Download or read book Fragmented Nature written by Mattia Cipriani and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Latin Middle Ages were characterised by a vast array of different representations of nature. These conceptualisations of the natural world were developed according to the specific requirements of many different disciplines, with the consequent result of producing a fragmentation of images of nature. Despite this plurality, two main tendencies emerged. On the one hand, the natural world was seen as a reflection of God's perfection, teleologically ordered and structurally harmonious. On the other, it was also considered as a degraded version of the spiritual realm - a world of impeccable ideas, separate substances, and celestial movers. This book focuses on this tension between order and randomness, and idealisation and reality of nature in the Middle Ages. It provides a cutting-edge profile of the doctrinal and semantic richness of the medieval idea of nature, and also illustrates the structural interconnection among learned and scientific disciplines in the medieval period, stressing the fundamental bond linking together science and philosophy, on the one hand, and philosophy and theology, on the other. This book will appeal to scholars and students alike interested in Medieval European History, Theology, Philosophy, and Science"--

Download or read book Fragmented Nature Conceptions of the Natural Order in the European Middle Ages written by Mattia Cipriani and published by Studies in Medieval History and Culture. This book was released on 2022-06-10 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on this tension between order and randomness, and idealisation and reality of nature in the Middle Ages.

Download or read book Fragmented Nature Medieval Latinate Reasoning on the Natural World and Its Order written by Mattia Cipriani and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Latin Middle Ages were characterised by a vast array of different representations of nature. These conceptualisations of the natural world were developed according to the specific requirements of many different disciplines, with the consequent result of producing a fragmentation of images of nature. Despite this plurality, two main tendencies emerged. On the one hand, the natural world was seen as a reflection of God’s perfection, teleologically ordered and structurally harmonious. On the other, it was also considered as a degraded version of the spiritual realm – a world of impeccable ideas, separate substances, and celestial movers. This book focuses on this tension between order and randomness, and idealisation and reality of nature in the Middle Ages. It provides a cutting-edge profile of the doctrinal and semantic richness of the medieval idea of nature, and also illustrates the structural interconnection among learned and scientific disciplines in the medieval period, stressing the fundamental bond linking together science and philosophy, on the one hand, and philosophy and theology, on the other. This book will appeal to scholars and students alike interested in Medieval European History, Theology, Philosophy, and Science.

Download or read book Nature in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times written by Albrecht Classen and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-07-01 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of pre-modern anthropology requires the close examination of the relationship between nature and human society, which has been both precarious and threatening as well as productive, soothing, inviting, and pleasurable. Much depends on the specific circumstances, as the works by philosophers, theologians, poets, artists, and medical practitioners have regularly demonstrated. It would not be good enough, as previous scholarship has commonly done, to examine simply what the various writers or artists had to say about nature. While modern scientists consider just the hard-core data of the objective world, cultural historians and literary scholars endeavor to comprehend the deeper meaning of the concept of nature presented by countless writers and artists. Only when we have a good grasp of the interactions between people and their natural environment, are we in a position to identify and interpret mental structures, social and economic relationships, medical and scientific concepts of human health, and the messages about all existence as depicted in major art works. In light of the current conditions threatening to bring upon us a global crisis, it matters centrally to take into consideration pre-modern discourses on nature and its enormous powers to understand the topoi and tropes determining the concepts through which we perceive nature. Nature thus proves to be a force far beyond all human comprehensibility, being both material and spiritual depending on our critical approaches.

Download or read book Networking in Late Medieval Central Europe written by Beata Możejko and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-02-10 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the formation of networks across late medieval Central Europe, this book examines the complex interaction of merchants, students, artists, and diplomats in a web of connections that linked the region. These individuals were friends in business ventures, occasionally families, and not infrequently foes. No single activity linked them, but rather their interconnectivity through matrices based in diverse modalities was key. Partnerships were not always friendship networks, art was sometimes passed between enemies, and families created for financial gain. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the chapters focus on inclusion and exclusion within intercultural networks, both interpersonal and artistic, using a wide spectrum of source materials and methodological approaches. The concept of friends is considered broadly, not only as connections of mutual affection but also simply through business relationships. Families are considered in terms of how they helped or hindered local integration for foreigners and the matrimonial strategies they pursued. Networks were also deeply impacted by rivalry and hostility.

Download or read book Food Consumption in Medieval Iberia written by Juan Vicente García Marsilla and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-15 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the banquets of kings and nobles to the daily struggle for the subsistence of the poor, food was already much more than a biological necessity in the Middle Ages: it was a social phenomenon full of meaning. In this book all the implications and meanings that food had on the Iberian Peninsula between the 13th and 15th centuries are analyzed. Historical assessment of the region is particularly rewarding because of the quantity and variety of historical sources, and because of the coexistence in medieval Iberia of the three great monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Taking both economic and sociological perspectives, every aspect of food is analyzed, from the commercialization of food production to its consumption, and from the evolution of culinary techniques to table manners.

Download or read book Making Miracles in Medieval England written by Tom Lynch and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-08-05 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cult of the saints was central to medieval Christianity largely due to the miraculous. Saints were members of the elect of heaven and could intercede with God on the behalf of supplicants. Whilst people visited shrines and prayed to the saints for many reasons it was the hope of intercession and the praise of miracles past which drove the cult of the saints. This book examines how a person solicited aid from a saint, how they might give thanks and the ways in which post-mortem miracles structured the cult of the saints. A huge number of miracle stories survive from medieval England, in dedicated collections as well as in saints’ lives and other source material. This corpus is full of stories of human relationships, vulnerability and deliverance of people from all parts of society. These stories reveal all manner of details about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. They also show us how people navigated the world with the aid of the saints. Saints could help with wayward livestock, lost property or lawsuits as well as fire, plague and injury. They could also protect members of their communities, correct lapses by their custodians and even kill those who mistreated them. A respectful relationship with a saint could be proof against any problem. Making Miracles in Medieval England will appeal to all those interested in religious practices in medieval England, medieval English culture, and medieval perceptions of miracles.

Download or read book The Other Identity and Memory in Early Medieval Italy written by Luigi Andrea Berto and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political fragmentation of Italy—created by Charlemagne’s conquest of a part of the Lombard Kingdom in 774 and the weakening of the Byzantine Empire in the eighth and ninth centuries—, the conquest of Sicily by the Muslims in the ninth century, and the Norman ‘conquest’ of southern Italy in the second half of the eleventh century favored the creation of areas inhabited by persons with different ethnic, religious, and cultural background. Moreover, this period witnessed the increase in production of historical writing in different parts of Italy. Taking advantage of these features, this volume presents some case studies about the manner in which ‘others’ were perceived, what was known about them, the role of identity, and the use of the past in early medieval Italy (ninth–eleventh centuries) focusing in particular on how early medieval Italian authors portrayed that period and were, sometimes, influenced by their own ‘present’ in their reconstruction of the past. The book will appeal to scholars and students of otherness, identity, and memory in early medieval Italy, as well as all those interested in medieval Europe.

Download or read book The Friar and the Philosopher written by Pieter Beullens and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-10 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William of Moerbeke was a prolific medieval translator of Aristotle and other ancient philosophical and scientific authors from Greek into Latin, and he played a decisive role in the acceptance of Aristotelian philosophy in the Latin world. He is often criticized for an allegedly deficient translation method. However, this book argues that his approach was a deliberate attempt to allow readers to reach the correct understanding of the source texts in accordance with the medieval view of the role of the translator. William’s project to make all genuine works of Aristotle – and also of other important authors from Antiquity – available in Latin is framed against the background of intellectual life in the 13th century, the deliberate policy of his Dominican order to reconcile Christian doctrine with worldly knowledge, and new trends in book production that influenced the spread of the new translations. William of Moerbeke’s seemingly modest acts of translation started an intellectual revolution, the impact of which extended from the Middle Ages into the early modern era. The Friar and the Philosopher will appeal to researchers and students alike interested in Medieval perceptions of Aristotle, as well as other works from Antiquity.

Download or read book The Door of the Caliph written by Elsa Cardoso and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-29 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the conceptualization of the court, palace and ruler of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus. Western terminology still plays a normative role in the representation of foreign courts, determining concepts that fit poorly into chronologies with their own dynamics and specificities, which is the case of Muslim courts. While Court Studies is a well-developed field for modern Western societies, Muslim medieval courts lack a consistent field of research. Sources elaborate a specific terminology for medieval Muslim court societies. In the specific case of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus, the court is usually articulated as Bāb Suddat al-Khalīfa (“The door of the Sudda of the caliph”) – a reference to the symbology of the main city gate of Cordoba – or simply as Bāb. Bāb Suddat al-Khalīfa became the most emblematic concept to name the Umayyad palace and its society, which will be additionally interpreted in the framework of the performance of ceremonial. The strong conceptualization of the Umayyad court of Cordoba was highlighted through the articulation of ceremonial, as the mis-en-scène of the conceptualization, expressed by gestures, insignia and hierarchies. The preliminary comparative perspective with the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, the ‘Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire further discusses the Umayyad Andalusi model in relation to other dynasties. While this book focuses on the Umayyad conceptualization and articulation of ceremonial, this model will be discussed within the Mediterranean and Eastern framework of the 10th and 11th centuries, which broadens the interest of the book to other fields of research.

Download or read book Adam of Bremen s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum written by Grzegorz Bartusik and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-07-26 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum is one of the most important accounts documenting the history, geography and ethnology of Northern and Central-Eastern Europe in the period between the ninth and eleventh centuries. Its author, a canon of the archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, remains an almost anonymous figure but his text is an essential source for the study of the early medieval Baltic. However, despite its undisputed status, past scholarship has tended to treat Adam of Bremen’s account as, on the one hand, an historically accurate document, or, alternatively, a literary artefact containing few, if any, reliable historical facts. The studies collected in this volume investigate the origins and context of the Gesta and will enable researchers to better understand and evaluate the historical veracity of the text.

Download or read book The Medieval Discovery of Nature written by Steven Epstein and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-28 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the relationship between humans and nature that evolved in medieval Europe over the course of a millennium. From the beginning, people lived in nature and discovered things about it. Ancient societies bequeathed to the Middle Ages both the Bible and a pagan conception of natural history. These conflicting legacies shaped medieval European ideas about the natural order and what economic, moral, and biological lessons it might teach. This book analyzes five themes found in medieval views of nature - grafting, breeding mules, original sin, property rights, and disaster - to understand what some medieval people found in nature and what their assumptions and beliefs kept them from seeing.

Download or read book The Medieval Discovery of Nature written by Professor Steven A Epstein and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the relationship between humans and nature that evolved in medieval Europe over the course of a millennium. From the beginning, people lived in nature and discovered things about it. Ancient societies bequeathed to the Middle Ages both the Bible and a pagan conception of natural history. These conflicting legacies shaped medieval European ideas about the natural order and what economic, moral, and biological lessons it might teach. This book analyzes five themes found in medieval views of nature grafting, breeding mules, original sin, property rights, and disaster to understand what some medieval people found in nature and what their assumptions and beliefs kept them from seeing."

Download or read book An Environmental History of the Middle Ages written by John Aberth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle Ages was a critical and formative time for Western approaches to our natural surroundings. An Environmental History of the Middle Ages is a unique and unprecedented cultural survey of attitudes towards the environment during this period. Exploring the entire medieval period from 500 to 1500, and ranging across the whole of Europe, from England and Spain to the Baltic and Eastern Europe, John Aberth focuses his study on three key areas: the natural elements of air, water, and earth; the forest; and wild and domestic animals. Through this multi-faceted lens, An Environmental History of the Middle Ages sheds fascinating new light on the medieval environmental mindset. It will be essential reading for students, scholars and all those interested in the Middle Ages

Download or read book The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages written by Dales and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work presents a connected account of western European thought from the Patristic age to the mid-fourteenth century. Dales aims to keep his reader close to the sense of the texts, which he translates, frequently at some length, or summarizes in his exposition. He attempts to include important matters which are generally omitted in broad treatments — the chapter on the tenth century is the longest in the book — but the author's choice of topics is fully justified by his special intimacy with what he elects to discuss, particularly the hexameral tradition (ancient and medieval), the scientific tradition, twelfth-century treatises on nature and cosmology, discussions of the eternity of the world, and the thought of Robert Grosseteste. This adds a personal and distinctive character to the word. Dales stresses throughout the diversity and vigor of medieval thought, qualities which he illustrates widely from Latin and vernacular poetry and literature of various kinds as well as from philosophical and theological texts.

Download or read book The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages written by Richard C. Dales and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1992 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A connected account of European thought from the Patristic age through the mid-fourteenth century, and emphasizing educational systems, the interaction between the popular and elite cultures, and medieval humanism; with excellent interpretive chapters on science and philosophy.

Download or read book The Book of Nature in Early Modern and Modern History written by Klaas van Berkel and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 22-25 May, 2002, the University of Groningen hosted an international conference on 'The Book of Nature. Continuity and change in European and American attitudes towards the natural world'. From Antiquity down to our own time, theologians, philosophers and scientists have often compared nature to a book, which might, under the right circumstances, be read and interpreted in order to come closer to the 'Author' of nature, God. The 'reading' of this book was not regarded as mere idle curiosity, but it was seen as leading to a deeper understanding of God's wisdom and power, and it culturally legitimated and promoted a positive attitude towards nature and its study. A selection of the papers which were delivered at the conference has been edited in two volumes. The first book was published as The Book of Nature in Antiquity and the Middle Ages; this second volume is devoted to the history of that concept after the Middle Ages.