Suchergebnisse

Only the introductory portion of the History written by the Armenian Mxit'ar of Ani has come down to us. However, an extensive passage on the Ghaznavids and Seljuks from the lost part of the work is quoted in the Universal History composed c. 1268 by Vardan Vardapet3. The content and the sources used for the compilation of this much-neglected narrative is the subject of this study.

The whole life of Ebbon, church hierarch, missionary, man of letters and 9th century politician, points without a doubt to a character who was never satisfied with what he had, what he knew or what he achieved. We intend to show to what extent this personal insatisfaction with his lot played a role în finding new ways of visual expression which marked the transition from antique models towards a new, middle ages esthetics.

This volume deals with shifts and changes that took place during the Middle Ages when things, or ideas, or writings, were transferred from time to time, place to place, or one ideological realm to another. The same objects, ideas, or texts changed their meaning, impact, or symbolic value according to different contexts. The twelve papers, written by leading experts, investigate the authority attributed to texts and their canonization in different contexts; the shifting uses and meanings of gifts, from honorable instruments in the settlement of disputes to corruption and bribery; and the transition of violence and power from relationships between equals to a tool for the maintenance of hierarchies. Contributors include: Gadi Algazi, Monique Bernards, Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Esther Cohen, Valentin Groebner, Yitzhak Hen, Mayke de Jong, Rob Meens, Marco Mostert, Thomas F.X. Noble, Timothy Reuter, Hendrik Teunis, and Stephen D. White

Una de las mayores revoluciones dela época contemporánea en el plano jurídicomorales la universalización de los derechoshumanos. Esta nueva realidad que vive la Humanidadai término dei II Milenio es fruto de unalarga conquista colectiva, pues todas las civilizacionesse fundan en sistemas de creencias quetratan de liberar ai hornbre de las necesidadesmás elementales de .la condición humana. Sinembargo, han sido la cultura occidental la quemás se ha distinguido en la lucha por las libertades,como ha quedado recogido en la literaturadei Antiguo y dei Nuevo Testamento y en las delos gríegos y romanos. Ciertarnente no se trataaún de los derechos subjetivos, pero la idea denaturaleza humana inspira los prirneros intentosde elevar ai plano jurídico y politico los deseoslegítimos de libertad. En el siglo XII surgen lasprirneras ciudades "libres" y se reconoce lainiciativa de mercado, pero, sobre todo, e! respetoa la conciencia es objeto de reflexión preferentepor parte de los juristas (Gratiano) y de los teólogos(San Bernardo y Pedro Lornbardo). SantoTomás de AqUino elabora e! concepto de naturalezacreada, pero suficiente en cuanto a sus fines.Por último, e! descubrirniento de América obliga alos teólogos espaiioles a sacar las consecuenciasde la idea de naturaleza humana en el contextosocio-político de la Conquista.

The Medieval Iberian Treasury in the Context of Cultural Interchange—expanded beyond the special issue of Medieval Encounters from which it was drawn—centers on the magnificent treasury of San Isidoro de León to address wider questions about the meanings of cross-cultural luxury goods in royal-ecclesiastical settings during the central Middle Ages. Now fully open access and with an updated introduction to ongoing research, an additional chapter, composite bibliographies, and indices, this multidisciplinary volume opens fresh ways into the investigation of medieval objects and textiles through historical, art historical, and technical analyses. Carbon-14 dating, iconography, and social history are among the methods applied to material and textual evidence, together shining new light on the display of rulership in medieval Iberia. Readership: From students to advanced specialists interested in medieval history, art history, women's history, social history, rulership, material culture, Muslim-Christian interchange, Viking art, Iberia during the central Middle Ages.

Gabriel de Mussy's report, apparently recorded from the words of eyewitnesses of
the event, is a convincing description of one of the first facts in human history of the
use of "bacteriological weapons". Allegedly, during the siege of the Crimean city of
Kaffa by the Golden Horde troops of Khan Dzhanibek, a plague epidemic broke out among
the soldiers. Then the besiegers began to throw the bodies of the dead into the city
with the help of stone throwers, after which the epidemic broke out there as well. Many
of the townspeople fled on ships and arrived in Italy by sea, thus bringing the disease
to Europe. De Mussy's report is criticized or accepted by different authors with a
different set of arguments, but both points of view are built on the basis of the
assumption that the nomads bombarded the city with corpses and tried to spread an
epidemic to it in order to facilitate the assault. However, de Mussy's text directly
says that this action was a gesture of desperation and was carried out after the Mongols
had lost interest in the siege. The article compares the actions of the Golden Horde
army in 1346 in Kaffa with the practices that, according to Russian and Polish sources,
were used by nomads in Southwestern Russia during the campaign against Poland in
1287—1288, when there was also an epidemic. This comparison, in the context of accounts
on how the Mongols of the imperial period understood the manifestation of a deadly
infectious disease, allows to conclude that, perhaps, the practices recorded by de Mussy
had a magical, rather than a rational meaning.