Mysterious Nicopolis
José Enrique RUIZ-DOMÈNEC
Original title: Misteriosa Nicópolis
Published in The Middle Ages and the Crusades
Keywords: Historical personages, Middle Ages, Nicopolis, chivalry.
Essay about the great day of Nicopolis, the participation of the main characters, and a new historical-anthropological reading of a crucial event inspired by Hayden White and Marshall Salins. This is a new proposal for a historical interpretation of the crusades.
Mysticism, Language and Silence in Plotinus's Philosophy
Maria Simone Cabral Marinho
Original title: Mística, Linguagem e Silêncio na Filosofia de Plotino
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
Keywords: Language, Mysticism, Plotinus, Silence.
This article tries to highlight some important aspects of mystical experience in Plotinus, pointing out, above all, the problem of language that appears in the Plotinian Philosophy as a mediating term between the need to communicate the One and the impossibility of doing so.
Narratives of time: Augustine and Joachim of Fiore
Noeli Dutra ROSSATO
Original title: Narrativas do tempo: Agostinho e Joaquim de Fiore
Published in The Time and the Eternity in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Augustine, History, Joachim of Fiore, Time, narrative.
The Book XI of Augustine's Confessions is analyzed based on the mutual implication between the themes of triplicate present and distention of the soul. The solution shown is that of the ontological paradox and to that of the measure of time being linked to both these themes, and that the notion of narrative presents itself as a possibility of resolution of the paradox between the time of the soul and the time of the world. Lastly the history theory of Augustine and Joachim of Fiore are analyzed from the narrative perspective.
New biographical data on Suero de Ribera: Castilian cleric, servant of the church in Italy and author of songbook poems in the 15th and 16th centuries
Jesús Fernando CÁSEDA TERESA
Original title: Nuevos datos biográficos de Suero de Ribera: clérigo castellano, servidor de la iglesia en Italia y autor de poemas de cancionero en los siglos XV y XVI
Published in The Kingdom of the Spirit
Keywords: 15th-16th Centuries, Biography, Cancioneros, Poetry, Suero de Ribera.
This research on the 15th and 16th century songbook writer Suero de Ribera, to whom up to twenty-five compositions are attributed, provides previously unknown documentation on his biography after locating him in various historical archives, documentation that probably refers to your person. From these, I establish his relationship with important figures in the social life of Rome and Naples, such as the Count of Oliva and the Cardinal of Capua, the Valencian Joan Llopis. And I venture his family background, Valladolid, the Castilian city of which he speaks in some of his poems.
Nicholas of Cusa: Look and Mystic
Maria Simone Marinho NOGUEIRA
Original title: Nicolau de Cusa: Olhar e Mística
Published in Mystic and Millenarianism in Middle Ages
Keywords: Experience, Look, Love, Mystic, Reflection.
Assuming that De visione dei is a mystical text and that the mystic, both in its generic and ultimate interpretations, is an experience of the divine, we think it is possible to show that, at the mentioned publication, Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) presents a mystical experience, understood as the reflection about the subject. Therefore, the sensible experience proposed by him, and explained in the Preface of De visione dei, unites the simplicity of a visual experience with the highest and most profound speculation that human beings can do: reflect in a manner that you can experience your relationship with the divine.
Nobility and Femininity in Medieval Georgia: Thinatin and Nestan
Antonio CONTRERAS MARTÍN
Original title: Nobleza y Feminidad en la Georgia Medieval: Tinatín y Nestán
Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Femininity, Medieval Georgia, Medieval Literature, Nobility, Rusthaveli.
The purpose of this work is to analyze the picture of the Georgian noble women, that Shotha Rusthaveli make (12th-13th centuries). I will focus my study on two princesses: Thinatin and Nestan; because they are two main characters in The Knight in the Panther’s Skin.
Notion of spiritual aristocracy in the first book of Kuzari
Rosa PLANAS FERRER
Original title: El concepte d’aristocràcia espiritual en el llibre primer del Kuzari
Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Aristocracy, Halevi, Judaism, Kuzari, controversy.
The objective of the following work is showing, through the First Book of Kuzari, by Iehuda Halevi, firstly translated into Catalonian by Rabbi Jordi Gendra, one of the first formulations of the aristocratic origin of the Jewish population, defended by one of the most important poets of Judaism during the Jewish Diaspora. The book explains that through a divine selection, Israel is constituted as the authentic aristocracy of the world, due to its condition of a prophetic population it is situated over the rest of populations and in the Creational scale it’s only superadded by angels.
O léxico bélico do Old English no épico The Battle of Maldon
Italo Papi da Costa
Published in The Philosophical Tradition in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Anglo-saxon, Old English, Warfare.
Oedipus at Colonus by the light of Aristotelian ethics philosophy
Jan Gerard Joseph TER REEGEN and Tito Barros LEAL
Original title: Édipo em Colona à luz da filosofia ética aristotélica
Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Aristotle, Ethics, Prudence, Sophocles, Tragedy.
The main purpose presented in this article is to analyze how the Sophoclean works influenced the Aristotelian ethical thought construction process. In order to conduct this analysis, the tragedy Oedipus at Colonus is used to arouse the discussion on central questions in the ethical thought of Aristotle, such as practical wisdom, caution and prudence. Therefore, it was necessary to re-compound the transition route between the political-mythical thought, expressed in the mythical temporality of the tragedies, and the political-ethical thought, experienced in the Athens daily routine during the fifth century B.C. However, it is not the proposal of this article to establish an evolutionist analysis concerning the Greek philosophical knowledge construction process. Since this process was done by human efforts, so it is a historical product, it is not a purpose of this work elaborate any kind of validation about one or another way (mythical or ethical) of comprehension, behavior and action. Thus, herein is offered a comparative view between these two possibilities in order to understand how one contributed to the construction of the other one.
On beauty and love in the transition from paganism to Christianity
Humberto Schubert COELHO
Original title: Sobre a beleza e o amor na transição do paganismo ao Cristianismo
Published in The Medieval Aesthetics
Keywords: Augustine, Beauty, Love, Plato, Plotinus.
While Plato is considered an absolute grounding for aesthetics, invaluable contributions to the concept of beauty were offered by the Christian thought. Although the underestimation of such contribution as a mere reflex of Platonism is not sustainable, it is undeniable that substantial part of platonic ideas on beauty and the role of love in the connection between consciousness and the supreme transcendent metaphysics of the source of being, which is identified with the beauty, exerts the most powerful influence on the Christian conception. The aesthetics in Antiquity, thus, consists in a dialogue between the beautiful Greek form and the Christian sentiment on the light of platonic idealism. Therefore, in order to understand the introspection and sublimation of Christian aesthetics the study of the delicate transition between cultural, religious and philosophical realms, and how this transition intensifies the emphasis on the role of love in the aesthetical economy, is mandatory.
