Gwaith Madog Dwygraig

Edwards, Huw, Gwaith Madog Dwygraig (Canolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru, 2007)

Credit and Debt in medieval England, c.1180-c.1350

Schofield, Phillipp, and N. J. Mayhew, eds., Credit and Debt in medieval England, c.1180-c.1350 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2002), pp.x+164 RAE2008

Interpretacja myśli Pseudo-Dionizego w wybranych dziełach Grzegorza Palamasa

Wydział Nauk Społecznych

Conversion as transformative experience: a sociological study of identity formation and transformation processes

This thesis contributes to the understanding of the processes involved in the formation and transformation of identities. It achieves this goal by establishing the critical importance of ‘background’ and ‘liminality’ in the shaping of identity. Drawing mainly from the work of cultural anthropology and philosophical hermeneutics a theoretical framework is constructed from which transformative experiences can be analysed. The particular experience at the heart of this study is the phenomenon of conversion and the dynamics involved in the construction of that process. Establishing the axial age as the horizon from which the process of conversion emerged will be the main theme of the first part of the study. Identifying the ‘birth’ of conversion allows a deeper understanding of the historical dynamics that make up the process. From these fundamental dynamics a theoretical framework is constructed in order to analyse the conversion process. Applying this theoretical framework to a number of case-studies will be the central focus of this study. The transformative experiences of Saint Augustine, the fourteenth century nun Margaret Ebner, the communist revolutionary Karl Marx and the literary figure of Arthur Koestler will provide the material onto which the theoretical framework can be applied. A synthesis of the Judaic religious and the Greek philosophical traditions will be the main findings for the shaping of Augustine’s conversion experience. The dissolution of political order coupled with the institutionalisation of the conversion process will illuminate the mystical experiences of Margaret Ebner at a time when empathetic conversion reached its fullest expression. The final case-studies examine two modern ‘conversions’ that seem to have an ideological rather than a religious basis to them. On closer examination it will be found that the German tradition of Biblical Criticism played a most influential role in the ‘conversion’ of Marx and mythology the best medium to understand the experiences of Koestler. The main ideas emerging from this study highlight the fluidity of identity and the important role of ‘background’ in its transformation. The theoretical framework, as constructed for this study, is found to be a useful methodological tool that can offer insights into experiences, such as conversion, that otherwise would remain hidden from our enquiries.

Ironworking in late medieval Ireland, c. AD. 1200 to 1600

The landscape of late medieval Ireland, like most places in Europe, was characterized by intensified agricultural exploitation, the growth and founding of towns and cities and the construction of large stone edifices, such as castles and monasteries. None of these could have taken place without iron. Axes were needed for clearing woodland, ploughs for turning the soil, saws for wooden buildings and hammers and chisels for the stone ones, all of which could not realistically have been made from any other material. The many battles, waged with ever increasingly sophisticated weaponry, needed a steady supply of iron and steel. During the same period, the European iron industry itself underwent its most fundamental transformation since its inception; at the beginning of the period it was almost exclusively based on small furnaces producing solid blooms and by the turn of the seventeenth century it was largely based on liquid-iron production in blast-furnaces the size of a house. One of the great advantages of studying the archaeology of ironworking is that its main residue, slag, is often produced in copious amounts both during smelting and smithing, is virtually indestructible and has very little secondary use. This means that most sites where ironworking was carried out are readily recognizable as such by the occurrence of this slag. Moreover, visual examination can distinguish between various types of slag, which are often characteristic for the activity from which they derive. The ubiquity of ironworking in the period under study further means that we have large amounts of residues available for study, allowing us to distinguish patterns both inside assemblages and between sites. Disadvantages of the nature of the remains related to ironworking include the poor preservation of the installations used, especially the furnaces, which were often built out of clay and located above ground. Added to this are the many parameters contributing to the formation of the above-mentioned slag, making its composition difficult to connect to a certain technology or activity. Ironworking technology in late medieval Ireland has thus far not been studied in detail. Much of the archaeological literature on the subject is still tainted by the erroneous attribution of the main type of slag, bun-shaped cakes, to smelting activities. The large-scale infrastructure works of the first decade of the twenty-first century have led to an exponential increase in the amount of sites available for study. At the same time, much of the material related to metalworking recovered during these boom-years was subjected to specialist analysis. This has led to a near-complete overhaul of our knowledge of early ironworking in Ireland. Although many of these new insights are quickly seeping into the general literature, no concise overviews on the current understanding of the early Irish ironworking technology have been published to date. The above then presented a unique opportunity to apply these new insights to the extensive body of archaeological data we now possess. The resulting archaeological information was supplemented with, and compared to, that contained in the historical sources relating to Ireland for the same period. This added insights into aspects of the industry often difficult to grasp solely through the archaeological sources, such as the people involved and the trade in iron. Additionally, overviews on several other topics, such as a new distribution map of Irish iron ores and a first analysis of the information on iron smelting and smithing in late medieval western Europe, were compiled to allow this new knowledge on late medieval Irish ironworking to be put into a wider context. Contrary to current views, it appears that it is not smelting technology which differentiates Irish ironworking from the rest of Europe in the late medieval period, but its smithing technology and organisation. The Irish iron-smelting furnaces are generally of the slag-tapping variety, like their other European counterparts. Smithing, on the other hand, is carried out at ground-level until at least the sixteenth century in Ireland, whereas waist-level hearths become the norm further afield from the fourteenth century onwards. Ceramic tuyeres continue to be used as bellows protectors, whereas these are unknown elsewhere on the continent. Moreover, the lack of market centres at different times in late medieval Ireland, led to the appearance of isolated rural forges, a type of site unencountered in other European countries during that period. When these market centres are present, they appear to be the settings where bloom smithing is carried out. In summary, the research below not only offered us the opportunity to give late medieval ironworking the place it deserves in the broader knowledge of Ireland's past, but it also provided both a base for future research within the discipline, as well as a research model applicable to different time periods, geographical areas and, perhaps, different industries..

Mapping the realm: A New Look at the Gough Map of Britain (c.1360)

The mid-fourteenth century map of Britain known as the ‘Gough’ map is the earliest extant depiction of the island in geographically recognizable form. Hitherto, however, interest in the road or route patterns marked on the map has meant that the map's extraordinarily rich settlement geography has not received the attention it merits and that, consequently, the point of the map may have been missed. The availability of a digital scan of the map coupled with the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) software provides the opportunity for a new look at the Gough map and the questions it poses. Attention in this article is directed to the settlement geography it shows, and in particular to the map's 654 cities, towns, villages, castles and monasteries. Their geographical positions as given on the manuscript are compared with their modern equivalents to shed light on some of the basic questions—the map's place of origin, the purpose or purposes for which it was made and the circumstances of its production—that have posed such a challenge for scholars. Our preliminary conclusion is that the key to understanding the original primary role of the Gough map lies in its accurate but selective depiction of the settlement geography of fourteenth-century Britain.

O convento de Nossa Senhora da Assunção: (des)construção da memória

Dissertação mest., História da Arte Portuguesa, Universidade do Algarve, 2007

Le pouvoir communal et l'émancipation urbaine au XVe siècle : le cas de la ville de Liège (1400-1455)

La ville de Liège, à la fin du Moyen Âge, fut le théâtre de l’affirmation de ses bourgeois par l’entremise des corporations de métier et des institutions communales. Le XIVe siècle fut en effet marqué par des gains communaux importants au détriment, d’une part, du patriciat urbain, d’autre part, du prince-évêque de Liège. À partir de 1384, le Conseil liégeois, entièrement entre les mains des artisans, possédait des prérogatives étendues dans l’administration et la gestion de la ville. Toutefois, la progression du pouvoir bourgeois se trouva brusquement stoppée, pour une dizaine d’années, lors de la défaite liégeoise d’Othée, en 1408. Ce mémoire porte sur l’évolution du pouvoir communal liégeois dans la première moitié du XVe siècle, moins bien connue des historiens. L’étude de la chronique de Jean de Stavelot permet de mettre en lumière cette période trouble. La défaite d’Othée de même que les réformes imposées par les princes-évêques causèrent notamment de grands bouleversements. Des partis politiques entrèrent aussi en scène et la présence voisine du puissant duc de Bourgogne influença la vie des Liégeois. Ces particularités issues du contexte politique et social sont autant d’éléments qui influèrent sur la volonté d’affirmation des bourgeois et l’exercice du pouvoir communal à Liège.

Le bailli d’Amiens comme relais de l’autorité royale dans le Nord de la France au temps de Philippe VI (1328-1350)

Carte du bailliage en fichier complémentaire.

La croisade tardive : des plans du début du XIVe siècle à la défaite de Nicopolis

L’idée de la croisade reste présente toute au long du XIVe siècle comme bien le prouvent les projets écrits durant le siècle. Les théoriciens de la croisade décrivent minutieusement les mesures à suivre pour récupérer la Terre sainte. Deux éléments sont nécessaires pour pouvoir entreprendre une nouvelle expédition : la paix entre les princes chrétiens et l’union de l’Église. Au XIVe siècle, un transfert s’opère naturellement, et le mouvement de recuperatio de la Terre sainte se projette contre les ennemis les plus proches de la chrétienté, faisant de toute guerre contre le Turc une guerre sainte. À partir de la deuxième moitié du XIVe siècle, la diplomatie joue un rôle crucial dans la prédication de la croisade. Dans ce contexte idéologique, à l’appel du roi de Hongrie, Sigismond de Luxembourg, les puissances chrétiennes tentent de se coaliser pour arrêter l’avancée ottomane en Europe, mais elles sont défaites à Nicopolis, en 1396. Pour la chevalerie française, la campagne était une opportunité de montrer sa vaillance, mais pour elle la croisade prend une allure de chevauchée plutôt que de guerre sainte.

Le dauphin et l’astrologue : le Livret des elections universelles des 12 maisons de Pèlerin de Prusse

In 1361, at Hotel St-Pol, the future king of France, Charles the Fifth, received a book entitled Livret des elections universelles des 12 maisons from his astrologer, Pèlerin de Prusse. Written in old French during the translatio studii period, the book contains two books and describes several astrological theories along with precise descriptions of the twelve houses. Charles the Fifth is widely known as Charles the Wise in our present day. This is due to his vast contributions to the Louvre library as well as his impulse of translations from Latin to the French of the auctoritates and his passion for astrology. The significance imparted on astrology prior and during Charles the Fifth’s reign is apparent in Pèlerin de Prusse’s text Traité des elections, commissioned by Charles during a time of political unrest. The defeat of Poitiers, the États of 1356 to 1358 as well as the Jacquerie define the political landscape of 14th century France. Located at Oxford and the Vatican, two copies are extant, and neither have been edited from the original or subjected to detailed examination and study. This master will present a transcription of the first part of the Livret des elections universelles des 12 maisons.