plays, various triadic relationships point to the essential presence of the second person of the Trinity in the mystical Godhead. The central argument is that a particularly Christocentric mystical divinity has theological connotations which bear investigation against the general problematization of the corporeal element in the mystical relational and theological economy through the seventeenth century. The paper articulates why a particularly human mystical divinity might have been undervalued in the Christian practice of mysticism from Medieval times onward, and exegetes why the bias toward transcendence over immanence in mysticism might even be regarded as theologically incomplete in the light of (Catholic) Christian redemption theology. It ends by showing how the “already and not yet” is alluded to in both plays, and draws some relevant theological conclusions which stand in answer to the transcendent deity usually privileged in mysticism, hearkening to other works by both Bingen and san Félix to substantiate the theology which can arguably be attributed to them. Along the way, relevant aspects of different understandings of emotions–among them the concept of the humors, the Aristotelian understanding of the relationship between the (Christian) virtues and the emotional realm, and the central role of eros in the mystical practice and the theological implications of the same–will be raised, according to the theme of this particular volume.
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Epicurus and his Invitation to Wisdom
Ramon TORNÉ I TEIXIDÓ
Original title: Epicur i la seva invitació a la Saviesa
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Catalan translation, Epicurus, Letter to Meneceus, soul, wisdom.
The author presents the Letter to Meneceus underlining its human aspects, as being first of all an invitation to a thoughtful and calm life, the way of life to understand more and more which is the meaning of life itself. In a second part of its article a translation into Catalan of this letter is provided.
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Some remarks on Plato on emotions
Robert ZABOROWSKI
Original title: Algunas observaciones de Platón a respecto de las emociones
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Desiring linkage, Emotions, Feeling, Plato, Stratification of affectivity, Thinking.
A paper is an attempt at reassessing the role of emotions in Plato’s dialogues cannot be assessed. A standard view identifying (or translating or interpreting) to logistikon with (as) reason, to thumoeides with (as) the irascible and to epithumetikon with (as) the concupiscent is challenged so far as each of the three parts possesses emotions (affectivity) of its own. The opinion that Plato is responsible for the negative view of emotion is rejected. Plato’s views on emotions are understood more accurately understood from a hierarchical perspective, i.e. when three parts of the soul are analyzed as three strata of the feeling–thinking–desiring linkages.
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Models of Warfare in the Chronicle of D. Duarte de Meneses − Text, Context and Representation
André Luiz BERTOLI
Original title: Modelos de ação bélica na Crônica de D. Duarte de Meneses − Texto, Contexto e Representação
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Chronicle, Models of warlike action, North Africa, Portugal, War.
In this paper I shall present some preliminary research on the Crônica do Conde D. Duarte de Meneses, wrote by Gomes Eanes de Zurara between 1464 and1468. I will make a closer study of several chapters in the chronicle, especially chapter 44 (Riiij) and chapter 154 (CLiiij), which expound the warrior values and Christian virtues that defined the chivalric profiles of the Lusitanian nobility. The chapters selected retell exemplary deeds through which Zurara highlighted among many other types of warlike attitudes that were part of the whole relationship of medieval man to war: the obedience to the captain versus the execution of chivalric prowess. In this chronicle Gomes Eanes de Zurara tried to define an ideal of chivalry adapted to the needs of the Portuguese expansion in North Africa during the fifteenth century, which, in turn, would serve as a model for all the Portuguese warrior nobility in Africa.
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Sor Juana and Proba: A Model of Translation
Antonio CORTIJO OCAÑA
Original title: Sor Juana y Proba. Un modelo de translatio
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Christianity, Faltona Betitia Proba, Feminism, Paganism, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
The female Roman writer Betitia Proba wrote several works in which she tried to provide a cultural bridge between Pagan and Christian letters. For it, she received the criticism of Saint Jerome, among others. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Mexican nun and writer used the example of Proba in many of her writings. This article contends that Sor Juana claimed a second Proba in the Mexican literary milieu of the 17th century in order to defend her rights as a female intellectual.
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The Glassmaking Business in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula
Eduardo JUÁREZ VALERO
Original title: El negocio del vidrio en la Península Ibérica medieval
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Glass, Glassmaking monopoly, Guilds, Protection of the secret knowledge, Trading.
Secret was the essence of the knowledge in the world of the glassmaking during the Middle and Modern Ages. As the glassmakers were protecting their secret knowledge, they were creating special types of guilds associated to a special legal environments. In Spain the most important example was the environment of the glassmakers’ guild of Barcelona and the Castilian way, especially in Cadalso de los Vidrios. This article studies the evolution of those legal environments and their influence in the Spanish glass monopoly.
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Some Thoughts on the Sphinx’s Symbolism
Cristóbal MACÍAS VILLALOBOS
Original title: Algunas consideraciones sobre el simbolismo de la Esfinge
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Femme Fatale, Oedipus, Riddle of the Sphinx, Sphinx, Symbolism.
The Greek Sphinx, probably of Egyptian origin, was known in Antiquity not only as a funeral spirit and guardian of tombs, but especially as that creature who dares to ask Oedipus a question about the nature of human identity. This dialectic encounter between hero and beast has been interpreted in many different ways, giving rise to a rich symbolic tradition that extends almost to the present day. This paper presents some key moments of this tradition in both literature and art.
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Eiximenis, Alfonso IV, Peter I of Portugal and his Vassals
Xavier RENEDO I PUIG
Original title: Eiximenis, Alfonso IV, Pedro I de Portugal y sus vasallos
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Alphonse IV of Portugal, Cardinal virtues, Dotzè del Crestià, Pacts, Peter I of Portugal.
In the vast encyclopedia of Crestià Dotze policy, completed in early part of the year in 1387, the Franciscan Catalan Francesc Eiximenis devoted a chapter to discuss this cardinal virtue, since the principles of the doctrine pacts, during the civil war in the year 1355 between Alfonso IV, king of Portugal, with his son, the Infante, Don Pedro. Led by Eiximenis this episode becomes an example of historical highlights, along with other similar examples, according to the doctrine defended in Dotze Pactista, the role the cardinal virtue of fortitude plays in defense of the common good against the errors and injustices of tyrants.
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The Virgin of the Annunciation: A Paradigm of Humility in Medieval Doctrine and Imagery
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: La Virgen de la Anunciación, un paradigma de humildad en la doctrina y la imagen de la Edad Media
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Annunciation, Humility, Iconography, Medieval Art, Patrology.
In recounting the event of the Annunciation, the Gospel of Luke describes the sublime lesson of humility given by the Virgin Mary by proclaiming herself the Lord’s slave while she received the announcement of her election as Mother of God. Such a moral stance soon became an outstanding example of modesty and obedience for all Christians, as it was showed by many Church Fathers, theologians and religious thinkers throughout the centuries. Our paper aims to highlight that this significant lesson of humility and submission by the Virgin, reported by the Gospel and frequently interpreted in patristics and theological sources, often reflected also in art works, as we try to put evident through the analysis of twelve medieval paintings.
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Linguistic and Cultural Studies on Curial e Güelfa, a 15th Century Anonymous Chivalric Romance in Catalan
Matheus Corassa da SILVA and Ricardo da COSTA
Original title: Estudis lingüístics i culturals sobre Curial e Güelfa. Novella cavalleresca anònima del segle XV en llengua catalana'
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
