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The first ever collection of essays in English on Iacopone da Todi by a diverse group of international scholars, this book offers a contemporary critical assessment on this medieval Franciscan poet of the thirteenth century. Combining philological analyses with thematic studies and philosophical and theological interpretations of the original contents and style of Iacopone’s poetry, the collection considers a wide range of topics, from music to prayer and performance, mysticism, asceticism, ineffability, Mariology, art, poverty, and the challenges of translation. It is a major contribution to the understanding of Iacopone’s laude in the 21st century. Contributors are Erminia Ardissino, Alvaro Cacciotti, Nicolò Crisafi, Anne-Gaëlle Cuif, Federica Franzè, Alexander J.B. Hampton, Magdalena Maria Kubas, Matteo Leonardi, Brian K. Reynolds, Oana Sălișteanu, Samia Tawwab, Alessandro Vettori, Carlo Zacchetti, and Estelle Zunino.
Trance states, prophesying, convulsions, fasting, and other physical manifestations were often regarded as signs that a person was seized by spirits. In a book that sets out the prehistory of the early modern European witch craze, Nancy Caciola shows how medieval people decided whom to venerate as a saint infused with the spirit of God and whom to avoid as a demoniac possessed of an unclean spirit. This process of discrimination, known as the discernment of spirits, was central to the religious culture of Western Europe between 1200 and 1500.Since the outward manifestations of benign and malign possession were indistinguishable, a highly ambiguous set of bodily features and behaviors were ca...
In this book, Diana Bullen Presciutti explores how images of miracles performed by mendicant saints-reviving dead children, redeeming the unjustly convicted, mending broken marriages, quelling factional violence, exorcising the demonically possessed-actively shaped Renaissance Italians' perceptions of pressing social problems related to gender, sexuality, and honor. She argues that depictions of these miracles by artists-both famous (Donatello, Titian) and anonymous-played a critical role in defining and conceptualizing threats to family honor and social stability. Drawing from art history, history, religious studies, gender studies, and sociology, Presciutti's interdisciplinary study reveals how miracle scenes-whether painted, sculpted, or printed-operated as active agents of 'lived religion' and social negotiation in the spaces of the Renaissance Italian city.
Witty, warm and wackya spiritual journey of self-discovery The Curious Autobiography of Elaine Jakes offers us slices of classic Americana lovingly transformed by the spirit of Welsh storytelling. It is the spiritual odyssey of a woman finding her way back to faith. Her journey is touching, amusing, and at times hilarious. Rev. Timothy Vaverek, S.T.D., Christian Writer Witty, wacky, zanythis is a postmodern romp which astonishes with moments of spiritual wisdom and provocative piety. David Lyle Jeffrey, Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities, Baylor University, Author, Houses of the Interpreter and People of the Book In The Curious Autobiography of Elaine Jakes, author H.R....
In Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena, contributors explore the evolving relationship between image and politics in Siena from the time of the city-state's defeat of Florence at the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 to the end of the Sienese Republic in 1550. Engaging issues of the politicization of art in Sienese painting, sculpture, architecture, and urban design, the volume challenges the still-prevalent myth of Siena's cultural and artistic conservatism after the mid fourteenth century. Clearly establishing uniquely Sienese artistic agendas and vocabulary, these essays broaden our understanding of the intersection of art, politics, and religion in Siena by revisiting its medieval origins and exploring its continuing role in the Renaissance.
Through a close study of local demographies and topographies, this study considers patterns of piety, charity and patronage, and by extension, the development of art and architecture in Siena's southern contado during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Garrisoning the Borderlands of Medieval Siena describes Sant'Angelo in Colle as a designated 'castello di frontiera' under the Sienese Government of the Nine (1287-1355), against the background of Siena's military and economic buoyancy during the early fourteenth century. At the same time, mining thoroughly the Tax Record of 1320 and the Boundary Registration of 1318 and presenting a large number of individual records that have not been ...
In this volume thirty-six scientists from Latin American and the United States contribute substantially to our knowledge of Latin American mammals. Part 1 provides a history of the pioneers in collection-based mammalogy, which began only about two centuries ago. Chapters in Part 2 demonstrate the search for theories and methodologies that will help us understand how the fauna of this region came to be. Part 3 addresses conservation policy and management in light of recent enormous changes in the natural habitats of Latin America. Part 4 explores the need for conservation-education programs in Latin America as a critical step in the development of a sound land-use ethic. The preface of Latin American Mammalogy, overviews of the four sections, and summaries of the twenty-three chapters are given in Spanish as well as English.
Notwithstanding the wealth of material published about St Clare of Assisi (1193-1253) in the context of medieval scholarship, and the wealth of visual material regarding her, there is a dearth of published scholarship concerning her cult in the early modern period. This work examines the representations of St Clare in the Italian visual tradition from the thirteenth century on, but especially between the fifteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries, in the context of mendicant activity. Through an examination of such diverse visual images as prints, drawings, panels, sculptures, minor arts, and frescoes in relation to sermons of Franciscan preachers, starting in the thirteenth century but focusing primarily on the later tradition of early modernity, the book highlights the cult of women saints and its role in the reform movements of the Osservanza and the Catholic Reformation and in the face of Muslim-Christian encounter of the early modern era. Debby?s analyses of the preaching of the times and iconographic examination of neglected artistic sources makes the book a significant contribution to research in art history, sermon studies, gender studies, and theology.
“A generous, poignant memoir” of loss, family secrets, and a quest to shape something beautiful out of the chaos of nature (Kirkus Reviews). Just as Alex and her husband buy a house in Toronto, set atop an acre of wilderness that extends into a natural gorge in the middle of the city, she learns that her father, a Ukrainian-born immigrant, has died. Her new home’s gigantic, abandoned garden, choked with weeds and crumbling antique structures, resembles a wild jungle—and it stirs cherished memories of Alex’s childhood: When her home life became unbearable, she would escape to the forest. In her new home, Alex can feel the power of the majestic trees that nurtured her in her youth, b...
This volume presents a series of case studies concerning the use and reuse of Egyptian hagiography in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The first three contributions analyze the use of Egyptian hagiography in the context of late antique Egypt and, in particular, examine to what extent these texts can be used as historical sources for the reconstruction of traditional (“pagan”) religion. The other contributions illustrate the different contexts in which Egyptian hagiography was reused in the medieval West. The book is an important contribution to the current debate about the usefulness of Egyptian hagiography as a historical source for late antique Egypt and to the study of the reception of the desert fathers in the medieval West. Contributors include: Lynda L. Coon, Mathilde van Dijk, Jitse H.F. Dijkstra, David Frankfurter, Conrad Leyser, Peter van Minnen, Claudia Rapp, Bert Roest, Eric L. Saak, Gabriela Signori, and Jacques van der Vliet.