Holy Roman Emperor Research Articles

An Imperial Portrait Cameo of Antonia Minor in a 14th-Century Reliquary Cross in Prague

The present study explores a little-studied and reinterpreted early Roman Imperial cameo depicting Antonia Minor (36 bc–ad 37), which came into the possession of the Holy Roman emperor, Charles IV of Luxembourg (1316–78), a collector of ancient gems. It was presumably by his order that the ancient cameo was set in a splendid gold reliquary cross which he commissioned after his imperial coronation to house relics of the True Cross. Thus, in the new setting, the cameo could be perceived as the divine Antonia Minor; Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who allegedly discovered the True Cross; or Saint Catherine, Charles’ heavenly protectress. The cross is today preserved in the Treasury of Saint Vitus Cathedral, Prague.

Portrait in Western European porcelain of the XVIII century

This article is dedicated to portrait images in Western European porcelain of the XVIII century. Research is conducted on the works created in various European countries, such as Germany (Meissen), France (Sevres), Austria (Vienna), and England (Wedgwood Pottery Manufactory). Prominent masters of porcelain –Kendler, Boizot, Grassi – are the authors of the portraits. Sculptural portrait images of August III – painter of the court of the French Queen Marie Antoinette and the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II are notable for exquisite artistic merit. The article reviews porcelain sculpture, as well as oil painted portraits. Interpretation of the images manifests the features of three styles characteristic to art of the XVIII century: Baroque, Rococo and Classicism. Portrait images reflect the themes typical to the Age of Enlightenment. The article describes the peculiarities of the creations of artists who worked in various European porcelain manufactories. Research methodology is based on the detailed stylistic analysis of the works of Baroque, Rococo and Classicism; fundamental examination of the works in historical sequence for determining the evolutionary changes; comparative analysis for revealing national and authorial specificities. The novelty is defined by the fact that this article is first to comprehensively analyze the portrait images in porcelain of such countries as Germany, France, and Austria of the XVIII century, as well as in identification of the features characteristic to different artists.

Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth by Magda Teter

Reviewed by: Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth by Magda Teter Edward Berenson Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth. By Magda Teter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020. 539 pages. $39.95 (cloth). Although there is a great deal of research on the history of the blood libel, much of it recent, Magda Teter's book is one of the rare works to focus extensively on the early modern period (1450–1790s). She does so with impressive erudition, working in multiple languages and in the archives of eight countries. The product is a dazzling intellectual history, a foray into hundreds of well-known and little-known sources that, examined together, provide a comprehensive picture of the creation, dissemination, and reception of this stubbornly persistent antisemitic myth. Medievalists such as Gavin I. Langmuir, John M. McCulloh, and Israel Yuval have examined the infamous early cases—William of Norwich, Hugh of Lincoln, and the Fulda blood libel of [End Page 196] 1235—while historians of modern European antisemitism have homed in on the explosion of ritual murder accusations in the long nineteenth century, especially those between 1880 and the Great War. But there has been less attention given to the early modern stories save for the widely-known tale of Simon of Trent (1475). It is these stories, however, and the extensive commentary they generated that have informed medievalists about the earlier cases and provided the backdrop and context for the modern ones. The pre-modern cases have perhaps received less attention than their medieval and modern counterparts because few historians possess Teter's linguistic firepower, capable as she is of working with sources in Latin, Italian, German, Polish, French, Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Spanish. In arguing for the centrality of the early modern tales of ritual murder, Teter shows that the medieval stories had a mostly local resonance and affected Western culture much less than historians have thought. The case of William of Norwich (1144), generally considered the founding instance of the ritual murder accusation, "survived only in a few mentions in monastic chronicles" (7). The now-famous narrative of William's death, Thomas of Monmouth's The Life and Passion of William of Norwich (volumes issued between 1150 and 1172), "lay forgotten until the nineteenth century, when it was rediscovered and printed" (7). The limited resonance of this affair stemmed in part from the lack of judicial proceedings—the supposed Jewish culprits never stood trial—which kept it from generating much of a paper trail. A narrative by John of Tynemouth published in English and Latin in 1516 was the first full account of William's tale to become somewhat widely known. The death of Hugh of Lincoln in 1255, the first English case to result in the execution of Jews, resonated further, but that was mainly because it entered the English literary canon nearly a century and a half later as the basis of Geoffrey Chaucer's story "The Prioress's Tale." Several continental cases achieved greater notoriety largely because they produced reactions from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Pope Innocent IV who both condemned the notion that Jews consume human blood, which in the [End Page 197] thirteenth century became the core of the accusation against Jews. In December 1235, 34 Jewish men and women were brutally killed in Fulda (central Germany) following accusations that they killed five young boys and collected their blood. In an imperial decree of 1236, Frederick pronounced "the Jews absolved of the grave crime" and forbade his subjects to issue accusations like the one at Fulda (34). Eleven years later, several Jews in Valréas, France were tortured and burned at the stake following the death of a Christian girl. Pope Innocent IV responded by issuing a similar, if more strongly worded, injunction against the blood accusation. In his Sicut Iudaeis, the Pope forbade Catholics to "accuse [Jews] of using human blood in their religious rites since in the Old Testament they are instructed not to use blood of any kind, let alone human blood" (35). Innocent IV diluted this apparently strong statement by adding, however, that "only those be fortified by this our protection who...

On the Trail of a Knight of Santiago: Collecting Music and Mapping Knowledge in Renaissance Europe

Abstract The 2011 discovery that the substantial collection of sixteenth-century printed partbooks preserved in Madrid’s Real Conservatorio Superior de Música originally belonged to an Austrian diplomat, Wolfgang Rumpf, has opened up new perspectives on the formation of early modern music libraries. Employed by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Rumpf was also an informant of Philip II of Spain, who rewarded him with induction into the chivalric Order of Santiago. The Order, headquartered at Uclés, received the bulk of Rumpf’s music library after his death. This article uses Rumpf’s library, and the catalogue he commissioned from the Imperial Librarian Hugo Blotius, to shed light on the music book’s place in early modern material culture, and music’s place in an expanding world of knowledge. Rumpf’s partbooks were not, in the first instance, intended for performance; they reflect instead his assiduous efforts to assemble a ‘universal library’ in which music books formed an integral part.

Multiple Loyalties in Habsburg-Hungarian Relations at the Turn of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century

In this essay, I examine how people with business and political interest on both sides of Austrian–Hungarian border, sometimes even in royal courts, could survive in spite of the rather capricious relationship between Hungarian kings and Habsburg rulers in the second half of the fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century. Most of them sought a solution that would enable them to keep the estates and the positions they had already acquired. This “double loyalty” was practically impossible in the midst of the war between Matthias Corvinus and Frederick III, Holy Roman emperor: very few of the figures in question managed to maintain attachments to both sides. A window of opportunity opened with the Peace of Pressburg in 1491, when the two parties recognized the possibility of service in the neighboring ruler’s service. Although the peace treaty did not alter the significant shrinking of the camp supporting the Habsburg claim to the throne, which had been relatively large in the time of the 1490–91 Austro-Hungarian War, from the 1490s on and in strikingly large numbers from the mid-1510s, more and more people could be found whose activities made plainly clear that they were not exclusive in their loyalties: they were quite able to serve two masters at the same time.

Die Kaiserkrönung Friedrichs III. vom 19. März 1452 – ein Problemaufriss

The coronation of Emperor Frederick III as King of Lombardy-Veneto and his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor on March 19th 1452 must be seen as two separate events in terms of preparation and procedure. However, they were perceived by contemporaries as being part of the same event. Not only did Frederick III’s imperial coronation mark the end of a tradition, but – due to the fact that this event is regarded as being closely interwoven with the Lombardy coronation – it definitely paved the way for something new. In fact, during the ceremony of 1452 Frederick III was given the title of canon of both St. Peter’s Basilica and of the Lateran. The golden rose was conferred not only because the ceremony had been restructured but also because it took place on Laetare Sunday in 1452. A medieval coronation ceremony can be understood only if it is seen in terms of an ensemble of interlinked events in which the act of handing over the imperial insignia plays a very important role. The service as strator, which Frederik III performed for the pope on his way between St. Peter’s Cathedral and Castel Sant’Angelo, was intended to demonstrate the emperor’s newly won dignity. Particularly important is also the march of the emperor, wearing his crown, through Rome to the Lateran’s Church, to which little attention has been paid so far. In a special way, the imperial coronation of Frederick III in 1452 can be seen as an example of how history interprets an event in a different way and how, over time, the event and the history of the interpretation of this event have merged together seamlessly.

From a Coat of Arms to a Parsuna (Portrait of Princess Sophia Alekseуevna “in the Eagle”)

The article is devoted to the portraits of Princess Sophia Alekseyevna placed in the representation of the two-headed eagle (so-called portraits “in the eagle”). There are three paintings of this kind and an engraving (the latter has not survived). The engraving was made by Leon or Alexander Tarassevich in 1689 (it is not excluded that Alexander Tarassevich and Leon Tarassevich were one and the same person with a double name) while the portraits seem to have been modelled on the engraving. The composition in question has undoubtedly a Western prototype: the portraits of Sophia Alekseyevna imitated a portrait of Leopold I, the Holy Roman emperor. However in the Russian context the portraits of the Princess could be perceived as a modification of the Russian coat of arms where traditionally there was an image of the monarch within the two-headed eagle. There are grounds to believe that the portraits were intended for the coronation of Sophia Alekseyevna which seems to be planned on the 1st of September 1689.

The Gift of Comedy: Presenting and Representing Political Authority in Sixteenth-Century Siena

Scholars have often conceptualized premodern theater as a socially equalizing medium through which the lower proletarian classes may voice their opinions and concerns via humor and political satire. A famous example is Pierre Gringore’s Sottie du Prince des Sotz et Mère Sotte (Play of the Prince of Fools), which features both the king and the pope as fools. As Cynthia J. Brown’s The Shaping of History and Poetry in Late Medieval France: Propaganda and Artistic Expression in the Works of the Rhétoriqueurs has demonstrated, comic theater of the sixteenth century often functions to temporarily reveal “the joyful relativity of all structure and order.” In this study I show the Intronati Academy of Siena harnessing the power of theater to similar ends. However, rather than representing the relativity of social structure and class order, their plays elevated comedy and studies of humanism more generally to a noble position in the city of Siena during the century. I consider the Intronati’s L’Amor Costante, written for the entrance of the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V, into Siena in 1536, and L’Ortensio, composed for the entrance of Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1561, in light of their relevant paratexts to show that the Intronati not only used theater to give a voice to the citizens of the city but also employed comedy in entrance festivities to negotiate the power of the academy over the people.

Rywiková , Daniela Speculum Mortis: The Image of Death in Late Medieval Bohemian Painting (review)

SEER, 99, 1, JANUARY 2021 176 Rywiková, Daniela. Speculum Mortis: The Image of Death in Late Medieval Bohemian Painting. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, Boulder, CO, New York and London, 2020. xxiii + 235 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $95.00: £65.00. In the Appendix of her masterful and compelling new book, Speculum Mortis, Daniela Rywiková acknowledges that one of the last exhaustive studies of the depiction of death in the medieval Czech Lands, Karel Stejskal’s Výtvarná zobrazení smrti jsou u nás ve 14. století námětově poměrně chudá. Nevyskytuje se mezi nimi tehdy oblíbený výjev Tři mrtví a Tři živí, ani žádný cyklus (Prague, 1987), found that ‘depictions of Death in the fourteenth century Czech lands are quite poor. There isn’t any image of the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead among them or cycle’ (p. 205). In the ensuing years, this initial finding has been turned on its head, thanks in no small part to a number of subsequent findings, and some incredible restoration work on the part of conservators. Rywiková has responded to these new findings, first in her 2016 Czech-language Habilitation thesis for Ostrava University of the same name, and now in this English-language edition. Rywiková begins the book with an Introduction (pp. 1–27) that thoroughly covers both the image of Death and the Four Last Things (the Last Judgement, hell, paradise and death) in medieval art generally. This discussion serves to prepare readers with an in-depth background to the subject, but also to centre the art found in the Czech lands within a larger European context. The second chapter, ‘The Death of the Apocalypse’ (pp. 29–37), focuses more specifically on representations of Death specifically as a part of the artistic narrative of the End Times. In the third chapter, ‘Mors triumphans’ (pp. 41–80), Rywiková focuses more specifically on a spectacular series of images uncovered in a Charnel House in Broumov in the Hradec Králové district. The fourth chapter, ‘Memento mori’ (pp. 81–124) looks at representations of the motif of the three living and the three dead in various Bohemian mural paintings. ‘Ars moriendi’, the fifth chapter (pp. 125–54), moves on to discuss the celebrated Krumlov Miscellanea’s depictions of a virtuous life and death. The last full chapter, ‘Danse macabre’ (pp. 155–90) then discusses two differing Dances of Death from Prague. The book ends with an Epilogue (pp. 191–204) that helpfully rounds out the discussion with reference to contemporary meditations of death in art, with reference to the work of Damien Hurst. Speculum Mortis is one of those rare things, a work that not only illuminates the specifics of art in a particular region and time, but does so in such an entertaining and thorough way that it can simultaneously serve as a generalized introduction to the topic. Rywiková’s Introduction, in particular, would work well on its own as a primer on the image of death in fourteenth-century European art for novices. However, the true joy of this work is its in-depth REVIEWS 177 discussions of the more recently discovered artworks in Broumov, Český Krumlov and Prague. Rywiková’s ability to use them to underline not only the importance of the Czech lands in the late medieval period as expressed through these works, but also the ways in which the unique religious environment there is reflected in the work is masterful. Some of Rywiková’s more interesting findings include a fifteenth-century depiction of The Triumph of Death from the Old Prelature of Český Krumlov where death is depicted riding a wooden hobby-horse, combining depictions of deathandthefoolinmedievalartasapotentTriumphofDeath.Herethecadaver serves as a forceful reminder that death can carry off young and old alike, and that ignoring one’s religious obligations can result in the ultimate eschatological death of the soul (pp. 200–01). Rywiková’s study also helps the arguments of other Czech art historians such as Alexander Patschovsky in actively identifying the figure of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg in a Dance with Death in the famous Bible of the Hussite Priest (p. 172) My critiques...

Kaplunovsky , Alexander Kusber , Jan Conrad , Benjamin The Enigmatic Tsar and His Empire: Russia under Alexander I. 1801–1825 (review)

REVIEWS 177 discussions of the more recently discovered artworks in Broumov, Český Krumlov and Prague. Rywiková’s ability to use them to underline not only the importance of the Czech lands in the late medieval period as expressed through these works, but also the ways in which the unique religious environment there is reflected in the work is masterful. Some of Rywiková’s more interesting findings include a fifteenth-century depiction of The Triumph of Death from the Old Prelature of Český Krumlov where death is depicted riding a wooden hobby-horse, combining depictions of deathandthefoolinmedievalartasapotentTriumphofDeath.Herethecadaver serves as a forceful reminder that death can carry off young and old alike, and that ignoring one’s religious obligations can result in the ultimate eschatological death of the soul (pp. 200–01). Rywiková’s study also helps the arguments of other Czech art historians such as Alexander Patschovsky in actively identifying the figure of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg in a Dance with Death in the famous Bible of the Hussite Priest (p. 172) My critiques of this work are few, and the first is that I simply would have liked more. I agree wholeheartedly with Rywiková’s note in the Appendix that the Czech lands are unique in the completeness of late medieval macabre iconography because of the influence and power of the Luxembourg court. Ideally, I would have liked to see Rywiková address this at further length. Otherwise the only flaw is not the fault of Rywiková, but rather her copy editors who have not managed to engage robustly enough with the difficulties of translating Czech into English and in particularly the difficulty of articles. Rywiková’s lucid and intricate work is done a disservice by a number of missing definite articles which a simple copy edit by a native English speaker would quickly flag up. This is a disappointment in a work with such a large potential audience and of such fine quality research, and the author has been let down here. Nevertheless, Speculum Mortis remains an important work and a welcome addition to English-language work on the medieval Czech lands. Department of International History Eleanor Janega The London School of Economics Kaplunovsky, Alexander; Kusber, Jan and Conrad, Benjamin (eds). The Enigmatic Tsar and His Empire: Russia under Alexander I. 1801–1825. Transformations. Differentiations. Perspectives. Mainz Studies on the Modern Age, 5. Peter Lang, Berlin, New York and Oxford, 2019. 378 pp. Illustrations. Notes. References. Index. €65.40: £54.00: $78.95. Given the relative paucity of new publications in any language on the history of Russia under Alexander I, the appearance of this intriguingly entitled SEER, 99, 1, JANUARY 2021 178 monograph is, on the face of it, to be welcomed. It is, in fact, a collection of fifteen articles by fourteen scholars, of whom six are based in Germany, seven in Russia and one in Canada. It is the fifth volume in the series, ‘Mainz Studies on the Modern Age’, but the first to be devoted to a Russian theme. It is also the first to be published in English rather than German, though no translator is credited. It derives from an international conference held in March 2017 at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz on the theme ‘in search of narratives for the Alexandrine age’, where we are assured that the ‘lively discussions on the conceptualization of the Alexandrine epoch’ proved to be ‘intellectually fun for the organizers’ (p. 5). The resulting sbornik, as the editors state at the outset, is an attempt to ‘demonstrate that Alexandrine Russia may be interpreted as a “laboratory” in whichdifferentpotentialscenariosformodernisationweredesigned,discussed, and tested — but also rejected and forgotten’ (p. 10). In his introductory chapter, ‘Alexander I, the Russian Empire, and the “Sattelzeit” 1790–1830’, Jan Kusber suggests that the epoch ‘lacks a clear political character’, remains ‘highly underresearched’ (p. 33), and might be described as ‘Sattelzeit’ in Russia. Oddly, however, Reinhart Koselleck’s compound noun (literally: ‘saddle-time’) is not given any corresponding English equivalent which might have helped readers better understand its sense and intention. It is, after all, a coinage perhaps not as well-established in historical discourse as Kusber appears to suppose. The remaining thirteen...

A bazini plébániatemplom reneszánsz szószéke (1523)

A bazini plébániatemplom reneszánsz szószéke (1523)

Sacrum imperium: Lombard Influence and the ‘Sacralization of the State’ in the Mid-twelfth Century Holy Roman Empire (1125–1167)

Abstract Sacrum imperium (literally: holy empire) is a Latin phrase that entered the chancery of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1152–1190) in 1157. Sacrum imperium developed into the name of the Empire only much later, but scholars interpreted it as a programmatic phrase that Frederick and his chancellor, Rainald of Dassel, introduced as a part of their plan to ‘resacralize the state’ after its supposed desacralization by Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085) and the Empire’s defeat in the Investiture Controversy (1076–1122). In this article I show that sacrum imperium was introduced not by Frederick and Rainald but by a group of Italian courtiers who had developed a new political vocabulary based on that of Justinian’s Corpus iuris civilis and the contemporary Byzantine court language. I also demonstrate on the basis of Italian, Byzantine and papal sources that a desacralization of the state in 1122 never happened.

Towards Confessional Reconciliation: The “Protestantization” of Charles V in David Chytraeus’s De Carolo Quinto Caesare Augusto Oratio (1583)

In 1583, David Chytraeus (1530–1600), one of the key figures of north German Protestant humanism, published his Latin biographical oration De Carolo Quinto Caesare Augusto Oratio on Emperor Charles V (Holy Roman emperor from 1520 to 1556). Despite the numerous confessional conflicts between the German Protestants and the former Catholic monarch, Chytraeus presented the emperor in a strikingly favourable light. To which degree and in which respects Chytraeus was thereby driven both as a theologian and as a historian to promote the overcoming of the confessional split—which renders the oration on Charles an intriguing document of sixteenth-century religious discourse—will be investigated in this article.

“Imaige A La Vierge Marie” The Hours of Mary Of Burgundy, Her Marriage, and Her Painter, Hugo Van Der Goes

AbstractThe Vienna Hours, illuminated by the artist known as the “Master of Mary of Burgundy”, was originally commissioned by Margaret of York. The later parts of the manuscript commemorate the love and marriage between Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian of Habsburg, and their (newborn or expected) child.The miniatures and texts in question convey the same idea expressed on several occasions by the official historian, Jean Molinet: in the Burgundian court, the duchess was venerated as the Virgin Mary (and in consequence of this, Maximilian – and Philip – came to be revered as the Saviour, and Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, as the Father). Underlying the tendency to identify Mary of Burgundy with the Virgin Mary was the situation of Burgundy and its heiress, which was understood by means of salvation-historical analogies. In the book of hours, the figures of the two Marys are conflated several times in a variety of ways (fols. 14v, 19v, 43v, 94v, 99v). The hymn in praise of the heavenly joys of the Virgin Mary, which is organically related to the frontispiece image, is thus (also) a chanted sequence for the eternal beatitude of the young bride. The painter conjured up the imaginary figure of Maximilian in the foreground of the two miniatures with window scenes, while the jewels in the border around the image of the Crucifixion scene allude to Margaret of York. These miniatures have a playful tone (as evidenced by the role-swapping between the Marys, the book-within-a-book, picture-within-a-picture, vision-within-a-vision, trompe l’oeil solutions, and the complex dialogue between objects, materials and locations).There are a number of factors supporting the argument that the miniatures, hitherto attributed to the Master of Mary of Burgundy, were illuminated by Hugo van der Goes, who was a resident of the Red Cloister at the time, and that he was commissioned by the Austrian Archduke. The date of 1478 is rendered likely by stylistic and biographical factors (the paintings Hugo made in the cloister, both before and after, his later illness, the visit of Maximilian, the birth of Philip the Handsome). It was also at this time that Jean Molinet wrote Le Chappellet des dames, which makes multiple comparisons between the duchess and the Virgin Mary, and whose imagery is often echoed in the folios of the Vienna Hours. It is possible that the first (co-)owner of the manuscript was Maximilian of Habsburg.

The power of marvellous objects

Abstract This paper explores the interest of Charles IV of Luxembourg (1316–1378), King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, in collecting gemstones, which has hitherto been little studied. It analyses this interest in connection with the fourteenth-century French royal court, and especially with the collecting activities of Charles V of Valois (1338–1380), King of France. Both of these sovereigns had an interest in ancient gems and they used them in the same manner; their practices prove to have been inspired by the reinvented traditions of the saintly Capetian monarch Louis IX, King of France, and of the ancient Roman Empire. This study shows how Charles of Luxembourg and Charles of Valois sought out and used precious and semi-precious stones as instruments of their royal self-images and claims to power.

Exhibition Сzech and Кoman King Wenceslas IV: «Beautiful Style» of Gothic Art. On the 600th Anniversary of the Death of the Czech King

The article is devoted to the historical and cultural aspects of the development of Czech art in the late Middle Ages on the example of an exhibition held from August 16 to November 3 at Prague Castle, which was dedicated to the 600th anniversary of the death of the Czech and Roman King Wenceslas IV. The author of the article considers the significance of the Czech culture and sacred art in the context of the political and historical specifics of the development of medieval Bohemia and the features of the reign of Vaclav IV, who wasthe son of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Czech King Charles IV . Wenceslas IV is a complex and controversial figure in Czech history, who stood at the «crossroads» of epochs and cultures, around him various disputes persist in historiography up to our time. This article provides an overview of the nature of the sacred artifacts of culture and art presented at the exhibition «Czech and Roman King Wenceslas IV: «beautiful style» of Gothic art», as well as the characteristics of the artistic style , defined in terms of historical and cultural, internal and external political development of the Czech Republic, crosscultural dialogue of the Czech Republic with European countries on the background of the emerging religious controversy in the country. The work takes into account the features of the Late Gothic style in the Central Europe. On the example of the remarkable works of painting, sculpture, fragments of architectural monuments, decorative and applied art and manuscripts, first of all the monumental Wenceslas Bible, many of which were brought to Prague from various European Galleries and Castles of Poland, Germany, France, New York, as well as from private collections, can demonstrate the rise of Czech culture and art in the late XIV-early XV centuries, which was presented the process of cultural accumulation of the European style of the late Gothic, received Czech national artificial identity.

Habsburg Askerî Serhâd’dinde Ulah Kimliği: Ulah Kanunnamesi (5 Ekim 1630)

From the late15th century, the Ottomans, threatening the Crotian-Slavonian territories and expanding through the southeastern Europe, caused the foundation and consolidation of the border defense systems in the conflict zone of Islam and Christianity. Castles and captainship systems were fractionally developed in the other territories of the Habsburg Monarchy, and in Croatia and Slavonia in particular. Initially, even though they were considered as a military institution to serve as defense against the Ottoman advance (progress), the completion of the militarization process of this border region was mediated through the Wallachians posted as mercenaries and enlistees. The Wallachian immigrants, increasing in number over time in the Military Frontier, on the one hand, colonized the region, and, on the other hand, started to have problems with the nobles of the region in terms of feudal liability. With this issue, the holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, enacted the Wallachian Law (Statuta Valachorum / Vlaški Statuti) on October 5, 1630. In this study, the Wallachian Law underlying the legal status of the Wallachian who settled in the Upper Slavonian Military Frontier, which was established by the Habsburgs against the Ottomans between the Drava and Sava rivers has been researched (analysed). Within the context of this document, by evaluating the social, military and political privileges of the Wallachian people, we have tried to reveal how this Balkan community transformed into military-settler communities. In this research, as well as the Austrian archival documents and the related works with the body of literature, the works published in Croatian, German and English were referred to. The content analysis from the qualitative research methods has been applied.

Refugees of War: Federico Barocci’s Aeneas Fleeing Troy, Classical Antecedents to Contemporary Issues

Aeneas Fleeing Troy, painted by Federico Barocci (1535–1612), depicts a scene from Vergil’s Aeneid (29–15 BCE). This article offers interpretations of text and image highlighting the complexity of the refugee experience and the possibilities for a future society comprised of blended populations. Aeneas negotiated a new world for his progeny while suffering through war, displacement and loss. History suggests that art and literature are compelling translators of our shared human experience, which can encourage the creation of an inclusive civilization and give warnings about potential conflict. The battles and blood-shed, religious and civil wars that transpired while Barocci created his artwork and as it was transferred between owners, such as the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Queen Christina of Sweden and Louis Philippe II (Philippe Égalité), cousin of the beheaded King Louis XVI, offer insights into alternative paths forward for Europe. History, literature, and art provide – not only instruction from the past – but guidance to negotiate a future in which contributions by the indigenous populations of Europe are honoured and cherished, while the integration of different cultures provides change for a new shared European future.

The Medieval Merlin Tradition in France and Italy: Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio by Laura Chuhan Campbell

Reviewed by: The Medieval Merlin Tradition in France and Italy: Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio by Laura Chuhan Campbell Karen Green Campbell, Laura Chuhan, The Medieval Merlin Tradition in France and Italy: Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio (Gallica, 47), Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2017; hardback; pp. viii, 211; R.R.P £60.00, ebook £19.99; ISBN 9781843844808. In the Phaedrus, 275e, Socrates says of books that ‘once written down they are tumbled about anywhere, all alike among those who understand them and among strangers, […] the book cannot protect or defend itself’. This comes to mind when reading medieval manuscripts, transcribed by poor scribes, so that, ‘Viviane, the bonne clergiesse’ becomes ‘Niviene […] la demoiselle cacheresse’ (p. 79). Bound together, hybrids are refashioned for new uses. Like Chinese whispers, messages are transmuted and deformed. The medieval Merlin manuscripts are no exception. The focus of this study are lateish Italian versions; the early fourteenth-century Florentine La Storia de Merlino ‘translated’ by Paulino Pieri into a text that ‘consists of a combination and rearrangement of material’ from the early thirteenth-century French Merlin en prose by Robert de Boron, and the late-thirteenth-century Les Prophecies de Merlin (p. 187), and two Venetian texts, Lo Libero dello savio Merlin by Jachomo de Çaune Barbier and La Historia di [End Page 190] Merlino compiled by Luca Venitiano. To glean these facts, turn to the appendices, for the Introduction jumps straight into a confusing account of Pieri’s rendition of Merlin’s story of the corrupt city of Orbanza, which was, according to Pieri, translated by ‘a Maestro Riccardo at the behest of Frederick II, Holy Roman emperor’ (p. 1). Socrates’ observation not only applies to medieval manuscripts, but also to the philosophy of language. Campbell is not content to follow those ‘obsessed with binary oppositions within the translation model […] too concerned with defining and redefining the relationship between translation and the original’ (p. 25, n. 80, quoting Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere). Instead she engages with ‘Charles Sanders Peirce’s tripartite sign, rather than Saussure’s signifier-signified dichotomy’. Peirce, she tells us, ‘regarded all interpretation as a translation between signs, creating a continuum of related signs that he termed “semiosis”’ (p. 25). Semiosis is produced by the mutual interaction of the three components of the sign—the object (similar to the signified), the sign itself (the signifier) and a third component: the interpretant, which is a mental sign produced in response to an object. Ouch! Poor Saussure, poor Peirce! Seeing them tumbled about into so inaccurate a repetition of words, by a stranger to their enterprise, is insufferable. Campbell’s appeal to Peircean semiotic theory is only pretentious window dressing. In the detailed descriptions of the way in which stories from the Merlin en prose and Prophecies are reworked by Pieri, Barbier, and Venetiano, she claims that the transformations are not so much distortions from some archetypal original, but are new elaborations, that gain new significance from the new context in which the text is confected (pp. 35–36). No elaborate theory of meaning is applied. In this vein, the first chapter deals with the various, sometimes contradictory, versions of the story of Merlin’s conception by the devil, as found in in the original Merlin and its continuations, and the way in which differing treatments of the origins of the devil’s seduction of his mother, offer alternative accounts of the sin of despair, lack of faith, temptation, and redemption. In the next chapter, a similar comparison is made of the varying explanations of the success of the Lady of the Lake in entombing Merlin, focusing more on the French Suite de Merlin, and the Historia di Merlino than on Pieri’s version, and reading the incident through a variety of other stories in which women ‘undo’ men, such as Samson and Delilah or Aristotle and Phyllis (pp. 65–66), or even Adam and Eve (pp. 92–93). It is observed that different versions of the story convey different moral messages and explanations of the source of Merlin’s downfall. The fourth and fifth chapters turn to the topic of prophetic discourse in general. As Campbell is well aware, the meaning of the...

Res publica restituta? Perceiving emperors in fourteenth-century Rome

Three emperors were crowned in Rome, while the pope was residing in Avignon: Henry VII (1312), Louis IV (1328) and Charles IV (1355). This contribution suggests that these emperors did not simply enter into an insurmountable “conflict of Empire and city-state”. Many Italians perceived the transalpine rulers as carriers of justice and order. Instead of criticizing the idea of empire, fourteenth-century (proto-)humanists reinforced the imperial myth by applying a classical language to discuss the contemporary Holy Roman Emperors. With their imperial histories, authors such as Albertino Mussato and Ferreto de’ Ferreti wanted to imitate the ancients. As a consequence, they focused on the triumphal aspects of the imperial coronations. Not the coronation in Saint Peter’s Basilica but the adventus into the city and the interaction with the SPQR drew special interest. Because of the papal absence, Henry VII and the excommunicated Louis the Bavarian could indeed act independently in the Eternal City. They both gathered assemblies with the SPQR on the Capitoline Hill. Charles IV, however, kept his promise to the pope and stayed only one day in Rome for his coronation in 1355. The letters of Francesco Petrarch and Niccolo Beccari nevertheless provided him with a classical discourse that could have supported his claims of independence vis-a-vis the pope. The Holy Roman Emperors were presented as the restorers of the res publica. It seems that the imperial presence in a popeless Rome increased the awareness of (and interest in) the city’s ancient past.