The Vita Gregorii and Ethnogenesis in Anglo-Saxon Britain

Abstract

'The Vita Gregorii and Ethnogenesis in Anglo-Saxon Britain'. During the Migration Period, ethnic and political identities emerged amongst the barbarians in the West. In Britain, the barbarian newcomers came to see themselves as a single gens — the English people. Although this has usually been seen as a smooth and almost inevitable process of ethnogenesis, an analysis of an oft overlooked hagiography, the Vita Gregorii, will demonstrate that ideas of ethnicity carried political currency, at least in early-eighth-century Northumbria. Moreover, the notion that all the barbarian newcomers belonged to a single gens found dissenters, evidenced in part by the Vita Wilfridi, which regarded a local, Northumbrian identity as primary. This interpretation places the Anglo-Saxons alongside their Continental counterparts, allowing events in Britain to be understood in a manner harmonious with the broader experiences of the West.     

In search of a Byzantine narrative canon: the Vita Basilii as an uncanonical work

Abstract

The problem of the literary genre of Vita Basilii and, by extension, of the lack of Byzantine examples of purely secular biography is one of the most well known literary controversies of Byzantine studies. With respect to this problem a revision of the usual parameters involved in the definition of literary genres will be suggested, one which will cover not only formal aspects but also contextual and functional ones. This study will propose that the features related to these parameters could be classified as more or less prototypical, thus laying the foundation for an approach to canonical narrative patterns and enabling further progress in our understanding of this unique work.     

Reconsidering Donizone's Vita Mathildis: Boniface of Canossa and Emperor Henry II

Boniface of Canossa is a figure of great importance to the political and military history of eleventh-century Italy. Modern historiography has almost universally argued that Boniface gained his power through a close relationship and alliance with a series of German emperors. Most accounts see Boniface's fall and eventual murder in 1052 as a direct consequence of the breakdown of this relationship. This analysis is flawed, however, as it rests predominantly on the evidence of a single source: the Vita Mathildis by Donizone of Canossa. This document was produced more than half a century after the death of Boniface by an author who held complex political goals, but these have not been fully considered in the discussion of Boniface. Through an examination of the charter sources, this article argues that Donizone misrepresented Boniface's actions and that there is considerable evidence that Boniface was not a consistent ally of the German emperors.     

古代西北疆域研究若干问题的思考

古代西北疆域是我国疆域的重要组成部分,对古代西北疆域的研究也是边疆史地研究中的重点之一。本文分析了西北疆域研究中应该注意的几个问题,认为以动态的标准确定我国不同时期的历史疆域是研究西北疆域的基本前提;西北疆域地位不断演变,是西北疆域变迁史的基本特点之一,也是西北疆域形成过程的基本形式。同时,文章还就民族、地理环境、国防安全等方面说明了西北疆域形成和发展的内在原因。     

关于特洛伊战争的若干问题

在西方,关于特洛伊战争(远征特洛伊)和“木马计”的故事,可谓家喻户晓、妇孺皆知。以这次远征为背景或主题的史诗和民间故事、传说,如名的荷马史诗等更是广为流传,影响深远。然而,由于时代久远,同古代许多重大历史事件一样,距今3000多年的特洛伊战争早已被蒙上一层层神秘的色彩,使人难辨其“庐山真面目”。事实上,在荷马史诗形成的时代,人们对特洛伊战争的起因就有不同解释;     

Some aspects of the Polar Regions

Die Vegetationsverhältnisse der illyrischen Länder. By Dr. Günther Beck v. Mannagetta, Prag. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1901. 6 plates, 18 figures in text, and 2 maps. Pp. xv + 534.

Finland As It Is. By Harry de Windt, F.R.G.S. London: John Murray, 1901. Pp. 316. Price 9s.

Springtime in the Basque Mountains. By A. L. Liberty. London : Grant Richards, 1901. Pp. 299. Price 12s.

An Artist's Walks in Bible Lands. By Henry A. Harper, author of Walls in Palestine, etc.; with a Photogravure Frontispiece and 55 other Illustrations from Drawings by the Author. London: The Religious Tract Society. Pp. 256. Price 6s. net.

A Geography of Asia, including the East Indies. By Lionel W. Lyde, M.A., F.R.G.S. London : Adam and Charles Black, 1900. Price 1s. 6d.

With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple : Narrative of Four Years’ Residence on the Tibetan Border, and of a Journey into the Far Interior. By Susie Carson Rijniiart, M.D. Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier, Edinburgh and London, 1901. Pp. 406. Price 6s.

Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate. By S. Le Strange. Oxford : The Clarendon Press, 1900. Price 16s.

John Chinaman. By E. H. Parker. London : John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1901. Price 8s.

The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh. Edited by E. E. Ravenstein. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1901. Pp. viii + 209.

The Land of the Wine. By A. J. Drexel Biddle, F.K.G.S., F.E.S.A., F.R.M.S. London: Funchal, Drexel Biddle, Publisher. Philadelphia and San Francisco. 1901.

The Sherbro and its Hinterland. By T. J. Alldridge, F.R.G.S. London : Macmillan and Co., Limited. New York : The Macmillan Company, 1901. Price 15s.

The Thirteen Colonies. By Helen Ainslie Smith. New York and London : E. P. Putnam's Sons, 1901. Price 12s.     

Some Popular Superstitions of the Ancients

This article provides an introductory discussion of the ways in which popular perceptions of artworks, artists, and the creative process have generated a repertoire of recurring motifs. Sometimes reinforced by art historical research and documentary evidence and sometimes at variance with all such scholarship, the tropes of ‘artlore’ constitute a catalogue of persistent story types that spring from visual interpretation experienced within a shifting cultural context.     

King Stephen,the English church,and a female mystic: Christina of Markyate's Vita as a neglected source for the council of Winchester (August 1139) and its aftermath

One of the central reasons for the disintegration of royal authority (sometimes called ‘the Anarchy’) during the reign of King Stephen of England is generally thought to have been his troubled relationship with the English church. The king was summoned to appear before the legate in England, Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (who was also Stephen's brother), at a church council called for Winchester on 29 August 1139, in order to show cause for his conduct in arresting several prominent bishops and in confiscating their property. Several major chroniclers discuss the events leading up to and occurring at the council of Winchester, especially William of Malmesbury in his Historia novella and the anonymous Gesta Stephani. The versions of events contained in these sources are not entirely consistent. The present paper examines yet another recounting of the events of the council, seldom appreciated by historians of twelfth-century England, presented in the Vita of Christina of Markyate (c.1096/98–c.1155/66), composed by an anonymous monk of St Albans between 1140 and 1146. Christina was close to the abbot of St Albans, Geoffrey de Gorham, who was probably the patron of the Vita and who quite likely attended the Winchester council and apparently became involved in its aftermath. These events are recorded in some detail in the Vita, presenting us with a vivid recounting of the council and the immediate consequences thereof. The narrative of the Vita contains a somewhat different picture of the personalities and occurrences surrounding the Winchester council than we encounter in the chronicles. The current essay compares the Vita to the standard accounts. We argue that the Vita may be the earliest and possibly most reliable source for the events of the council. Moreover, if we privilege the report of the Vita, the council becomes an especially significant moment in the breakdown of relations between Stephen and the English church.     

Some Notes on the Huculs

Salpassa denotes the blessing of houses, land, and other belongings, carried out during Easter week and Resurrection (Easter) Sunday in the Valencia–Catalonia linguistic region of north-eastern Spain. Although it is now remembered mostly as a consecrating ceremony or a religious rite, recent field research has shown that a playful element, carried out by children through their songs and other activities, was also an important aspect of the traditional Salpassa.     

关于澳门历史的几个问题

目前历史学界在澳门历史的分期、定位和葡占澳门的特点等问题上存在一些不同的意见。作者在本文中依据历史事实,对上述问题提出了自己的看法。