Mecia, Matilde and Beatriz: Feminine Images Reflected in Portuguese Queens from the 13 th century
Adriana Zierer
Original title: Mécia, Matilde e Beatriz: Imagens Femininas Refletidas nas Rainhas de Portugal do Século XIII
Published in Mirabilia 3 (2003)
Keywords: image, medieval woman, queens.
Presentation of the importance of medieval woman by the study of portuguese cronicles from the 14th to 16th centuries about three queens: Mecia Lopes of Haro, Matilde of Bologne and Beatriz. These cronicles had been written to explain the governation of the ladies’ husbands, respectively Sancho II, king deposed of Portugal in 1245 and his brother Afonso III, responsible for the deposition and king from 1248 until 1279, year of his death. It is possible to see a little of these women in the interlineation of the texts. While Matilde and Beatriz represent the woman-merchandize, as elements of the nobility to garantee to men properties and titles – reason by which Afonso III has got married for the second time when he was already married – Mécia represents the role of the devil-woman, the Eve-sinner, who thanks to her "whitchcrafts" and "bad advises" has taken his husband to be deposed from the power.
Medicin and Philosophy in Direct Dialectic Relation During the Classical and Late Antiquity
Sophia KARYMPALI-KYRIAZIS
Original title: Medicina e Filosofia em Relação Dialética Direta Durante a Antiguidade Clássica e Tardia
Published in
Keywords: Antiquity, Asclepius, Galen, Hippocrates, Medicine, Philosophy.
Medicine and Philosophy, in classical antiquity mainly, coexisted and joined hands as activities of the human intellect, with one exerting fruitful influence on the other in the course of time. The influence of philosophy on ancient medicine is generally accepted, as the theories of pre-Socratic philosophers from the 6th century BC for the interpretation of the world and human nature were the main inspiration for the formulation of the first medical texts. Natural philosophers from Ionia, such as Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes and Heraclitus, through their theories, laid the foundations towards future medical advances. Hippocrates of Kos, with his medical treatises in “Corpus Hippocraticum” was greatly influenced by the philosophical thought. Hippocrates is considered the “father of medicine” because he broadened the medical knowledge of his time and laid the foundations of medicine as science, releasing it from magic and superstitions. Plato and Aristotle refer to Hippocrates in their works and speak with respect about him acknowledging his enormous contribution to the healing of serious diseases. In the ancient world, Asclepius, who was considered a great healer of many serious diseases, was worshiped as the patron god of medicine. In his honor temples were erected and next to them great therapeutic centers, the well known “Asclepieia”, scattered in many cities of Ancient Greece and Asia Minor. In the 5th, 4th and 3rd century BC there are great medical schools that operate, founded by famous medico-philosophers of the time, such as the School of Kos, the Sicilian School, the Medical School of Cnidus, Cyrene, Rhodes, Alexandria, etc. In post-Hippocratic era, medico-philosophical Schools are formed, such as the School of Dogmatics, Empiricists, Methodics in Rome, Pneumatics, and Eclectics, all connected to the philosophical thought and tradition. Among the physicians of late antiquity stands out Galen, whose theories influenced Western medicine until the 17th century AD. In the Hellenistic period the major philosophical Schools of the Epicureans and the Stoics form a philosophical concept with physical health and psychological well-being as points of reference. Medicine was founded as a science in the period of classical antiquity, 5th to 4th century BC, and bequeathed its rich background to later centuries, so that today it has come to be regarded as a deeply humanistic and social science with strong philosophical roots and origins.
Medieval History in Brazil and in Maranhão in Perspective: Teaching and Research
Adriana ZIERER; Solange Pereira OLIVEIRA
Original title: A História Medieval no Brasil e no Maranhão em perspectiva: ensino e pesquisa
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: 21st century, Annales, Medieval History, School and University, Society, Teaching and Research.
The studies of Medieval History have been consolidating in Maranhão with the expansion of the productions directed to the teaching and academic research in this historiographic field. In this article we present a general approach on the substantial advances of works related to this historical period in the State, seeking to underline the relevance of possible ways for the teaching and research of the Middle Ages in the context of the belief and imaginary of local culture in Maranhão.
Medieval Paradises – Tipology of the Places of Reward in the Final Middle Ages
Paulo Roberto Soares de Deus
Original title: Paraísos Medievais – esboço para uma tipologia dos lugares de recompensa dos justos no final da Idade Média
Published in Mirabilia 4
Keywords: Culture, Paradise, Types.
The aim of this article is to consider a set of minimum types to the places assigned for the word Paradise at the end of the Middle Ages. It is not intended to be exhausting nor definitive, after all, the Paradise was a symbol and, as such, preserved great ambiguity in its possible meanings. Paradise's contours could not be so clear since it should to allow the projections of diverse desires and anxieties, deriving of the different cultural strata of that age. However, a tripartite structure, which comes along with the time flow, can be followed.
Medieval Significances of the Apple: Forbidden Fruit, Source of the kwowledge, Paradisiac Island
Adriana Zierer
Original title: Significados medievais da maçã: fruto proibido, fonte do conhecimento, ilha Paradisíaca
Published in Mirabilia 1
Keywords: Adan, Apple, Eva, Geoffrey de Monmouth, Medieval Mithology, celts...
Dans ce travail nous cherchons d’analyser quelques symbologies de la pomme. Bien que d’autres fruits soient associées au peché originel, comme le figue et la raissin, depuis le 13ème siecle la pomme est devenu la principal representation de la transgression d’Adam et Eve en Éden. L’ingestion du fruit interdit a signifié la possibilité de l’homme d’atteindre la conaissance par le libre arbitre, mais c’est a conduit aussi à la suffrance (l’expulsion du divine endroit, la besoin du travail et les douleurs du accouchment). Dans autres cultures, comme la germanique, pour obtenir la sagesse le dieu Wotan a abdiqué de la vision d’un de ses yeaux et est demeuré neuf jours acrochée à l’arbre Ygddrasil, sans boir ou manger. Comme on croyait que la conaissance venait d’Aût, une métaphore était l’arbor inversa, dont les racines sont dans le ciel et Christ est consideré le plus beau fruit envoyée par le ciel (Dieu) à la terre (Marie). Une autre symbolisme de la pomme, c’est la Insula Pomorum, royaume de l’Autre Monde plein d’abundance et plaisirs, decrit par Geoffroy de Monmouth au 12ème siècle comme un endroit où, à l’envers de gramme, le soleil était couvert par pommes. Dans la mythologie celtique, ce fruit represente la magie, l’imortalité et la conaissance. Pour les médiévaux, c’était confortant le signification de la pomme comme l’Île du Bienaventureux, qui possibilitait l’access des individus à un monde semblable au paradis. Mais par l’avis de l’ Église seulement après la mort et de la passage par le purgatoire, les individus purifiés pouvaient aspirer à la felicité éternelle.
Medieval animals and gender configurations in the Colonial chronicles: discursive strategies and political order
Pedro Carlos Louzada FONSECA
Original title: Animais medievais e configurações de gênero na cronística colonial: estratégias discursivas e ordem política
Published in Mirabilia Journal 34
Keywords: Colonial chronicles, Discursive strategies, Gender, Medieval animals, Political order, Wonderful and usefulness.
The representation of the natural reality of America epitomized in the chronicles of Colonial Brazil is permeated by a dichotomous posture situated between wonder and utility, whose teleological values can be perfectly verified in medieval references. Using the comparative method and favoring the study of cultural ideas, this article examines the plausibility of the presence of the medieval bestiary and the process or trope of the feminization of the colonial natural reality, configuring oscillations between the simple enjoyment of the wonderful and its practical usefulness. The terms of this dialectical formation are examined in this article seeking to identify its limits in the configuration of reality in the chronicles of Colonial Brazil. In this way, two pillars in the article are approached, namely, the symbolic tradition of the so-called bestiary books and the tropological tradition of the feminizing discourse of reality, both of an ideological and political nature. Therefore, a curious but explainable formation of values were strategically conceived to legitimize the European intentions in the possession of the American lands in colonial times.
Medieval heraldry: a cultural creation for a secular society
Gerard Marí i Brull
Original title: Heráldica medieval: una creación cultural para una sociedad laica
Published in The educacion and secular culture in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Coats of arm, Heraldry, Medieval History.
This paper aims to show how Heraldry is a medieval cultural phenomenon of first importance created and developed outside the ecclesiastical world, through the analysis of three specific aspects: its origins, the language for the heraldic description and the ways of transmission of its knowledge.
Medieval latin manuscript culture of the Crown of Aragon. Transcription and study of the parchments of the 12th-13th centuries of the Archive “general b” of the Borja Library (Sant Cugat del Vallès)
Enric MALLORQUÍ-RUSCALLEDA
Original title: Cultura medieval llatina manuscrita de la Corona d’Aragó. Transcripció i estudi dels pergamins dels segles XII-XIII del Fons General b de la Biblioteca Borja (Sant Cugat del Vallès)
Published in Mirabilia Journal 34
Keywords: Borja Library, Crown of Aragon, Edition, Latin, Manuscript Culture, Medieval, Sant Cugat, Transcription.
Father Antoni Borràs i Feliu, archivist of the library of the Borgia Center of Sant Cugat del Vallés, announced in 1994 the acquisition of a series of parchments by the library of this center. Father Borràs classified these parchments of varied typology, grouping them in four categories: A, B (“General Fons”), C (“Fons Ripoll-Sant Joan de les Abadesses”), D (“Fons Berga”), and E (“Fons vari”). This article presents the transcription and a brief codicological and paleographic study of B (“Fons General”). Among the parchments in question are pontifical documents (“butlles”), royal documents, university degrees, and a few documents classified by centuries: from the 12th to the 17th century. Here I study the latter; more specifically, the documents catalogued with the numbers 4.1 (number 1 for us) and 4.2 (numbers 2 and 3).
Meister Eckhart and the Paradisus anime intelligentis
Matteo RASCHIETTI
Original title: Meister Eckhart e o Paradisus anime intelligentis
Published in Paradise, Purgatory and Hell: the Religiosity in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Being, Eckhart, Paradisus, Return to One, intellect.
The Dominican master doesn't talk about Paradise in his works like a place in the future, because his point of view is not eschatological. In fact, for him there's no a way toward a future happiness, but a return to the origin. In Paradisus anime intelligentis, Eckhart defends the superiority of intellectus and God Himself is defined like it, while the esse (being) reports himself almost exclusively to creatures. The man, to realize his deep calling to be unum with God, has to come back to Him.
Memory and Rhapsody: The Divine Song in Archadia
Ciléa Dourado
Original title: Memória e Rapsódia: o canto divino na Arcádia
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
Keywords: Poetry, Power., tradition, truth.
The poetic activity of the Greek Golden Age, better known as Archadia, grew inside a pre-literate culture which was characterized, above all, by a mythological symbolism. The Archadian poetry points to the notion of the fantastic, of the sublime and of the divine in its purest form. The archaic Poet was endowed with the power directly by the gods, and such a power was non-negotiable and non-transferable. The lineage and succession of a rhapsodist was often brought out by Arete, the choice of the nobler.
