Article
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The Symbolic and Moral Interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath
Hélio Angotti-Neto
Original title: A Interpretação Simbólica e Moral do Juramento Hipocrático
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Aristotle, Hippocrates, Hippocratic Oath, History of Medicine, Medical Humanities.
The Hippocratic Oath remains as one of the most famous ethical texts in Medical Ethics and Bioethics. The objective of this essay is to clarify its poetic and symbolic interpretations, searching for the adequate comprehension of the Oath using a critical narrative approach with the Aristotelian Theory of the Four Discourses and the interpretation of its direct, indirect, specific and general moral prescriptions. The Oath is a poetic text, which can be used to cause a powerful impression upon the new physician, helping in his moral education and in his commitment with the moral community of Medicine. This analysis makes evident that the Hippocratic Oath still can be used for medical education and professional inspiration, rather than just be discarded as a historical curiosity. The conclusion is that the Oath can be approached more properly with specific literary and philosophical tools that can decode its meanings to better comprehension for the contemporary physician.
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The epektasis [ἐπέκτασις] and the exploits of the soul (ἡ ψυχή) in Gregory of Nyssa’s De anima et resurrectione
Elena Ene D-VASILESCU
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Gregory of Nyssa, Macrina, On the Soul and the Resurrection, Progress (epektasis), Resurrection.
The paper refers to a notion central to Gregory of Nyssa’s theology – that of epektasis (ἐπέkτασις), i.e. progression of the soul (ἡ ψυχή) towards its Creator, as presented in the dialogue De anima et resurrectione/On the Soul and the Resurrection. he conversation between Nyssen and his sister Macrina, employing concepts peculiar to the most advanced science of their time, emphasizes that in the afterlife the soul does not leave the body (and neither does human memory). The interesting consequences of this state of affairs for both the resurrection of people and that of Jesus Christ are also discussed.
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The knowledge of the Medicine in the writings of Basil of Caesarea
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Basil of Casarea, Christianity, Diseases, Medicine.
The medicine is a gift of God to people. Basil insisted that monks and many other people should use it in their daily life, because is quite useful for the flourishing of human life. He is well acquainted with the field of medicine, so that some of his references to medical problems or treatments are so close to today's descriptions of medical textbooks. In his commentary on the prophet Isaiah, he refers to definitions of surgery, bruise, wound. He underlines the medical problems of pregnancy and ophthalmological diseases. Did Basil consider medicine better than the grace of God? Can his teaching about the medicine persuade Christians of this era to trust doctors instead of miracles? Can his teaching and his general attitude to the pandemic diseases of the fourth century be an example for people and doctors to face the medical problems as they should be? Are there boarders between faith and medicine?
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Abacus Schools. The invention of a language
Giovanni PATRIARCA
Original title: Escuelas de ábaco. La invención de un lenguaje
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Abacus Schools, Accounting, Economic History, History of Education, History of Mathematics, Linguistic Evolution.
Abacus schools are fundamental for mathematical, geometric and economic literacy as well as for the scientific development of these disciplines with their own sectorial language and style. The Abacus treatises constitute the basis of a solid administrative, accounting and commercial training. In a fruitful exchange with all expressions of society, they become the main engine for the consolidation of a new linguistic koiné.
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Is there a great cosmic wheel hidden in the tympanum of Moissac Abbey?
Cécile M. FOSSOUL; Dominique J. PERSOONS
Original title: ¿Hay una gran rueda cósmica escondida en el tímpano de la Abadía de Moissac?
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Cosmic, Invisible image, Moissac, Tympanum, Wheel.
The tympanum of the Abbey of Moissac, which belonged to the Cistercian order, known for its austerity, presents a strange iconography: Christ in Glory is surrounded by the four evangelists who adopt paradoxical positions, and a kind of laxity that seems at first glance incomprehensible. Also, the two angels keep their hands in the air for no apparent reason. When arranged symmetrically, Romanesque angels generally hold the halo of Christ. However, in Moissac those angels seem to be “paralyzed”. Does the tympanum contain a hidden iconography? Could the 12th century Christianity transmitted secret images? Today, this question could have been answered through the use of graphic design software.
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Beauty and Ugliness as Aesthetics Aspects in Medieval Music: Order in Disorder
Antonio Celso RIBEIRO
Original title: Beleza e Feiura como aspectos estéticos na Música Medieval: a Ordem na Desordem
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Beauty, Disorder, Medieval Music, Order, Treatises, Troubadours, Ugliness.
Through a brief examination of anonymous music treatise La Doctrina de Compondre Dictatz, this work intends to expose some aesthetic aspects of the medieval songbook, confronting its main genres and making some considerations about beauty and ugliness in the songs of troubadours.
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Soissons: the stone builds the Marian faith (The Cantiga 53 of Cantigas de Santa Maria by Afonso X)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: Soissons: a pedra edifica a fé mariana (a Cantiga 53 das Cantigas de Santa Maria de Afonso X)
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Alfonso X, Cantigas de Santa María, Middle Ages, Soissons Cathedral.
Alfonso X, sovereign of the peninsular kingdoms of León and Castilla, honored the fame of the kings of the medieval West of the 13th century and dedicated much of his time and money to promoting the arts, sciences and Marian cult. One of the ways to unite all these initiatives was the creation of the Cantigas de Santa María, a set of hundreds of stories of miracles and praises to the Virgin Mary, in which another hundred full-page illuminations are recorded. This work will focus on Cantiga 53 and aims to show the technical development implemented by gothic architects, as well as the syncretism between the French and peninsular kingdoms with regard to cathedral architecture, for the example of Soissons Cathedral.
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Sodomites before the Inquisition
Rocío RODRÍGUEZ SÁNCHEZ
Original title: Los sodomitas ante la Inquisición
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Inquisition, Sodomy, Spain.
Sodomy in the kingdoms of Spain was punishable by burning, according to civil laws. Only in the Crown of Aragon did the Inquisition in the courts of Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza. Those guilty of heinous sin were tortured, burned at the stake, publicly flogged, sent to galleys, or exiled. Many tried to get rid of these punishments by presenting the most diverse and incredible excuses.
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The victorious life and the disenchanted end of the great Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great and the novelesque knight Tirant lo Blanc
Anastasia TERZOPOULOU
Original title: La vida victoriosa y el final desencantado del gran conquistador macedonio Alejandro Magno y del caballero novelesco Tirant lo Blanc
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Ambition, Conquests, Death, Feats, Fortune, Testament.
The aim of this article is not to analyze the details of the life of Tirant lo Blanc, a literary figure from the Valencian Golden Age, and Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, a real historical person of Ancient Greece; but to expose the common features that life presents and, above all, the early, bitter and unexpected end of two great warriors and military strategists.
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Iconographic analysis of the façade of the Nuestra Señora de Loreto Temple, in Molango, Hidalgo
Carmen Fabiola MORENO VIDAL
Original title: Análisis Iconográfico de la Portada del Templo Nuestra Señora de Loreto, en Molango, Hidalgo
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Keywords: Corn, Façade, Glyph, Maguey, Molango, Nahui-Ōlin, Pumpkin.
The façade of the temple of Nuestra Señora de Loreto belongs to the Plateresque style as it presents elements of Romanesque, Gothic art such as the rose window and Mudejar such as the alfiz. But the most outstanding thing that includes the substance of this work is the use, in a somewhat veiled way, of pre-Hispanic elements, figures and symbols distributed throughout the cover as decoration, from the bases of columns and jambs, with glyphs of the corn, stars and agave, passing through shafts with pumpkin plants, the capitals with representations of the Mexica sky, reaching the cross, an element common in form and meaning to both cultures and ending in the rose window, an element that represents the cosmos whose cosmic meaning it is reinforced with the pre-Hispanic symbols of the movement of the stars such as the Ōlin and Nahui-Ōlin.
