The Roman Republican Navy : from the sixth century to 167 BC

Työ käsittelee Rooman laivaston kehitystä, toimintaa ja osallistumista laajenemispolitiikkaan, jossa Rooma kasvoi kaupunkivaltiosta Välimeren hallitsijaksi. Rooma on aikaisemmissa tutkimuksissa nähty maavaltiona vailla kiinnostusta merenkulkuun. On katsottu, että ainoa merkittävä merisota Rooman historiassa on ensimmäinen puunilaissota (264-241 eKr.) ja että siinäkin roomalaiset (jotka historioitsija Polybius kuvaa vasta-alkajiksi) menestyivät Karthagoa vastaan turvautumalla laskusiltoihin, joiden avulla he saattoivat muuttaa meritaistelun maataisteluksi. Polybiuksen kuvaukseen on aina tähän asti luotettu. On katsottu että Roomalla ei ollut laivastoa ennen ensimmäistä puunilaissotaa ja että Rooma kaikissa sodissaan panosti merisodankäyntiin mahdollisimman vähän. Tämä työ pyrkii kumoamaan nämä käsitykset. Laivasto oli osallisena ja ehdottoman välttämätön kaikissa Rooman laajenemispolitiikan käänteissä. Arkeologian tiedot osoittavat, että ennen ensimmäistä puunilaissotaa Rooma kehittyi ja siitä tuli merkittävä kaupunki nimenomaan kaupankäynnin ja ulkomaisten kontaktien seurauksena. Se ei siis ollut puhdas agraarivaltio. Roomalaisilla oli laivasto jo viimeistään 500-luvulta lähtien eKr. ja sitä käytettiin Rooman laajentaessa valtaansa Italiassa. Näin ollen ensimmäisessä puunilaissodassa läntisen Välimeren herruudesta kilpaili kaksi merivaltiota, Rooma ja Karthago. Toinen puunilaissota (218-201) tunnetaan yleensä Hannibalin tulosta Alppien yli Italiaan, mutta se oli myöskin merkittävä merisota ja karthagolaiset hävisivät sen nimenomaan merellä. Rooma osallistui kilpailuun itäisen Välimeren hallinnasta ja kukisti Makedonian ja Syyrian laivastot, jotka eivät olleet mitenkään Rooman laivaston veroisia. Kaikista Rooman vastustajista Karthagolla olisi ollut suurin mahdollisuus pysäyttää Rooman laivaston voittokulu toisessa puunilaissodassa. Laivastoa käytettiin moniin eri tarkoituksiin. Suuret meritaistelut eivät ole ainoa osoitus laivastojen mukanaolosta ja merkityksestä, vaan on myös otettava huomion sotalaivojen rakenne ja toimintaedellytykset. Sotalaivat oli rakennettu taisteluita varten ja niissä oli hyvin niukasti säilytystilaa. Niiden oli päästävä laskemaan maihin aina kun miehistö tarvitsi vettä, ruokaa ja lepoa. Laivastot saattoivat toimia vain niiden rannikoiden tuntumassa, joiden satamiin ja laskupaikkoihin niillä oli turvallinen pääsy. Roomalaiset olivat hyvin tietoisia tästä. Suuret merentakaiset sotaretket Afrikkaan, Espanjaan, Kreikkaan ja Vähän-Aasian rannikolle perustuivat kaikki siihen, että Rooman laivasto hallitsi purjehdusreittejä ja sopivia laskupaikkoja ja saattoi huolehtia joukkojen ja varusteiden kuljettamisesta kaukana taisteleville armeijoille. Samalla Rooman laivasto kävi itsenäistä sotaa merellä ja haastoi ja kukisti kaikki Välimeren merivaltiot. 130-luvulle eKr. tultaessa se oli lyönyt vihollisensa ja riisunut aseista liittolaisensa; Rooman laivasto hallitsi Välimerta yksin.

Language and Letters of the Bluestocking Network : Sociolinguistic Issues in Eighteenth Century Epistolary English

This study deals with language change and variation in the correspondence of the eighteenth-century Bluestocking circle, a social network which provided learned men and women with an informal environment for the pursuit of scholarly entertainment. Elizabeth Montagu (1718 1800), a notable social hostess and a Shakespearean scholar, was one of their key figures. The study presents the reconstruction of Elizabeth Montagu s social networks from her youth to her later years with a special focus on the Bluestocking circle, and linguistic research on private correspondence between Montagu and her Bluestocking friends and family members between the years 1738 1778. The epistolary language use is investigated using the methods and frameworks of corpus linguistics, historical sociolinguistics, and social network analysis. The approach is diachronic and concerns real-time language change. The research is based on a selection of manuscript letters which I have edited and compiled into an electronic corpus (Bluestocking Corpus). I have also devised a network strength scale in order to quantify the strength of network ties and to compare the results of the linguistic research with the network analysis. The studies range from the reconstruction and analysis of Elizabeth Montagu s most prominent social networks to the analysis of changing morphosyntactic features and spelling variation in Montagu s and her network members correspondence. The linguistic studies look at the use of the progressive construction, preposition stranding and pied piping, and spelling variation in terms of preterite and past participle endings in the regular paradigm (-ed, - d, -d, - t, -t) and full / contracted spellings of auxiliary verbs. The results are analysed in terms of social network membership, sociolinguistic variables of the correspondents, and, when relevant, aspects of eighteenth-century linguistic prescriptivism. The studies showed a slight diachronic increase in the use of the progressive, a significant decrease of the stigmatised preposition stranding and increase of pied piping, and relatively informal but socially controlled epistolary spelling. Certain significant changes in Elizabeth Montagu s language use over the years could be attributed to her increasingly prominent social standing and the changes in her social networks, and the strength of ties correlated strongly with the use of the progressive in the Bluestocking Corpus. Gender, social rank, and register in terms of kinship/friendship had a significant influence in language use, and an effect of prescriptivism could also be detected. Elizabeth Montagu s network ties resulted in language variation in terms of network membership, her own position in a given network, and the social factors that controlled eighteenth-century interaction. When all the network ties are strong, linguistic variation seems to be essentially linked to the social variables of the informants.

Productivity of the suffixes -ness and -ity in 17th-century English letters : A sociolinguistic approach

Tässä työssä tutkitaan englannin kielen substantiivijohtimien -ness ja -ity produktiivisuutta 1600-luvulla kirjoitetuissa kirjeissä. Näitä lähes synonyymisiä johtimia käytetään yleensä merkitykseltään abstraktien substantiivien muodostamiseen adjektiiveista (esim. productive 'produktiivinen' > productiveness tai productivity 'produktiivisuus'). Johtimista -ity on lainautunut englantiin ranskasta ja myöhemmin myös latinasta; se on sekä fonologialtaan että semantiikaltaan läpinäkymättömämpi kuin kotoperäinen -ness. Lisäksi -ity-johdinta on käytetty enimmäkseen formaaleissa tilanteissa ja tieteellisissä teksteissä, kun taas -ness on ollut yleiskäyttöisempi. Tutkielman lähestymistapa on sosiolingvistinen: oletetaan, että johtimien produktiivisuus (eli valmius muodostaa uusia johdoksia) voi vaihdella eri sosiaaliryhmissä. Sosiolingvistiikkaa ei ole aiemmin juurikaan sovellettu produktiivisuuden tutkimiseen. Tutkimusaineistona on Helsingin yliopiston VARIENG-tutkimusyksikön laatima Corpus of Early English Correspondence, varhaisista englanninkielisistä kirjeistä koostuva korpus eli elektroninen tekstikokoelma, joka on suunniteltu historiallisen sosiolingvistiikan tarpeisiin. Korpuksen 1600-luvun kirjeitten yhteenlaskettu pituus on noin 1,4 miljoonaa sanaa, ja ne on kirjoitettu vuosina 1600-1681. Tutkielman tärkeimpänä produktiivisuusmittarina käytetään johtimien avulla muodostettujen eri sanojen eli tyyppien lukumäärää. Hypoteesina on, että -ity-tyyppien määrä on keskimääräistä pienempi huonosti koulutettujen sosiaaliryhmien kirjeissä. Näitä olivat 1600-luvulla naiset sekä alhaisimmat yhteiskuntaryhmät, kuten talonpojat ja käsityöläiset. Johtimen -ness tyyppimäärissä ei odoteta esiintyvän sosiolingvististä variaatiota. Tutkielmassa käsitellään myös tyyppimäärien vertailuun liittyviä metodologisia ongelmia. Koska vaikkapa naisilta ja miehiltä on eri määrä dataa, ei heidän tyyppimääriään voida suoraan verrata keskenään. Esimerkiksi tyyppimäärien normalisointi tuhatta sanaa kohti ei myöskään ole mahdollista, koska tyyppien lukumäärä ei kasva lineaarisesti korpuksen kasvaessa. Tutkielmassa esitetään kielitieteessä harvoin käytetty tilastotieteellinen menetelmä, jonka avulla korpuksen eri osista saatuja tyyppimääriä voidaan verrata koko korpukseen ja testata, ovatko ne tilastollisesti merkittävän pieniä tai suuria. Toisin kuin monet yleisemmät menetelmät, tämä tyyppikertymiin ja permutaatiotesteihin perustuva metodi ei vaadi yksinkertaistavien oletuksien tekemistä. Tutkimustulokset vahvistavat hypoteesin oikeaksi: naisten -ity-tyyppien lukumäärä on tilastollisesti merkittävän alhainen, kun taas -ness-tyyppien määrissä ei ole tilastollisesti merkittäviä eroja. Alhaisimpien yhteiskuntaryhmien osalta tuloksia ei saada, koska niiltä on korpuksessa liian vähän dataa. Analyysissä paljastuu myös yllättävä eroavaisuus: korpuksen ajallisesti ensimmäisessä puoliskossa (1600-1639) on merkittävän vähän -ity-tyyppejä. Tämä voidaan tulkita kielelliseksi muutokseksi: -ity-johtimen produktiivisuus kasvaa kirjeissä 1600-luvun aikana. Saattaa olla, että johtimen produktiivisuus on ensin kasvanut formaalimmissa tekstilajeissa, joista lisääntynyt käyttö on sitten levinnyt myös kirjeisiin, ehkäpä 1640-luvun sisällissodan synnyttämien kontaktiverkostojen siivittämänä. Tuloksien perusteella voidaan sanoa, että sosiolingvistinen vaihtelu on merkittävä tekijä ainakin joittenkin johtimien produktiivisuudessa, joten vaihtelua on syytä tutkia enemmänkin. Tutkimuksessa käytetty metodi mahdollistaa osakorpuksien tyyppimäärien luotettavan vertailun melko pienissäkin korpuksissa, joten se soveltuu hyvin niin historialliseen kielitieteeseen kuin sosiolingvistiikkaankin.

Focus on Form : J. J. Tikkanen, Giotto and Art Research in the 19th Century

My doctoral dissertation is on Johan Jakob Tikkanen (1857 1930), the first professor of art history in Finland, and his significance and methods in the context of late 19th and early 20th-century European art history. Tikkanen was one of the pioneering scholars in the field of medieval art research, and, along with Anton Springer, Heinrich Wölfflin, Aloïs Riegl, Adolfo Venturi, Franz Wickhoff, Julius von Schlosser, Aby Warburg, Emile Mâle and others, one of the scholars who defined art history as an independent academic discipline. Tikkanen s scholarly interests and his methods resemble those of many formalistically oriented German and Austrian art historians of his time. He became well known throughout Europe, mainly for his studies on illustrated medieval manuscripts. Tikkanen s dissertation, Der Malerische Styl Giotto s Versuch zu einer Characteristik Desselben, from 1884 was regarded in its day as the best form-analytical study on the painter. It has a central position in the present thesis, as it already included nearly all the methods that Tikkanen used and elaborated upon throughout his career. Giotto also gives a good perspective for comparing Tikkanen s ideas with a long art-historical tradition. Tikkanen was profoundly interested in artistic creativity. In his own words, he wanted to study das künstlerische Können , artistic ability, instead of das künstlerische Wollen or artistic will, which was an important theoretical issue in art history in the late 19th century. This starting point led him to the history of style and iconographical research. Along with the Danish art historian, Julius Lange, he was one of the first scholars who began to study the meaning of gestures and postures in art. In my dissertation I have emphasized the importance of Tikkanen s personal art education. I regard it as having influenced both his scholarly argumentation and his working methods. I have also written a short overview of the situation of art history in Finland and in Northern Countries before Tikkanen s time in order to give an idea of his scientific background. My thesis is a critical and historiographical study on J. J. Tikkanen s role in the development of art history and its methodology.

Approaching Sacred Pregnancy : The Cult of the Visitation and Narrative Altarpieces in Late Fifteenth-Century Florence

The study focuses on the Visitation as a narrative subject of altarpieces in late fifteenth-century Florence. Although the Visitation was a well-known story in both verbal and visual representations since the early medieval period, it became a popular subject of altarpieces only towards the end of the fifteenth century. In this study, the first part provides an overview of the complex religious and historical background to an emerging cult of the Visitation. Devotional practices focusing on the Visitation belong in a context of late medieval Marian devotion and in 1389 a new feast of the Visitation was introduced into the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. Because of the ongoing schism within the Catholic Church, the feast was not unanimously accepted across Western Europe until the later part of the fifteenth century. Contrary to a widely disseminated view, the feast of the Visitation cannot be associated with Franciscan spirituality, but was rather a clearly defined Dominican project that primarily emphasised the importance of peace and unity within the Christian Church. Simultaneously with the gradual acceptance of the new feast, visual representations of the Visitation began to appear at the centre of altarpieces. The Visitation exemplifies an increasing preference for narrative subjects within the genre of the altarpiece. The second part of the study presents an analysis of the concept of the narrative altarpiece and highlights the complexities involved in combining a narrative content with the traditional devotional function of the altarpiece. In detailed case studies some prominent art works produced in Florence between 1490 and 1503 are discussed within a framework of contextual analysis, narrative theory and iconography. Altarpieces by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Piero di Cosimo and Mariotto Albertinelli represent visual manifestations of a cult of the Visitation with roots in late medieval devotional practices. At the same time, the altarpieces highlight the multiple functions of altarpieces in a culture where art works responded to a variety of social and religious needs. Building on earlier studies, each case study presents new insights and evidence not considered in previous art historical research.

Reconstructions of past climates from documentary and natural sources in Finland since the 18th century

In this paper both documentary and natural proxy data have been used to improve the accuracy of palaeoclimatic knowledge in Finland since the 18th century. Early meteorological observations from Turku (1748-1800) were analyzed first as a potential source of climate variability. The reliability of the calculated mean temperatures was evaluated by comparing them with those of contemporary temperature records from Stockholm, St. Petersburg and Uppsala. The resulting monthly, seasonal and yearly mean temperatures from 1748 to 1800 were compared with the present day mean values (1961-1990): the comparison suggests that the winters of the period 1749-1800 were 0.8 ºC colder than today, while the summers were 0.4 ºC warmer. Over the same period, springs were 0.9 ºC and autumns 0.1 ºC colder than today. Despite their uncertainties when compared with modern meteorological data, early temperature measurements offer direct and daily information about the weather for all months of the year, in contrast with other proxies. Secondly, early meteorological observations from Tornio (1737-1749) and Ylitornio (1792-1838) were used to study the temporal behaviour of the climate-tree growth relationship during the past three centuries in northern Finland. Analyses showed that the correlations between ring widths and mid-summer (July) temperatures did not vary significantly as a function of time. Early (June) and late summer (August) mean temperatures were secondary to mid-summer temperatures in controlling the radial growth. According the dataset used, there was no clear signature of temporally reduced sensitivity of Scots pine ring widths to mid-summer temperatures over the periods of early and modern meteorological observations. Thirdly, plant phenological data with tree-rings from south-west Finland since 1750 were examined as a palaeoclimate indicator. The information from the fragmentary, partly overlapping, partly nonsystematically biased plant phenological records of 14 different phenomena were combined into one continuous time series of phenological indices. The indices were found to be reliable indicators of the February to June temperature variations. In contrast, there was no correlation between the phenological indices and the precipitation data. Moreover, the correlations between the studied tree-rings and spring temperatures varied as a function of time and hence, their use in palaeoclimate reconstruction is questionable. The use of present tree-ring datasets for palaeoclimate purposes may become possible after the application of more sophisticated calibration methods. Climate variability since the 18th century is perhaps best seen in the fourth paper study of the multiproxy spring temperature reconstruction of south-west Finland. With the help of transfer functions, an attempt has been made to utilize both documentary and natural proxies. The reconstruction was verified with statistics showing a high degree of validity between the reconstructed and observed temperatures. According to the proxies and modern meteorological observations from Turku, springs have become warmer and have featured a warming trend since around the 1850s. Over the period of 1750 to around 1850, springs featured larger multidecadal low-frequency variability, as well as a smaller range of annual temperature variations. The coldest springtimes occurred around the 1840s and 1850s and the first decade of the 19th century. Particularly warm periods occurred in the 1760s, 1790s, 1820s, 1930s, 1970s and from 1987 onwards, although in this period cold springs occurred, such as the springs of 1994 and 1996. On the basis of the available material, long-term temperature changes have been related to changes in the atmospheric circulation, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (February-June).

Aspects of Arminian Soteriology in Methodist-Lutheran Ecumenical Dialogues in 20th and 21st Century

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the key ecumenical dialogues between Methodists and Lutherans from the perspective of Arminian soteriology and Methodist theology in general. The primary research question is defined as: "To what extent do the dialogues under analysis relate to Arminian soteriology?" By seeking an answer to this question, new knowledge is sought on the current soteriological position of the Methodist-Lutheran dialogues, the contemporary Methodist theology and the commonalities between the Lutheran and Arminian understanding of soteriology. This way the soteriological picture of the Methodist-Lutheran discussions is clarified. The dialogues under analysis were selected on the basis of versatility. Firstly, the sole world organisation level dialogue was chosen: The Church – Community of Grace. Additionally, the document World Methodist Council and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification is analysed as a supporting document. Secondly, a document concerning the discussions between two main-line churches in the United States of America was selected: Confessing Our Faith Together. Thirdly, two dialogues between non-main-line Methodist churches and main-line Lutheran national churches in Europe were chosen: Fellowship of Grace from Norway and Kristuksesta osalliset from Finland. The theoretical approach to the research conducted in this thesis is systematic analysis. The Remonstrant articles of Arminian soteriology are utilised as an analysis tool to examine the soteriological positions of the dialogues. New knowledge is sought by analysing the stances of the dialogues concerning the doctrines of partial depravity, conditional election, universal atonement, resistible grace and conditional perseverance of saints. This way information is also provided for approaching the Calvinist-Arminian controversy from new perspectives. The results of this thesis show that the current soteriological position of the Methodist-Lutheran dialogues is closer to Arminianism than Calvinism. The dialogues relate to Arminian soteriology especially concerning the doctrines of universal atonement, resistible grace and conditional perseverance of saints. The commonalities between the Lutheran and Arminian understanding of soteriology exist mainly in these three doctrines as they are uniformly favoured in the dialogues. The most discussed area of soteriology is human depravity, in which the largest diversity of stances occurs as well. On the other hand, divine election is the least discussed topic. The overall perspective, which the results of the analysis provide, indicates that the Lutherans could approach the Calvinist churches together with the Methodists with a wider theological perspective and understanding when the soteriological issues are considered as principal. Human depravity is discovered as the area of soteriology which requires most work in future ecumenical dialogues. However, the detected Lutheran hybrid notion on depravity (a Calvinist-Arminian mixture) appears to provide a useful new perspective for Calvinist-Arminian ecumenism and offers potentially fruitful considerations to future ecumenical dialogues.

Swedish advertising language in Finland mirrored by the newspaper advertisements of the Stockmanns department store during the 20th century

The advertising business is often said to favour a modern, innovative language use. This is a statement not easily verified. Newspaper ads are in fact the genre of written language that linguists have paid the least attention to. People writing texts for newspaper ads are individuals representing contemporary language use. Advertisements representing different periods therefore diverge not only regarding the change of style and form advertising undergoes over time, but changes in the language itself also reflect the continuous process of alteration in a speech community. Advertisements and marketing material on the whole, are also read by many individuals who otherwise are not accustomed to reading at all. The marketing manager, the copywriter and the Art Director, in other words, produce texts that unconsciously function as language models. Changes are not created by, or urged on by linguistic expertise, but by ordinary users confronting other ordinary users. From a sociolinguistic perspective the widely diffused advertising language is therefore a most influential factor.

Reklamsvenska i Finland speglad genom varuhuset Stockmanns tidningsannonser under det 20e seklet - Swedish Advertising Language in Finland Mirrored by the Newspaper Advertisements of the Stockmanns Department Store during the 20th Century

Reklam sägs använda ett modernt, gärna ett nyskapande språk. Detta är ett påstående som inte så lätt kan verifieras. Tidningsannonsen är troligen den skriftspråksgenre som har fått minst uppmärksamhet av språkforskare. De som skriver texten i en tidningsannons är personer som representerar det samtida språkbruket. Annonser som representerar olika tidsepoker skiljer sig därför från varandra inte bara genom att annonsen förändras i fråga om stil och form. Annonsens språk avspeglar också den språkliga förändringsprocess som kontinuerligt pågår i varje språksamhälle. Annonser, och marknadsföringsmaterial över huvud taget, läses också av många människor som i övrigt läser mycket litet eller kanske inte alls. Marknadsföraren, reklamskribenten (copywriter) och AD:n producerar m.a.o. texter som på ett omedvetet sätt kommer att vara språkmodeller för sina läsare. Förändringar i språket kreeras inte och drivs inte på av språkforskare, utan av vanliga språkbrukare i interaktion med andra språkbrukare. Sett ur ett sociolingvistiskt perspektiv har det vitt spridda reklamspråket därför inflytande på språket i samhället. Syftet med det reklamspråksprojekt som presenteras i föreliggande rapport är att analysera hur och när förändringar i svenskan som uppträder i Sverige dyker upp i annonser som skrivs på svenska i Finland. Reklam på svenska Finland under 1900-talet står i fokus, och tidningsannonser för Stockmanns varuhus i Helsingfors utgör primärmaterialet. Tidningsannonser för varuhuset Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) i Stockholm under motsvarande tid tjänar som jämförelsematerial. I denna rapport presenteras projektets syfte, de uppställda forskningsfrågorna, och resonemanget illustreras med exempel ur projektmaterialet. Rapporten innehåller också en beskrivning av projektets reklamdatabas och basfakta om material och metoder. -

Moral Education in the Japanese Primary School Curricular Revision at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century: Aiming at a Rich and Beautiful Kokoro

This study examines values education in Japanese schools at the beginning of the millennium. The topic was approached by asking the following three questions concerning the curricular background, the morality conveyed through textbooks and the characterization of moral education from a comparative viewpoint: 1) What role did moral education play in the curriculum revision which was initiated in 1998 and implemented in 2002? 2) What kinds of moral responsibilities and moral autonomy do the moral texts develop? 3) What does Japanese moral education look like in terms of the comparative framework? The research was based on curriculum research. Its primary empirical data consisted of the national curriculum guidelines for primary school, which were taken into use in 2002, and moral texts, Kokoro no nôto, published by the Ministry of Education in the same context. Since moral education was approached in the education reform context, the secondary research material involved some key documents of the revision process from the mid-1990s to 2003. The research material was collected during three fieldwork periods in Japan (in 2002, 2003 and 2005). The text-analysis was conducted as a theory-dependent qualitative content analysis. Japanese moral education was analyzed as a product of its own cultural tradition and societal answer to the current educational challenges. In order to understand better its character, secular moral education was reflected upon from a comparative viewpoint. The theory chosen for the comparative framework, the value realistic theory of education, represented the European rational education tradition as well as the Christian tradition of values education. Moral education, which was the most important school subject at the beginning of modern school, was eliminated from the curriculum for political reasons in a school reform after the Second World War, but has gradually regained a stronger position since then. It was reinforced particularly at the turn of millennium, when a curriculum revision attempted to respond to educational and learning problems by emphasizing qualitative and value aspects. Although the number of moral lessons and their status as a non-official-subject remained unchanged, the Ministry of Education made efforts to improve moral education by new curricular emphases, new teaching material and additional in-service training possibilities for teachers. The content of the moral texts was summarized in terms of moral responsibility in four moral areas (intrapersonal, interpersonal, natural-supranatural and societal) as follows: 1) continuous self-development, 2) caring for others, 3) awe of life and forces beyond human power, and 4) societal contribution. There was a social-societal and emotional emphasis in what was taught. Moral autonomy, which was studied from the perspectives of rational, affective and individuality development, stressed independence in action through self-discipline and responsibility more than rational self-direction. Japanese moral education can be characterized as the education of kokoro (heart) and the development of character, which arises from virtue ethics. It aims to overcome egoistic individualism by reciprocal and interdependent moral responsibility based on responsible interconnectedness.

Which Narrative? The Case of the Narrative Subject in Fifteenth-Century Altarpieces

The development of the altarpiece towards the end of the late medieval period added a new decorous and conspicuously visual element to the church interior. The altarpiece became the prime location for iconic – i.e. non-narrative – images, but almost from the beginning narrative images were part of the altarpiece in the form of small-scale pictures placed underneath or next to an iconic image in the centre. In the fifteenth century the format of the altarpiece gradually changed, and simultaneously with the development of the unified picture field some new narrative subjects began to appear on the central panel as the main subject of the altarpiece. During the course of the fifteenth century, narrative subjects became increasingly frequent and accepted subjects for altarpieces. In this article I will focus on the problem of the narrative altarpiece, a seeming contradiction of terms. As narrative subjects were transferred from their usual location to the central field of the altarpiece, traditionally reserved for the iconic image, the narrative was included in a new context and expected to assume the function of the altarpiece. How did a narrative image function in this context, and what kind of audience did it serve? Since the questions involved in the issue are complex, I will focus on the biblical narrative of The Visitation as a case study, and use two well-known Florentine altarpieces from the fifteenth century as examples of the interpretative choices open to the viewers of these altarpieces.