Article
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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.
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Buona e leale, esprovata e quieta: Aspects of feminine image in political-pedagogic literature at XIII Century. The treaty of De Regimine Principum from Giles of Rome
Fátima Regina FERNANDES, Eliane Veríssimo de SANTANA
Original title: Buona e leale, esprovata e quieta: Aspectos da imagem feminina na literatura pedagógico-política no século XIII. O tratado De Regimine Principum de Egídio Romano
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Castity, Feminine, Giles of Rome, Pedagogical treaties, Temperance.
The aim of this text is to analyse that the theorist Giles of Rome (1243/47-1316) constructs of the femenine in his pedagogical treaty De Regimine Principum (1277-81) for the instruction of Philip IV of France (1268-1314). Although this is a speculum that aims the royal education, Giles dedicates the First Part of the Second book for the formulation of an ideal model of women. Author of Aristotelianism-tomist influence, he considers the man, full of knowledge, natural lord of woman. The feminine image is built based on marriage, procriation, loyalty, castity and temperance.
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The Alfonsine Guzman ladies. A feminine dynasty in Castile, 13th-14th centuries
Pablo MARTÍN PRIETO
Original title: Las Guzmán alfonsinas. Una dinastía femenina en la Castilla de los siglos XIII y XIV
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Alfonso X, Beatriz of Portugal, Blanca of Portugal, Guzman, Mayor Guillen.
From the mid-13th century, the relationship between Alfonso X of Castile and his mistress Mayor Guillen de Guzman gave rise to a veritable feminine dynasty, beginning with their daughter Beatriz − later Queen of Portugal through her marriage − and continued through the latter's daughter, Princess Blanca of Portugal, the grand-daughter of Mayor Guillen, well until the 1320s. In this time, the ladies belonging to this illegitimate line of Alfonso X's descent kept a special commitment to the Castilian crown, as well as to certain interests of piety and power related to this king. The continuity along this Alfonsine line of the important noble family of Guzman stands as a showcase of the public relevance of women set in a high environment.
