Article
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Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: Mulier aut Femina. Idealidad o realidad de la mujer en la Edad Media
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Edad Media, Idealidad, Mujer, Realidad.
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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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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.
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From Mystical-Cognitive Experience to Mystical Epistemology: Hildegard of Bingen
Georgina RABASSÓ
Original title: De la experiencia místico-cognoscitiva a la epistemología mística: Hildegarda de Bingen
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: 12th Century, Experience, Feminine mysticism, Metaphysics of the senses, Rationality.
Hildegard of Bingen habitually wrote from the perspective of her visionary gift, but on occasions she also reflected on the latter. The majority of her works were written with reference to a specific mystical-cognitive experience; but she also analyses this and develops, in various passages, a mystical epistemology. At the base of her epistemology are the «interior» senses, which she locates in the soul. «Interior» vision and hearing are linked to reason and memory, through which she carries out an original intellectual activity: the auditory contemplation of truth. Thus, starting from her mystical-cognitive experience, Hildegard arrives at the formulation of a theory of mystical epistemology. Subsequently she extrapolates from this a personal hermeneutic understanding which allows her to reveal new «mysteries» of the scriptures, essential matter for the faithful, and hitherto unexplained by either the sages or the doctores, despite their erudition.
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Shouting at the Angels: Visual Experience in Angela of Foligno’s Memoriale
Pablo GARCÍA-ACOSTA
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Angela of Foligno, Devotion, Franciscan Art, Memoriale, Vision..
This article is part of the scholarly revival in Angela of Foligno (c. 1248-c. 1308) studies in relation to images. With the exhibition entitled Dal visibile all’indicibile. Crocifissi ed esperienza mistica in Angela da Foligno (Foligno, October 6th, 2012 – January 6th, 2013) and the publication of the catalogue, relations between Angela’s visions and her artistic context have been examined in greater depth. However, despite the excellent essays included in the book, there is still lacking a theoretical basis to explain Angela's devotional relationship with some images and, in particular, her reception of them. The main aim of these pages is therefore to develop that theoretical background and to interpret from such a basis the events that occurred in Assisi in front of the so-called “vetrata degli angeli” (the stained glass window of the angels).
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The paradoxical reality of the feminine holiness in the Castilian Middle Ages: the miracle like textual shape of the Vida de Santa María Egipciaca
Carina ZUBILLAGA
Original title: La paradójica realidad de la santidad femenina en la Edad Media castellana: el milagro como configurador textual de la Vida de Santa María Egipciaca
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Biographical frame, Castilian translation, Feminine holiness, Medieval Hagiography, Miracle.
The medieval hagiographical paradigm of the holy prostitute, analyzed in this article in the Castilian 13th century Vida de Santa María Egipciaca, reveals the paradoxical reality of the feminine holiness of the period; a reality based on the inclusive concept of the supernatural thing as possible daily experience, but that at the same time supposes the loss of any feminine attribute and the obligatory identification with Christ for the comprehension of the spiritual advance of the woman.
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The medieval feminine writing: mystic, passion and transgression
Maria Simone Marinho NOGUEIRA
Original title: A escrita feminina medieval: mística, paixão e transgressão
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Feminine, Mystic, Passion, Transgression., Writing.
In this paper, we try to present some of the medieval feminine mystic, concentrating mainly on the thought of Marguerite Porete. Among other things, our intention is to show that the studied women had a strong literary culture, and also that their works oscilate between transgression and passion.
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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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Women and the supreme power in Byzantium (5th-11th centuries). Numismatic approach
José María de FRANCISCO OLMOS
Original title: Las mujeres y el poder supremo en Bizancio, siglos V-XI. Aproximación numismática
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: 5th-11th centuries, Byzantium, Empresses, Numismatics.
This paper studies the evolution of the role of Byzantine women in relation to the Empire government, with special attention to the numismatic evidence. The analyzed period goes from the beginning of the Empire in the 5th century to the middle of the 11th, with a detailed analysis of those reigns that seem most significant in the evolution of this issue, that is those of Pulcheria, Irene and the sisters Zoë and Theodora, with whom women finally became able to assume the government in their own names, without any shade of fiction, as seen on the previous cases.
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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.
