Medieval Studies Commons^™

The Seven Seals Of The Apocalypse: Medieval Texts In Translation, Francis X. Gumerlock

TEAMS Commentary Series

Filling today's religious book market are Apocalypse commentaries teaching that the seven seals of Revelation 5–8 describe tragedies that are to take place in the last days. Medieval Europeans, on the other hand, thought very differently about the seven seals. Some used the seven seals for catechetical purposes and associated them with seven major events in the life of Christ or seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Other medieval writers taught that the seven seals contained symbols about life in the church between the first and second comings of Christ. Still others viewed the seals as milestones in the grand …

Richard Newhauser (Ed.), The Seven Deadly Sins: From Communities To Individuals (Book Review), Denise A. Kaiser

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Denise Kaiser:

ISBN 9789004157859

Alexander In The Himalayas: Competing Imperial Legacies In Medieval Islamic History And Literature, Anna Akasoy

Publications and Research

In 1888, Rudyard Kipling published a collection of stories in a volume with the title The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Tales. The collection includes the short story The Man Who Would be King, in which Kipling's alter ego, a British journalist in India, makes the acquaintance of a pair of adventurers, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan, who demand his help as a fellow Mason. The two shady characters have set out to take advantage of divisions among the natives and are determined to install themselves as kings in Kafiristan, a remote region inhabited by pagans in the north of the …

The Rhetoric(S) Of St. Augustine's Confessions, James M. Farrell

Communication

In this essay, I offer a sympathetic reading of the rhetoric(s) of Augustine’s Confessions. First, as a historian of rhetoric I am interested in what Augustine’s narrative can tell us about the theory and practice of rhetoric in the late classical period and the early Christian era. From this perspective, I am interested in exploring what Augustine discloses about the rhetoric he learned in the provincial Roman schools, and taught at Carthage, Rome, and Milan. Second, I am interested in Augustine’s own work on rhetoric, especially his De Doctrina Christiana, most of which he composed during the period right before …

The Shepherd Goes To War: Santo Domingo Revisited, Martha Daas

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

The thirteenth century was witness to a revolution in personal piety and the Camino de Santiago represented this new age. Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages became not only a symbol of devotion, but also a powerful method of active participation in one’s own salvation.¹ The importance of this burgeoning individualism is reflected by the miracle tales of a saint who is connected both spiritually and geographically to Santiago and his trail. Like the miracles attributed to the patron saint, the miracles of Santo Domingo de Silos, as they are interpreted by Gonzalo de Berceo, reflect this revolution in personal …

Review Of Gendering Disgust In Medieval Religious Polemic, William I. Miller

Reviews

Ms. Cuffel works with sources in Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, Latin, and more than a few of the various medieval vernaculars, which has to be somewhat intimidating to a reviewer whose connection with the me- dieval is Old Icelandic and Old English and whose connection with Hebrew was via the whip of Bar Mitzvah and who learned all the words needed to vaccinate anally thousands of chickens in the lul, the chick- enhouse, on a kibbutz way back in 1964. I thus have to take the author at her word except, I suppose, when it comes to knowledge of the re- …

Landscapes Of Conversion: Guthlac's Mound And Grendel's Mere As Expressions Of Anglo-Saxon Nation Building, Paul Siewers

Faculty Contributions to Books

An examination of the Old English poem Beowulf as a landscape-text, expressing the Anglo-Saxon project of political hegemony over native peoples and environments.

Vengeance And The Crusades, Susanna A. Throop

History Faculty Publications

This article demonstrates that the popularity of the idea of crusading as vengeance was not limited to the laity, and, instead of fading away after 1099, the ideology grew more widespread as the twelfth century progressed. The primary aim here is to present the evidence alongside preliminary analysis, reserving further, more detailed interpretation for future publications.

The Liturgy Of The Medieval Church, Thomas Heffernan, E. Ann Matter

TEAMS Varia

This volume seeks to address the needs of teachers and advanced students who are preparing classes on the Middle Ages or who find themselves confounded in their studies by reference to the various liturgies that were fundamental to the lives of medieval peoples. In a series of essays, scholars of the liturgy examine "The Shape of the Liturgical Year," "Particular Liturgies," "The Physical Setting of the Liturgy," "The Liturgy and Books," and "Liturgy and the Arts." A concluding essay, which originated in notes left behind by the late C. Clifford Flanigan, seeks to open the field, to examine "liturgy" within …

The Glossa Ordinaria On The Song Of Songs, Mary Dove

TEAMS Commentary Series

In this translation of glosses on the Song of Songs, Mary Dove offers a readily accessible and inexpensive resource for students and scholars. Anselm of Laon, possibly assisted by his brother Ralph, is credited with compiling the Glossa Ordinaria on the Song of Songs, drawing from earlier commentaries by Origen, Gregory the Great, Bede, Alcuin, Hrabanus Maurus, Haimo of Auxerre, and Robert of Tombelaine as well as contributing his own readings of the text. As Dove notes in her introduction, the text is quite complicated, with each manuscript page divided into three columns - the biblical text in large …

Church Island : A Description, Frank Prendergast, Michael Ryan, Kevin Mooney, Barry Masterson

Books/Book Chapters

None

Ava's New Testament Narratives: "When The Old Law Passed Away", James A. Rushing Jr.

TEAMS Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions

Ava is the first woman whose name we know who wrote in German. She wrote her poem - or poems - on the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ sometime early in the twelfth century, no later than 1127. It seems certain that she was a layperson, and her work reflects a level of learning that raises all sorts of interesting questions about the education of the laity, especially the education of lay woman, and about the nature of authorship in the Middle Ages, generally and particularly in medieval Germany.

On The Truth Of Holy Scripture, John Wyclif, Ian Christopher Levy

TEAMS Commentary Series

Wyclif sought the restoration of an idealized past even if that meant taking revolutionary steps in the present to recover what had been lost. His 1377-78 On the Truth of Holy Scripture represents such an effort in reform: the recognition of the inherent perfection and veracity of the Sacred Page which serves as the model for daily conduct, discourse, and worship, thereby forming the foundation upon which Christendom itself is to be ordered.

Second Thessalonians: Two Early Medieval Apocalyptic Commentaries, Steven R. Cartwright, Kevin L. Hughes

TEAMS Commentary Series

Apocalyptic speculation, in one form or another, is as persistent at the turn of this millennium as it was at the last. The commentaries of Haimo of Auxerre and Thietland of Einsiedeln offer glimpses of two links in [the] unbroken chain of the apocalyptic tradition.

"I Am The Creator": Birgitta Of Sweden's Feminine Divine, Yvonne Bruce

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sovereignty And Salvation In The Vernacular, 1050-1150: Das Ezzolied, Das Annolied, Die Kaiserchronik, Vv. 247-667, Das Lob Salomons, Historia Judith, James A. Schultz

TEAMS Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions

These texts will be of interest because they represent a kind of writing - at the intersection of ecclesiastical and secular power, drawing on the whole range of medieval Latin learning, yet written in vernacular verse - that is not found elsewhere in the European Middle Ages. In addition, they may be of use in teaching since, although relatively short, they illustrate a great number of characteristic medieval ways of writing and can be linked to a number of quite remarkable historical figures.

Monastic Approaches To Medicine In The Middle Ages, Christopher Callahan

Scholarship

Nature and God are linked through the creative power of the Word, for which Hildegard coined the term viriditas or “greening power”. Viriditas is the life force which brings all of us into wholeness and into balance with Nature, and is the key to finding our way to God. In this way, Hildegard stands at the pinnacle of medieval Christian medicine. Having evolved beyond excessive reliance on the occult and perched on the cusp of a revival of scholastic medicine, she exemplifies the naturalistic bent of the best of monastic thought. Fusing what ancient medical knowledge was available with a …

Córdoban Discourses: A Drama Of Interreligious Dialogue, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

SETTING: Cordoba, Spain, 1135 CE, 29th year of the reign of ‘Ali “amir al-muslimin,” second king of the Berber Almoravid dynasty, rulers of Moorish Spain from 1071 to 1147. Cordoba, the capital of Andalus and the center of the Almoravid holdings in Spain, is a bustling cosmopolitan center, a crossroads for Europe and the Middle East, and the meeting-point of three religious traditions. Most significantly, Cordoba at this time is the hub of European intellectual activity. From the square—itself impressively large and surrounded by a massive collonade, the regularity and ordered beauty of which typifies the Moorish taste for symmetry …

Rabbi Ezra Ben Solomon Of Gerona, Commentary On The Song Of Songs And Other Kabbalistic Commentaries, Seth Brody

TEAMS Commentary Series

The commentary of Rabbi Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona (d. ca. 1245) on the Song of Songs is one of the most important texts of the first clearly identified circle of Kabbalists, those operating in the Catalonian town of Gerona at the middle of the thirteenth century.

Early Latin Commentaries On The Apocalypse, Francis X. Gumerlock

TEAMS Commentary Series

Many commentaries on the Apocalypse were produced in the early Middle Ages. This book provides translations of two Apocalypse commentaries from the seventh and eighth centuries. On the Mysteries of the Apocalypse of John is part of a large one-volume "Reference Bible" composed about 750. Written probably by an Irish teacher residing in northern France, it answers difficulties arising from the biblical text. The Handbook on the Apocalypse of the Apostle John, attributed erroneously to Jerome and written before 767, contains brief moral and allegorical interpretations of particular words and phrases of the Apocalypse. The introduction highlights the unique …

Nicholas Of Lyra's Apocalypse Commentary, Philip D.W. Krey

TEAMS Commentary Series

Surveys of the history of biblical exegesis and, in particular, the history of Apocalypse commentaries rarely fail to allude to Nicholas of Lyra O.F.M. (1270-1349) as the greatest biblical exegete of the fourteenth century. Late medieval and Reformation verses were written about him. Nicholas was born in the town of Lyre, near Evreux in Normandy. Since Evreux was a center of Jewish studies, he was able to cultivate his interest in Hebrew and to become thoroughly acquainted with the Talmud, Midrash, and the works of Rashi (Solomon ben Issac, 1045-1105). Lyra's attraction to Rashi's literal method would have a profound …

Medieval Exegesis In Translation: Commentaries On The Book Of Ruth, Lesley Smith

TEAMS Commentary Series

This book brings together and translates from the medieval Latin a series of commentaries on the biblical book of Ruth, with the intention of introducing readers to medieval exegesis or biblical interpretation. . . . Ruth is the shortest book of the Old Testament, being only four chapters long. It is partly for this reason that it lends itself so well to a short book introducing medieval exegesis; but it is also of interest in itself. Ruth poses a number of exegetical problems, including the basic one of why such an odd book, in which God never appears as an …

Christian Missionary Activity In The Early Middle Ages (Book Review), June-Ann Greeley

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Six essays by author Richard E. Sullivan. "Church historians, medieval historians, and all medieval scholars, especially those of the early Middle Ages, take note: this is a volume of well-written, expertly documented, and perceptive scholarship, well worth a close read from cover to cover"--from the review.

Commentary On The Book Of Jonah: Haimo Of Auxerre, Deborah Everhart

TEAMS Commentary Series

Haimo of Auxerre's Commentary on the Book of Jonah was probably written as a study text for scholars in the monastery. His basic method is to present a verse from the Book of Jonah, then offer condensed versions of the diverse and occasionally contradictory interpretations of that verse that were available to him. For example, he displays familiarity with the commentaries written earlier by Jerome and Origen. He provides allegorical, literal, moral, and ecclesiastical interpretations. He moves freely between the language of his commentary and the language of the Bible, and he demonstrates the interrelatedness of his own text and …

The Last World Emperor And The Angelic Pope: Eschatological Figures As Representative Of The Medieval Struggle Of “Sacerdotium" And “Imperium”, Christopher Joseph Beiting

Masters Theses

In adopting the Christian faith, medieval people also obtained a tradition within Christianity, that of esehatology. Because of this tradition, there was a receptiveness among some for prophetic visions of the future, visions of widely varied nature. Two very popular themes running through this visionary tradition involved two eschatological figures, the Last World Emperor and the Angelic Pope, whose advent would right all wrongs and transform medieval society. This thesis will examine elements of medieval political theory as they developed out of contemporary events. It will also trace the growth and development of the figures of the Last World Emperor …

Rapture In The Spirituality Of St. Thomas Aquinas, Diane L. Harwood

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Al-SultāNīYyā, Farida Makar

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Monasticon Praemonstratense: Id Est Historia Circariarum Atque Canoniarum Candidi Et Canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis / Vol. 3, Norbert Backmund, O.Praem.

Monasticon and Other Premonstratensian Texts

This fundamental work, three volumes in all and written in Latin, details the history of each Premonstratensian foundation from the beginning of the Order in 1121 through 1956. The volumes are organized by circary, each with a short history, bibliography and a list of abbots for each foundation. The volumes also include genealogical charts, circary maps, and images of the coat of arms for each abbey, if available.

Monasticon Praemonstratense: Id Est Historia Circariarum Atque Canoniarum Candidi Et Canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis / Vol. 2, Norbert Backmund, O.Praem.

Monasticon and Other Premonstratensian Texts

This fundamental work written in Latin, three volumes in all, details the history of each Premonstratensian foundation from the beginning of the Order in 1121 through 1956. The volumes are organized by circary, each with a short history, bibliography and a list of abbots for each foundation. The volumes also include genealogical charts, circary maps, and images of the coat of arms for each abbey, if available.

Monasticon Praemonstratense: Id Est Historia Circariarum Atque Canoniarum Candidi Et Canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis / Vol. 1, Norbert Backmund, O.Praem.

Monasticon and Other Premonstratensian Texts

This fundamental work written in Latin, three volumes in all, details the history of each Premonstratensian foundation from the beginning of the Order in 1121 through 1956. The volumes are organized by circary, each with a short history, bibliography and a list of abbots for each foundation. The volumes also include genealogical charts, circary maps, and images of the coat of arms for each abbey, if available.