{"title":"The Kingdom of Sicily and the Early University Movement","authors":"P. Oldfield","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.100425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.100425","url":null,"abstract":"The kingdom of Sicily is rarely afforded a prominent place in the early development of the medieval university, and analysis of its contribution is largely dominated by the perceived peculiarities of the university of Naples, founded by Frederick II in 1224. This article reinterprets southern Italy’s contribution during the formative period of the university movement, as well as the apparent atypical characteristics of the university at Naples and its significance. It emphasizes the important role played by South Italian students and masters across Europe in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. In addition, it provides evidence for a range of commonalities between Naples and other universities, suggesting that, in the context of origins, objectives, and the nature of learning, it was not an entirely exceptional institution. The article also identifies the areas in which the university impacted internally within the kingdom of Sicily.","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"55 1","pages":"135-150"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2009-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80435891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Auffahrtabend Prophecy and Henry of Langenstein: German Adaptation and Transmission of the “Visio fratris Johannis”","authors":"J. Deane","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.100357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.100357","url":null,"abstract":"One of the most widely circulating prophecies of the fifteenth century, the “Auffahrtabend” text was adapted into German from the late thirteenth-century Latin “Visio fratris Johannis,” and attributed to notables such as Hildegard of Bingen, the emperor Sigismund, and the theologian Henry of Langenstein. Despite its popularity and longevity, however, it has received only sporadic and often misleading treatment. Clarifying the origins, context, and significance of the “Auffahrtabend” prophecy, this article augments the known list of manuscript and early printed copies, pins down the provenance and transmission of the German text, and explores its historical milieu and meaning. Close analysis indicates that the prophecy was adapted between 1386 and 1396 by a member of Langenstein’s circle in Vienna, and that its contents were shaped by the fusion of anxieties about the Great Schism, fourteenth-century German and Bohemian political concerns, and apocalyptic expectations of the looming century’s end.","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"132 1","pages":"355-386"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87615776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"UTILIUS EST VERITATEM PROFERRE.\" A DIFFICULT MEMORY TO MANAGE: NARRATING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BISHOPS AND DUKES IN EARLY MEDIEVAL NAPLES","authors":"Luigi Andrea Berto","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.100205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.100205","url":null,"abstract":"The achievement of autonomy from the Byzantine Empire and the political fragmentation of southern Italy made the second half of the eighth century and the ninth century a crucial period for the history of Naples. In those years the Neapolitan rulers tried to legitimize and to strengthen their power, and during this process they attempted to take control of the Neapolitan Church, which inevitably led to conflicts with the local ecclesiastics. This article analyzes how this period is described in the Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum of John the Deacon, who probably composed this work between the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth century. It demonstrates that the author of the \"Deeds of the Neapolitan Bishops\" wanted to emphasize not only that all the Neapolitan prelates had taken care of the religious buildings and of their flock, but also that they had not been accommodating to secular power.","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"78 1","pages":"49-63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2008-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87732565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Oblivion, Memory, and Irony in Medieval Montecassino: Narrative Strategies of the “Chronicles of St. Benedict of Cassino”","authors":"Luigi Andrea Berto","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302075","url":null,"abstract":"The dissolution of the Lombard political unity in southern Italy and the Muslim military activities in that area rendered the ninth century a crucial yet troubled period for the history of this part of the Italian peninsula. The abbey of Montecassino was deeply affected by those events as well. Its riches, in fact, made it an easy target for the Muslims, who, after imposing heavy tributes on the monastery, sacked and destroyed it in 883. Several years had to pass before Saint Benedict’s monks could return to Montecassino. In the difficult period of exile they put a lot of effort in the reconstruction of their community’s identity as well as in reaffirming its role as repository of southern Italy’s memory. In this process of reconstruction the texts known as the “Chronicles of Saint Benedict of Cassino” had the fundamental task of describing as well as explaining the events that had provoked the crisis of southern Lombard Italy.","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"45-61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2007-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84657789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cicero and the Boundaries of Friendship in the Twelfth Century","authors":"C. Mews","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302537","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302537","url":null,"abstract":"Cicero’s De amicitia exerted a powerful influence on Latin Christian thought in the twelfth century. This paper considers core features of Cicero’s idealization of friendship and the way these ideals were transformed within a Christian context, above all in the writing of Augustine, as a prelude to exploring how twelfth-century writers responded to the themes of the De amicitia. Traditionally, friendship was perceived as operating within a purely masculine environment. I consider the way in which Abelard composed his Historia calamitatum as a way of offering consolation to someone in distress, perhaps intending it to be read by Heloise. I also explore the way in which Heloise sought to redefine their relationship by recalling Ciceronian ideals of true friendship, as not seeking any personal advantage, suggesting further evidence for considering the exchange of love letters known as the Epistolae duorum amantium as a record of the early letters of Abelard and Heloise. The teacher in this exchange alludes t...","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"51 1","pages":"369-384"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2007-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89896062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Re-reading the Relationship between Devotional Images, Visions, and the Body: Clare of Montefalco and Margaret of Città di Castello","authors":"Cordelia Warr","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302083","url":null,"abstract":"The visualization and imitation of Christ were central to thirteenth- and fourteenth-century spirituality. Saints and holy people increasingly focused their spirituality through the bodily reenactment or representation of Christ’s Passion. Images, and thus the sense of sight, were central in religious practice. Visual stimuli, real or imagined, provoked physical reactions. This article explores the tensions inherent in the use, and perceived use, of images by two Italian thirteenth-century holy women—Clare of Montefalco (d. 1308) and Margaret of Citta di Castello (d. 1320). A careful reading of surviving documentation for the canonization process (1318–1319) of Clare of Montefalco, and of the fourteenth-century vitae of Clare and Margaret, allows a problematization of the ways in which images were understood to have been used by women and to have affected women.","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"31 1","pages":"217-249"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2007-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82765794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fulcard’s Pigsty: Cluniac Reformers, Dispute Settlement, and the Lower Aristocracy in Early Twelfth-Century Flanders","authors":"S. Vanderputten","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.302077","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that the chronology and geography of the Cluniac reform movement in the county of Flanders in the early twelfth century were to a large extent determined by the attempts of the counts to regain control over the feudal network and by the reformers’ specific strategies to reassess relations between monastic communities and their lay officers. Through the example of the turbulent abbacy and eventual deposition of Fulcard, abbot of Marchiennes and member of one of the most powerful local clans in the southeastern parts of Flanders, it is shown how the dividing line between supporters and adversaries of the reform movement ran across the division between the higher levels of the Flemish aristocracy and families who had recently introduced themselves into the aristocratic network. If one accepts the existence of opportunities for consensus based on what Patrick Geary has described as “structural conflicts,” it can be understood how Cluniac reforms at the same time constituted a point of diss...","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"91-115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2007-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79264118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Qagan, Khan, or King? Power in Early Medieval Bulgaria (Seventh to Ninth Century)","authors":"Florin Curta","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.3017476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.3017476","url":null,"abstract":"Historians have traditionally seen the rulers of early medieval Bulgaria as either poor imitations of the Byzantine emperor or qagans of a “steppe empire.” Despite consistent use in Western ninth-century sources of the phrase rex Bulgarorum in reference to Krum and his successors, historians of the early Middle Ages often refer to his pagan predecessors as “khans.” However, the power of the Bulgar rulers was less a matter of titles and more a matter of action. This article examines the evidence of “true” politics, as well as ruler images as projected through buildings or inscriptions, to illuminate a key aspect of the history of eighth- and ninth-century Bulgaria, whose significance has never been fully recognized. Power contestation at home was directly associated to the projection of the ruler’s image beyond the limits of Bulgaria, as several rulers used the latter to overcome the former.","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"9 1","pages":"1-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80368028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Books of the duchess : Eleanor cobham, Henryson's cresseid, and the politics of complaint","authors":"Jamie C. Fumo","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.3017496","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.3017496","url":null,"abstract":"The scandal surrounding the downfall of Eleanor Cobham, second wife of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester—especially as represented in the anonymous Lament of the Duchess of Gloucester—forms an important historical precedent for several features of Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid otherwise unaccounted for in previous scholarship. In charting the relationship between these two late medieval poems, the author examines the network of literary and political interactions between Scotland and England in the fifteenth century and identifies the larger cultural field in which both poems participate as “historical” complaint narratives. Finally, the author uncover traces left by the intersection of the Lament and the Testament in Renaissance poetry, especially the flowering of poems in the Mirror for Magistrates tradition. Recognizing this new source of Henryson’s poem allows us to situate the Testament in a political milieu, and illuminates the complicated generic contexts of the Testament and the methods behind Henrys...","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"52 1","pages":"447-477"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88351114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Negotiating the Boundaries of Gender in Religious Life: Robert of Arbrissel and Hersende, Abelard and Heloise","authors":"C. Mews","doi":"10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.3017481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.3017481","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores a range of connections between the foundation of Fontevraud by Robert of Arbrissel and Hersende, its first prioress, and of the Paraclete by Abelard and Heloise, arguing that both communities were characterized by uncertainty and controversy about gender roles. It explores Abelard’s support for Robert, against the criticisms of Roscelin, yet distrust of the practice of an abbess having authority over both men and women, as happened when Petronilla became abbess in 1115. In particular it supports Robl’s hypothesis that Hersende of Fontevraud was the same person as Hersende, mother of Heloise. Fulbert’s willingness to have Heloise educated by Abelard reflects the same literary values as Baudri of Bourgueil, a great admirer of Robert of Arbrissel. Heloise’s assertion of her role as abbess of the Paraclete reflects her awareness, not shared by Abelard, that it was necessary for her to emulate Petronilla as abbess with authority of both men and women.","PeriodicalId":39588,"journal":{"name":"Viator - Medieval and Renaissance Studies","volume":"55 1","pages":"113-148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85765739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}