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On the example of the Czech lands, the book discusses the transformation of the representation of Purgatory in the period between the late Reformation debates at the end of the sixteenth century and partial rejection of Purgatory by the so-called reform Catholicism of the late eighteenth century. The authors, moving permanently in-between history and art history, gradually analyse theology, iconography, practice, and reception of Purgatory. They address the questions of space and time in Purgatory, of emotions and the early modern "affects", treatment of images in religious practice, circulation and diffusion of meditative texts and images, or the problem of revenant souls. The book offers a comprehensive consideration of the development of a fascinating cultural phenomenon in a crucial period of significant changes in people’s thoughts and behaviour.
The present work is the first monographic book published in English, since 1910, on the history of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem. In comparison to other Holy Land monuments, the latter underwent relatively minor alterations in the course of time: spared from the destructions that affected other holy sites, such as the Holy Sepulchre, the basilica at Bethlehem stands out for its still well preserved architecture, dating from the late 6th century, and its exuberant mosaic decors completed in 1169, in the period of Crusader rule in Palestine. This book offers a general description of the vicissitudes of the holy site since its very beginnings in Late Antiquity until the present times, with a special focus on the ways in which the complex relationship between the underground holy site, the Nativity cave housing the very spot of Christ's birthplace and the manger, and the sumptuously decorated upper church came to be variously negotiated in the course of time by means of different forms of mise-en-scene. The book is accompanied by a rich apparatus of colour illustrations, plans, and a bibliographic annex.
During the Middle Ages the majority of people in Western Europe never met any Hungarians. They didn’t even hear about them, as news about Hungary only reached Western Europe in times of extraordinary historical events– such as the adoption of Christianity at the turn of the 11th century, or the devastating Tatar invasion in 1241-1242. Obtaining information about the Hungarians from books was also difficult, as medieval Europe, even as late as in the 15th-16th centuries, lacked libraries that would have offered greater numbers of works on Hungary or on Hungarian topics. On top of it all, works that contained the most detailed and accurate information remained unknown, in their own period;...
Historians have long understood the period 1100 to 1500 to be the key phase in the genesis of the modern state. In this innovative work, Andrea Gamberini examines the case of late medieval Lombardy to show that the advent of the state did not extinguish the traditional values and principles of political cohabitation that had long been in place.
This book presents a lesser-known chapter of the cultural history of the Ottoman Balkans, the world of its Catholic communities and institutions. Alongside Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews, Catholics lived in nearly every area of the Balkan Peninsula in the 16th and 17th centuries. The great religious revolution of the early modern age, confessionalization, did not leave the Balkan Catholics untouched. Unlike the Christian confessional states of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, with Islam as its state religion, neither assisted nor impeded the formation of denominations, but put many obstacles in the way of their institutional growth. The confessionalization of Catholics in the European frontier regions of the Ottoman Empire thus resulted in a peripheral and unestablished Catholicism. This book explores the peculiarities of this local Catholic confessionalization in the Balkans through a micro-analytical approach. The prime objective of the book is to contribute – through an exploration of the history of the Balkan Catholics – to the renewal of research into the early modern Mediterranean world.
With this book, the Hungarian Academy of Rome offers to the medievalist community a thematic synthesis about Hungarian medieval art, reconstructing, in a European perspective, more than four hundred years of artistic production in a country located right at the heart of Europe. The book presents an up-to-date view from the Romanesque through Late Gothic up to the beginning of the Renaissance, with an emphasis on the artistic relations that evolved between Hungary and other European territories, such as the Capetian Kingdom, the Italian Peninsula and the German Empire. Situated at the meeting point between the Mediterranean regions, the lands ruled by the courts of Europe west of the Alps and...
Using an interdisciplinary approach, Kelman underscores the role that common people have played in shaping the city and portrays the Mississippi as an active participant in New Orlean's history."--BOOK JACKET.
The book describes the structure of the Hungarian queenship in the age of the Árpáds (11-13th centuries), and reveals the nature of the relationship between the institution of the kingship and the queenship. Several features in the institution of queenship would appear to be parallel to that of kings; after all, the queens had estates (just like the kings) with serfs (as on the kings’ lands). The legal status and structure of the order of these serfs were the same as in the kings’ household. The queen had a court (as did the king), there were similar dignitaries in both courts, and the queen even had a chancellery to issue charters in her name (similarly to the king). Yet, while the in...
In this book, Paul Jacobs traces the history of a neighborhood situated in the heart of Rome over twenty-five centuries. Here, he considers how topography and location influenced its long urban development. During antiquity, the forty-plus acre, flood-prone site on the Tiber's edge was transformed from a meadow near a crossroads into the imperial Circus Flaminius, with its temples, colonnades, and a massive theater. Later, it evolved into a bustling medieval and early modern residential and commercial district known as the Sant'Angelo rione. Subsequently, the neighborhood enclosed Rome's Ghetto. Today, it features an archaeological park and tourist venues, and it is still the heart of Rome's Jewish community. Jacobs' study explores the impact of physical alterations on the memory of lost topographical features. He also posits how earlier development may be imprinted upon the landscape, or preserved to influence future changes.
The metaphor of marriage often describes the relationship between poetry and music in both medieval and modern writing. While the troubadours stand out for their tendency to blur the distinction between speaking and singing, between poetry and song, a certain degree of semantic slippage extends into the realm of Italian literature through the use of genre names like canzone, sonetto, and ballata. Yet, paradoxically, scholars have traditionally identified a 'divorce' between music and poetry as the defining feature of early Italian lyric. Senza Vestimenta reintegrates poetic and musical traditions in late medieval Italy through a fresh evaluation of more than fifty literary sources transmitti...