Lucrecio, "De rerum natura": Sentido y coherencia del prólogo

El prólogo del De rerum natura de Lucrecio (1.1-148) parece ser un tema gastado: ha sido tratado decenas de veces tanto por su excelente calidad como por los problemas que plantea. Pero esperamos poder dar un nuevo sentido y solución a ambos aspectos. En primer lugar, el himno a Venus no es una mera convención, sino que respira sentimiento religioso; Venus no personifica a la naturaleza, sino al placer y la felicidad y ni la hegemonía que se dice ejerce Venus, ni las plegarias que contiene el himno contradicen la teología epicúrea. Todavía más, nos parece que el himno constituye una auténtica epifanía religiosa muy propia de la teología epicúrea. En segundo lugar, suponiendo que el autor ha tomado como tema compartido los schemata o grados de dificultad de la intellectio retórica en el texto de 1.50-148, se intentan solucionar las dificultades de coherencia del texto.

Chinese driver perceptions about speeding and traffic law enforcement

The World Health Organisation has highlighted the urgent need to address the escalating global public health crisis associated with road trauma. Low-income and middle-income countries bear the brunt of this, and rapid increases in private vehicle ownership in these nations present new challenges to authorities, citizens, and researchers alike. The role of human factors in the road safety equation is high. In China, human factors have been implicated in more than 90% of road crashes, with speeding identified as the primary cause (Wang, 2003). However, research investigating the factors that influence driving speeds in China is lacking (WHO, 2004). To help address this gap, we present qualitative findings from group interviews conducted with 35 Beijing car drivers in 2008. Some themes arising from data analysis showed strong similarities with findings from highly-motorised nations (e.g., UK, USA, and Australia) and include issues such as driver definitions of ‘speeding’ that appear to be aligned with legislative enforcement tolerances, factors relating to ease/difficulty of speed limit compliance, and the modifying influence of speed cameras. However, unique differences were evident, some of which, to our knowledge, are previously unreported in research literature. Themes included issues relating to an expressed lack of understanding about why speed limits are necessary and a perceived lack of transparency in traffic law enforcement and use of associated revenue. The perception of an unfair system seemed related to issues such as differential treatment of certain drivers and the large amount of individual discretion available to traffic police when administering sanctions. Additionally, a wide range of strategies to overtly avoid detection for speeding and/or the associated sanctions were reported. These strategies included the use of in-vehicle speed camera detectors, covering or removing vehicle licence number plates, and using personal networks of influential people to reduce or cancel a sanction. These findings have implications for traffic law, law enforcement, driver training, and public education in China. While not representative of all Beijing drivers, we believe that these research findings offer unique insights into driver behaviour in China.

Augustine and the functions of concupiscence

This study analyses Augustine s concept of concupiscentia, or evil desire (together with two cognate terms, libido and cupiditas) in the context of his entire oeuvre. By the aid of systematic analysis, the concept and its development is explored in four distinct ways. It is claimed that Augustine used the concept of concupiscentia for several theological purposes, and the task of the study is to represent these distinct functions, and their connections to Augustine s general theological and philosophical convictions. The study opens with a survey on terminology. A general overview of the occurrences of the negatively connoted words for desire in Latin literature precedes a corresponding examination of Augustine s own works. In this introductory chapter it is shown that, despite certain preferences in the uses of the words, a sufficient degree of synonymy reigns so as to allow an analysis of the concept without tightly discriminating between the terms. The theological functions of concupiscentia with its distinct contexts are analysed in separate chapters. The function of concupiscentia as a divine punishment is explored first (Ch 3). It is seen how Augustine links together concupiscentia and ideas about divine justice, and finally suggests that in the inordinate, psychologically experienced sexual desire, the original theological disobedience of Adam and Eve can be perceived. Augustine was criticized for this solution already in his own times, and the analysis of the function of concupiscentia as a divine punishment ends in a discussion on the critical response of punitive concupiscentia by Julian of Aeclanum. Augustine also attached to concupiscentia another central theological function by viewing evil desire as an inward originating cause for all external evil actions. In the study, this function is analysed by surveying two formally distinct images of evil desire, i.e. as the root (radix) of all evil, and as a threefold (triplex) matrix of evil actions (Ch 4). Both of these images were based on a single verse of the Bible (1 Jn 2, 16 and 1 Tim 6, 10). This function of concupiscentia was formed both parallel to, and in answer to, Manichaean insights into concupiscentia. Being familiar with the traditional philosophical discussions on the nature and therapy of emotions, Augustine situated concupiscentia also into this context. It is acknowledged that these philosophical traditions had an obvious impact into his way of explaining psychological processes in connection with concupiscentia. Not only did Augustine implicitly receive and exploit these traditions, but he also explicitly moulded and criticized them in connection with concupiscentia. Eventually, Augustine conceives the philosophical traditions of emotions as partly useful but also partly inadequate to deal with concupiscentia (Ch 5). The role of concupiscentia in connection to divine grace and Christian renewal is analysed in the final chapter of the study. Augustine s gradual development in internalizing the effects of concupiscentia also into the life of a baptized Christian are elucidated, as are the strong limitations and mitigations Augustine makes to the concept when attaching it into the life under grace (sub gratia). A crucial part in the development of this function is played by Augustine s changing interpretation of Rom 7, and the way concupiscentia appears in Augustine s readings of this text is therefore also analysed. As a result of the analysis of these four distinct functions and contexts of concupiscentia, it is concluded that Augustine s concept of concupiscentia is fairly tightly and coherently connected to his views of central theological importance. Especially the functions of concupiscentia as a punishment and the function of concupiscentia in Christian renewal were both tightly interwoven into Augustine s view of God s being and God s grace. The study shows the importance of reading Augustine s discussions on evil desire with a constant awareness of their role in their larger context, that is, of their function in each situation. The study warns against too simplistic and unifying readings of Augustine s concupiscentia, emphasizing the need to acknowledge both the necessitating, sinful aspects of concupiscentia, and the domesticated features of concupiscentia during Christian renewal.

Translatio materiae : adopción de formas y géneros latinos en las colecciones hispánicas de milagros marianos

Resumen: Un tipo de literatura latina no narrativa, asimilable más bien al discurso doctrinal teológico y mariológico y, por otro lado, a la himnodia litúrgica, deja entrever su influencia en las colecciones ibéricas de milagros marianos en verso del siglo XIII, las Cantigas de Santa María de Alfonso X y los Milagros de Nuestra Señora de Gonzalo de Berceo. Las muy escasas menciones a fuentes en las Cantigas de Santa María no invalidan la evidencia de múltiples “citas” reconocibles. Así, por ejemplo, es posible encontrar himnos y antífonas explícitamente citados (Te Deum laudamus, Salve Regina, Ave Maris Stella, además de glosas al Ave María) y, más allá de estos, se perciben otros modos de inserción de la lírica himnódica en la narración de los milagros. Se propone, entonces, iluminar estos loci donde parece haber un texto aludido o “escondido”, para considerar sus diversos modos de traducción, adopción y reelaboración.

Los demonios en la hagiografía latina hispana: algunas calas

[ES] El autor examina el motivo de la presencia del diablo en la hagiografía latina de la Hispania visigótica y medieval, centrándose para ello en la 'Vita Emiliani' de Braulio de Zaragoza, en la 'Replicatio sermonum aprima conversione' de Valerio de Bierzo y en la 'Vita Martini Legionensis' de Lucas de Tuy. Y, en apéndice final, se estudian las locuciones y términos latinos mediante los cuales Braulio de Zaragoza designa al diablo.

¿Encargó Braulio de Zaragoza a Eugenio de Toledo que compusiera una Misa de San Millán?: para una interpretación de «Vita Emiliani», 3, 5-10

[EN] What is Braulio asking from Eugenius in this passage: that he requires a Mass to be celebrated (where?) in honour of San Millán, or that Eugenius himself writes the Mass, or, simply, some parts or prayers for it? Firstly, translations and interpretations provided by scholars to date are checked and criticized; then an interpretation of the passage is proposed, being based on textual criticism approaches, on the work context and on the cultural environment in which this work takes place.

La «Vita Emiliani» de Braulio de Zaragoza: el autor, la cronología y los motivos para su redacción

[ES] En este trabajo se pretende realizar un estudio histórico-filológico de algunos puntos centrales de 'Vita Emiliani' y que responden a las preguntas siguientes: ¿Por qué Braulio de Zaragoza, uno de los obispos más importantes de la Hispania visigótica, escribe la vida de San Millán, un eremita, un santo un tanto singular, con asomos polémicos y aristas molestas? ¿Qué vinculación tenía la familia altoeclesiástica de Braulio con el centro monástico de San Millán? ¿Por qué se eligio a Braulio para escribir la 'Vita'? ¿cCómo reaccionó Braulio ante esa solicitud? ¿Pretendió Braulio dibujar un santo nacional para la Hispania visigótica? ¿Quería Braulio hacer de Millán un modelo ortodoxo frente a los arrianos y/o priscilianistas? ¿Se escribió 'Vita Emiliani' con una finalidad y textura apologética? ¿Nació 'V. Em.' para una función y uso litúrgico? ¿Qué clase de público leería 'V. Em.'? Además, en los dos primeros puntos del trabajo se intenta precisar la fecha de composición de 'V. Em.' mediante la discusión de los datos pertinentes, y se da un sucinto panorama de la historia de su autoría.

¿Uno o dos frunimianos en 'Vita Emiliani' y cartas de Braulio de Zaragoza?

[EN] We try to prove, with arguments taken from the texts, that the person named "Fruinianus", to whom Braulio de Saragossa addresses his letters XIII and XIV in his epistolary, is the same Frunimianus as the one from the introductory letter to 'Vita Emiliani', that is, Braulio's brother.

Hagiografía hispanolatina visigótica y medieval (s. VII-XII)

Coordinador de las actas: Maurilio Pérez González

La «Vita Mahometi» del códice 10 de Uncastillo (s. XIII): estudio y edición

Actas coordinadas por Maurilio Pérez González

Sobre el origen geográfico de la familia de Braulio, obispo de Zaragoza

Edición a cargo de Agustín Ramos Guerreira

Los animales acuáticos en San Ambrosio: simbolismo cristiano e ictiología

[ES] El presente trabajo examina los principales procedimientos de que se sirve san Ambrosio en la homilía de su «Hexameron» dedicada a los animales acuáticos. Se destacan aquellos desarrollos originales con respecto de su principal modelo, Basilio de Cesarea, en especial las ampliaciones de las caracterizaciones de algunos animales, y se proponen ejemplos de su pervivencia en otros tratadistas medievales. El público diverso a quien se dirigía este sermón de cuaresma explica tanto esas digresiones muchas veces pintorescas como otras más conceptuales, en las que el simbolismo cristiano se apropia de las bases de los naturalistas clásicos, desde Aristóteles a Plinio.

Las vitae sanctorum de la Hispania medieval: sus manuscritos y su historia editorial

Ejemplar dedicado a: Hagiografía y archivos de la Iglesia santoral hispano-mozárabe en las Diócesis de España. Actas del XVIII Congreso de la Asociación celebrado en Orense (1ª parte) (9 al 13 de septiembre de 2002).

Pastoral

This chapter argues that Milton’s Epitaphium Damonis, a neo-Latin pastoral lament on the death of Charles Diodati, is marked by the author's Petrarchan self-fashioning. This is achieved through intertextual engagement with Petrarch's Bucolicum Carmen (especially Ecls. 1 and 10). Milton as the wandering Thyrsis, undertaking a methaphorical and literal journey into the world of Italian humanism, appropriates and adapts the metaphorical departure from and return to a pastoral world now shattered by plague and death. Recourse to the quasi-Augustinian monasticism of Petrarchan neo-Latin pastoral facilitates the poem's crossing of a monastic limen via its subtle interaction with a hagiographic intertext, the Vita Sancti Deodati. Now pastoral saint and scholar become united in death and in subsequent apotheosis.