Painful Pleasure. Saintly Torture on the Verge of Pornography
Sarah SCHÄFER-ALTHAUS
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Body, Hagiography, Pornography, Torture, Women Saints.
Within female hagiographical narratives, stimulating, pornographic, and often sadistic endeavours can be detected; gendering the tortured body parts such as the tongue, teeth or the breast and thus supporting the development of (negative) erotic fantasies. This paper will explore the connection between pornography, torture, and hagiography and investigate the ambiguity of this ‘painful pleasure’, which, despite any assumptions, is not only enjoyed by the male torturer when cutting off these symbolically significant body parts, but recurrently so it seems also by the saint herself, who more than once cheerfully exclaims that ‘the pains are my delight’ (St Agatha).
Paradise (c. 1551-1554) as royal scenery: approach to La Gloria, by Titian, in the historical-biographical context of Charles V
Carlos Jesús SOSA RUBIO
Original title: El Paraíso (c. 1551-1554) como escenografía regia: aproximación a La Gloria, de Tiziano, en el contexto histórico-biográfico de Carlos V
Published in Returning to Eden
Keywords: Arianism, Charles V, Eschatology, Iconography, Propaganda, Religious Conflicts, Titian.
La Gloria, also called Il Paradiso by Tiziano Vecellio, its author, is perhaps the greatest pictorial creation that the Venetian created during his last years of service to Emperor Charles V. Although it has been defined as a work where the coexistence of the theological, eschatological and dynastic factors reaches the character of a paradigm, and even though its greatness goes beyond the format, there are still numerous doubts that hang around it, fundamentally related to the motif represented, the identity of quite a few characters and the reasons that led to their commission. This research compiles and expands some of the assessments made throughout the history of the canvas, trying to shed a light on doubtful aspects and, along with the religious and private motivations as the driving force of its commission, also allude to those of ideological roots, given the context of religious wars and turbulence of faith in which Titian executed his creation.
Perception of otherness in the Chronikè Diéghesis of Niketas Choniates (c.1155-1217)
Marica COSTIGLIOLO
Original title: Percezione dell’alterità nell’opera Chronikè Diéghesis di Niceta Coniata (c.1155-1217)
Published in Intercultural Mediterranean
Keywords: Byzantium, Mediterranean, Niketas Choniates, Otherness.
Language:
The Mediterranean and Byzantium are crucial for understanding the cultural interactions between different peoples and different traditions. In this paper I will examine the work Chronikè Diéghesis by Niketas Choniates (c. 1155-1217) to highlight the profound cultural exchange in the Eastern Empire. These exchanges occurred in the most disparate ways, and with trade and military apparatus. Therefore, I will trace a theoretical paradigm for the analysis of otherness, throughout the works of contemporary philosophers, to highlight the salient characteristics of Chronikè Diéghesis in relation to the perception of cultural difference.
Philosophical aspects of medical schools with Problem-Based Learning: the Narcissus error
AGUILAR DA SILVA, Rinaldo Henrique
Original title: Aspectos filosóficos das escolas médicas com Aprendizagem Baseada em Problemas: o erro de Narciso
Published in
Keywords: Problem Based Learning; Medical Education; National Curriculum Guidelines.
This paper present a critical analysis of the implementation of the National Curriculum Guidelines (DCN's) for medical courses relating them to Philosophical and Epistemological aspects. The Greek myth of Narcissus is used to think in the proposed challenges, questioning the teacher's role in this change.
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.
Play, bullfight and society in the mausoleum of Augustus (Rome): 16th-18th centuries
José Antonio GONZÁLEZ ALCANTUD
Original title: Juego, toros y sociedad en el mausoleo de Augusto (Roma): siglos XVI-XVIII
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
Keywords: 17th century, Bullfighting, Games, Giostra, Mausoleum of Augustus.
The Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome was a funerary and sacred space, which in the Middle Ages evolved into a defensive space, and in the Modern Age into a place that hosted games and shows, particularly bullfighting and chivalry (giostra). It reached its zenith at the end of the 18th century. However, its archaeological component, however, prevented the "naturalization" of game and place, as in some Roman amphitheatres in southern France, or as a spectacle, as in the case of the opera in the arena of Verona. Today, nothing reminds us of its popular past as an amphitheatre in Corea, home of Roman amusements.
Playing “Pythagoras” in Padua and Florence: a Sixteenth-Century Rithmomachia manuscript at the University of Pennsylvania
Ann E. MOYER
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
Keywords: Florence, History of Education, History of Mathematics, Padua, Pythagoreanism, Rithmomachia, Universities.
A manuscript in the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries (UPenn LJS 232) contains a manual for the medieval game rithmomachia by Carlo di Ruberto Strozzi, preceded by a brief treatise on proportion by Benedetto Varchi, both in vernacular; they were inspired by the Latin publication of Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples. An examination of the treatise and the circle of learned Florentines involved in its production offer an example both of the ways that the game spread in European university cultures, and the limits of interest in the Boethian mathematics of proportion that the game was intended to exercise.
Pleasures of Gluttony
Burçin EROL
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Gluttony, Middle English Literature, Pleasure, Seven deadly sins.
In the late Middle Ages, especially in England, displaying an abundance of food and feasting became not only an act of pleasure but also a means of establishing status and wealth, despite gluttony being one of the seven deadly sins. In the fourteenth century – due to various reasons such as increased population, crop failure, the Black Death, and the disruption of food production by warfare – feasting, the displaying of food, and indulgence in gluttony was an indicator of wealth, riches, and high status for the upper class or the social climber as it is well indicated in the works of Chaucer and some of his contemporaries.
Possest: indications for thinking relationality principle in Nicholas of Cusa
José TEIXEIRA NETO
Original title: Possest: indicações para se pensar a relacionalidade do princípio em Nicolau de Cusa
Published in Nicholas of Cusa in Dialogue
Keywords: Nicholas of Cusa, Possest, Unitrinity.
We hope to achieve with the term possest one name, like other divine names, leading to the understanding of the principle. In this case, more specifically, we believe that possest indicates as enigma, the trinity of principle and further speculates that leads to the nexus that shows how key element to understanding this same unitrinity and, therefore, the idea of the first principle in itself is relational. Among all cusanus works the term “possest” only appears in three texts called “late period”. Appears on De apice theoriae (1464) probably the last work written by Nicholas of Cusa. In turn, the De venatione sapientiae (1463) the possest will be the second field, immediately after and before the learned ignorance of non aliud, which takes hunting wisdom. The themes taken up in De venatione sapientiae been deeply addressed in De possest (1460) that constitutes as a “trialogue” between Nicholas of Cusa , Bernardo of Krayburg, chancellor of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and John André Vigevio, secretary of Nicholas and then bishop of Aleria.
Preachers and Preaching in Bede’s Commentary on the Apocalypse
Maria NENAROKOVA
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Apocalypse, Bede, Biblical Commentary, Preachers, Preaching.
The present article is dedicated to the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Venerable Bede. The close reading of the commentary shows that the leading topic of Bede’s commentary is missionary work. By the beginning of the eighth century, the idea of preaching Christianity to the heathens on the continent was widespread in England, especially in Northumbria. While commenting on the verses of the Apocalypse, Bede also expresses his views concerning various aspects of preaching. In the case of Bede’s commentary, the genre in question turns out to be lively and full of allusions to current events.
