Magistra Vitae Research Articles

Sixty Years of Heart Research in the Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

In 2023, six decades have elapsed since the first experimental work on the heart muscle was published, in which a member of the Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences participated as an author; Professor Otakar Poupa was the founder and protagonist of this research domain. Sixty years - more than half of the century - is certainly significant enough anniversary that is worth looking back and reflecting on what was achieved during sometimes very complicated periods of life. It represents the history of an entire generation of experimental cardiologists; it is possible to learn from its successes and mistakes. The objective of this review is to succinctly illuminate the scientific trajectory of an experimental cardiological department over a 60-year span, from its inaugural publication to the present. The old truth - historia magistra vitae - is still valid. Keywords: Heart, Adaptation, Development, Hypoxia, Protection.

A Waldensian Pastor Between the Confessional Myth and National Genealogy History and Religious Reform in Emilio Comba (1839–1904)

AbstractEmilio Comba, a leading Waldensian historian in the nineteenth century, was a strong advocate for nation-building in post-unification Italy. This article examines the relationship between Comba's “making Italians” endeavors and his historical writings, focusing mainly on his appropriation of the preceding confessional framework. As a fervent nationalist and evangelical pastor, Comba believed that true Risorgimento required not only political independence but also a religious reform of the Italian nation that would restore Italians to the original Religion of Christ. He envisioned this national reform as a realization of both liberty and the Gospel within the universal history of the Christian religion. Comba employed historical writings to support his claims, attempting to demonstrate how Italy was a perennially Protestant nation on the one hand and to serve as a magistra vitae for fellow citizens on the other. This article argues that Comba relied on a genealogical narrative structure inherited from the early modern protestant historiography in presenting his national history. By recasting its composition according to a category of the nation, he transformed a confessional genealogy of the true church into a national one. From a broader perspective, this article calls for further reflection on the role that the early modern intellectual framework played in the process of modern nation-building.

The bilingual model of F.H. Donckemann from 1826

This article highlights the relationship between Neo-Latin Philology and Esperantology. Both these disciplines focus on a language that is non-native, international, and used in many different contexts. The benefit of Neo-Latin Philology for Esperantology can be expressed through the saying historia magistra vitae (history is life’s teacher), while, vice versa, Esperantology can fulfill its role in relation to Neo-Latin Philology in that it functions according to a modified version of this saying—namely, vita interpres historiae (life is history’s interpreter). More specifically, this article deals with the tract entitled Commentatio de hodierno linguae Latinae usu in litteris doctrinisque tradendis (A Commentary on the Use of the Latin Language in Scholarship and Education) which was written by F. H.L. Donckermann in 1826. In it, the author considers the advantages and disadvantiges of the use of vernacular languages in education and science, and he comes to the conclusion that a common international language, which for him is Latin, is necessary. Finally, he proposes a bilingual, Latin-vernacular model, while at the same time discussing the means through which this model could be continually maintained. The ideas and proposals of Donckermann correspond admirably to later development within the Esperanto community.

La paideia plutarchea nelle Epistole di Guarino Guarini

At the court of Ferrara, the relationship between Prince Lionello d'Este and Guarino gave an impulse to a vivid interest in Greek and Latin culture. In particular, Guarino's attention, expressed in various epistles, is directed towards the study of history, since reading the deeds of the ancients, rescued from oblivion, shows the way to learn virtue and to escape wickedness. For this reason, Plutarch's Lives fulfil this cultural need well, since in them there were many examples of virtuous characters from the past, who had served the state loyally and honestly, and served as models to be imitated. History is therefore magistra vitae, because it is through it and for it that we know the events experienced in peace and war. From such examples of the past, Lionello will be able to benefit greatly, learning, for example, to recognise flatterers.

Paul Fahr. Remonstration als Institution. Ein Beitrag zum Herrschaftsverstandnis im frühen chinesischen Kaiserreich (Remonstration as an Institution. A Contribution to the Concept of Rulership in Early Imperial China). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2021. 339 pp. ISBN-10 3447115815, ISBN-13 9783447115810.

Paul Fahr. Remonstration als Institution. Ein Beitrag zum Herrschaftsverst ändnis im frühen chinesischen Kaiserreich (Remonstration as an Institution. A Contribution to the Concept of Rulership in Early Imperial China). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, .  pp. ISBN- , ISBN- . The book under review here is the published version of a Ph.D. dissertation submitted at the University of Münster in . It is the first book-length study of the institution of remonstration in early imperial China, and it deserves attention because of the thorough research it provides. After a brief introduction, Fahr begins with a chapter on the theory and concept of institutions both in Western social sciences and in ancient Chinese terminology. As far as the latter is concerned, he discusses such terms as fadu 法度, zhidu 制度, guoti 國體, or jiuzhang 舊章 in order to show that ancient China had, indeed, several concepts at its disposal that are similar to the modern Western term “institution.” Fahr also understand the famous compound yi jia 一家 as an institutional term, following Gan Huaizhen’s idea that guojia actually means “the family that rules the state.” I have to confess that in this case I remain somewhat skeptical. To me, it still makes more sense to understand this compound as “the families (or family) of the capital,” because first there are also guoren 國人 who certainly do not belong to just one family, and second, branches of the ruling family usually had their bases in other cities. In this chapter, Fahr also shows that we should not understand documents (which he calls “Inserate” = insertions) contained in Chinese standard histories as direct quotations from original texts. In this he follows observations that have been made by two other young German scholars recently, namely, Kathrin Messing in her dissertation on the Sanguo zhi and Sebastian Eicher in his work on the Hou Han shu. The third chapter of Remonstration as an Institution is devoted to the word “to remonstrate” (jian 諫), and to the practice of remonstration as a sign of a close bond that existed between ruler and minister. Fahr shows that the office of remonstration officials was, indeed, already established in early Han times. Chapter  deals with official historiography as a historiography of institutions. It starts with “precedents” (gushi 故事) in pre-Han times and proceeds then to a discussion of the major historians of Han times in a chronological sequence, beginning with Sima Tan and Sima Qian and ending with Xun Yue. Fahr Review©  by University of Hawai‘i Press understands Shiji and Hanshu as compilations of precedents for the future, an idea that, of course, can be traced back to the Gongyang zhuan and that is somewhat related to the Latin concept of historia magistra vitae. Fahr agrees with what this reviewer said in the introduction to his work on Shiji and Hanshu, namely, that the title of Hanshu is an expression of Ban Gu’s hope to continue the tradition of the Shang shu. Chapter  focuses on institutions and their preservation through remonstration. Here, Fahr gives examples of remonstrations from three different periods, namely, the Qin dynasty (Li Si is quoted), the reign of Han Wendi, and finally the famous episode when Liu He, the King of Changyi whose tomb has been opened recently (the Haihun hou tomb), was removed from the throne after only twenty-seven days. Fahr also shows in this chapter how important the role was that remonstration played in the education of the young heirs to the throne. The sixth and last chapter before the conclusion somehow looks like what could have been the starting point of the dissertation. Here, Fahr uses the example of chapter  of the Hanshu to demonstrate how remonstration was actually practiced by Liu Xiang. Somewhat similar to Sebastian Eicher’s work on the Hou Han shu, he explains that the “traditions” (zhuan 傳) of the five different persons dealt with in Hanshu  should actually better be understood as episodes, not as “biographies” as the term is conventially translated. This is certainly correct. This reader wonders, however, whether it is really wise to dispense with the term biography for ancient Chinese history. Chinese zhuan may not attempt to do the same what Roman authors such as Plutarch...

Comparative history in humanities’ teaching in Ukraine


 
 
 History as a Magistra Vitae encompasses a lot of mutually complementing research and teaching subjects. It should be taught step by step from local and simple items up to global generalizations taking into account the age, educational level, and professional interests of audience. The pupils at the primary and secondary schools learn at first about their native towns or districts, later in more detail about their motherland as a whole, and common patterns of Europe with just basic names and data of the World. The higher schools are to combine minimal information of history necessary for any civilized human being with emphasized attention at the respective fields’ past separately for future lawyers, physicians, engineers, etc. In Ukraine as an extremely exhausted nation it is crucially important to break deeply rooted complex of inferiority, to prove indivisibility of domestic history with East-Central and the rest of Europe. We should overcome as soon as possible a situation when large territories had been devastated by Holodomor and colonized by alien settlers from other parts of the Soviet Union after this genocide. The newcomers’ offspring gradually will get accommodated to their new homeland yet during Transition they are an easy target for destructive impacts from abroad. To counteract subversive propaganda, we need highly educated teachers and lecturers. The pro-European liberals in Ukraine had been exterminated by notorious totalitarian purges or forced to exile and replaced by mercenaries of Russian revanchist forces. The huge traditional Universities hardly can be reformed and modernized, as they inherited stereotypes and prejudices from the past. Newly created, seemingly more flexible and certainly less corrupted higher schools attract capable and ambitious people yet their alumni feel temptation of more easy opportunities. Ukraine needs patriots now more than ever desperately fighting for survival against aggressor in current Hybrid war. The prospects look optimistic, yet for the time being it requires a lot of efforts. History teaching becomes still more important to promote unity of interdependent philological, historical, political, and state making generations of national rebirth aimed at the repatriation to modernity.
 
 

Being a Trainee Historian in Belgrade, 1989

AbstractThe author reflects on the year 1989 when she was a newly hired trainee historian at the Institute for the History of the Serbian Labor Movement in Belgrade. The topic she was assigned in the Institute was the relationship of the Serbian Social Democratic Party to the war goals of Serbia 1912–1918. As her reading and writing progressed, by 1991 what the Serbian social democrats wrote about the Balkan Wars of 1912/13 began approaching her own political views. However, their antiwar positions at the beginning of the twentieth century sounded like a real feat compared to the virtually monolithic support for the war of 1991. This is how the author’s first research left her with the bitter impression that history, the seeming magistra vitae, had really taught nobody anything given that Serbian society was falling into the same trap as some 70 years before.

Literature “magistra vitae”: What literature teaches about society's reactions to pandemic outbreaks

IntroductionCOVID-19 put out many interesting aspects of society's responses to an epidemic. Epidemics have a long-standing history in literature. We want to analyze if society's responses to the epidemic have changed over time, and what literature can teach about the society's reaction to an epidemic.Material and methodsWe searched and discussed the references to the social effects of the epidemic that are provided in three famous works of European literature providing descriptions about society's reactions to an epidemic throughout the centuries have been selected: “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio, “The Betrothed” by Alessandro Manzoni, and “The Plague” by Albert Camus.ResultsLiterature teaches us that: the epidemic's spread is often preceded and favoured by a phase of negation or under evaluation of the problem; restrictive measures are the most efficient for containing the virus’ spread; some people have difficulties in being compliant with these measures; infodemia may accompany an epidemic, feeding chaos and fear among the people.ConclusionLooking at examples of epidemics reported in the past, we can conclude that the current COVID-19 pandemic shows that society's responses to an unknown disease are not changed over time.

The state-of-the-art of NPLs in the post Covid world: an ongoing concern for the future

The purpose of this article is to examine the current situation of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the EU from a diachronic perspective, with a special focus on the regulatory and factual events relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although we agree with Cicero that "Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis", our reflections on the status of NPLs in Europe are necessarily more nuanced. History can serve as a powerful guide, but the greatest disruptive scenarios require a conscious and consistent adjustment by people and regulations. Specifically, they must seek to cope with unforeseen developments that differ from those faced in the past, requiring continued awareness and flexibility. To this end, it is necessary to proceed step by step and begin with a thorough review of the rationale and goals of NPL-related measures taken so far. First of all, it is necessary to examine and recall the critical role played by banks in the economy and how they are able to absorb losses up to a certain amount. It is equally important to note that they cannot cope with heavy losses, which often occur in situations where their ability to lend credit and their reputation on the market cannot shield them from the impact of both pathological NPL flows and the inadequacy of their NPL management structures. Meanwhile, it should also be recalled that the cause of the most recent NPL crisis was linked to the sub-prime crisis, which taught us that the hardest risk to foresee is the probability of default even by normally well-paying debtors. The current situation faced by EU Member States is filled with yet more uncertainty, but we are far better prepared now than we were then. The post-Covid era will benefit from the many safeguards which have already been implemented, including: the prohibition of profit distribution by banks recommended by the EBA; greater flexibility in the interpretation of financial statement criteria (IFRS) and the classification of NPLs; and some essential measures to streamline the functioning of the secondary market for selling or restructuring NPLs. Against this background, empirical evidence can show us which direction we are moving in. It shows that we should not to drop our guard, but rather keep a watchful eye on the situation and act promptly and swiftly if/when needed. More precisely, following the NPL regulatory framework developed by the EU and several nations in the mid-2010s, NPL ratios and the aggregate amount of NPLs consistently dropped between 2015 and the first quarter of 2021, with the one exception being the first quarter of 2021 which saw a slight uptick in the aggregate number of NPLs. Moreover, corporate and household debt levels across some of the more traditionally problematic financial markets in the EU remain relatively healthy, at least compared to 2013 levels. However, government debt-to-GDP levels have increased substantially (almost doubled) in 2020 compared to the mid-2000s and are at their highest ever recorded levels across Member States. This may limit Member States’ capacity to intervene in the event of a financial or economic crisis. We do not say this to cause alarm, but rather present it as a warning to keep alertness levels high and interest in the topic alive. It is anything but outdated, and anything but solvable, with the helpful although rather rudimentary tools that history itself has provided.

Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Thomas Hobbes

Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Thomas Hobbes

Nature and information

The genetic code of the human species requires us to react aggressively to threatening situations. Culture, history – as magistra vitae –, philosophy, law and even religion have failed to quell aggressive instincts except through threats and punishments. Until today, scientific achievements have not changed the biological determinants of our species, so as to eliminate its aggressive and destructive components. The recent electronic communication system, which allows not only the exchange of information but also the immediate transmission of emotional and empathic states, can have unpredictable and incisive effects on the collective transformation of human beings.

La Historia Magistra Vitae y el Practical Past

En su libro The Practical Past White hace un diagnóstico de las aporías a las que desde su perspectiva ha llegado la historia como historiografía científica, y propone, a partir de la categoría de Practical Past cómo explicar este decurso, cómo recuperar su función social de guía de la acción. A continuación intentaré sintetizar el por qué la historiografía, desde su perspectiva, se fue despegando de ese Practical Past a lo largo de los siglos XIX y XX, hasta quedar en la actualidad desvinculada del mismo, ante la imposibilidad de convertirlo, tanto en “objeto de estudio”, por un lado, como, al separarse del presente, abandonando su ancestral papel de guía moral –la Historia Magistra Vitae -, por otro.

“History’s So Strong”: The Topos ofHistoria Magistra Vitaeand the Rediscovery of Dictatorship in Latin America

In 1967, German historian Reinhart Koselleck claimed that the Ciceronian topos called historia magistra vitae started fading in the late eighteenth century owing to the new aspects of irreversibility and acceleration that history had gained. History could thus no longer provide lessons for a deeply uncertain present after the French Revolution. Dictator and dictatorship are examples of terms in this dramatic reconfiguration that were rescued from an intellectual register and then used for political purposes. Meanwhile, it was in independent Spanish America that these terms and the reality behind them experienced a renaissance, though under particular circumstances conditioned by the creation of new states. This article discusses two Latin American dictators, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, supreme dictator of Paraguay (1814–40), and Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of Buenos Aires (1829–32 and 1835–52), from the point of view of historia magistra vitae. Based on sources that include travelogues, pamphlets, and political essays, it aims to understand the persisting or fading relevance of the topos for the explanation of these authoritarian rulers by contemporaries.

Exemplary History: Competition in Roman Historiography

A great part of the perceived value of history in the ancient world was connected with its educational function. In one way or another, it was regarded as a beneficial guide to conduct or as magistra vitae (Cicero, De Oratore II, 36). To give political instruction and advice on the one hand (Polybius, I, 1, 2), and to provide exempla, were two major aims of history. This paper will argue that by narrating the history of the past, historians not only judged past actions or people, and provided useful moral examples to their contemporaries, but also stimulated a type of competition between past and present times. By recording good examples to be imitated and bad ones to be avoided, the Roman historians promoted the code of values of the maiores for their own time, fostered action and, to a certain extent, became significant indicators to Roman society. This competitive aspect of Roman historiography is illustrated here in three distinct categories, analysing the work of major Roman historians: Sallust, Livy and Tacitus.

Fearing the Other: The Danger of a “Yellow” Invasion Between 19th and 20th century in Europe

This article starts from the European misgivings, founded or not, about a foreign invasion. It underlines how this fear has always been present in the old continent and how it can be observed from a different point of view. In fact this short essay deals with the fear of “yellow people” in Europe between 1800 and 1900 and with the role played in influencing Europeans’ imaginary and fears by missionaries and war correspondents in the Far East. History that should be magistra vitae ends up being a lesson we never learn. The main events analyzed in this paper are the Boxer rebellion and the Russian-Japanese war.

O que fabrica o historiador quando faz história, hoje?

O problema geral deste ensaio é o de continuar perseguindo as apropriações historiográficas do tempo pelos antigos e modernos, tema que já venho tratando em pesquisas anteriores. Mais especificamente, pretendo realizar uma genealogia conceitual do topos popularizado por Cícero de que a história é mestra da vida: historia magistra vitae. A longa duração é necessária como condição à análise das diferentes recepções, percepções e retratações que a formulação adquiriu até chegar ao nosso presente. Nessa longa travessia procurarei mapear situações em que a historia magistra vitae converte-se nas figuras gêmeas da autoridade e da tradição e, finalmente, em crença. Essas duas figurações quando aliadas a indeterminações historiográficas do tempo e suas formas discursivas têm a capacidade de produzir explicações para o movimento histórico do passado e do presente, uma movimentação normalmente silenciosa, cujos efeitos geram maneiras distintas de entendimento da experiência do tempo vivido.

Thomas Hobbes como historiador: a Ciência civil na historiografia

Este estudo procura compreender, em linhas gerais, o sentido da história para Thomas Hobbes. Embora ele seja principalmente um pensador preocupado com sua Ciência civil, ele também fez da história objeto de estudo e análise, chegando a escrever uma obra sobre a Revolução Inglesa. Partindo tanto do entendimento da história como mestra da vida como o sentido do passado para o filósofo, por meio da reflexão sobre seus contatos com a narrativa histórica, procura-se demonstrar o sentido que a historiografia teve para um autor que não se via como historiador, embora tenha feito dela veículo de atuação política. Procura-se demonstrar o sentido que a história como magistra vitae adquiriu em seu contexto e de que forma ela relaciona-se com a concepção de natureza humana que transparece no pensamento maior de Hobbes. Entre a história como ensino e como saída para o estado de natureza é conduzido esse trabalho

Time and Exemplarity

The idea of history as magistra vitae – a collection of good and bad examples – was a central topos of historical writing in the West from antiquity till the late eighteenth century. The idea has served a number of different ends, motivating advanced political theory as well as functioning as a mere saying. The article investigates two books of historical examples, written for pedagogical purposes addressing young boys, both explicitly produced with this aim in mind: Johannes Schefferus’ Memorabilium Sueticae gentis exemplorum liber singularis (1671) and Ove Malling’s Store og gode Handlinger af Danske, Norske og Holstenere (1777). They differ considerably from modern history books in not being structured chronologically but according to the virtues the histories are meant to illustrate. The article compares the books’ structure, tables of content, choice of virtues and introductory texts. The aim is to explore the tension between exemplarity and temporality in the two collections.

O fardo e o fio: na contramão da procissão historiográfica

Este ensaio traz uma reflexão sobre os pressupostos do diálogo “Antigos e Modernos” no horizonte da tradição do pensamento historiográfico. A intriga por que é equacionado esse diálogo que presentifica os aportes dos Antigos na atualidade dos Modernos é evocada pela contraposição entre o “fardo” e o “fio”, ambos situados em contraposição à ideia de historia magistra vitae. O “fio”, (re)considerado como metáfora de apreensão historiográfica do “fardo”, é posto em questão de modo a interpelar que relação os Modernos estabelecem com os Antigos. Sugere-se uma reconfiguração pela ideia de desfiar o fardo para que a trajetória reflexiva siga na contramão da procissão historiográfica. Ao longo do ensaio a argumentação toma inspiração no modo de construção narrativa hesiódica: conta-se uma série de intrigas “míticas” (ou histórias) que se sucedem para apresentar, a cada vez, um outro enfoque sobre a temática, de modo que o “mito” seguinte repercuta seu sentido sobre o antecedente, retomando-o e enriquecendo-o, modificando-o por esse renovado sentido e fazendo com que os nexos dos encadeamentos assim tramados façam avançar a compreensão da questão na medida em que se interpela o tema.

History as Rhetoric, Fable, and Literary Genre

This article provides an insight into the notion of history as a literary genre. It argues that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the concept of “history” was mostly employed in its plural form: “the stories” and not “history” were the predominant form of the concept of history. These “stories” were related to the ancient Ciceronian rhetorical and moral tradition of history as Magistra Vitae (history as life's teacher) and were considered part of the so-called belles-lettres or “literature”.