Article
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Tamerlane’s female court. Sensory and power from the perspective of Ruy González de Clavijo (1403-1406)
Laura CARBÓ
Original title: La corte femenina de Tamorlán. Sensorialidad y poder desde la perspectiva de Ruy González de Clavijo (1403-1406)
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Ruy González de Clavijo starred, together with a team of ambassadors, the second mission sent by Henry III of Castile to Tamerlan in 1403, whose round trip itinerary spans three years. Clavijo's meticulous account includes the timurid protocol deployment, which often has the women of the court as protagonists. The ambassadors' approach to the women's world was eminently sensory: the five senses came to the aid of the travel story, with visual, tactile, auditory, tasteful, olfactory experiences that allowed the narrator to communicate the experiences occurred in the presence of women. In addressing to "sensory" we mean both the material world and the sensory experience itself. The historical study will focus on the’ representations of medieval objects (clothing, meals, setting, organization of spaces, buildings) and the consideration of its users, simultaneously addressing both the intellectual and material substrates of medieval culture. This study of the particular feminine spaces allows showing a relationship between culture, materiality and power in a temporal and spatial arc reduced to the itinerary of the embassy.
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The festive sensory model of John II of Castile (1406-1454)
Martina Magali DIAZ SAMMARONI
Original title: El modelo sensorial festivo de Juan II de Castilla (1406-1454)
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
If we want to know and be able to understand how medieval men and women perceived, felt and thought their world, we have to turn our gaze to their festivities and the role that the senses played in them. Spaces for the exchange and circulation of a wide range of sacred, profane and magical practices, they presented themselves as unique opportunities for the manifestation of power by kings and nobles, especially in the late middle Ages. From the thirteenth century, the records of the different court’ celebrations show a growing artistic spectacularity associated with the intention of transmitting and reinforcing official ideology by evoking images aimed at making an impact and generating a strong sense of identity. In the fifthteen century, this can be clearly seen during the reign of John II (1406-1454) of Castile, signified by conflicts with the nobility, as well as by the war against the Moors of Granada. At this juncture there was a renaissance of the ideals of chivalrous and warrior’s life reflected in the multiplication of the organization of tournaments, jousting, reeds and other games. On this basis, through the contributions of the History of the senses – a transdisciplinary perspective that brings together the contributions of History, as well as Anthropology – we will analyse the Chronicle of the Falconer of John II, by Pedro Carillo de Huete, in order to identify and analyse how vision, taste, hearing, touch and smell intervened in the configuration of a particular festive sensory model.
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The Dream of the Rood: the Byzantine Christian tradition in Anglo-Saxon England and the translation of the original poem into Portuguese
Elton O. S. MEDEIROS
Original title: O Sonho da Cruz: a tradição cristã bizantina na Inglaterra anglo-saxônica e a tradução do poema original ao português
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
One of the main symbols of the Christian tradition is the Holy Cross on which Christ was executed. However, unlike the conception of an instrument of torture, in the tradition that was developed, the Cross emerges as a symbol of victory, conquest over death, and the primary symbol of worship since the beginning of the Christian Era and during the Early Middle Ages. In the current article we intend to analyze the presence of the cult of the Cross in Anglo-Saxon England and its link with the Byzantine Christian tradition, mainly in the field of material culture and in the religious literature of the period. We also bring, in the end of this article, the complete translation of the poem The Dream of the Rood to Portuguese.
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The Formation of a Carolingian Emotional and Sensory Community
Gerardo RODRÍGUEZ
Original title: La conformación de una comunidad emocional y sensorial carolingia
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
What emotional and sensory models are possible to historically identify and rebuild? How do such models conform? How do emotional and sensory communities arise? What sources are available to replenish issues related to senses and emotions? From what historiographic perspective should be carried out these investigations, which are at the forefront of both theoretical and methodological renewal? I will answer these questions considering that it is necessary to define concepts and analyze the selected documentation based on these conceptual definitions. The questions referred to the theoretical and methodological framework will be raised from the emotional and sensory turns of the Human and Social Sciences of the last thirty years; the historical context will be the Carolingian world of the second half of the eighth century; the selected documentation, the Carolingian councils. This cross between the history of emotions, the history of the senses, the beginnings of the Carolingian cultural renewal and conciliar provisions will allow me to reconstruct the emotional and sensory communities of an era, as to culturally and socially construct products, in the historical context mentioned above.
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The friendship, a political problem. Manueline construction of aristocratic bond
Federico J. ASISS-GONZÁLEZ
Original title: La amistad, un problema político. Construcción manuelina del vínculo aristocrático
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Friendship is presented before our eyes as a kind of universal bond, as the ideal way to bond with the rest of human beings. Its deployment over time, the loyalty or fidelity with which it solidifies friendly relations seem a topic more proper to ethics than to politics, although decades ago Jacques Derrida revealed it to us as a political issue. However, this work of unveiling that requires us to fully understand the nature of this bond was not such for don Juan Manuel. In his works, friendship occupies a specific function within the discourse on nobility. In fact, the friendship resulted from a pact, as requested by the Fuero de Castiella, between noblemen in order to pacify their relations and to proceed with their political struggles. In this article we propose to analyze the characteristics of this link in the Manueline texts or, in other words, to understand what is friendship for Don Juan Manuel and how it is articulated within the representation of his sector.
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Coronavirus, Population Genetics, and Humanities
Ángel GÓMEZ MORENO
Original title: Coronavirus, Population Genetics, and Humanities
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
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Coronavirus and Genetics: in no way a miracle
Ángel GÓMEZ MORENO
Original title: Coronavirus and Genetics: in no way a miracle
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
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Coronavirus, Black Swans and Gray Rhinos
Joandomènec ROS
Original title: El coronavirus, els cignes negres i els rinoceronts grisos
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
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The papyri of The Book of Jannes and Jambres in the context of the lost Greek novels
María Paz LÓPEZ MARTÍNEZ
Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
A revision of some of the Greek novel topics and loci paralleli that we can find in a lost work, known as The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres. The author and the date are unknown but 7 –perhaps 8– testimonies from the original text have been preserved thanks to the papyri and parchments. They correspond to different supports and languages.
