Mediaevalia Lovaniensia – serie

Reduced Price!Now only € 15,00 instead of € 51,50More than ten years ago, some mediaevalists of the K.U.Leuven and the University of Ghent joined together to create a repertory of medieval narrative sources focusing on the southern Low Countries. A pre-print was published in a paper version and was soon followed by the electronic database entitled "Narrative Sources" which is available through the Internet. Since 1996, "Narrative Sources" has been adapted, supplemented and rearranged every year and over the years the number of inventoried items has been increased to far more than 2150 titles. The information present thus far in "Narrative Sources" already allows and facilitates the study of the sources as such, individually or collectively, qualitatively or quantitatively.In a next step the goal would be the exploitation of the contents, with a specific focus on monastic historiography, its social setting, and self-image. In this proceeding some of the scholars working on this project present their work, their methodology and their results to-date.

Reduced Price!Now only € 10,00 instead of € 28,00This volume addresses symbolic forms of communication in the late medieval towns of the Low Countries, northern France and the Swiss Confederation. In context of State centralisation, the political autonomy of these towns was threatened by tensions with higher levels of power. Within this conflict both rulers and towns employed symbolic means of communication to legitimise their power position. The intensive use of rituals like theatreplays and gift-exchange demonstrates that symbolic forms of communication were no routine jobs. Towns and rulers actively appropriated and reread older traditions in order to adapt them to the new settings in which they were employed. Tradition and innovation had to be balanced well, in order for the audience to understand the ritual correctly. However, the organiser could never control the new layers of meaning the audience would attach to the event. This volume seeks to explore how new layers of meaning were attached to well-known traditions, how these rituals were perceived and when the recognizability of a ritual was damaged by such appropriations. Both public encounters between rulers and towns are studied, as well as the use of ritual to express the political and religious relations between the various social groups within the towns.

The role of monastic institutions in society during the Central Middle Ages has been much debated in medieval studies. Some scholars saw monasticism as the principal motivator of economic, social, intellectual and ‘spiritual' progress in human society, while others regarded monastic ideology as fundamentally anti-social and oriented towards itself. These debates seem to have lost some of their relevance to the present-day scholar. Today monasticism is studied as a social entity which needed interactions with the outside world, not only to subsist in a physical sense, but also to give a clear sense of purpose to its members. Drawing on recent trends in historical scholarship, this volume seeks to identify some of the major questions that will dominate research into monasticism in the years to come. Contributions deal with the evolution of monasticism itself, its links with aristocracy, the economic relations of religious communities and their physical and ideological boundaries, and the representation of the outside world in monastic manuscripts. Les contributions rassemblées dans ce volume présentent un point de vue à la fois multiple et multidisciplinaire sur l'état de la question dans l'historiographie du monachisme, un domaine de recherche dont la complexité s'avère désormais incontestable. Il s'agit de réflexions portant sur l'évolution du monachisme, ou d'études approfondissant les liens entre le monachisme et l'aristocratie ou les réalités économiques, explorant les liens physiques et idéologiques avec le monde extérieur, sans oublier des analyses portant sur les représentations du monde extérieur dans les manuscrits médiévaux. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Interdisciplinary study of pagan culture from late antiquity to the emergent Renaissance In this volume the persistence, resurgence, threat, fascination, and repression of various forms of pagan culture are studied in an interdisciplinary perspective from late antiquity to the emergent Renaissance. Contributions deal with the survival of pagan beliefs and practices, as well as with the Christianization of pagan rural populations or with the different strategies of oppression of pagan beliefs. The authors examine problems raised by the encounter with pagan cultures outside the Muslim world and show how philosophers contrived to ‘save' the great philosophers and poets from ancient culture notwithstanding their paganism. The contributors also study the fascination of classic ‘pagan' culture among friars during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the imitation of pagan models of virtue and mythology in Renaissance poetry. Contributors Carlos Steel (University of Leuven), John Marenbon (Trinity College, Cambridge), Ludo Milis (University of Ghent), Marc-André Wagner † (Paris, Ministère de la Culture), Brigitte Meijns (University of Leuven), Rob Meens (University of Utrecht), Edina Bozoky (Université de Poitiers), Henryk Anzulewicz (Albertus-Magnus Institut, Bonn), Robrecht Lievens (University of Leuven), Stefano Pittaluga (Università di Genova), Anna Akasoy (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

In this thorough textual, historical, and doctrinal study, Satoshi Kikuchi seeks to clarify the relationship between two prominent mystics of the fourteenth century: Meister Eckhart, the German Dominican, and Jan van Ruusbroec, the Brabantine Augustinian. Special attention is paid to Ruusbroec's criticism of mystical tenets circulating in Brabant at that time, which were both textually and doctrinally related to Eckhart's condemned propositions in the papal bull In agro dominico. This fact implies that Ruusbroec was confronted with the impact of the condemnation of Eckhart's doctrines on the people in Brabant. Situating Ruusbroec's life and works within the aftermath of Eckhart's arrival, the author elucidates Ruusbroec's position regarding the relevant mystical themes in the later Middle Ages and follows a process of critical inheritance of mystical tradition from Eckhart to Ruusbroec.

An important chapter in the rediscovery of Aristotle in the Middle Ages is the oeuvre of Bartholomew of Messina (Bartholomaeus de Messana), a translator at the court of Manfred, King of Sicily (1258-1266). However, the impact of both Bartholomew and Manfred on the cultural and intellectual life of their time remains understudied, especially in comparison to the attention received by the translator's contemporary, William of Moerbeke, and by the king's father, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. The authors of Translating at the Court address the nature and importance of Bartholomew's oeuvre (and especially his translations of Aristotle), situate Bartholomew's activity in a broader context, and pay special attention to cultural life under the reign of Manfred.Contributors: Pieter Beullens (KU Leuven), Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute, London), Valerie Cordonier (CNRS - KU Leuven), Pieter De Leemans (KU Leuven), Fulvio Delle Donne (Universita della Basilicata), Elisabeth Deviere (KU Leuven), Michael Dunne (National University of Ireland, Maynooth), Dimitri Gutas (Yale University), Kotzia Paraskevi (Aristotle University,Thessaloniki), Alessandra Perriccioli Saggese (Seconda Universita di Napoli), Giacinta Spinosa (Universita di Cassino), Gudrun Vuillemin-Diem (Thomas-Institut, Koln), Steven J. Williams (New Mexico Highlands University), Mauro Zonta (Sapienza Universita di Roma)

New insights into Pietro d’Abano’s unique approach to translations. The commentary of the Italian physician and philosopher Pietro d’Abano on Bartholomew of Messina’s Latin translation of Pseudo-Aristotle’s Problemata Physica, published in 1310, constitutes an important historical source. In a section of the corpus Aristotelicum that was not part of the standard curriculum at the medieval university, the commentary of Pietro d’Abano investigates the complex relationship between text, translation, and commentary. The eight articles in this volume provide valuable insights into the manner in which Pietro d’Abano deals with the problems of a translated text. They emphasize the idiosyncrasy of his approach in comparison to his contemporaries and successors, the particularities of his commentary in light of the habitual exegetical practices applied in the teaching of curricular texts, as well as the influence of philosophical traditions outside the strict framework of the medieval arts faculty. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content). Contributors : Joan Cadden (University of California, Davis), Gijs Coucke (KU Leuven), Béatrice Delaurenti (École des Hautes Études et Sciences Sociales – Paris), Pieter De Leemans (KU Leuven), Françoise Guichard-Tesson (KU Leuven), Danielle Jacquart (École Pratique des Hautes Études – Paris), Christian Meyer (Centre d’Études supérieures de la Renaissance – Tours), Iolanda Ventura (CNRS – Université d’Orléans)

Urban Markets and Women’s Labor: Navigating Institutional Boundaries in Premodern EuropeWomen played a crucial role in medieval and early modern urban economies, yet their labor opportunities varied greatly depending on local institutions. This book compares the guild-structured labor markets of Antwerp and Mechelen in Brabant with Bilbao’s informal economy in Biscay during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By analyzing these distinct institutional contexts, it offers a multifaceted understanding of women’s economic roles in premodern Europe. Drawing on a wide range of legislative and judicial sources, Vandeweerdt demonstrates how legal frameworks, socioeconomic structures, and individual strategies shaped women’s activities in small-scale trade. Bridging institutional analysis and personal agency, Women and Work through a Comparative Lens sheds new light on the interplay between labor organization and everyday practices in premodern Europe.

Reduced Price! Now only € 15,00 instead of € 57,00 Manuscripts constitute the source material par excellence for diverse academic disciplines. Art historians, philologists, historians, theologians, philosophers, book historians and even jurists encounter one another around the codex. The fact that such an encounter can be extremely fertile was demonstrated, during an international congress in Brussels on November 5-9, 2002. A record of the discussions can be found in this volume of the Mediaevalia Lovaniensia. The editors selected those lectures that focused on the historical, literary-historical, philosophical and theological aspects of the congress theme as opposed to those with an explicit art-historical perspective. The common thread, however, is always the codicological aspect: what can the study of manuscripts contribute to the literary-historical interpretation or the insight into the functioning of a text in its original context. The various contributions testify to a fearless and unrestrained interdisciplinary approach to the material. The subjects broached cover a broad domain: from the development of classical themes to the transmission of lyrical models, from visual material giving evidence of the reception of literary texts to the artes-literature used as a vehicle for a love story.

Reduced Price!Now only € 15,00 instead of € 51,00The present volume contains a collection of papers on the reception of Aristotle's Problemata, a multifaceted text asking various questions about medical, scientific or everyday topics. This text is one of the most neglected Aristotelian treatises, because of its heterogeneous character and its so-called 'inauthenticity'. It has been the subject of a complex transmission. In ancient times, Aristotle's text has been augmented and adapted, while still other authors composed similar collections of Problemata. In the Middle Ages,Problemata collections have been translated into Arabic, Latin, and Middle French, each translation being characterized by its own particularities. The Latin translation lead to an extremely influential commentary by the Italian physician Peter of Abano, whereas Evrart de Conty, who made the Middle French translation, added himself a commentary to each discussed problem, often using Peter of Abano's text as source. Also in the Renaissance, theProblemata appealed to the interest of physicians and philosophers. In their contributions to this book, the authors analyse this complex web of relations between source-texts, translations, and commentaries, in different times and tongues.

Reduced Price!Now only € 15,00 instead of € 65,00Medieval translators played an important role in the development and evolution of a scientific lexicon. At a time when most scholars deferred to authority, the translations of canonical texts assumed great importance. Moreover, translation occurred at two levels in the Middle Ages. First, Greek or Arabic texts were translated into the learned language, Latin. Second, Latin texts became source-texts themselves, to be translated into the vernaculars as their importance across Europe started to increase. The situation of the respective translators at these two levels was fundamentally different: whereas the former could rely on a long tradition of scientific discourse, the latter had the enormous responsibility of actually developing a scientific vocabulary. The contributions in the present volume investigate both levels, greatly illuminating the emergence of the scientific terminology and concepts that became so fundamental in early modern intellectual discourse. The scientific disciplines covered in the book include, among others, medicine, biology, astronomy, and physics.