Philosophy Commons^™

A Case Of Double Inscription: Carlos De Sigüenza Y Góngora's Infortunios De Alonso Ramírez, Lee H. Dowling

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Among the early works of Latin American prose literature, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora's Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez has attracted a relatively large share of critical attention. Much of this has stemmed from an interest in tracing the antecedents of the Latin American novel – the novel believed to represent a prestigious literary genre whose comparatively late appearance in Latin America has been the theme of much discussion. While such interest led a number of critics to reread Infortunios and other comparable early works with renewed interest, evaluations stemming from the search for a nucleus of characteristics derived from the …

An Unpublished German Manuscript Of The Sixteenth Century, Heinz Bluhm

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The Newberry Library has an unpublished German manuscript of 1562 that will be of interest to students of the sixteenth century. Since to my knowledge no one has called attention to the existence of this manuscript, I am providing a transcription of the text together with a reproduction of the first and last pages.

Poetic Discourse And Performance Text: Toward A Semiotics Of The Comedia, Edward H. Friedman

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"... to read the sign is not only to understand its function in the aesthetic or fictional ensemble to the exclusion of the outside world, it is to seek the link between the sign and the referer, the aesthetic and the political, delirium and deliverance."

Patrice Pavis, Languages of the Stage

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No abstract provided.

The Grand Peur Of 1348-49: The Shock Wave Of The Black Death In The German Southwest, Steven Rowan

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The massacre of most fo the Jewish communities in Western Germany and what is now Switzerland between late 1348 and the middle of 1349 permanently altered the position of Jews in Central Europe, both by shifting the Jewish population eastward and by moving those Jews who remained behind to the periphery of economic society. A close examination of the chronology of the massacres on the local level rapidly disproves the traditional interpretation that the massacres were attacks of the classic 'scapegoat' type made in response to the onset of the first great modern European plague. Although the first massacres outside …

Chaucer's Physicians: Their Texts, Contexts, And The Canterbury Tales, Elizabeth Penley Skerpan

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In the Canterbury Tales, the pilgrim Chaucer lists an impressive series of medical authors whom his fellow pilgrim the Physician is supposed to have read. As we continue past the General Prologue, we discover that these writers do not merely embellish the PHysician's claims to a well-rounded medical education: two are actually mentioned in the course of story-telling, though, oddly, not by the Physician, but by the Pardoner and Parson. These two pilgrims' references appear in tales more concerned with spiritual than physical healing and health, and indeed the Parson preaches on the "cure" of sins as a necessary …

Medieval Materials And Methods For Teaching French In England, Carol J. Harvey

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Following the Conquest of England in 1066, the Norman dialect oof French was in use as both a spoken and a literary language of England. Immigration continued sporadically for over two centuries, facilitated by the fact that the kings of England were also dukes of Normandy. Indeed, when Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the whole of western France form Normandy to the Pyrenees was for a time under the sway of the English kings. Although John Lackland lost many French possessions in 1204, migration may actually have intensified as he encouraged the many Frenchmen whoo disliked conditions …

The Deserted Chamber: An Unnoticed Topos In The "Father's Lament" Of Beowulf, Richard Schrader

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Swa bi∂ geomorlic gomelum ceorle

to gebidanne, þæt his byre ride

giong on galgan; þonne he gyd wrece....

Gesyh∂ sorhcearig on his suna bure

winsele westne, windge reste

reote berofene,– ridend swefa∂,

hæ le∂ in ho man; nis r hearpan sweg,

gomen in geardum, swylce ∂ær iu wæ ron.

Gewite∂ þonne on sealman, sorhleo∂ gæ le∂

an æfter anum; uhte him eall to rum,

wongas ond wicstede. (2444-46, 2455-62)

[So it is sad for an old man to experience his young son's riding on the gallows; let him then recite a song.... Sorrowing, he sees in his son's chamber a …

Violence And The Plague In Aragón, 1348-1351, Melanie V. Shirk

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As Philip Ziegler has noted, "Statistics alone cannot provide an adequate picture of the Black Death." To say that one-quarter or one-third or one-half of Europe's population perished within a few years gains the reader's attention, but does not convey what such a brutal calamity meant to the average person at the time. The fourteenth century suffered many calamities, but the sudden and mysterious appearance of the Black Death, with no known cause or cure, msut surely have been the most terrifying.

Full Issue

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No abstract provided.

The Image Of The Child In The English Mystery Cycles, Marilyn Sutton

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Recent studies in family history have largely reaffirmed the commonplace that, prior to the Renaissance, children were seldom seen and rarely heard. Philippe Ariès and Lawrence Stone, for their parts, have traced the evolution of the concepts of childhood, privacy, and the conjugal family; the point of origin for each, they fix in the Renaissance. But encyclopedic as Ariès and Stone have been in researching their respective theories of "undiscovered childhood" and "conscious limitation of affection", they, nevertheless, have slighted the testimony of the popular literature of the English Middle Ages, an oversight that has led them to establish arbitrary …

John Skelton: Courtly Maker/Popular Poet, Nancy A. Gutierrez

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The eight poems in Latin and English written at the time of the English victory at Flodden Field in 1513 are various combinations of praise, vituperation, satire, and polemic, reflecting the attitudes of their authors. John Skelton, Thomas More, Peter Carmelianus, and Bernard André. These courtly makers, homogeneous in both their humanist background and court employment, see the battle essentially the same way–as an occasion to celebrate their royal employer and to abuse his enemy–thus the differing verse forms and slanted treatments are grounded in a common point of view. However, John Skelton, as author of three of the eight …

Petrarch's Rhetorical Reticentia As Politics, Lucia Re

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A discussion of Petrarch's politics must take into account the historicity of politics itself: political science, as distinct from other disciplines, is generally believed to originate with Machiavelli. It would therefore be anti-historical to attribute to Petrarch a systematic political vision (as it is understood today). The modern claim for the independence of political theory and practice is as alien to Petrarch as the possibility of a theologically integrated political vision: Petrarch could not and would not have written either Il Prinicpe or Dante's De Monarchia. Nevertheless, I will speak of Petrarch's politics not only because, at a very …

Iconoclasm As A Revolutionary Tactic: The Case Of Switzerland 1524-1536, Carlos M. N. Eire

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Iconoclasm, Revolution and the Reformation: Some Observations.

"That Most Erudite Of Tudor Lawyers,' Christopher St. German, R. J. Schoeck

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Christopher St. German: The Man and His Family

William Turner's Use Of The Dialogue Form As A Weapon Of Religious Controversy, R. Pineas

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While the entire subject of Tudor religious polemics has been more often regretted than studied, some of the more prominent controversialists, such as William Tyndale or Thomas More, have received some attention, but such has not been the fate of William Turner (?-1568). No full-length treatment of Turner exists, and what studies there are concern themselves mainly with his activities as a naturalist. This is all the more surprising when one considers that of all the radical Reformers who were dissatisfied with Henry VIII's reformation and transformation of the English Church into the Church of England, William Turner, physician to …

Bacon's Allegory Of Science: The Theater Of The New Atlantis, Patricia Demers

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I conceive that I perform the office of a true priest of the sense (from which all knowledge in nature must be sought, unless men mean to go mad) and a not unskilful interpreter of its oracles. ("The Plan of the Work," The Great Instauration)

Dramatic poesy among the ancients ... has been regarded by learned men and great philosophers as a kind of musician's bow by which men's minds may be played upon. (Translation of the "De Augmentis," The Second Book)

Lufly And Its Variants In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Jacqueline De Weever

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When Gawain enters the great hall of Bercilak's castle, he is welcomed and made to feel at home with a fine meal and fresh garments, and the lords and ladies, learning that he is Sir Gawain of King Arthur's court, say to one another:

'In menyng of manerez mere

þis burne now schal vus bryng,

I hope þaat may hym here

Schal lerne of luf-talking.' (924-927)

"Luf-talking" is Gawain's most famous attribute, and the adjectives and adverbs lufly, luflych, luflyly appear with the second highest frequency among adjectives and adverbs in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, …

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Shirley's The Lady Of Pleasure: The Dialect Of Earth And Sky, Tony J. Stafford

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At the beginning of James Shirley's The Lady of Pleasure, Aretina's Steward tells her that if she will be patient, she will have her pleasure. Aretina, who has just come up from the country, makes it clear that finding pleasure is precisely her reason for coming to London. Thus introduces to her, we assume that she is the lady of pleasure referred to in the play's title. Indeed, Aretina's constant effort throughout the play to indulge in city fun seems to confirm our first impression. But we miss the play's subtlety if we accept the obvious, for Shirley seems …

Robert Herrick's "His Grange, Or Private Wealth": A Gentleman Farmer's Ledger, Clara E. Fendley

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In The Arte of English Poesie (1589), George Puttenham describes certain "Geometricall figures," i.e., shaped poems, written in the "Courts of the great Princes of China and Tartarie." Puttenham argues that the concise verse forms

insinuat some secret, wittie, morall and brave purpose presented to the beholder, either to recreate his eye, or please his phantasie, or examine his iudgement, or occupie his braine or to manage his will either by hope or by dread, every of which respects be of no little moment to the interest and ornament of the civill life: and therefore give them no litle commendation. …

Full Issue

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No abstract provided.

Resurrection And Celestial Jerusalem: The Influence Of The Easter Liturgy On The Nave Decoration Of St. Maurice At Vienne, Ricki Weinberger

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The unfinished Romanesque nave of the cathedral of Vienne is a fascinating monument. Begun around 1140, the building campaign appears to have ended abruptly in the 1160's with only the lower story of the seven easternmost bays of the nave completed. The rest of the church was finished during the Gothic period. Despite its unfinished state, the twelfth century structure is richly decorated, with fluted pilasters and pointed arches, ornate mouldings, and over sixty figural and vegetal capitals (Fig. 1). The beauty and complexity of this program are evident; however its subtleties have not been thoroughly explored as yet.

Oral Hygiene In Elizabethan England, Karl H. Dannenfeldt

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The men and women of Elizabethan England were well aware of their living in an age of transition. The old order was changing and empirical maxims were replacing the ideals of classical humanism. The new courtier and the new man of the middle class searched for pragmatic rules that led to success, recognition, and a more gracious way of life that befitted the new wealth.

The Elizabethan Clerk Of The Privy Council, F. J. Platt

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One of the least understood facts of Elizabethan administrative history is the importance of the clerkship of the Privy Council. Considered a position of "no small esteem," this "office was singularly rich in men of distinction." Indeed, with the exception of a select few privy councilors, it was the Council clerks who handled the lion's share of the day-to-day business of English government.

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"Bishop Avitus Of Vienne And Teh Burgundian Kingdom, A. D. 494-518", Harry Rosenberg

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Late antiquity provides the matrix for the complex historical development of early medieval church-state relations. Old values and social structures were eroded and replaced by new ones in the Germanic kingdoms established within the fragments of the western Roman Empire.

On The Syntax Of The Provençal Possessives, Frede Jensen

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It is well-known to anyooone involved in the pursuit of foreign language study that possessive adjectives serve to express a variety of relationships which are often far removed from the basic notion of possession. A Frenchman calls "his" not only the things he owns (ma maison, ma voiture, mes livres, mon argent) and the ingredients that constitute the physical, mental or moral make-up of his personality (ma vigueur, ma bonté, mon intelligence, mon calme, etc.), but he also extends his ownership, as it were, to the circle of people he comes into contact with and to a variety of …

The Zodiac Man In Medieval Medical Astrology, Charles Clark

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A naked male figure was a familiar illustration in many medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. Standing with his legs and arms slightly spread, the twelve images or names of the zodiac were superimposed on his body, from his head (Aries) to his feet (Pisces). Used as a quick reference by physicians, barber-surgeons, and even laymen, the figure indicated the part of the body which was "ruled" by a specific sign of the zodiac. Once the correct sign was determined for the particular part of the body, the proper time for surgery, bloodletting, administration of medication, or even the cutting of hair …

From Medieval To Renaissance: Paradigm Shifts And Artistic Problems In English Renaissance Drama, John Boni

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In describing the change from Medieval to Renaissance, Theodore Spencer writes;

There finally came a time when realism, at first connected inextricably with religion, was used for its own sake. What we call the Renaissance began at that moment.

For Spencer, "realism" denotes an increased concern with depicting the actual world itself. As an illustration, one may cite the exclamation attributed to Paolo Uccello, "What a wonderful thing is this perspective!", an exclamation over a technique which aided him in more accurate representation of the world as he had begun to perceive it.