Latin Works Research Articles

Anton Vavrinec Ottmayer – administrácia, advokácia, správa a vzdelávanie

The study deals with an important Slovak lawyer, university lecturer and writer Anton Vavrinec Ottmayer who lived and worked in the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom for the first two thirds of the 19th century. The paper deals mainly with the lesser-known aspects of his career, in particular his scientific career within the Faculty of Law, where he was Dean for two years (1832–1834). He lectured on statistics, mining law and also published on the law of substitution. His literary works were written in Slovak, his professional legal works in Latin and German. In addition, he worked as an attorney and agent (lawyer) at the military court. In 1849 he was accused of insulting the majesty by the Austrian authorities, he was convicted and spent one year in prison. This put an end to his previous university career and he therefore started his own business. His aim was to build a waterworks in Pest. His activities were not always successful, he lost his house at auction and tax lawsuits were also brought against him. To this day, it is not entirely clear exactly when he died. Ottmayer’s life well documents the developments of Hungarian capital, the existential dilemmas, professional and political challenges for lawyers at the time. It also documents the university world and the professional issues that resonated in the professional press of the first half of the 19th century.

The Hand that Touched Troy: Using Maniculae in Latin and French Manuscripts (Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie, Guido delle Colonne’s Historia and their Respective Prose Versions)

Abstract In Auch, BM, 10, more than 120 maniculae, or manicules, touch the text of the Historia destructionis Troiae by Guido delle Colonne with their short or disproportionately long fingers. These maniculae are accompanied by brackets, notae, various remarks. They testify to an active reading of the work, which brushes against the writing as closely as possible, signalling and selecting passages, sometimes simply pointing out, sometimes recopying, summarizing, or commenting. This practice, which was by no means specific to the Trojan material, is far more apparent in manuscripts of the Latin work compared to those of its French source (Benoît de Sainte-Maure) and in the French prose versions that stem directly from it. By examining manuscripts of both the Latin and French traditions, and while also taking into account the methodological biases that this approach implies, this article interprets the presence of reading marks (maniculae, underlining, notes) in Trojan texts. I retrace various types of reading, which include character-focused, historical, moral or rhetorical modes of reading. I demonstrate that specific readerly profiles emerge, and more specifically, that such marks of reading turn out to be topical teaching tools or otherwise present a more subjective interaction with the textual matter. In short, I examine how these hands touching the words might inform our understanding of the reception of Troy during the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

Slovak Scholars in Bohemia and Moravia and Czech Scholars in Slovakia Before and After the Battle of Biela Hora (1620)

During several years of research, we registered a relatively large number of mostly Protestant scholars originating from the territory of today’s Slovakia or those who are considered significant in the context of Slovak cultural history, who in the period before the Battle of Biela Hora (1620) lived and worked in one of the Czech or Moravian cities. This was a very diverse group of humanists including clergymen, professors from Charles University, teachers, scribes, authors of extensive works in Latin or in the vernacular, patrons, or owners of interesting book collections. The article introduces this group of scholars in general, and examines more closely their confessional orientation, as well as what influenced it or subsequently prompted it to change. On the other hand, we also want to briefly note several Czech scholars who, as a result of the changed religious situation in Bohemia, came to Slovakia after the Battle of Biela Hora.

„Bamberger Zyklus“ von Albrecht von Eyb: die Schaffung der humanistischen Literatur in Deutschland um die Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts

Albrecht von Eyb (1420–1475) — was a canon, lawyer, and writer, one of the first northern humanists of the 15th century. Eyb went down in the history of German literature primarily as the author of a treatise on marriage (Ehebüchlein, 1472) and as the first translator of Plautus’ comedies (part of Spiegel der Sitten, 1474). These significant works were preceded by the first humanist textbook of rhetoric written in Germany (Margarita poetica, 1459), which was the result of a 15-year stay in Italy and acquaintance with the humanist culture of the time. This article studies a cycle of Latin works (1451), Eyb’s first attempt at writing, which were later partially included in his Margarita. The four Latin opuscula, which I call here the ‘Bamberg Cycle’, were composed during Eyb’s one-year visit in Bamberg, when he was forced to interrupt his studies for a while to secure an income from his prebenda. The works of the cycle are united by the young author’s ambition to imitate humanist literature of his time, from which he borrows not only themes but also form. While it remains impossible to identify the precise audience for these works, or the reason that prompted Eyb to write them, a closer look at these works-exercises, which remain in the shadow of the author’s more successful works, allows us to trace the ways in which the ancient and humanist heritage was received and adapted. Thus, the works of the ‘cycle’ become important material not only for the study of Albrecht von Eyb’s writings, but also for the formation of humanist identity in mid-15th-century Germany, at a time when the institutionalisation of the movement and its further flourishing were only just emerging.

Potentia eximia & Excellentia facultatum: the relation between liberty and power from the Leviathan to De Homine

ABSTRACT Hobbes redefines his conception of liberty in the Leviathan as the absence of external impediments to motion. Power, on the other hand, refers to the body’s intrinsic dimension, that is, to the faculties possessed by each individual. There thus appears to be a clear distinction between liberty and power in Hobbes’ political philosophy. Taking into consideration Hobbes’ Latin works, however, in which he uses two different terms to refer to power: at times potestas and others potentia, such a distinction may need to be revisited. As we will argue, there is a marked relation between liberty and power when considering human sociability. In this way, the aim of the article is to discuss Hobbes’ conception of power, through the pages of the Leviathan and De Homine, trying to clarify its complex, even ambiguous relation with his conception of liberty.

Using Semantic Web to Create and Explore an Index of Toponyms Cited in Medieval Geographical Works

Western thought in European history was mainly affected by the image of the world created during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The most popular reason to travel during the Middle Ages was taking a pilgrimage. Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela were the most popular destinations. It is not surprising that a lot of works written by travellers as guides for pilgrims exist. By the beginning of the Renaissance, a more precise image of the world was defined, thanks to the discovery of ancient geographical models, especially the work of Ptolemy. The Italian National Research Project (PRIN) IMAGO --- Index Medii Aevi Geographiae Operum --- (2020-2023) aims to provide a systematic overview of the medieval and renaissance Latin geographical literature using the Semantic Web technologies and the LOD paradigm. Indeed, until now, this literature has not been studied using digital methods. In particular, this article presents how we formally represented the knowledge about the toponyms, or place names, in the IMAGO ontology. To maximise the interoperability, we developed the IMAGO ontology as an extension of two reference vocabularies: the CIDOC CRM and its extension FRBRoo, including its in-progress reformulation, LRMoo. Furthermore, we used Wikidata as reference knowledge base. As case study, we chose to represent the knowledge related to the toponyms cited by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri in his Latin works. We carried out a first experiment for visualising the knowledge about these toponyms on a map and in the form of tables and CSV files.

Richard Rolle: On Lamentations. A Critical Edition with Translation and Commentary. Edited by Michael Van Dussen

Richard Rolle, the early fourteenth-century hermit and mystic, is often regarded as the founding father of English medieval mysticism, particularly of works written in the vernacular. However, most of Rolle’s works were written in Latin. Interest in the Latin works, particularly in the biblical commentaries that form over half of Rolle’s output, has been developing over the last 20 years or so, but needs modern critical editions of these works to flourish. This edition of Rolle’s commentary on Lamentations is therefore welcome. The author tells us that there are four extant manuscripts: two in Oxford (in the Bodleian Library and in Corpus Christi College), one in Dublin, and, perhaps surprisingly, one in Prague. Van Dussen has also drawn on the first printed edition, published in Cologne in 1536, which appears to have come from a fifth manuscript. The variations are not extreme, arising largely from the usual scribal errors, omissions, and occasional expansions. Looking at the textual notes, the variations do not suggest any deliberate slanting of the text, which is interesting given that Van Dussen goes on to situate its circulation in the context of Reformation religious controversy.

Les lettres 79 et 84 de Sénèque à Lucilius : un art poétique ?

By addressing the question of poetic imitation in Rome, Seneca’s letters 79 and 84 to Lucilius extend in many ways the Poetic Art of Horace : following the Horatian path, the philosopher uses the image of the bee making honey from many flowers as a symbol of the creator who assimilates his predecessors. This leads him to question the way in which the poet, using his ingenium, creates a unique whole from a diversity of sources. Not only this analysis perfectly fits to the Augustan poets, particularly to Horace in his lyric poetry, but it can give us new clues to read Seneca’s tragic corpus. By bringing together the three Greek tragedians in a single work in Latin, Seneca repeats Horace’s strategy consisting in the appropriation of Greek prestigious predecessors. By this refoundation of a Greek genre in Rome, Seneca may be seen as the “ last Augustan poet”.

“Italia… Longe Ante Tempora Diluvii Habitata Creditur”: The Most Ancient Past of Italy in the Latin Treatise “De Origine Urbium Italie” (from the Late 14th Century)

The author analyzes information on the first settlement of Italy by the grandchildren of Adam in the unedited Latin work “De origine urbium Italie” dated from 1391. The appearance of the text is due to the transformation of ethnogenetic myths during the Late Middle Ages and, in particular, to the regular attempts of historians to connect the exploration of various Italian regions with activities of the biblical heroes or such mythic persons who are equally correlated with the Greco-Roman tradition and the Bible. From this point of view the key specific feature of “De origine…” is the interest of its anonymous compiler in presenting as old as possible the past of Italy in whole, not of distinct cities or areas.

Sweden, Inc.: Temporal Sovereignty of the Realm and People from the Middle Ages to Modernity

Sweden, Inc.: Temporal Sovereignty of the Realm and People from the Middle Ages to Modernity

The Phoenix and the Interlingual Dimensions of Early English Literary Culture

The Phoenix and the Interlingual Dimensions of Early English Literary Culture

Vetera Novis Augere et Perficere: Thomas Aquinas and Christian-Muslim Dialogue

Vetera Novis Augere et Perficere:Thomas Aquinas and Christian-Muslim Dialogue Joseph Ellul, O.P. Pope Leo XIII's encyclical letter Aeterni Patris, issued on August 4, 1879, sought to address many issues that were challenging nineteenth-century Catholic scholarship and academic life. In proposing the thought of Thomas Aquinas as a model of Catholic teaching, the Pope intended, in his own words, "to strengthen and complete the old by aid of the new,"1 not only by reviving the study of the works and teachings of the Angelic Doctor, especially in the realm of philosophy, but also to uphold as perennial his method of engaging with his contemporaries within and without the Catholic faith.2 It is within this context that we are called upon to reflect upon this appeal: "vetera novis augere et perficere." The thirteenth century was indeed a time of intellectual upheaval, following the introduction of Aristotle and, later on, the translations into Latin of the Arabic commentaries on Aristotle by Ibn Rušd (Lat. Averröes; d. 1198). This event was met within the ecclesiastical world with apprehension, if not outright fear. Neo-Platonic philosophy and its interpretation by Ibn Sina (Lat. Avicenna; d. 1037) was already perfectly acceptable to Mediaeval Christian scholars. The latter was in fact considered an essential tool for understanding the illuminationist thought of St. Augustine. Étienne Gilson even spoke of Augustinisme avicennisant (Avicennized [End Page 1231] Augustinianism).3 The problem was Aristotle and his renowned commentator Ibn Rušd: a pagan commented on by an infidel. One must also note, however, that mediaeval Western intellectuals and institutions were able to encounter and adapt the Islamic legacy, because they already possessed a sufficient scientific base (with of course the contribution of translations of Greek together with Latin works) with which to understand, assimilate, and build upon this new knowledge that appeared from the East. In sum, mediaeval Christendom created living, vibrant societies, constantly searching, always discovering something new. In dealing with the specific (and delicate) subject of Aquinas's dialogue with Islamic thought, it would be necessary to reflect in particular upon two key works of his: the Liber de Veritate Catholicae Fidei contra Errores Infidelium (A Book on the Truth of the Catholic Faith against the Errors of Unbelievers),4 popularly known as the Summa contra gentiles [SCG], together with his De rationibus fidei contra Saracenos, Gnæcos et Armenos ad Cantorem Antiochenum, better known simply as De rationibus fidei. At this point it would be necessary to articulate the term "Islamic thought." Of itself it should not be identified with Islam as a religion. Rather, it should be considered as embracing classical Greek philosophy as interpreted by the Neo-Platonic movement and disseminated through Oriental Christian and Jewish schools of thought. Islamic civilization absorbed these teachings and built its own proper ediice upon these foundations. A Model for Interreligious Dialogue? Proposing Thomas Aquinas as a model for engagement with Islamic thought may also raise a few eyebrows. Hence, it would be appropriate to pose an essential question: "What type of dialogue existed in mediaeval times?" One should begin with an a priori exclusion of dialogue as it is understood today, given the fact that there existed neither the motive nor the means to implement it. In fact mediaeval society was aware of only three religions: the pagan, which had been replaced by Christianity; the Jewish, founded upon the precepts of the First Covenant which "Christ fulilled by his actions and [End Page 1232] by his teaching"5 and which was also believed to prefigure the everlasting New Covenant sealed by Jesus on the Cross; and finally, the Christian, which believed in Jesus as the final revelation of God to humanity.6 With such a vision in mind it is obvious that any doctrine that is not situated within these parameters, or which proposes some form of belief or conduct which was different from, if not contrary to, the Christian vision of God, the cosmos, and society, would be considered as heretical and its promoter an impostor.7 When Islam made its appearance in the Christian world, it carried with it a book that it considered of divine provenance, and...

Little Lewis and Latin Folk in Chaucer's Prologue to the Treatise on the Astrolabe

Little Lewis and Latin Folk in Chaucer's Prologue to the <i>Treatise on the Astrolabe</i>

THE ATTEMPT TO RECONSTRUCT THE LIBRARY OF THE KREMENETS BASILIAN MONASTERY OF THE FIRST DECADES OF THE XIX CENTURY

The article attempts to reconstruct the genre and thematic composition of the library of the Kremenets Basilian Monastery, which was formed in the early 1820s, based on an analysis of the visitation protocol, in which a significant part is a description of the monastery library. At the beginning of the XIX century, the library had 2,156 volumes (1,241 works) published in the XVI–XVIII centuries and until 1821. Of these, 508 works (41%) date from the second half of the XVIII century. The presence in the library of 283 works (23%) published in 1801–1821 indicates that the library continued to be regularly replenished with new books. The geography of the publications covered the cities of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Kyiv, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg. The basis of the library were works in Polish and Latin, numbered 640 and 440, respectively (52% and 35%). There were only 54 (4%) Cyrillic editions. The entire book collection is divided into thematic sections: Holy Scripture, divinity, law (civil and canonical), "books of ascetics," homiletics, philosophy, physics and mathematics, chemistry, geography, economics, history, rhetoric and poetics, "letters," grammar, medicine. In terms of the number of works, the largest is the section "History," which includes periodicals published in Warsaw and Vilnius in the early nineteenth century and fiction of instructive content. It is noted that many works by ancient authors, textbooks in many mathematical disciplines, dictionaries, phrasebooks, and grammars in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Polish, German, French, and Russian were kept in the monastery library. The conclusion is that the themes of the monastery library in Kremenets in the early XIXth century reflected the state of the rich spiritual life of the Basilians, which closely combined the traditions of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. The Basilians, through preaching and missionary activity, indeed spread and consolidated in society the spiritual and moral values that they nurtured within the walls of the monastery. The library in general, reflected the development of education, science, art, and contemporary socio-political thought in the Ukrainian lands.

Gazi Husrev-beg u kontroverznim historiografskim perspektivama

While former Yugoslav historiography had a kind of schedule of scientific research centers (Zagreb for Latin work, Sarajevo for work in Turkish, and Belgrade for work on Visant sources) the end of the 20th century developed new national historiographies that approach the history of the Ottoman period from its point of view. Since this period constitutes a common past of the people of large part of the Balkans, today we can analyze how and what extent regional historiographies explore common historical figures and events. Although historiography can be followed by Gazi Husrev-bey's life and military journey through the Balkan territories, the perception of his character and work remained within the margins of the basic facts of the historical reality of the 16th century. Given the areas where the mention of Gazi Husrev's name and works remained widely present, the research corps on this topic is diverse, but in the foreground based on samples of archival material and representative units of domestic and foreign historiographic literature. The basic thesis I would like to present is that even the most established facts of the past cannot avoid contradictions and debatable interpretations, largely dependent on the point of view or focus shaped by stereotypes, exclusive hypotheses through the paradigm of social awareness as well as the interests of time and politics in some historiographic circles. Through sel examples of research approaches, it can be noted that they are related to the lack of involvement of scientists in incorporating research results into the education system. In addition, the Bologna system has narrowed research topics and they are mainly related to today's borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is absurd for the processing of the Ottoman period of the Bosnian Ayalat, which formed one of the administrative units of the Ottoman State. Changes to the borders with the collapse of the Ottoman state have left a large part of the Bosnian people in other Balkan areas. Their collective memory and attitude towards historical figures are mostly about folk songs, while the research of historical facts on the same topics is left to national historiographies that still retain antagonistic attitude towards the Other. This is best seen through the revitalization of theories about the „dark Turkish times“ and „haters of Christianity“. Due to numerous gaps in knowledge and material traces of the past, younger generations of researchers in the neighborhood, however, are asking logical questions such as: Why renounce the Ottoman heritage because of the collective aversion to the State which once they were part of. This presentation is just a small example of these common historiographical wanderings. According to what has been researched and known about the character and work of Gazi Husrev-bey, this historical personality can be a pattern of local and regional research tendencies. Persistence in such approaches seriously calls into question the responsibility of historians. Bosnia and Herzegovina's experience of a historiographical approach to the topic of famous personalities and events is increasingly indicating self-isolationism.

Islamic Origins of Psychotherapy: An Introduction

Psychotherapy which is usually taken to be a recently developed branch of medicine, had already been highly developed by medieval Muslim physicians. Some of them specialized in it and made a systematic study of psychological diseases and their treatment. After the rise of Islam the Arab-Muslim physicians made trmendous progress in all branches of medicine including psychotherapy. Inspired and influenced by the Quranic psychotherapy-related teachings, they richly contributed to both the learning and teaching of medicine including psychiatry. They also introduced the psychotherapeutic means of treatment in the hospitals built and maintained by them. They also exerted a lasting influence on medicine and psychotherapy in the West through translations of their works in Latin and other European languages. But while their achievements in the fields of general medicine, pharmacy and surgery are adequately acknowledged by some historians of medicine, their contribution to the development of psychotherapy is comparatively little known even to the educated and cultured few all over the world. Some basic features of it are briefly introduced below.

Semantic Sfumato: Transformation of an Ancient Source in “Julian the Apostateˮ by D. S. Merezhkovsky

In despite of the prevailing conclusions, Dmitry Merezhkovsky as a novelist works quite scrupulously with historical sources. However, he subjects them to a significant semantic transformation. In this sense, the case with the novel “The Death of the Gods. Julian the Apostate&amp;amp;8j1; (1895) is especially representative. Here the material of the main source, “Roman History&amp;amp;8j1; (Res gestae) by Ammianus Marcellinus, is systematically fictionalized according to the laws of Modernist mythopoetics. Merezhkovsky can reduce a hero of the Latin work to one symbolic peculiar feature, or, on the contrary, decompose a character’s trait sparingly indicated by Ammianus into a complex series of figurative-motif derivatives. The author, mastering the registers of Modernist writing, resorts to the semantic transformation of the ancient source according to the type of “sfumato” technique by Leonardo da Vinci. As a result of the narrative correction of the quotation layer, the protagonist of the Symbolist novel appears not as a Stoic hero, the bearer of the Roman ethos, but as a passively aesthetic “martyr of the new religious consciousness” à la fin de siècle.

Aulo Gelio y el siglo de oro holandés (1644-1706): Iconografía para una historia cultural de las Noches Áticas

Based on an iconographic analysis of the covers of six Dutch editions of the Attic Nights published between 1644 and 1706 (objects, fauna and characters), as well as the possible relationships of some of the elements studied with the work itself, we have established several guidelines to better understand the cultural history of the Attic Nights during the Dutch Golden Age. In a particular way, the scientific interest, as well as some elements of everyday life, already present in the Dutch art of the moment, allow us to better appreciate the approach that is made of the Latin work to a new cultural and historical context.

„Żywot pięcioraki” i „śmierć pięcioraka”. Nota w sprawie źródła pogrzebowego kazania (Wilno 1620/1621) Melecjusza Smotryckiego

“Quintuple Live” and “Quintuple Death”: A Note on the Source of the Funeral Oration (Vilnius 1620/1621) by Meletij Smotryc’kyj In his polemic treatise Antapologija abo Apologijej … zniesienie written in the early 1630s, Socinian Eustachy Kisiel (nicknamed Gelasius Diplic) made an accusation that former Orthodox, now a Uniate priest, religious writer and Ruthenian linguist Meletij Smotryc’kyj (ca. 1577–1633) used a Latin work by a certain Dominican to compose a funeral oration on the death of Smotryc’kyj’s predecessor at the Brotherhood the Holy Spirit Monastery, Leontij Karpovyč(1580–1620). Kisiel’s allegations were noted in 1908 by the philologist Sergej Maslov, but later this topic did not attract the attention of researchers of Smotryc’kyj’s legacy. This study is an attempt to examine the hypothesis put forward by Kisiel and to find out what specific writing (or writings?) Smotryc’kyj could have used when composing the funeral oration. The oration on the death of Karpovyčwas published twice in Vilnius: 1620 – in a Ruthenian language version, and 1621 – in Polish. As the main storyline Meletij uses the topos of five varieties of live and the corresponding five varieties of death, which were very common in religious literature in the Middle Ages and Early Modern times. This topos is used by Smotryc’kyj to describe Leontij Karpovyč’s life path and to glorify his achievements in the spiritual field. The article considers the main contexts of the use of topos triplex, quadruplex and quintuplex mors (triple, quadruple, quintuple death) and triplex, quadruplex and quintuplex vita (triple, quadruple, quintuple life) in different confessional traditions up to the 1620s. On the basis of textual analysis, it is concluded that the main source for Meletij war Orbis terror, seu concionum de finibus bonorum et malorum libri duo written by Walloon preacher, Franciscan writer Philippe Bosquier (1561/1562–1636) (editio princeps Douai 1603). Orbis terror enjoyed large popularity in Europe, and was one of the recommended books for the Jesuit colleges of that time. For the funeral sermon Smotryc’kyj borrows only a small fragment of the first section (concio) of Orbis terror, and uses different editing techniques: a literal or close to the original translation; expansion or contraction of borrowed fragments; giving prominence to different elements of the text. Bosquier’s work became the main source for the funeral sermon, but by no means the only one: some images and amplifications used by Meletij testify to his good acquaintance with the Renaissance and Early Modern literature.

Spaces of Memory

Abstracts The essay aims to explore the theme of memory in Petrarch’s Latin Works and in his intellectual experience, analysing especially one of the two metaphoric fields of memory, namely that which defines memory as a space that can be created, organised, filled with contents, and revisited with the specific aim of learning and discovering while remembering past events. Petrarch’s constant interest in the structure and processes of memory and in the heuristic quality of the act of remembering seems to be effectively condensed into some metaphors (like thesaurus, arca, arx, cella, etc.) involved with the idea of repository that can be depicted in different ways depending on whether the aim is that of emphasising the value of the memories contained in it, or its possible religious applications, or its creative function.