Article
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The impact of the political situation in the Islamic states in al-Andalus on some Andalusian intellectual elites during the fifth AH/ the eleventh century
Meshal ALENEZI
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Al-Ṭawā’if, Christian Kingdoms, Jurists, Poets, Unification.
In the last decades of the eleventh century, the Muslims in the West (al-Gharb) lost Toledo in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula in 477 AH /1085, and the Muslims in the Near East (al-Mashriq) lost Jerusalem (al-Qudis) in 492 AH /1099. This was due to the division of al-Mashriq into several states: besides the ʿAbbāsīd Caliphate (132-655 AH /750-1258), there were other states, such as Saljūk state (428-590 AH/1037-1194) and Fāṭimīd state (296-567 AH / 909-1171). This situation was like the political situation in the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus), which divided the region into twenty-two states in the first half of the eleventh century. Consequently, many scholars and historians have concentrated on the reaction of the Islamic political and military authorities to the fall of Toledo and Jerusalem. In addition, they have discussed the efforts of the intellectual elites in improving the above-mentioned political circumstances in the Near East and al-Andalus after the fall of these cities. However, they have not paid attention to the impact of the division of al-Andalus into twenty-two states and its internal consequences as well as their submission to the Iberian Catholic rule on the Andalusian intellectual elites’ activities. Consequently, this research analyses the impact of this event on the activities and status of the Andalusian intellectual elites among the Andalusian rulers. It also compares the status of the Andalusian intellectual elites who were against the acts of Andalusian political authorities and those who supported them. In addition, it illustrates the relations between the elites especially who were against the Muslim rulers in al-Andalus.
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Interdisciplinary reflections on German and Latin Medievistics (X-XI centuries)
Álvaro Alfredo BRAGANÇA JÚNIOR
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Charms, Germanic philology, Medieval Latin, Medieval Latin Paremiology, Medievistics, Old High German Literature.
The Middle Ages, in a long-term perspective, opens to different epistemological approaches from distinct fields of knowledge. Within the Brazilian academic scenario, the predilection for models of historiographical and literary analysis based on French, Anglo-American, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese theoretical and methodological assumptions is understood for linguistic and historical reasons in the development of medieval studies in Brazil. With this statement in mind and with the aim of expanding access to other historiographies, in this article, after an introduction based on the medieval or medievalistic binomial, we conceived a brief discussion on the medieval studies of German and Latin literature in the 10th and 11th centuries with the reflective focus on Der zweite Merseburger Zauberspruch in Old High German and Medieval Latin paremiologically expressions.
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The Protagoras, by Plato (c. 427-347 a. C.), in dialogue with the Ethical Writings, by Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Wilson Coimbra LEMKE; Bento Silva SANTOS
Original title: O Protágoras, de Platão (c. 427-347 a. C.), em diálogo com os Escritos Éticos, de Santo Tomás de Aquino (1225-1274)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Dialectic, Philosophy, Plato, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Virtue Ethics.
In his dialogue on the Sophists, entitled Protagoras, Plato deals with the nature of virtue, basically discussing whether it is something teachable. Some scholars, however, have designated this dialogue as aporetic, that is, inconclusive. We must, therefore, try to answer those questions that Socrates and Protagoras may have left unsolved on that occasion. Now, most of these questions were taken up in some works by Plato’s most famous disciple and, later, resolved in the Ethical Writings, by Saint Thomas Aquinas, such as the “Treatises on the virtues” (Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance), contained in the Second Part of the Summa Theologica, the Disputed Questions on the Virtues, and the Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Hence, we must consider them here in the light of the great Aristotelian-Thomist synthesis. To do so, we use the scholastic method of disputatio, in which a quaestio is debated, structured in four articles, addressed by the Athenian philosopher to the great medieval Doctor. The article first discusses whether virtue is a science. The second, whether virtue can be taught. The third, whether virtue is one or multiple. And the fourth, if someone voluntarily acts badly.
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Structuring the tradition in the old Catalan Literatures: from Ramon Llull (1232-1316) to Bernat Metge (1340-1413)
Júlia BUTINYÀ
Original title: Estructurant la tradició en les lletres catalanes antigues: de Ramon Llull (1232-1316) a Bernat Metge (1340-1413)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Bernat Metge, Crown of Aragon, Humanism, Middle Ages, Ramon Llull.
To contribute to structuring the tradition in the Catalan letters of the Middle Ages, links are exposed that root the thought of the great humanist, Bernat Metge, in the great medieval philosopher, Ramon Llull. This link allows us to observe the continuity that, in one way or another and with greater or lesser intensity – and often with leaps of eras-, can be seen in the different literatures. According to the present proposal of textual concomitants, in the Crown of Aragon and through both authors, the connection between tradition and modernity occurs with high intensity in the 14th century itself, right at the beginning of the change in mentality and sensibility.
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Philosophy & Art: The Dispute between Faith and Understanding (1303). The Allegory in philosophical thought and Baroque Art: Ramon Llull (1232-1316) & Vermeer (1632-1675)
Luís Carlos Silva de SOUSA
Original title: Filosofia & Arte: A Disputa entre a Fé e o Entendimento (1303). A Alegoria no pensamento filosófico e na Arte Barroca: Ramon Llull (1232-1316) & Vermeer (1632-1675)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Allegory, Art, Faith, Johannes Vermeer, Philosophy, Ramon Llull, Reason, Understanding.
The purpose of this article is to analyse the work of Ramon Llull (1232-1316), Disputatio fidei et intellectus (1303), comparing it with the painting by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), The Allegory of Faith (ca. 1672-4). The statute of the Allegory is examined in Llull and Vermeer. It is argued that both work with the theme of the personification of the Allegories and that, in the relationship between faith and reason, the transcendence of the mysteries of the Christian faith is preserved, without hindering the power of reason.
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Sensations and traditions in the discursive configuration of the miracles of liberation of Christian captives (Los Milagros de Guadalupe, 15th and 16th centuries)
Lidia Raquel MIRANDA; Gerardo Fabián RODRÍGUEZ
Original title: Sensaciones y tradiciones en la configuración discursiva de los milagros de liberación de cautivos cristianos (Los Milagros de Guadalupe, siglos XV y XVI)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Christians, Community, Guadalupe, Sensation, Tradition.
The paper analyses the miracles CXXXI, CXLVII, CLXIIIIII and CLXXXIIII of Los Milagros de Guadalupe, referring to the liberation of Christians from captivity held by the Moors during the 15th and 16th centuries. The sensory, corporal, and affective marks of the subjects of discourse, and the intertextual traces of literary traditions –that of the bestiaries, the evangelical one and that of miracles– identify the distinctive conditions of the sensory and literary community of Guadalupe that gave rise to the collection of miracles. The examination gives an account of the expressive resources used by the friars in charge of the production and propagation of the miraculous stories to establish Christian orthodoxy around the figure of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe and the symbol and historical fleshing of the captives.
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Life and death of the enjoyment of Beauty in the breasts of the Renaissance (c.1300-1600)
Alexandre Emerick NEVES
Original title: Vida e morte do gozo da Beleza nos seios da Renascença (c.1300-1600)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Beauty, Erotic gaze, Pudency, Renaissance, Western Christianity.
By considering the breast as a significant fragment of the beauty of the female body, recurrently figured in the arts, I analyse how the convergence between the aesthetic and moral dimensions is associated with the intentions of the gazes and the impetus of the hands, from the approach of bodies to the possession of the breast. The sum of biblical lessons with Greco-Roman thought demonstrates how pudency promotes the enjoyment of beauty, culminating in significant artistic representations, from Late Gothic to Baroque, as a consolidation of the values of Western Christianity.
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Death as a character in popular culture through History
Ramón MÉNDEZ GONZÁLEZ
Original title: La Muerte como personaje de la cultura popular a lo largo de la Historia
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Art, Culture, Death, History, Literature, Tradition.
Aside from being part of the cycle of life, Death itself became a very important character in popular culture. Since its first appearance as a Horseman during the Apocalypse, and until nowadays, the character of Death has showed different shapes and has inspired a huge array of sculptors, painters, writers, people of letters, composers, movie makers, illustrators and even video game developers. In each different era of human history, the representation of Death evolved to adapt itself to different idiosyncrasies and ways of understanding the world in each society, as well as the possibilities that technologies offered to these creators of art. The main goal of this paper is to give a brief overview of how the character of Death evolved since its origins to nowadays, through the image of the Western Death that was influenced by the Christian rituals and that became the main anthropomorphism of natural Death.
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The role of the Philosophy and Jesuit imagery in the Portuguese missions (1500-1597)
Humberto Schubert COELHO
Original title: O papel da Filosofia e do imaginário jesuítico nas missões portuguesas (1500-1597)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Cultural Imagery, Jesuit Education, Jesuit Mission, Philosophy, Portuguese Thought, Transcendence.
As the importance of the Society of Jesus in the Portuguese colonizing process is indisputable, the specificities of Jesuit cultural imagery were equally decisive to define several elements in the cultural formation of the colonies. Often centred on literature at many points of its historical development, Portuguese thought of the time was heavily determined by philosophy. Particularly in the sixteenth century, the first century of global colonization, the evangelizing impetus of the Society of Jesus acted as a main existential drive in both cultural and political process of sending missionaries abroad. This paper emphasizes the capital relevance of transcendent beliefs and values in the worldview of such missionaries, and how they shaped the missionary ethos in the daily life, the educational initiatives and the first reports of Jesuit authors.
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The right of life and death in war in De iure belli libri tres (1598) by Alberico Gentili (1552-1608)
Giuliano MARCHETTO
Original title: Il diritto di vita e di morte in guerra nel De iure belli libri tres (1598) di Alberico Gentili (1552-1608)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Death, Law, Life, Power, War.
In war, there are situations in which one side is given the power of life or death over the other. The medieval legal tradition tries to bring this power back into law and to limit it. The Italian jurist Alberico Gentili in his work De jure belli libri tres (1598) represents, in the modern age, the attempt to offer an interpretation of war as an instrument of justice and therefore regulated in every aspect by the law. Gentili’s theory is the opposite of a different tradition, ancient but always resurfacing in history, which instead sees war as a place from which law is absent, is silent and only violence, which includes an unlimited vitae necisque potestas, thus becomes the origin of law and of every new power and order.
