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The Formation of the Knight: Perceval or Conte du Graal

Raúl Cesar Gouveia Fernande

Original title: A formação do cavaleiro: Perceval ou O Conto do Graal

Published in Mirabilia 4

Keywords: Arthurian romance, chivalry, education.

The present paper covers Perceval's formative process analysis as it is developed in the context of Chrétien de Troyes' Conte du Graal. We intend to identify with our investigation the method and the objectives in the education of a knight throughout the romance.

The Funeral in the Monastery of Batalha

Renata Cristina de Sousa NASCIMENTO

Original title: As Exéquias Fúnebres no Mosteiro da Batalha

Published in Monastic and Scholastic Philosophy in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Death, Imaginary, Pantheon, Rites, Symbolic Power.

The aim of this article is to analyze the funeral rites as a power representation. In this path was elected the narratives about the royal exequies occurred at Santa Maria da Vitória’s (Batalha) Monastery in XV century. The chronics talks about the importance of the funeral’s cerimonials happened at the Monastery. The “departure” of kings also showed the great religious pomp lived in the interior of the batalinho yard to D. João II. The Royal Pantheon of the Battle has a great symbolic and political importance, specially related to Avis’ Dinasty (1385-1581).

The Glassmaking Business in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula

Eduardo JUÁREZ VALERO

Original title: El negocio del vidrio en la Península Ibérica medieval

Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World

Keywords: Glass, Glassmaking monopoly, Guilds, Protection of the secret knowledge, Trading.

Secret was the essence of the knowledge in the world of the glassmaking during the Middle and Modern Ages. As the glassmakers were protecting their secret knowledge, they were creating special types of guilds associated to a special legal environments. In Spain the most important example was the environment of the glassmakers’ guild of Barcelona and the Castilian way, especially in Cadalso de los Vidrios. This article studies the evolution of those legal environments and their influence in the Spanish glass monopoly.

The Gottesgeburtszyklus by Master Eckhart: the fundamental mystic of “birth of God in soul” (Sermons 101 to 104)

Bento Silva SANTOS

Original title: O Gottesgeburtszyklus de Meister Eckhart: a mística fundamental do “nascimento de Deus na alma” (Sermões 101 a 104)

Published in Mystic and Millenarianism in Middle Ages

Keywords: God, Master Eckhart, Medieval Philosophy, soul.

This work analyses the famous sermons of “the birth of God in soul” (101-104), wrote in Middle High German by Master Eckhart, one of the main themes of his studies about the “fundamental mystic”. In the words of the Rhine master has been an unequivocally mystic and will to be free of psychological horizon of human subjectivity, as an expression to God and to soul’s union with the divinity. Eckhart affirmed in these sermons the intellectual necessity of “internalize itself”, i.e., the intellect would come back to his “essence”. Thus, it will perform the “birth of God in soul”. How it happens to Eckhart? The coronation of God’s action into the “deep of soul” will resemble to the top of “knowledge unknown”, it means, a condition of “epistemic obscurity” to the intellect. Therefore, the absence of knowledge is the condition for the union with the deity (Gottheit): we can’t see God unless by the blindness. We can’t know him unless by the “unknowledge”. The “return” from the multiply world to the indistinct One means to pass from the condition of know to the unknown; It means yet the transition between the created being to the nonbeing of God until culminate the nonbeing of deity. This is the condition of this “birth”.

The Hagiographical Relations between Byzantium and the West during the Middle Byzantine Period

Spyros P. PANAGOPOULOS

Original title: Las relaciones hagiográficas entre Bizancio y Occidente durante el período bizantino medio

Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Keywords: Byzantium, Hagiography, Middle Byzantine Period, Pilgrimage-relics, West.

In the present study a special reference is made to the hagiographical relations between Byzantium and the West. The first part is dedicated to the “communication” of Byzantium with the West, on the role played by the Lives of Byzantine Saints, the transfer and honor of their relics and pilgrimages. The phenomenon developed after the 4th century, when an attempt was made to create a liturgical and worship communication between the two Churches and the Roman Martyrologium was formed in the West. The second part is dedicated to the “communication” of the West in Byzantium through the honor of the western Saints. In the next paragraph, we talk about "communication" through the holy relics of the Saints, and it is found that the phenomenon mainly concerned Saints of the East. The paper closes with some introductory notes on translators’ translation options and techniques.

The Heart’s Emptiness XĪN XŪ 心虛: interpretations about the book of Chinese medicine HUÁNG DÌ NÈI JĪNG LÍNG SHŪ 黃帝內經靈樞

Renata Palandri Sigolo SELL, Luis Fernando Bernardi JUNQUEIRA

Original title: O Vazio do Coração XĪN XŪ 心虛: interpretações sobre o livro de medicina chinesa HUÁNG DÌ NÈI JĪNG LÍNG SHŪ 黃帝內經靈樞

Published in

Keywords: Chinese Medicine – History of Ancient China – Huang Di Nei Jing – Daoism.

This article is a study about the concept of Heart XĪN 心 in the book of Chinese medicine HUÁNG DÌ NÈI JĪNG LÍNG SHŪ 黃帝內經靈樞, which plays a very important role in Chinese medicine history from more than two thousand years until today. Available evidence suggests that at the basis of LÍNG SHŪ 靈樞 is a layer of texts written during the end of the Warring States period (475-221 B.C), through Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C) and the beginning of Western Han dynasty (206 B.C – 9 A.C). In LÍNG SHŪ chapter 8, the Heart is presented as Emptiness XŪ 虚, empty as Heaven TIĀN 天 and, thereby, the residence of the Spirits SHÉN 神 and connection between us and nature. The Heart is Empty because it is able to remain free from attachment and aversion to any experience, phenomenon or living being. The notion of Heart’s Emptiness XĪN XŪ 心虛 was written under the influence of Daoists texts such as LǍOZǏ 老子 and ZHŪANGZǏ 莊子, thus we can comprehend the strong relation between Chinese medicine and several another aspects of Chinese culture.

The Incunabula from the Valencian Chapter Library: traces of a llibreria vella y antiga

María Luz MANDINGORRA LLAVATA, José Vicente BOSCÁ CODINA

Original title: Los incunables de la Catedral de Valencia: huellas de una llibreria vella y antiga

Published in

Keywords: History of libraries, Incunabula, Valencia Cathedral.

The Valencia Cathedral presently retains 117 incunabula which correspond to 85 different editions. The aim of this article is to show the origin and development of this collection since the Late Middle Ages until today. To this end, we have studied the material features of the books, especially their marks of ownership and provenance. In addition to this, we have analyzed four inventories of the Valencian Chapter Library that were conducted throughout the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries, as well as the inventory prepared by José Sanchis Sivera (1930) and the Catalogue published by Elías Olmos Canalda in 1951. This analysis has allowed us to identify many of the editions preserved today by the Cathedral along with others that have been lost over time, for reasons ranging from the expurgations during the 16th and 17th centuries to a possible transfer to other institutions. Besides, we have been able to establish the early constitution of the collection, since almost 60% of the editions owned at present by the Valencia Cathedral were already there in the middle of the 16th century.

The Interaction of Ambrose of Milan with the Emperor Theodosius the Great over the Dignity of Human Life

Eirini ARTEMI

Published in Mirabilia Journal 34

Keywords: Ambrosius of Milan, Byzantine Greek Macedonia, Massacre in Thessalonica, Theodosius the Great.

When Theodosius the Great became emperor, the influence of Christianity had expanded throughout the Roman Empire. The Christians gained the upper hand in the Empire mainly after the death of Julian and when they became in majority. This power led the emperor Theodosius to behave to pagans with cruelty that didn’t match to a Christian emperor. He was responsible for the massacre in Thessalonica of the province of byzantine Greek Macedonia. There 7000 thousand people were killed. In this paper, we will examine which was the attitude Ambrosius of Milan to the emperor, when the bishop though that the Church was just be used as a political prop or fig leaf. Which is the importance of the letter of Ambrose that was written to Theodosius? How did this Ambrose’s criticism to Theodosius for his ruthless slaughter, barring the emperor from entering church or taking communion for several months, and ordering him to do penance for several months before he could enter again and receive the host, change Theodosius’ behaviour as Christian? Did the letter of Ambrose to Theodosius have a catalytic role to later sanctity of the emperor? Ambrose’s penance should not be accepted as a win of the church over the emperor but only as a demonstration of the power of atonement over the penitent sinner. This power should not discriminate people according to their political power but according to their actions as Christians.