Vicens i Vives: els bons reis castellans i els remences

Dins l'obra de Jaume Vicens Vives les pàgines dedicades a l'època medieval ocupen un lloc destacat. Ben especialment els seus estudis sobre el rei Ferran el Catòlic i el conflicte remença, a qui va dedicar bona part de la seva activitat investigadora. Els seus llibres i articles sobre el tema son el resultat d'una recerca exhaustiva als arxius, bàsicament reials i municipals. Això és especialment cert pel cas de la seva fonamental 'Historia de los remensas (en el siglo XV)', editada l'any 1945, acompanyada d'abundant aparell crític i transcripcions de documents en notes a peu de página

Els primers historiadors de la ciutat: Jeroni Pau i Dionís Jeroni Jorba

Text de la conferència pronunciada per Mariàngela Vilallonga on es fa un repàs biogràfic dels historiadors Jeroni Pau i Dionís Jeroni Jorba, així com de la seva obra, és a dir, els primers textos que tenien a Barcelona com a matèria d’estudi

Importació d'obres artístiques dels Països Baixos del Sud a Catalunya durant els segles XV i primera meitat del XVI

Durant els segles XV i primera meitat del XVI, tota mena de productes de luxe eren exportats des dels Països Baixos del sud a tota Europa, moda fomentada pels ducs de Borgonya, que governaven el territori. Malgrat el major número d’estudis sobre les relacions entre la Corona de Castella i Flandes a finals de l’Edat Mitjana, i les més nombroses peces flamenques conservades en aquesta regió veïna, també la Corona d’Aragó mantenia intenses relacions comercials amb els Països Baixos del sud, essent la colònia de mercaders catalans de les primeres en establir-se a Bruges, principal port d’exportació a l’època. És nombrosa la documentació referida a naus catalanes viatjant cap al nord, així com als privilegis de què gaudia aquesta colònia de mercaders. Un bon grapat de peces d’aquesta procedència es conserven a museus i institucions locals. Malgrat que de moltes no se’n coneix el moment d’arribada, d’altres es troben ben documentades o se’n pot deduïr la seva presència a Catalunya des de finals de l’Edat Mitjana, conformant un farcit catàleg. D’altra banda, la documentació d’arxiu ens proporciona valuoses notícies sobre la gran quantitat de peces flamenques avui desaparegudes però que haurien existit a l’època, evidenciant que el que avui ens resta no és més que una molt petita porció del que hauria estat a finals de l’Edat Mitjana, i ens permet acostar-nos a una visió de la societat i els seus gustos més propera a la realitat de l’època, posant de manifest que la moda flamenca arrelaria intensament a Catalunya.

Evolución diacrónica del sistema verbal de movimiento en español: entrar y salir (ss. XII-XV)

Esta investigación es una tesis doctoral que tiene como objetivo el estudio de la evolución semántica de los verbos entrar y salir desde el punto de vista diacrónico en español medieval mediante la aplicación de las herramientas teóricas proporcionadas por la Lingüística cognitiva. A través de un corpus de documentaciones extraídas del Corpus del nuevo diccionario histórico del español de la Real Academia Española y que abarcan el intervalo desde el siglo XIII al XV, se analizan los valores semánticos de ambos verbos con la finalidad de determinar cómo fue desarrollándose su uso, qué significados generaron otros nuevos y cómo se relacionan entre sí los significados de un mismo verbo. Para llevar a cabo esta tarea se ha partido de la Teoría de los prototipos aplicada a la categorización léxica, así como de la Teoría de la metáfora y la metonimia. Asimismo, se ha analizado la estructura sintáctica de cada ejemplo, la selección léxica de los argumentos verbales y la tradición discursiva a la que pertenece cada documentación. De esta forma, es posible, no sólo describir la evolución semántica de ambos verbos, sino completar la información sobre las causas de su desarrollo diacrónico. Finalmente, se establecen las relaciones semánticas de carácter diacrónico existentes entre ambos verbos en tanto que miembros de un mismo grupo léxico, los verbos de movimiento, y se corrobora su vinculación más allá de una relación de antonimia de tipo primario.

Mujeres y literatura de los medioevos ibéricos : voces, ecos y distorsiones

La mayoría de estudios consagrados a las escritoras medievales han centrado sus esfuerzos en la exhumación de fuentes y en el análisis retórico de la diferencia literaria y sexual. Sus objetivos suelen integrar el deseo de construcción de una poética específica a partir de los testimonios conservados y la definición de una genealogía femenina secular. Este enfoque tal vez no afecte sensiblemente nuestra percepción de aquellos ámbitos culturales con una mayor producción escrita, pero sí que resulta poco fructífero en los reinos hispánicos, donde apenas contamos con testimonios anteriores al s. XV, ni en latín ni en romance. Sin embargo, en la Península Ibérica disponemos de otra vigorosa tradición cultural (la arábigo-andaluza), apenas reinterpretada comparativamente, cuya magnitud resulta insoslayable no tan solo por su peso específico, sino además por su valor excepcional para la mejor comprensión de las configuraciones de las propias literaturas del Medioevo ibero-románico.

Expresión geomorfológica de la actividad reciente de la falla de Amer (NE de la Península Ibérica)

Triangular facets, related drainage basins, alluvial fans and subtle scarps reveal the recent activity of the normal Amer fault (NE Spain). The 1427 earthquakes which reached epicentral intensities ranging between VI1 and VI11 have been attributed to the Amer fault. However, the geomorphologic and geologic characteristics of this fault (30 km length) suggest that it might be capable of producing larger earthquakes than those occurred during de 15th century.

A vueltas con la Crónica del rey don Rodrigo

The paper discusses the problem of the literary genre of the Crónica sarracina from a peninsular and european points of view. It is considerer through the prism of a new kind of fiction, related to history and an incipient realism, which grows up along the 15th century. Moreover, it reveals new fragments inspired by Pedro de Corral from the catalan version of Seneca’s tragedies and from the Libro de los doce sabios

The economic tragedy of the XXth Century: Growth in Africa

The dismal growth performance of Africa is the worst economic tragedy ofthe XXth century. We document the evolution of per capita GDP for thecontinent as a whole and for subset of countries south of the Saharadesert. We document the worsening of various income inequality indexesand we estimate poverty rates and headcounts. We then analyze some ofthe central robust determinants of economic growth reported bySala-i-Martin, Doppelhofer and Miller (2003) and project the annual growthrates Africa would have enjoyed if these key determinants had taken OECDrather than African values. Expensive investment goods, low levels ofeducation, poor health, adverse geography, closed economies, too muchpublic expenditure and too many military conflicts are seen as keyexplanations of the economic tragedy.

Factors associated with active aging in Finland, Poland, and Spain

BACKGROUND: Continuous population aging has raised international policy interest in promoting active aging (AA). AA theoretical models have been defined from a biomedical or a psychosocial perspective. These models may be expanded including components suggested by lay individuals. This paper aims to study the correlates of AA in three European countries, namely, Spain, Poland, and Finland using four different definitions of AA. METHODS: The EU COURAGE in Europe project was a cross-sectional general adult population survey conducted in a representative sample of the noninstitutionalized population of Finland, Poland, and Spain. Participants (10,800) lived in the community. This analysis focuses on individuals aged 50 years old and over (7,987). Four definitions (two biomedical, one psychosocial, and a complete definition including biomedical, psychosocial, and external variables) of AA were analyzed. RESULTS: Differences in AA were found for country, age, education, and occupation. Finland scored consistently the highest in AA followed by Spain and Poland. Younger age was associated with higher AA. Higher education and occupation was associated with AA. Being married or cohabiting was associated with better AA compared to being widowed or separated in most definitions. Gender and urbanicity were not associated with AA, with few exceptions. Men scored higher in AA only in Spain, whereas there was no gender association in the other two countries. Being widowed was only associated with lower AA in Poland and not being married was associated with lower AA in Poland and Finland but not Spain. CONCLUSIONS: Associations with education, marital status, and occupation suggest that these factors are the most important components of AA. These association patterns, however, seem to vary across the three countries. Actions to promote AA in these countries may be addressed at reducing inequalities in occupation and education or directly tackling the components of AA lacking in each country.

The Barcelonnettes: an example of network-entrepreneurs in XIX century Mexico. An explanation based on a theory of bounded rational choice with social embeddedness

A theory of network-entrepreneurs or "spin-off system" is presented in this paper for the creation of firms based on the community’s social governance. It is argued that firm’s capacity for accumulation depends on the presence of employees belonging to the same social/ethnic group with expectations of "inheriting" the firm and becoming entrepreneurs once they have been selected for their merits and loyalty towards their patrons. Such accumulation is possible because of the credibility of the patrons’ promises of supporting newcomers due to high social cohesion and specific social norms prevailing in the community. This theory is exemplified through the case of the Barcelonnettes, a group of immigrants from the Alps in the South of France (Provence) who came to Mexico in the XIX Century.

Evaluating active labor markets in Romania

We evaluate the presence of effects from joining one of four active labour market programs in Romania in the late 1990s compared to the no-program state. Using rich follow-up survey data and propensity score matching, we find that three programs (training and retraining, self-employment assistance, and employment and relocation services) had success in improving participants' economic outcomes and were cost-beneficial from society's perspective. In contrast, public employment was found detrimental for the employment prospects of its participants.

Why did London become the main money market? Monetary Policy, Arbitrage and European Money Market Integration in 18th century

How did the leading capital market start to attract international bullion? Why did London become the main money market? Monetary regulations, including the charges for minting money and the restrictions on bullion exchange, have played the key role in defining the direction of the flow of international bullion. Countries that abolished minting charges and permitted the free movement of bullion were able to attract international bullion, and countries that applied minting taxes suffered an outflow of bullion. In these cases monetary authorities tried to limit bullion movement through prohibitions on domestic bullion exchange at a free price, and tariffs and quantitative restrictions on bullion exports. The paper illustrates the logic of international monetary flow in the 18th century, using empirical evidence for England, France and Spain. The first section defines and measures monetary policy, and the second section introduces minting charges into the arbitrage equation in order to explain the logic of bullion flow between the pairs of nations England-France, England-Spain and France-Spain. The conclusion emphasises the importance of monetary policy in the creation of leading money markets.

Between specialization and globalization. The marketing of agrarian products and its environmental impacts seen from a historical perspective: the province of Barcelona in the mid-nineteenth century

Ecological economics has five good reasons to consider that economic globalisation, spurred by commercial and financial fluxes, to be one of the main driving forces responsible for causing environmental degradation to our planet. The first, is the energy consumption and the socio-environmental impacts which long-distance haulage entails. The second, is the ever-increasing flow of goods to far-away destinations which renders their recycling practically impossible. This is particularly significant, because it prevents the metabolic lock of the nutrients present in food and other agrarian products from taking place. The third, is that the high degree of specialization attained in agriculture, forestry, cattle, mining and industry in each region, generates deleterious effects not only on the eco-landscape structure of the uses of the soil, but on the capability to provide habitat and environmental functions to maintain biodiversity as well

El jove Martin Heidegger i el concepte de temps exposat a Ésser i temps

Estudi elaborat a partir d’una estada a l’ Albert Ludwigs Universität, Alemanya, entre els mesos de maig i octubre del 2006.El tema del temps és extremadament important per a Martin Heidegger. I el seu pensament al respecte no pot ésser comprès adequadament si no tenim en compte la gran influència que diversos filòsofs hi van exercir. Aristòtil i Agustí són elsmés destacats, tal i com el propi Heidegger afirma a les seves lliçons marburgueses del semestre d’estiu de 1927. Sense elles, no es pot entendre el complex entramat terminològic ni les idees fonamentals sobre la temporalitat. Idees que apareixen publicades en diverses obres seves. El transfons filosòfic de cadascun d’aquests escrits és, en part, el concepte aristotèlic o Agustina de temps. Ésser i temps no és una obra que neixi del no res com a producte de la necessitat de l’autor de consolidar el seu currículum en vistes a una plaça docent, sinó que la publicació durant aquests darrers anys de les seves lliçons i altres escrits menors permeten observar com es va gestant la manera en que Heidegger entendrà el concepte de temps que es reflexa en aquest tractat, i que, com ja s’ha dit, es sustenta en les idees d’Aristòtil i d’Agustí al respecte. S’ha mostrat també de quina manera Heidegger porta a la pràctica la reconstrucció fenomenològica proposada pel que va ser el seu mentor, Husser, i com recondueix els conceptes fonamentals d’ambdós filòsofs, incorporant-los a la seva particular manera d’entendre el temps.

Aspirations of Olympism: a framework for considering the athlete’s experience in the Olympic Movement at the close of the twentieth century

The text corresponds to the lecture given by Prof. Kidd as part the programme of activities during his stay in Barcelona in 1996 as invited professor of the International Chair in Olympism (IOC-UAB).