"Just as fragments are part of a vessel": a translation into medieval Occitan of the life of Alexander the Great

This article examines a 14th-c. translation into Old Occitan prose of a late-antique life of Alexander the Great: Justin’s Epitome of the 'Historia Philippicae' of Pompeius Trogus. The article argues that it is the work of translators whose knowledge of pagan Latin materials was incomplete and whose use of their native tongue rested on non-literary bases. This text has not been edited before, and examining its uneven treatment of its source provides important new insights into the work of translators in the later Middle Ages. In conclusion, the article suggests some new approaches to the understanding of translation as a process of reconstruction and adaptation.

Monastic and church archaeology

Major advances in church and monastic archaeology are discussed in terms of two distinct waves, ca. 1970–1995 and 1995 to the time of writing (2014). The first wave was influenced by landscape history and processual archaeology; scholarship focused principally on historical, economic, and technological questions and targeted individual sites and monuments for study. The second wave has been informed by postprocessual approaches and considers change and complexity in religious landscapes and perspectives on religious space, embodiment, and agency. In conclusion, this article calls for a more holistic approach to the archaeology of medieval Christian belief, one which moves beyond the focus on institutions and monuments that has characterized monastic and church archaeology and extends archaeological study to include the performative rituals of Christian life and death in the Middle Ages.

Season of birth and sheep husbandry in late Roman and Medieval coastal Flanders: a pilot study using tooth enamel d18O analysis

From the early Roman period, there is archaeological evidence for the exploitation of the Flemish coastal plain (Belgium) for a range of activities, such as sheep herding on the then developing salt-marshes and salt-meadows for the production of wool. During the early Middle Ages, this culminated in the establishment of dedicated ‘sheep estates’. This phase of exploitation was followed by extensive drainage and land reclamation measures in the high Medieval period, transforming areas into grassland, suited for cattle breeding. As part of a larger project investigating the onset, intensification and final decline of sheep management in coastal Flanders in the historical period, this pilot study presents the results of sequential sampling and oxygen isotope analysis of a number of sheep teeth (M2, n = 8) from four late Roman and Medieval sites (dating from 4th to 15th century AD), in order to assess potential variations in season of birth between the different sites and through time. In comparison with published data from herds of known birth season, incremental enamel data from the Flemish sites are consistent with late winter/spring births, with the possibility of some instances of slightly earlier parturition. These findings suggest that manipulation of season of birth was not a feature of the sheep husbandry-based economies of early historic Flanders, further evidencing that wool production was the main purpose of contemporary sheep rearing in the region. Manipulation of season of birth is not likely to have afforded economic advantage in wool-centred economies, unlike in some milk- or meat-based regimes.

“Les petits renards qui détruisent la Vigne du Seigneur Sabaoth”. Innocent III et le Cantique des cantiques

This article examines medieval interpretations of the Song of Songs and their appearance in the correspondence of one of the greatest popes of the High Middle Ages: Innocent III (1198-1216). Innocent III’s depiction of heretics in the south of France as ‘the little foxes which destroy the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts’ was not unprecedented: decades earlier Saint Bernard of Clairvaux had also likened the ‘little foxes’ to heretics in his sermons. Bernard’s renown both as mystical theologian and tireless political advocate of the papacy meant that Innocent is likely to have drawn on such sermons for inspiration when composing his correspondence to the Christian faithful. Innocent’s references to the Song of Songs also provide conclusive evidence that a significant number of his letters have a highly personal flavour and that we really can discern a pope’s own ‘voice’ through his correspondence.

A herald and his objects in exile: Roger Machado and his memorandum book, 1484-1485

A re-examination of the herald Roger Machado's extant memorandum book, which contains an inventory and mercantile accounts amongst its contents. It is argued that this little-studied source provides evidence for an otherwise undocumented period in Machado's life - when he fled into exile to join Henry Tudor.

Downland, marsh, and weald: monastic foundation and rural intensification in Anglo-Saxon Kent

This paper takes a fresh look at the relationship between Christian conversion and economic change in Anglo-Saxon England, drawing upon new archaeological evidence from Kent. One of its primary aims is to exploit the archaeological record to provide a critical perspective on how these two processes may have related to one another, paying particular attention to previous assumptions concerning the role played by monastic institutions in the process of rural intensification in Anglo-Saxon England.

Papal power and protection in the Shebet Yehudah

The sixteenth-century Shebet Yehudah is an account of the persecutions of Jews in various countries and epochs, including their expulsion from Spain in the fifteenth century. It is not a medieval text and was written long after many of the events it describes. Yet although it cannot give us a contemporary medieval standpoint, it provides important insights into how later Jewish writers perceived Jewish–papal relations in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Although the extent to which Jewish communities came into contact either with the papacy as an institution or the actions of individual popes varied immensely, it is through analysis of Hebrew works such as the Shebet Yehudah that we are able to piece together a certain understanding of Jewish ideas about the medieval papacy as an institution and the policies of individual popes. This article argues that Jews knew only too well that papal protection was not unlimited, but always carefully circumscribed in accordance with Christian theology. It is hoped that it will be a scholarly contribution to our growing understanding of Jewish ideas about the papacy's spiritual and temporal power and authority in the Later Middle Ages and how this impacted on Jewish communities throughout medieval Europe.

A lost insular version of the romance of Octavian

This article is the first full examination of the Irish translation of the popular and influential medieval romance "Octavian". I argue that the source for this Irish translation was an insular version of the romance, probably in Middle English. I show how the Irish translator incorporated material from another romance, "Fierabras", in order to introduce the characters of Charlemagne and his vassals into the story. This is the only version of "Octavian" that gives the text a Carolingian setting. I also demonstrate that the version of the romance from which the Irish translation was produced differed in significant ways from any of the surviving versions in other languages. I suggest that the Irish translation provides our only witness to a lost variant version of "Octavian" and, as such, extends our knowledge of the corpus of insular romance in the Middle Ages.

A revolução do consumidor

This study aims at disclosing the roots of contemporary consumer culture. By emphasizing the relationship between consumption and cultural and political dimensions of social life, this analysis focuses on some processes that took place in Europe since the end of Middle Ages throughout the XVIII century - e.g. the rise of absolutism, the development of royal courts and of a new life-style among them (they are the social group in which the first modern consumption features came to light), the upcoming of present (and no longer past) as the main reference frame for action, a new balance between tradition and novelty, the emergence of individualism - which are crucial to understand the genesis of present consumer standards and values.

Apontamentos sobre a publicação de História da vida privada em Portugal: entrevista com José Mattoso

Interview given to Leandro Alves by Jose Teodoro Mattoso, professor at the New University of Lisbon, a renowned medievalist and author of several important works on Portuguese historiography. He recently coordinated the publication of the History of private life in Portugal, a work encompassing the Middle Ages through to the present day, addressing the field of study of behaviors and mentalities, which until then had barely been touched upon by Portuguese historians. Seeking to outline a historiographical perspective regarding the use of the history of mentalities in Portugal, a series of questions were prepared to put to Mattoso about the interests that led him to organize such a collection of unpublished essays.

Cuidados paliativos e ser-para-morte: reflexões sobre um atendimento psicológico

Death is a theme that fascinates, though at the same time, frightens and uneasy the human being, despite the finitude being present at our daily lives. In each historical time, death has been represented in a peculiar way, from familiar death (at Middle Ages), to interdicted death (at contemporary times). Through this path it‟s possible to recognize several attitudes and stages front of death and the process of dying as possibilities of coping and the understanding of these occurrences. In other hand, the palliative care proposal came as a humanized attention, front of the human finitude, recognizing death as a part of the vital cycle. The Brazilian reality, in this context, still faces a lot of political, economic and social barriers that makes difficult the consolidation of palliative care at the death process in the Brazilian Health Care policies. Currently, according to the Brazilian Palliative Care Association, Brazil presents an average of 40 services with this proposal. Such data portray our inexpressive condition in relation to these cares when considering the territorial extension and population of our country. Considering this scenario is relevant think about death and the process of dying at contemporary times, at a health context in which palliative care, when trying to humanize the process of dying, bring to light the issue of human finitude and the beingtowards- death, as thought by the philosopher Martin Heidegger. According to him, the human being (Dasein) is constituted as a being-towards-death, once death is its most own potentiality-for-bein and its last possibility to be lived. In view of the ideas presented, the proposed study appears as a qualitative research of existential-phenomenological inspiration and aims to understand the experience of being-toward-death from the psychological care to a person out of possibilities of cure living on palliative cares. The psychological care happened at the patient‟s home, understanding the clinical process of being-with-the-other from the written reports of the psychology/researcher, by the accompanying sessions, configured as an experience report. These reports are focused on the experiences lived by the patient, as well as apprehended by the psychologist at the intersubjectivity relation and its own experience with Dasein and, therefore, being-toward-death. The reports were hermeneutically interpreted, from the senses that emerged in this process, considering the notion of being-toward-death proposed by Heidegger. Furthermore, it was important to dialogue with other authors that approached the studied theme. It is perceived, through brief and meaningful reflections about the clinical treatments started, that the experience of illness with no possibilities of cure makes the Dasein revises feelings and experiences that were marked at the temporality and historicity of existence. It is a stage of life in which the cultural dimension and the common sense of finitude, often gains ground in the human condition, taken in its ordinary sense, unlike the way it has been thought from an ontological and existential perspective of death. Thus, there are singulars and revealing paths in the palliative care scenery as possible ways for authenticity of being-toward-death

Peripheral facial palsy in the past: contributions from Avicenna, Nicolaus Friedreich and Charles Bell

Este estudo apresenta documentos de paralisia facial periférica nas artes plásticas no Egito antigo, Grécia e Roma, Idade Média, Renascimento e também dos últimos 4 séculos. Pensamos que a história da paralisia facial periférica acompanha a história da própria espécie humana. São apresentadas as contribuições de Avicenna e Nicolaus Friedreich, e são mostradas controvérsias sobre a descrição original de Charles Bell.

A história portuguesa medieval: preservação, ordenação e esquecimento

Os últimos séculos da Idade Média, nomeadamente os séculos XIII, XIV e XV, são marcados na Europa por uma crescente preocupação em fixar por escrito os diversos saberes e eventos, preocupação que, ligada às tentativas de sistematizar a organização dos reinos, contribui significativamente para a ascensão das línguas vulgares como línguas dos mais variados gêneros - de documentos jurídicos e administrativos a textos de caráter filosófico e histórico. em Portugal, o empenho em deixar registrado o passado numa língua acessível tem início no século XIV e culmina no século XV, quando se procura organizar a memória através da escrita e se começa a construir uma perspectiva portuguesa sobre o passado. O objetivo do presente texto é mapear alguns índices que revelam a importância que os portugueses dos séculos XIV e XV conferem à ordenação do passado, sobretudo a partir da escolha do que devia e do que não podia cair no esquecimento.

Tradição e modernidade em O Senhor dos Anéis

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FFC