A Collective Messiah: Joachim of Fiore’s Constitution of Future Society
Matthias RIEDL
Original title: O Messias coletivo: a constituição da sociedade futura em Joaquim de Fiore
Published in Mystic and Millenarianism in Middle Ages
Keywords: Constitution, Future, Joachim of Fiore, Liber Figurarum, Messiah.
At the end of the 12th century, the famous Calabrian abbot and apocalyptic seer Joachim of Fiore drafted a constitution for the universal Christian society he expected to emerge in a coming third age of the Spirit. This articles shows that the constitution combines a highly complex symbolic structure with very concrete and pragmatic instructions for future social life. While the symbolic structure amounts to the image of a collective messiah, the pragmatic structure evokes the picture of a strictly hierarchical society, where the rank of a person depends on the possession of spiritual knowledge.
A Different Expression of the Divine: Jewish Knowledge on Geography Spaces in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Márcia Siqueira de Carvalho
Original title: Uma outra expressão do Divino: O Conhecimento do Espaço Geográfico pelos judeus na Idade Média e no Renascimento
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
Keywords: Geographical Knowledge, Jews, Voyages.
Voyages, since Antiquity, are important sources for topographical descriptions. Thus, religious persecutions, pilgrimages and commercial routes played a major role for geographical knowledge. This article focuses Jewish geographical knowledge in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
A Disease Called Alzheimer
Daniel Pinheiro HERNANDEZ, José Guilherme Pinheiro PIRES, Mayara BUENO, Pedro Henrique Martins de OLIVEIRA, Rafael Vinícius Lôndero Quintino dos SANTOS
Original title: Uma Doença Chamada Alzheimer
Published in
Keywords: Alois Alzheimer, Alzheimer’s Disease, History of Medicine.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. Its onset is insidious, and the brain damage is continuous, resulting, over time, in the functional disability of the patients. The objective of this paper is to know the history of the discovery of Alzheimer's Disease and to understand the origin of this eponym. The study was carried out through bibliographic research in the following databases: Pubmed, Scielo and Lilacs. The following descriptors were used: Alois Alzheimer, History of Medicine, Alzheimer's Disease. Alois Alzheimer was born in the small town of Marktbreit in Bavaria (Germany), and graduated in 1887 receiving his medical degree from the University of Würzburg. He took up his first position as an assistant at the Asylum for Mental and Epileptic Patients in Frankfurt, where he served for 14 years. He met Franz Nissl (1860-1919), the German neuropathologist, and together they studied the cortex of patients with pre-senile dementia. He presented his postdoctoral thesis showing the existence of neurofibrillary entanglements, which came to characterize a specific form of dementia. In 1910, the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) named this condition as Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer is recognized as a memorable psychiatrist and neuropathologist who discovered a disease that today affects millions of people worldwide.
A Knight Deployed in the Border in the Service of King Peter IV of Aragon: Pedro Jiménez de Samper (1347-1364)
Mario Lafuente Gómez
Original title: Pedro Jiménez de Samper, un caballero de frontera al servicio de Pedro IV de Aragón (1347-1364)
Published in The chivalry and the art of war in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: 14th century, Kingdom of Aragon, Peter IV of Aragon, War.
A New Approach to the Biography of Pedro Jiménez de Samper, a Knight Deployed in the Border in the Service of Pedro IV of Aragon (ca. 1314-1364)
Mario LAFUENTE GÓMEZ
Original title: Una nueva aproximación a la biografía de Pedro Jiménez de Samper, un caballero de frontera al servicio de Pedro IV de Aragón (ca. 1314-1364)
Published in Returning to Eden
Keywords: 14th Century, Crown of Aragon, Military History, Nobility, Peter IV of Aragon, Social History, War.
Pedro Jiménez de Samper was a prominent member of the Aragon’s middle nobility, who lived during the central decades of the 14th century and developed an intense military career in the service of King Peter IV of Aragon, the Ceremonious. In this text, we offer a revised and expanded version of his biography, which we first published in 2008 in this journal’s number 8. The current version preserves the original text while incorporating new content, which refers to all the stages of Samper’s life and allows us to considerably widen the repertoire of issues previously addressed. Among the most important new features presented here are the location of his family origins, the identification of his clientele networks and the dating of his death. The result is a case study that provides an accurate illustration of the relationship between aristocracy and war in the Crown of Aragon in this period of the late Middle Ages.
A Polemical Iconography: the Magi from Orient
Patricia Grau-Dieckmann
Original title: Una Iconografía polémica: los Magos de Oriente
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
Keywords: Art, Epiphany, Iconography, Magic, Three Wise Men, Worship.
"… there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem" briefly informs Mathews Gospel about these illustrious visitors that - following a star - arrive from the east to worship Baby Jesus. He further tells that they fell on their knees and "presented him with gifts - gold, incense and myrrh". Later apocryphal tales and popular narratives beautify and adorn the legends about these mysterious characters. Very early does art reflect the iconography of the worship of the magi, known as "Epiphany". This scene will mutate through time and will develop into the sumptuous representation of the royal characters that became the Three Wise Men. Early Christian art may offer a key to the understanding of whom they were, what were they looking for and what were the reasons that justify the importance of the scene of the Epiphany within the frame of this new religion - Christianism - that tried to expand among the gentiles.
A Proposal for a Universal Science in Ars Brevis (1308) by Ramon Llull
Fabricia dos Santos GIUBERTI
Original title: A Proposta de uma Ciência Universal na Arte Breve (1308) de Ramon Llull
Published in Nicholas of Cusa in Dialogue
Keywords: Art, Medieval Philosophy, Ramon Llull, Science.
As a passionate follower of Ramon Llull, Nicolau de Cusa, had in his personal library, several works of Catalan philosopher. One version of Art Llull which had spread over the centuries following his death was the Art Brief (1308) precisely because it is a simplification of his proposals to create a universal science idea as to suit modern thought still in gestation. The purpose of this issue is to present the general structure of his art, as the Mallorcan went down to posterity as an original innovator of medieval proposals unification of all sciences.
A Small Big Problem in Medieval History: the Revolt of Arrabal de Cordoba (818) and the conquest of the Island of Crete in 827
Diego Melo Carrasco
Original title: Un Pequeño Gran Problema de la Historia Medieval: La Revuelta del Arrabal (Rabad) de Córdoba (818) y la Toma de Creta en el 827
Published in Mirabilia 4
The present article deals with a topic might appear of marginal importance in the context of medieval history, thas is, the expulsion of the Cordoban conspirators after the Revolt of Arrabal de Cordoba (818) and their conquest of the Island of Crete in 827, Nevertheless, it becomes important when one realizes the implications in the Eastern Mediterranean, when this area was transformed into a “Moslem Lake” –as it has been called by Henri Pirenne. Which would prevente the free transit of Byzantine shipping, forcing the Empire to employ all of its diplomatic abilities to deal whit the situation.
A commentary for Ausiàs March. The song CXVIII
Cèlia NADAL PASCUAL
Original title: Comentar Ausiàs March. El cant CXVIII
Published in
Keywords: Ausiàs March – song CXVIII – Commentary.
Commentary of the song CXVIII by Ausiàs March. A premise contextualizes this sample within a wider project; it includes a short methodological guidelines. The commentary includes a complete paraphrase of the text and an interpretative reading, with special reference to the articulation of the meaning.
