{"title":"‘Christ and the soul are like Pyramus and Thisbe’: An Ovidian Story in Fifteenth-Century Sermons","authors":"P. Delcorno","doi":"10.1080/13660691.2016.1225386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13660691.2016.1225386","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The sophisticated ways in which several fifteenth-century preachers used Ovidian stories and their allegorical interpretations prove that late medieval sermons represent a promising but neglected area for classical reception studies. Preachers – whose names are today almost forgotten by scholars but whose sermons circulated at large in early printed books – considered Ovidian allegories as powerful instruments for instructing, entertaining, and moving their audiences. This article begins with a review of the literature on the presence of Ovid in sermons, and discusses the methodology to study the transformation of classical myths in preaching. Then, it focuses on four sermons that incorporated the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which appears in the sermon collections written by Conrad Grütsch, Johann Meder, and Jacobus de Lenda. The repeated use of this Ovidian myth allows us, therefore, to investigate how different preachers appropriated and re-elaborated this story, and the role that it played in diverse contexts. Finally, the analysis of these texts also sheds light on the use of the Ovidius moralizatus in fifteenth-century sermons.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"60 1","pages":"37 - 61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13660691.2016.1225386","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60289106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Un autographe retrouvé de Bernardin de Sienne L'Itinerarium anni","authors":"Sophie Delmas","doi":"10.1080/13660691.2016.1225381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13660691.2016.1225381","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Bernardino da Siena was one of the most successful preachers of the Franciscan observance. His autograph manuscript, the Itinerarium anni, which was lost in Siena in the eighteenth century, was recently rediscovered in a private collection. It contains several drafts of sermons; some of them are unpublished.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"60 1","pages":"2 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13660691.2016.1225381","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60289223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Popular Preaching in the Thirteenth Century: Rhetoric in the Fight against Heresy","authors":"Jeannine Horowitz","doi":"10.1080/13660691.2016.1225387","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13660691.2016.1225387","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Much has been said about the new path forged by preaching during the thirteenth century. In that era of economic revival and material development of towns and technology, along with innovation in scholastic methods, it seems only natural that mendicant preachers, firmly engaged in society, would infiltrate the social organisation and take the spiritual lead. Also, from that time on, eradicating heresy was paramount. Mendicant preachers, the spearhead of the papacy, devised new advanced rhetorical weapons that were able to reach far and wide. Indeed, close scrutiny of their activism reveals an innovative modus operandi, necessitated by the systems of communication for lay and clerical society alike. Based on the so-called ‘popular’ preachers' discourse and exempla, this article appraises and re-evaluates the character and efficiency of the means of communication applied through popular rhetoric in the enterprise of mass-persuasion in the face of a peril deemed to threaten the very foundations of Christian society. However, investigating the extent to which the anti-heretical preaching campaign, verbo et exemplo, reached its expected goal in the long run, given the increasingly repressive parallel mechanism of the Inquisition, exposes an asymptotic struggle.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"60 1","pages":"62 - 76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13660691.2016.1225387","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60289209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Girolamo Savonarola’s Critique of Astrology through the De doctrina Aristotelis","authors":"Lorenza Tromboni","doi":"10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000021","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes the De doctrina Aristotelis of Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), a collection of Latin notes concerning Aristotelian works. This recently edited text comprises a collection of passages, quotations and brief summaries from genuine and pseudo-epigraphical writings. This compilation was not intended for publication or public circulation; these personal notes were employed by the Dominican preacher in his sermons and treatises — in the plain Latin version or via a translation into the vernacular — as didactical devices or rhetorical tools. The text, together with a similar compilation of Platonic passages, the De doctrina Platonicorum, is preserved in the Conventi Soppressi, D.VIII.985 manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze. After outlining the De doctrina Aristotelis, the article focuses on several passages in the sermons and treatises (from Metaphysica, Physica, De caelo and Meteora) that criticize the scientific value of astrology, which was one of the most important targets of Savonarola’s critique of contemporaneous cultural tendencies.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"21 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65664915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Critical Edition of the Medieval Waldensian Sermons","authors":"Andrea Giraudo","doi":"10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000024","url":null,"abstract":"Early Waldensian literature1 is an outstanding source for the study of the Waldensian movement, as it is a rare direct testimony of a dissident medieval religious movement. One of the most important genres of that literature is represented by the as yet unpublished collection of about two hundred sermons,2 which is one of the main sources for the reconstruction of Waldensian preaching. The critical edition of this important corpus is the aim of a research group led by Luciana Borghi Cedrini (Professor of Romance Philology at the University of Turin). Established at the beginning of the millennium by the publishing house Claudiana in Turin, together with the Waldensian Studies Society and the Waldensian Church, the project is expected to be active at least until 2018 and it is officially supported by the Waldensian Faculty of Theology of Rome.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"59 1","pages":"74 - 77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65665407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Robert Rypon and the Creation of London, British Library, MS Harley 4894: A Master Preacher and his Sermon Collection","authors":"Holly Johnson","doi":"10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000022","url":null,"abstract":"London, British Library, MS Harley 4894 is a handsome manuscript containing the fifty-nine extant sermons of Master Robert Rypon, a monk of Durham priory in England at the turn of the fifteenth century. Complete with illuminated initials and a detailed index, this sermon collection attests not only to the high regard in which Rypon was held as a preacher but to the resources that the monks were willing to expend in preserving his sermons and making them accessible to current and future readers. Like a model sermon collection the sermons are arranged in liturgical order, and the manuscript employs a system of marginal annotations which, together with its index, is designed to help readers navigate the collection. This article presents evidence, palaeographical and textual, suggesting that Rypon himself is the mastermind behind the creation of Harley 4894.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"59 1","pages":"38 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65665063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Elephant In and Out of the Room: Remigio dei Girolami’s Responses to Charles de Valois","authors":"T. Rupp","doi":"10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000023","url":null,"abstract":"In November 1301, Charles de Valois, brother of French King Philip IV, entered Florence at the request of Pope Boniface VIII and his Florentine allies. While Charles’ mission was ostensibly peacemaking between Florence’s Black and White factions, in reality his visit led to violence and exile of leading Whites, including Dante. Much of what we know about these events was written in retrospect, from the chronicles of Compagni and Villani to Dante’s Commedia. The Florentine Dominican Remigio dei Girolami, however, preached two sermons that week that provide a more immediate impression. One was given at the official communal welcome ceremony for Charles. The other, one of his sermons De pace, was probably given at a semi-secret peace procession mentioned by Compagni. Rhetorical analysis of these two sermons shows that Remigio tailored his message to his audience. When Charles was present, Remigio diplomatically avoided the subject of factional division, instead advising Charles on his upcoming mission to Sicily (perhaps subtly encouraging him to get on with it and leave Florentine politics alone). In Charles’ absence, however, Remigio obliquely criticized Charles and stressed to his fellow-citizens that, as the sermon’s thema stated, peace was in their power.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"57 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65665188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rêves et visions dans le Liber de exemplis et similitudinibus rerum de Jean de San Gimignano","authors":"F. Morenzoni","doi":"10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000020","url":null,"abstract":"Dans le Liber de exemplis et similitudinibus rerum, Jean de San Gimignano consacre le septième livre aux produits de l’imagination, et plus particulièrement aux visions et aux rêves. Il y développe une réflexion qui vise à montrer à ses lecteurs supposés, en premier lieu aux prédicateurs, de quelles manières ceux-ci peuvent trouver leur place dans un sermon. L’article étudie comment le dominicain italien a envisagé l’utilisation des rêves bibliques et de leur interprétation à des fins homilétiques ainsi que l’attitude somme toute ambiguë de l’auteur du Liber de exemplis à l’égard des traités d’oniromancie.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"59 1","pages":"20 - 6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1366069115Z.00000000020","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65664806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Witness to the Early Reception of Bonaventure’s Collationes in Hexaëmeron: Nicholas of Ockham’s Leccio at Oxford (c. 1286) — Introduction and Text","authors":"Joshua C. Benson","doi":"10.1179/1366069114Z.00000000016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1366069114Z.00000000016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This essay presents a brief introduction to and an edition of Nicholas of Ockham’s Leccio at Oxford, which begins with the biblical verse, O altitudo diviciarum sapiencie et sciencie Dei (Romans 11. 33). This leccio may have been Nicholas’s inaugural sermon as a Master of Theology at Oxford and therefore dates to 1286. Whatever the precise genre of Nicholas’s leccio, the text is also important because much of it copies entire sections of St Bonaventure’s (d. 1274) Collationes in Hexaëmeron. Nicholas’s text is therefore a witness to Oxford University practices of the late thirteenth-century and to the late thirteenth-century reception of Bonaventure.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"58 1","pages":"28 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1366069114Z.00000000016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65664997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Legal Frameworks in the Sermons of Caesarius of Arles","authors":"I. Filippov","doi":"10.1179/1366069114Z.00000000015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1366069114Z.00000000015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The texts of Caesarius of Arles are rightly counted among the most important historical sources for the Early Middle Ages. Despite this well-known fact they are insufficiently studied from the point of view of social history. The domain of law is especially neglected. Information on this subject is contained mainly in the numerous comparisons which Caesarius drew between the religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices he strove to impose on his flock, and the social realities of Arles of his day. The juridical terminology which he occasionally used is also quite revealing. Most of the data is of course on canon law. It is less informative than one could have hoped but it does shed light on some important areas, such as the social make-up of the parishioners; attendance at church by women, youngsters, and slaves; baptismal practices; the tithe, and almsgiving. Caesarius’ sermons also contain valuable facts pertaining to the persistence of many Roman legal notions and practices belonging to what can be qualified as ‘civil law’. Of special interest are the different data concerning ownership rights. On the one hand, the sermons prove that Arlesians of the sixth century were for the most part content with quasi-legal notions sufficient to describe their rights in this domain. On the other hand, the bishop’s use of words leaves no doubt that the predominant legal notion regarding ownership, to the detriment of all others, was possession.","PeriodicalId":38182,"journal":{"name":"Medieval Sermon Studies","volume":"58 1","pages":"65 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1366069114Z.00000000015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65664947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}