Ricardo da COSTA

Language:

Catalan

Júlia BUTIÑYÀ I JIMÉNEZ; Ricardo da COSTA

Original title: A Decadência do Estilo como Decadência da Alma na Filosofia Estoica de Sêneca, o Jovem (4 a.C.-65 d.C.)

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

What are the symptoms of a Culture’s decline? What are the reasons for a Civilization’s downfall? In the Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium of the philosopher Seneca the Younger (4 BC - 65 AD), there are letters (n. 114, 115) in which the Stoic master relates the decline of style to the decline of the soul, the main theme of this article.

Fábio Frohwein de Salles MONIZ; Israel Matheus Siqueira SANTOS

Original title: Agostinho à sombra de Virgílio: a recepção agostiniana da Quarta Bucólica

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

This article examines Augustine’s reception of Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue as a privileged case study for understanding the bishop of Hippo’s relationship with his pagan past and classical education. The poem’s eschatological imagery, the figure of the puer, and the promise of a renewed age made it one of the most readily Christianized texts in late antiquity. Within the framework of Classical Reception Studies, reception is understood not as passive transmission but as an active process of reconfiguration, through which ancient texts acquire new meanings in new historical contexts. Against that background, Augustine’s five references to the Fourth Eclogue, scattered across commentaries, letters, and The City of God, show a selective and strategic use of Virgil in apologetic contexts. Rather than treating the poem as a complete Christian allegory, Augustine mobilizes its language to mediate between Roman literary culture and Christian truth. The article argues that this reading reveals not only Augustine’s nuanced engagement with Virgil, but also the broader formation of a Christian Romanitas in Late Antiquity.

Beatriz Passamai PEREIRA

Original title: O apogeu da lírica do Minnesang na Tradição Ocidental: Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230)

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

This article presents one of the most notorious medieval troubadours, the quintessential Minnesänger, Walther von der Vogelweide, as well as a brief overview of the German-speaking troubadour movement, the Minnesang. Based on accounts from several authors and observations of songs by this troubadour, we aim to familiarize the reader with the lyric poetry of this period, highlighting its relevance, as it undoubtedly constituted the apogee of the medieval literary tradition in the West, a landmark for an entire civilization.

Manuel ORTUÑO ARREGUI

Original title: La Metafísica del Ser y el auge de la Escolástica con la filosofía de Santo Tomás de Aquino (1225-1274): De ente et essentia (c. 1252-1256) y su proyección en la Tradición Occidental

Language:

Spanish

This article analyzes De ente et essentia by Thomas Aquinas as one of the fundamental ontological frameworks that contributed to shaping the Western intellectual tradition. It argues that the introduction of the real distinction between essentia and esse constituted a decisive reformulation of Aristotelian metaphysics, shifting the focus from substance to the act of being (actus essendi). The study further examines how this structure addresses the tension between the finitude of created beings and the necessity of an absolute foundation (Ipsum Esse Subsistens). The article also explores the projection of this synthesis within the Spanish Second Scholasticism, particularly the School of Salamanca, where the ontology of the act of being acquires a normative dimension. In this context, human dignity is grounded not as a legal concession but as an inherent property derived from participation in being. Finally, the Suárezian turn is examined as a moment of systematization which, by conceptualizing ens as an object of thought, contributed—through various mediations—to the transition toward modern rationalism.

Júlia BUTIÑYÀ I JIMÉNEZ

Original title: Flashback internacional sobre Ramon Llull (1232-1316): de Maiorca e Alicante ao Vaticano

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

Conference presented at the XXIX International Symposium: Intercultural transfers, education, Linguistic variation in the Mediterranean. From innovation to canon, La Nucia, Alicante, April 21 and 22, 2026.

David Pessoa de LIRA

Original title: O deos facere e a queda da religião egípcia: O Asclepius na historiografia de Agostinho de Hipona (IV-V AD)

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

This article analyzes the reception of Hermes Trismegistus in De Civitate Dei 8.23–24 by Augustine of Hippo, especially concerning the interpretation of the Asclepius and the notion of deos facere. The study examines how Augustine transforms Hermes into an involuntary witness of the destruction of Egyptian religion and of the falsity of pagan idolatry. Attention is given to the hermeneutical tension produced by Augustine’s reading of Asclepius 37, mainly regarding the conjunction quoniam, interpreted by Augustine in a predominantly causal sense, although the hermetic text also allows a temporal-narrative nuance. The article argues that Augustine reconfigures hermetic discourse according to his providential and Christocentric conception of history, integrating Hermes Trismegistus into the framework of prophetica historia. Thus, the hermetic prophecy becomes subordinated to the Christian narrative of the fall of paganism and the triumph of the Civitas Dei. Finally, the paper demonstrates that Augustine’s appropriation of Hermes oscillates between recognizing him as a partial witness of divine truth and condemning him as an instrument of demonic deception.

Matheus Corassa da SILVA

Original title: N’y rien faire entrer qui ne fust conforme à la vérité: Luís XIV (1648-1715) em ascensão no conjunto decorativo da Grande Galerie em Versalhes

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

This article examines the decorative program of the Grande Galerie at Versailles, grounded in the notion of the body politic as the foundation of Louis XIV’s sovereignty (1648-1715). Drawing on the doctrine of the king’s two bodies, it argues that in the seventeenth-century French context, power was not primarily consolidated through juridical or doctrinal means, but through visual and ceremonial mechanisms that established the monarch’s body as the core of political unity. Within this framework, the artistic production of Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) played a decisive role in transforming the royal image into an instrument for the presentification of power. Through an analysis of the Grande Galerie, the article demonstrates how this space represents the culmination of a progressive iconographic system, in which earlier allegorical representations gave way to the explicit centrality of Louis XIV’s figure. The gallery thus functions as an expanded portrait of the monarch, integrating painting, architecture, and decoration into a holistic depiction that identifies the king’s body with the very functioning of the State. In this context, Louis XIV is no longer merely represented but effectively presentified – that is, rendered perceptible as an active and enduring body politic. The decorative ensemble is interpreted considering the concepts of image act (Bildakt) and figural evidence (Bildevidenz), supporting the argument that Le Brun’s images do not simply illustrate power, but actively produce and stabilize it, establishing a visual regime in which sovereignty appears as a sensible and incontestable reality.

Bárbara DANTAS

Original title: O auge da Pintura de Gênero nos últimos suspiros do Antigo Regime (1772-1787): a arte de Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755-1830)

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

Shortly before the French Revolution, a quiet but ambitious artist was climbing his artistic career towards the top of Fine Arts in France, at the time living under the absolutist regime known as the Ancien Régime. Nicolas-Antoine Taunay explored the paths of Baroque and Rococo, arriving at the Italian and Classical ideal. This work presents some of his works, the critics' comments about them, as well as the more common activities of those associated with the Paris Academy of Arts who wished to rise in the academic hierarchy: having good relations with the Parisian elite, studying in Italy, dominate classical drawing and producing canvases according to classicist canons.

Rodrigo Jungmann de CASTRO

Language:

English

This article re-examines the alleged philosophical affinity between Spinoza and Marx, an association popularized in contemporary theory by authors such as Althusser, Balibar, and Negri. Against the prevailing “materialist Spinoza” reading, it argues that the resemblance between the two thinkers is largely rhetorical. Spinoza’s immanence is ontological, not historical; his materialism excludes the dialectic of production that defines Marx’s thought. Their anthropologies diverge likewise: for Spinoza, bondage arises from passion and ignorance; for Marx, from alienation and exploitation. The state, which for Spinoza is reason’s instrument, becomes for Marx the embodiment of domination. Even their critiques of illusion – superstition and ideology – belong to different explanatory orders, cognitive and structural respectively. What unites them is not shared materialism but shared hostility to transcendence. The result is a comparison in contrast: Spinoza’s politics of endurance against Marx’s politics of rupture.

Milena Rosa Araújo OGAWA

Original title: Lívia (58 a.C. - 29 d.C.) após Augusto (63 a.C. - 14 d.C.): a continuação das honras a uma mulher imperial

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

It is indisputable, based on a reading of the sources, that Livia’s presence and actions can be observed both during the government of her husband and of her son. It can also be inferred that Augustus elevated her to the status of Augusta and that, through her descendants, she consolidated the first dynasty, playing a preeminent role in dynastic politics. This study begins by analyzing how Livia, after the death of her husband, continued to exercise power and to operate politically in the legitimation of imperial authority, even commanding the respect of the senators. Thus, it is possible to reflect on the extent to which these women were integrated into public life.

André da Silva BUENO; Lucas Pinto SOARES

Original title: A escrita da história medieval nórdica: representação, memória e poder nas narrativas islandesas medievais (c. 1122-1133)

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

This article analyzes the production of medieval Icelandic texts from the perspective of cultural history, emphasizing the relationships between memory, representation, and power. Through a bibliographical dialogue between authors who have examined the formation of these texts, such as Gísli Sigurðsson, and the theoretical contributions of Roger Chartier, we argue that these works are discursive constructions that actively participate in the organization of the social world, by reconfiguring oral traditions into written forms that select, organize, and attribute meaning to events. We contend that elements such as genealogy, chronology, and foundational events operate as mechanisms for structuring collective memory, while simultaneously reinforcing hierarchies and legitimizing social positions, particularly within the context of the political and institutional transformations that began in the twelfth century and continued throughout the thirteenth century. In this sense, the texts in question reveal themselves as mediators in the construction of the past, highlighting the role of writing in the production of representations, the definition of identities, and the consolidation of power structures in medieval Iceland.

Leandro BERTONCELLO

Original title: A dramatização narrativa do mal e a inteligibilidade prática do fiel no Dialogus miraculorum (1219-1223) de Cesarius de Heisterbach (c.1180-1240)

Language:

Portuguese, Brazil

This article analyses the narrative dramatization of evil in Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus miraculorum, considering the exemplum as a form of practical intelligibility for the faithful. Starting from the Latin Christian understanding of evil as privatio boni, the study examines how doctrinal formulation becomes recognizable in concrete scenes of temptation, deception, and moral correction. The argument focuses on the pedagogical function of demonic apparitions, which disclose interior dispositions, test the will, and reveal the insufficiency of external signs of religious virtue. Three episodes are examined: John, the scholar of Prüm; Godfrey and Sistappus; and the monks of Porceto. Their sequence displays different degrees of spiritual vulnerability, from consented levity and irascible disturbance to vice hardened into habit. The article argues that Caesarius transforms theological doctrine into moral perception, making evil visible as disorder of the will and an object of spiritual discernment.

Santiago-Andreu VALLÉS CASANOVES

Original title: L’herència llombartiana d'Adolf Pizcueta (1901-1989) i la reivindicació de la tradició foral de l’antiga Corona d’Aragó

Language:

Catalan

The recovery of the historical fact of the Kingdom of Valencia, created in the 13th century by King Jaume I, would inform the literary, historiographical, or political reclamation envisioned by contemporary Valencianism. This served to reclaim spaces for self-government, linguistic rights, privative legislation, and other forms of community life that were annihilated following the Bourbon victory in the War of Succession. Carmel Navarro Llombart (1848-1893), known as Constantí Llombart, was an exemplary figure in this regard, whom Adolf Pizcueta (1901-1989) and other Valencianists in the 20th Century would reclaim as a reference for the nascent political Valencianism.

Sara PÉREZ LÓPEZ

Language:

Spanish