Philosophy Commons^™

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. …

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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.

Observations On Pulci's Reworking Of The Anonymous Orlando, Madison U. Sowell

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As a preface to the observations which follow on Luigi Pulci's treatment of the anonymous Orlando in the composition of his chief work, Il Morgante, it should be noted that in the past four decades several scholars in Italy have published significant books on Pulci's chivalric poem. Giovanni Getto published the first edition of his renowned Studio sul "Morgante" in 1944; Gaetano Mariani produced his long comparative essay on Il Morgante e i cantari trecenteschi in 1958; in 1967, the year of the second edition of Getto's study, Angelo Gianni gave us his interpretation of the Morgante's two …

Antonio Possevino, S.J. As A Counter-Reformation Critic Of The Arts, John Patrick Donnelly S.J.

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The Protestant Reformation called into question many traditions and practices of the Church, including the traditional relation of art to religion. Many Protestant theologians, for instance Calvin and especially Zwingli, condemned religious statues and art as idolatrous or superstitious, partly on the basis of Old Testament prohibitions. Luther and Lutherans approved of religious paintings but rejected the cult of the saints that had figured so largely in medieval and Renaissance religious art. In the Lutheran tradition religious art was more closely tied to the Bible, another manifestation fo the sola scriptura principle. In Catholic circles as well there arose lively …

"The Wyclyf" — Thrills And Dangers Of Editing A Medieval Text, Allen D. Breck

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In 1983 we shall be observing the six hundredth anniversary of the death of one of England's great contributors, along with William of Ockham and John Duns Scotus, to the thought, learning, and literature of the fourteenth century. John Wyclyf died at the comparatively advanced age oof sixty-four after two years' illness attendant upon a stroke, on St. Sylvester's day, December 31, 1384. He had been stricken a second time while hearing Mass said by his curate in his parish church at Lutterworth, some thirteen miles northeast of Coventry. We know nothing about his burial, save that in accordance with …

"Diuine Resemblaunce": Colin Clout's Vision Of Grace, John C. Ulreich

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Colin Clout's vision of the Graces is the imaginative center of Book VI, and in a sense of the whole Faerie Queene, "the sacred noursery / Of vertue" (VI. Proem 3), wherein both the Knight of Courtesy and the reader are instructed in the "vertuous and gentle disciple" of the imagination ("Letter to Raleigh," II, 495). Spenser's readers have been virtually unanimous in their agreement with C. S. Lewis, that the vision on Mount Acidale is "the key to Spenser's whole conception of Courtesy." But there has been considerably less agreement about the precise significance of Spenser's vision. In …

Demonic Patterns In Tasso And Spenser, John Mulryan

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The term "demon" has embraced a variety of meanings over the centuries, and, while it can include the notion of one's own inner genius, or of a sprite midway between the gods and men, it is usually construed as an evil spirit, as Augustine said long ago:

... there is scarcely a man, no matter how well read and learned, whoo would dare say by way of praise to his slave, You have a demon, or who could doubt that the man to whom he said this would consider it a curse? Why, then, are we to subject ourselves to …

The Historical Evolution Of The Death Of King John In Three Renaissance Plays, Carole Levin

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Although King John died of dysentery in 1216, three Renaissance dramas, John Bale's King Johan, The Troublesome Reign of King John, and Shakespeare's King John, reflect the influence of late medieval legends that John was dramatically poisoned. Bale and the anonymous author of The Troublesome Reign emphasize the horror of the king's death, dwelling upon his role as a religious leader; Shakespeare, however, separates John from the kingship, focusing our attention upon a frightened man. This separation echoes the medieval political theory that the kingship is composed of two bodies. By deliberately stripping away the Christian images that …

A Question Of Influence: Two Sixteenth-Century Lutheran Music Sources, Laura Youens

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In 1956, the eminent German musicologist Lothar Hoffmann-Erbrecht published a catalogue of the manuscript Rostock, University Library, MS Mus. Saec. XVI-29 (henceforth Rostock 49). This large musical source was compiled and copied in 1566 by Jacob Praetorius (c. 1530-1586), principal organist at St. Jakobi in Hamburg from 1558 to his death. According to the lengthy Latin preface to his Opus musicum excellens et novum, Rostock 49 originally comprised eight groups of compositions organized by genre. Only four of these groups are extant, and, from an inscription on the binding, it is clear that the other four sections were bound …

Distortion As A Means Of Reassessment: Marguerite De Navarre's Heptameron And The "Querelle Des Femmes", Deborah N. Losse

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The crisis of sexual assault, with its many psychological implications, occupies a significant place in the narrative of Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron, composed in the first half of the sixteenth century at the height of the "Querelle des Femmes." If the storytellers conclude that parfaite amitié is with few exceptions inaccessible, it is in the scenes of sexual aggression that one witnesses the ascendancy of human passion over the formalized code of courtly love.

Vegetable Love: Metamorphosis And Morality In Hesperides, Frances M. Malpezzi

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Recent critics of Hesperides, less content than their predecessors with the plucking of but one of Herrick's golden apples, the examination of its beauty, and the savoring of its sweetness, have attempted the task of surveying the landscape of the entire garden, elucidating the pattern of its design, and identifying the various species of plants growing therein. The emphasis now is on seeing Hesperides as an integrated and thematically unified construct. The studies by Whitaker, Chambers, Deming, Rollin, and DeNeef are concerned with the ceremonial mode that pervades the poems in Hesperides. The consensus of these writers is …

Shakespeare's And Plutarch's Brutus: Shakespeare's Dramatic Strategy To Undercut The Noble Image, Shirley Rish

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Modern critics of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar frequently challenge the view that Brutus was in fact "the noblest Roman of them all,' but only rarely do they completely repudiate Brutus' characterization as a patriotic idealist. They are of course aware of ironic and ambiguous elements in the tragedy, but they fail to take the step that would seem obvious: to note how Shakespeare undercut Brutus' noble image by carefully manipulating materials from the principal source for the play, Sir Thomas North's English translation of Plutarch's Lives.

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Medieval Studies In America And American Medievalism, Herwig Wolfram

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As far as one can tell, Ernst Robert Curtius appears to have been the first Central European so fascinated by American interest in the Middle Ages that he promised a study on the subject. He called this particular interplay oof academic, amateur, and popular interest "American Medievalism." According to his bibliography, the projected work never appeared, but a lecture he was asked to present to an American audience in 1949 was published in both the North American and Hispano-American editions of his famous book European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages.

The Celestial Sign On Constantine's Shields At The Battle Of The Mulvian Bridge, Charles Odahl

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Most scholars now accept the reality and sincerity of Constantine's conversion to Christianity during his military campaign against Maxentius for control of Rome in A.D. 312—provided that "conversion" is understood in terms of the superstitious religious environment of the times. The ancient pagan and Christian sources that described the campaign all agreed that the war was waged in an atmosphere of intense religious fervor, even superstitiosa maleficia as one source described it, and that each commander appealed to divine power for aid against his enemy. Christian accounts of the campaign reported that Constantine turned to the Christian God at this …

Some Observations Of The Deposition Of Archbishop Theodulf Of Orleans In 817, Thomas F. X. Noble

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Theodulf of Orleans, called by Ann Freeman "one of the brightest lights of the Carolingian Renaissance," is one of the most fascinating individuals in the history of the eighth and ninth centuries. He was a fine poet, perhaps the best of the Carolingian era, and more than 4,000 of his verses survive. His Paranesis ad iudices and his work on the filioque dispute indicate that he was a skilled controversialist. Finally, his authorship of the Libri Carolini, the massive Carolingian treatise against the positions on icons taken by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, reflects a theological knowledge …

Who Cast Donne's Tolling Bells?, J. X. Evans

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The following paragraph from a funeral sermon written in 1620 by Charles Fitz-Geffrey (1575-1637), an Anglican clergyman, contains imagery so much like John Donne's celebrated figure in Devotion XVII (1624) that it should come to the attention of readers interested in Donne and the literature oof Jacobean England:

Do they who close the eyes and cover the face f the Dead consider that their eyes must be closed, and their faces covered? Or they who shroud the Coarse remember that they themselves shortly must be shrouded? Or they who ring the Knell consider that shortly the Bels must goe the …

The Dynamics Of Pietas In Ben Jonson's Catiline, Wilson F. Engel Iii

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Ben Johnson's Catiline, the exemplary Renaissance tragedy, has only recently been studied in detail for its menacing statement about Republican politics, and since no thorough reading of the play appeared until the 1950s, no received critical opinion need stand between the reader and the text. The disadvantage of this state of affairs is clear—any reading is liable to partake of the imbalance of contemporary criticism lamented by Richard Levin in New Readings vs. Old Plays. After Ellen M. T. Duffy demonstrated that Jonson made the most of Renaissance scholarship in his use of the classics, a number of …

A Reexamination Of The Development Of Protestantism During The Early English Reformation, John K. Yost

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G.R. Elton's recent investigations of the relation between humanist reform and reformist government during the 1530's leave us with no uncertainty about Cromwell's beliefs regarding Protestantism. Elton concludes from an anonymous letter fo 1538, which he ascribes to the eminent civil and canon lawyer John Oliver, that "as early as 1531 or 1532, therefore, Thomas Cromwell was thinking along reformed lines and lines of evangelical theology...." Moreover, he reports how Cromwell "told the prior of Kingswood: by him 'the Word of God, the gospel of Christ, is not only favoured but also perfected, set forth, maintained, increased and defended'."

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Catharsis In Aristotle, The Renaissance, And Elsewhere, Thomas Clayton

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In an essay on "Shakespeare and the Kinds of Drama," Stephen Orgel presents an appealing and sympathetic view of Renaissance dramatic-generic theory and practice as original, capacious, and flexible, concluding that, "like Scaliger, Shakespeare thought of genres not as sets of rules but as sets of expectations and possibilities." In relation to this finding, we should perhaps be content to be "unclear about tragic catharsis," because "at least we know it is there, convincing us that tragedy works—even if we do not know how or on whom" (p.120). As the Renaissance read Aristotle, "tragedy achieved its end by purging …