Metáforas del amor en la poesía de la Grecia antigua (I): la épica y la lírica arcaicas

Partiendo del concepto de metáfora cognitiva, que complementa al más conocido de metáfora literaria, y analizando la base conceptual que a ambas subyace, pretendemos un cuidadoso análisis de los textos de poesía épica y lírica arcaicas, sin olvidar la importancia fundamental del contexto cultural en que estos surgen, para obtener una mejor comprensión de la forma en que los griegos conceptualizaban el sentimiento amoroso.

Una planta sin clásicos. La berenjena en la farmacología medieval y renacentista

La berenjena (Solanum melongena L.) es una planta solanácea de múltiples variedades, cuyos ancestros salvajes se sitúan en Indochina y el este de África. Su cultivo fue muy temprano en zonas de China e India. Aun así, no se extendió al Occidente antiguo ni apenas se conoció, de ahí su ausencia en los textos clásicos de botánica y farmacología. Fueron los árabes quienes llevaron el cultivo de la planta por el Norte de África y Al-Andalus, de donde pasó ya a Europa. Los primeros testimonios occidentales de la berenjena aparecen en traducciones latinas de textos árabes, para incorporarse luego a la literatura farmacológica medieval y, más tarde ya, a la del Renacimiento, que empezó a tratar de ella por su posible parecido con una especie de mandrágora. Pese a que se le reconocían algunas virtudes medicinales, siempre se la tuvo bajo sospecha por ser de sabor poco agradable, indigesta y causante de algunas afecciones. Solo los botánicos de finales del Renacimiento describirían la planta y sus variedades con criterios más «científicos» y botánicos, ya sin apenas intereses farmacológicos.

Dos perspectivas modernas del infierno dantesco en la poesía de Jorge Luis Borges y Amelia Biagioni

A setecientos cincuenta años del nacimiento de Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), el trabajo se propone cotejar la representación dantesca del Infierno con textos poéticos de Jorge Luis Borges y de Amelia Biagioni. El infierno dantesco presenta múltiples correlaciones con el mundo ultraterreno virgiliano, aunque construido en clave medieval. A su vez, las palabras introductorias de Borges anticipan la vigencia del clásico florentino en la literatura argentina. El texto medieval actúa como disparador de múltiples variaciones interpretativas en ambos poetas del siglo XX quienes construyen otros ?infiernos?, más acordes a corrientes filosóficas contemporáneas. Se realizará un análisis del poema borgiano ?Del Infierno y del cielo? (1942), teniendo en cuenta el paulatino interés que en esos años expresa el escritor por la Commedia del escritor medieval. Amelia Biagioni en su poemario ?El Humo? (1967), retoma los versos dantescos y construye asimismo otro infierno, un infierno personal, cerrado e íntimo que desintegra al sujeto, aniquilándolo. El cotejo de ambos escritores argentinos con Dante, pone en tensión dialógica perspectivas muy diferentes como receptores y poetas de diversas épocas históricas.

Dos perspectivas modernas del infierno dantesco en la poesía de Jorge Luis Borges y Amelia Biagioni

A setecientos cincuenta años del nacimiento de Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), el trabajo se propone cotejar la representación dantesca del Infierno con textos poéticos de Jorge Luis Borges y de Amelia Biagioni. El infierno dantesco presenta múltiples correlaciones con el mundo ultraterreno virgiliano, aunque construido en clave medieval. A su vez, las palabras introductorias de Borges anticipan la vigencia del clásico florentino en la literatura argentina. El texto medieval actúa como disparador de múltiples variaciones interpretativas en ambos poetas del siglo XX quienes construyen otros ?infiernos?, más acordes a corrientes filosóficas contemporáneas. Se realizará un análisis del poema borgiano ?Del Infierno y del cielo? (1942), teniendo en cuenta el paulatino interés que en esos años expresa el escritor por la Commedia del escritor medieval. Amelia Biagioni en su poemario ?El Humo? (1967), retoma los versos dantescos y construye asimismo otro infierno, un infierno personal, cerrado e íntimo que desintegra al sujeto, aniquilándolo. El cotejo de ambos escritores argentinos con Dante, pone en tensión dialógica perspectivas muy diferentes como receptores y poetas de diversas épocas históricas.

Aproximación a la doctrina y la terminología retórica de las figuras de dicción en la tratadística latina tardía

As early as the first century A.D. we can already find the first examples of what would be a long tradition of monographic works dedicated to figures: the authors of this group of treatises considered style as the most important aspect within the different disciplines of rhetoric. The works are especially common in the latter centuries of Latinity. Rutilius Lupus, rhetor of the first century A. D., composed the first of these treatises devoted exclusively to the figures; Schemata Dianoeas et Lexeos ex Graecis Gorgiae Versa. Due to the fragmentary condition of the manuscripts, important parts of this work have been lost, in which the theoretical justification for the studies of the figures by this author were most likely developed. Fortunately, the De figuris sententiarum et elocutionis by Aquila Romanus provides more information. Aquila Romanus probably lived at the end of the third century A.D. or the beginning of the fourth century A.D., and his work is based on the treatise of Alexander Numenius, a Greek author from the second century A.D. Aquila Romanus and Rutilius Lupus are the most important writers of treatises on figures in the Latin language, although many more treatises of these characteristics would be composed after them, works which were considered “minor”. One of these treatises is the De figuris Sententiarum et elocutionis by Julius Rufinianus, author from the fourth century A.D. Medieval manuscripts assign two other manuals to Julius Rufinianus : De schematis lexeos and De schematis dianoeas but this attribution is doubtlessly false. They are two small manuals of figures illustrated with numerous Virgilian examples. The next treatise of note is the anonymous Carmen de figuris vel schematibus, the most unusual treatise of figurative language. And finally, a brief figurist manual entitled Schemata dianoeas quae ad rhetores pertinent probably written in the fourth century A.D., shortly after Carmen de figuris...

El cuerpo y el mundo: el motivo del microcosmos en el neoplatonismo judío medieval (al-Andalus, siglos XI-XII)

En este trabajo estudio un conjunto de tratados filosóficos, de corte neoplatónico, compuestos en al-Andalus en los siglos XI y XII que presentan el motivo del microcosmos: la idea de que el hombre es una representación a pequeña escala del mundo, y el mundo, una representación a gran escala del hombre. He identificado cinco textos neoplatónicos judíos que tratan de esta doctrina en gran detalle: Fons Vitae (que solo se conserva en versiones latina y hebrea, pero que originalmente llevaba el título árabe Yanbū> 'l-úayāh) y La corrección de los caracteres (Kitāb i§lāú al-akhlāq) de Salomón ibn Gabirol; Los deberes de los corazones (Al-hidāja ilā farā’id al-qulūb) de Baúya ibn Paquda; el anónimo tratado sobre el alma conocido como Kitāb ma>ānī al-nafs, que fue atribuido pseudepigráficamente a Baúya ibn Paquda; y El microcosmos (que solo se conserva en traducción hebrea, bajo el título de Sefer ha->olam ha-qa‹an, pero que fue muy probablemente compuesto en árabe), de Yosef ibn êaddiq. En mi examen de este conjunto de obras, dedico especial atención al contexto cultural islamicado (empleo el término acuñado por Marshall Hodgson) en el que fueron producidas. Todas estas obras fueron compuestas originalmente en lengua árabe o judeoárabe, y son producto de la cultura islamicada andalusí; por ello, haré a lo largo de mi exposición referencias frecuentes al motivo del microcosmos en el pensamiento árabe medieval, y a las corrientes filosóficas, intelectuales, y religiosas que conformaron el mundo en el que los filósofos judíos andalusíes vivieron y trabajaron...

Medieval knights amid the gum-trees : the experience of European heritage tourism in south-east Queensland, Australia

This paper is interested in the way in which the heritage of another place, time, and culture is repurposed for popular consumption in an experience economy, as well as the way in which the visitors experience their own past and the past of others. We trace the processes of engagement, education and nostalgia that occur when the European heritage is presented in a postcolonial context and an Australian environment. The information presented includes the results of qualitative and quantitative research conducted at the Abbey Museum over the December-Jan. period of 2012-13.

Measurement of disordered eating in Latina college women

The Eating Disorder Risk Composite (EDRC) comprises the Drive for Thinness, Bulimia, and Body Dissatisfaction subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory, Third Edition (EDI-3, Garner, 2004). Past research conducted with Latina college women (LCW) has found older versions of the EDRC subscales to be reliable, but the EDI-3's EDRC factor structure has yet to be studied among LCW. The present study investigated the pattern of responses to and the factor structure of the EDRC in LCW. It was hypothesized that eating pathology would be present and that a factor analysiswould find some discrepancies between the original factor structure of the EDRC and the factor structure from LCW. Analyses of data on a 6-point Likert scale indicate that drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction are far more prevalent than is bulimic symptomology in LCW. Principal Axis Factoring with promax rotation was used to extract three factors very similar to the original EDRC. Some discrepancies in the item loadings were observed, most notably that half of the items from the original Body Dissatisfaction subscale did not load together on one factor. Overall, the EDRC appears to be a goodmeasurement of eating- and body-related phenomena among LCW. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Between Herbals et alia: Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals

This study reports a corpus-based study of medieval English herbals, which are texts conveying information on medicinal plants. Herbals belong to the medieval medical register. The study charts intertextual parallels within the medieval genre, and between herbals and other contemporary medical texts. It seeks to answer questions where and how herbal texts are linked to each other, and to other medical writing. The theoretical framework of the study draws on intertextuality and genre studies, manuscript studies, corpus linguistics, and multi-dimensional text analysis. The method combines qualitative and quantitative analyses of textual material from three historical special-language corpora of Middle and Early Modern English, one of which was compiled for the purposes of this study. The text material contains over 800,000 words of medical texts. The time span of the material is from c. 1330 to 1550. Text material is retrieved from the corpora by using plant name lists as search criteria. The raw data is filtered through qualitative analysis which produces input for the quantitative analysis, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS). In MDS, the textual space that parallel text passages form is observed, and the observations are explained by a qualitative analysis. This study concentrates on evidence of material and structural intertextuality. The analysis shows patterns of affinity between the texts of the herbal genre, and between herbals and other texts in the medical register. Herbals are most closely linked with recipe collections and regimens of health: they comprise over 95 per cent of the intertextual links between herbals and other medical writing. Links to surgical texts, or to specialised medical texts are very few. This can be explained by the history of the herbal genre: as herbals carry information on medical ingredients, herbs, they are relevant for genres that are related to pharmacological therapy. Conversely, herbals draw material from recipe collections in order to illustrate the medicinal properties of the herbs they describe. The study points out the close relationship between medical recipes and recipe-like passages in herbals (recipe paraphrases). The examples of recipe paraphrases show that they may have been perceived as indirect instruction. Keywords: medieval herbals, early English medicine, corpus linguistics, intertextuality, manuscript studies

Conrad Summenhart's theory of individual rights and its medieval background

This study focuses on the theory of individual rights that the German theologian Conrad Summenhart (1455-1502) explicated in his massive work Opus septipartitum de contractibus pro foro conscientiae et theologico. The central question to be studied is: How does Summenhart understand the concept of an individual right and its immediate implications? The basic premiss of this study is that in Opus septipartitum Summenhart composed a comprehensive theory of individual rights as a contribution to the on-going medieval discourse on rights. With this rationale, the first part of the study concentrates on earlier discussions on rights as the background for Summenhart s theory. Special attention is paid to language in which right was defined in terms of power . In the fourteenth century writers like Hervaeus Natalis and William Ockham maintained that right signifies power by which the right-holder can to use material things licitly. It will also be shown how the attempts to describe what is meant by the term right became more specified and cultivated. Gerson followed the implications that the term power had in natural philosophy and attributed rights to animals and other creatures. To secure right as a normative concept, Gerson utilized the ancient ius suum cuique-principle of justice and introduced a definition in which right was seen as derived from justice. The latter part of this study makes effort to reconstructing Summenhart s theory of individual rights in three sections. The first section clarifies Summenhart s discussion of the right of the individual or the concept of an individual right. Summenhart specified Gerson s description of right as power, taking further use of the language of natural philosophy. In this respect, Summenhart s theory managed to bring an end to a particular continuity of thought that was centered upon a view in which right was understood to signify power to licit action. Perhaps the most significant feature of Summenhart s discussion was the way he explicated the implication of liberty that was present in Gerson s language of rights. Summenhart assimilated libertas with the self-mastery or dominion that in the economic context of discussion took the form of (a moderate) self-ownership. Summenhart discussion also introduced two apparent extensions to Gerson s terminology. First, Summenhart classified right as relation, and second, he equated right with dominion. It is distinctive of Summenhart s view that he took action as the primary determinant of right: Everyone has as much rights or dominion in regard to a thing, as much actions it is licit for him to exercise in regard to the thing. The second section elaborates Summenhart s discussion of the species dominion, which delivered an answer to the question of what kind of rights exist, and clarified thereby the implications of the concept of an individual right. The central feature in Summenhart s discussion was his conscious effort to systematize Gerson s language by combining classifications of dominion into a coherent whole. In this respect, his treatement of the natural dominion is emblematic. Summenhart constructed the concept of natural dominion by making use of the concepts of foundation (founded on a natural gift) and law (according to the natural law). In defining natural dominion as dominion founded on a natural gift, Summenhart attributed natural dominion to animals and even to heavenly bodies. In discussing man s natural dominion, Summenhart pointed out that the natural dominion is not sufficiently identified by its foundation, but requires further specification, which Summenhart finds in the idea that natural dominion is appropriate to the subject according to the natural law. This characterization lead him to treat God s dominion as natural dominion. Partly, this was due to Summenhart s specific understanding of the natural law, which made reasonableness as the primary criterion for the natural dominion at the expense of any metaphysical considerations. The third section clarifies Summenhart s discussion of the property rights defined by the positive human law. By delivering an account on juridical property rights Summenhart connected his philosophical and theological theory on rights to the juridical language of his times, and demonstrated that his own language of rights was compatible with current juridical terminology. Summenhart prepared his discussion of property rights with an account of the justification for private property, which gave private property a direct and strong natural law-based justification. Summenhart s discussion of the four property rights usus, usufructus, proprietas, and possession aimed at delivering a detailed report of the usage of these concepts in juridical discourse. His discussion was characterized by extensive use of the juridical source texts, which was more direct and verbal the more his discussion became entangled with the details of juridical doctrine. At the same time he promoted his own language on rights, especially by applying the idea of right as relation. He also showed recognizable effort towards systematizing juridical language related to property rights.

Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe 900-1200

Review of Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe, 900-1200 by Elizabeth van Houts (Toronto UP, 1999).

Medieval pulse of great earthquakes in the central Himalaya: Viewing past activities on the frontal thrust

The Himalaya has experienced three great earthquakes during the last century1934 Nepal-Bihar, 1950 Upper Assam, and arguably the 1905 Kangra. Focus here is on the central Himalayan segment between the 1905 and the 1934 ruptures, where previous studies have identified a great earthquake between thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Historical data suggest damaging earthquakes in A.D. 1255, 1344, 1505, 1803, and 1833, although their sources and magnitudes remain debated. We present new evidence for a great earthquake from a trench across the base of a 13m high scarp near Ramnagar at the Himalayan Frontal Thrust. The section exposed four south verging fault strands and a backthrust offsetting a broad spectrum of lithounits, including colluvial deposits. Age data suggest that the last great earthquake in the central Himalaya most likely occurred between A.D. 1259 and 1433. While evidence for this rupture is unmistakable, the stratigraphic clues imply an earlier event, which can most tentatively be placed between A.D. 1050 and 1250. The postulated existence of this earlier event, however, requires further validation. If the two-earthquake scenario is realistic, then the successive ruptures may have occurred in close intervals and were sourced on adjacent segments that overlapped at the trench site. Rupture(s) identified in the trench closely correlate with two damaging earthquakes of 1255 and 1344 reported from Nepal. The present study suggests that the frontal thrust in central Himalaya may have remained seismically inactive during the last similar to 700years. Considering this long elapsed time, a great earthquake may be due in the region.