Civil Power and the Deconstruction of Scholasticism in the Thought of Marc'antonio de Dominis

Summary

Marc'antonio de Dominis is well known to historians as a figure in the political and religious culture of early modern Britain and Europe. This article contends that he was also a major theorist of civil power: his critique of Catholic scholastic political thought is compelling and his account of divine right kingship sheds light on conceptual problems that troubled a range of early modern thinkers. De Dominis dismantled the scholastic theory of political power on its own terms, insisting that Almain, Bellarmine, Suárez and others could not distinguish, as they sought to, between the potestas politica in general and the rule of particular princes. By this insight de Dominis could vindicate royal authority against the deposing pretensions of the Pope, the main objective of James I's supporters during the Allegiance Controversy, but his own positive account of how to think about power ran into theoretical trouble which he evidently perceived himself. If the potestas politica cannot be abstracted from a specific regime, and if the prince's absolute sovereignty depends on this fact, can politics be understood only at the level of the particular and contingent? The article closes by setting Thomas Hobbes—well versed in Jacobean polemic—in the context of this question.     

Clowning and tragic clowning: Miguel de Unamuno as a funny writer

ABSTRACT

The present study considers the role and function that humor has in Unamuno's intellectual and literary universe. It traces Unamuno's attitude toward humor to his reading of the Spanish character in En torno al casticismo (1895) and to his dialogue with the figure of Don Quixote, as found in Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho (1905) and Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1912). Finally, it looks at the theory of humor offered in the novel Niebla (1914) and also at the role that humor played in Unamuno's later political writings, especially those of exile (1924–1930).     

Bringing the feudal law back home: social practice and the law of fiefs in Italy and Provence (1100–1250)

ABSTRACT

The Libri feudorum is a composite law book containing the customary laws of fiefs held in Lombardy which were codified in 1100–1250. Its function in shaping a late medieval ‘feudal vocabulary’ and, ultimately, modern models of feudalism was highlighted by Susan Reynolds and lies at the core of her anti-feudalism paradigm. This paper questions the disjuncture between social practice and learned law that underlies the paradigm, by analysing the context and making of the Libri feudorum and of legal writings associated with it – by Pillius de Medicina, Iacobus de Ardizone and Jean Blanc. By showing how practice could shape legal tools used by learned lawyers to frame fiefs and by reassessing the influence of the Libri feudorum on practice, the paper challenges the idea that fiefs were the outcome of professional or academic law and unveils aspects of the practical nature and intellectual dimension of lawyerly writing.     

Entre destellos se desvanece una devoción: la imagen de oro de la Asunción,patrona de la catedral metropolitana de México

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze representations of the Assumption of the Virgin, patroness of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral in New Spain. In 1610, a superb golden figure of the Assunta was acquired and located in a silver tabernacle by the new main altarpiece, which was dedicated in 1673. In the eighteenth century, this altarpiece was substituted with a new one designed by Jerónimo de Balbás, where the golden statue was eventually relocated. Since the Assunta has generally been overlooked in colonial historiography, I intend to answer the following questions: What were the aesthetic and symbolic values, based upon the theological ideas at the time in the Spanish and Catholic worlds, guiding the representation of Mary in this golden image? What was its agency in relationship to materiality, form, and usage in liturgical contexts and religious festivals?     

L'histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire

Barrès, M., Les Diverses Familles spirituelles de la France (Imprimerie nationale, 1997), 215 pp., 170F., ISBN 2 7433 0120 1

Bodin, L., Les Intellectuels existent‐ils? (Bayard Editions, 1997), 202 pp., 130F., ISBN 2 227 13702 9

Gide, A. and Paulhan, J., Correspondance 1918–1951. Cahiers Jean Paulhan IX (Gallimard, 1998), 356 pp., 160F., ISBN 2 07 075119 8

Hanna, M., The Mobilization of Intellect: French Scholars and Writers during the Great War (Harvard University Press, 1996), 292 pp., £25.50, ISBN 0 674 57755 8

Malaquais, J., Journal de guerre, suivi de Journal du métèque (Phébus, 1997), 333 pp., 135F., ISBN 2 85940 463 5

Pagès, A., 13 janvier 1898. J'accuse...! (Perrin, 1998), 293 pp, 119F., ISBN 2 262 012873

Verdès‐Leroux, J., Refus et violences. Politique et littérature à l'extrême droite des années trente aux retombées de la Libération (Gallimard, 1996), 514 pp., 190F., ISBN 2 07 073224 X

Winock, M., Le Siècle des intellectuels (Seuil, 1997), 695 pp., 149F., ISBN 2 02 030063 X     

Science and theatre in open dialogue: Biblioetica,Le Cas de Sophie K. and the postdramatic science play

Abstract

Judging by the many new ventures into the genre of the 'science play' over the last few years, the surge of interest in science on stage continues unchecked. The most interesting aspect of this trend, however, is not quantity but variety, and the ways in which directors in particular are beginning to challenge the playwright-driven and biographically inflected engagements that have so far dominated science on stage. In this article we discuss two recent productions from two prominent directors: Luca Ronconi's Biblioetica, staged in Turin in February–March 2006, and Jean-François Peyret's Le Cas de Sophie K., given in Paris in April–May. The gulf between these productions and more theatrically conventional plays like Copenhagen and Arcadia is wide, and this new work represents a significant step for science plays in the direction of 'postdramatic theatre', a term used by Hans-Thies Lehmann in his groundbreaking work on the subject. We argue that for many reasons these productions suggest that the interaction of science and the stage lends itself by its very nature to the postdramatic condition.     

Marie Redonnet's L'Accord de paix: The question of resistance and the turn-of-the-millennium novel

This article discusses how Marie Redonnet's 2000 novel L'Accord de paix addresses the question of resisting the ideology of turn-of-the-millennium consumer society. It takes its bearings from Redonnet's explicit points de repère (Genet's travesty of the symbolic order, Debord's integrated spectacle and Sartrean engagement) and from the intersection of her critical works with Cixous's criture féminine and Houellebecq's Les Particules élémentaires. The discussion identifies how L'Accord de paix converges with and diverges from these writers' differing conceptions of agency, and how Redonnet self-reflexively seeks to counter appropriation by the order she seeks to oppose. Situating the questions of misogyny and difference within the question of resisting turn-of-the-millennium symbolic violence, it reveals a literary commitment that simultaneously harnesses the legacy of the past and makes a travesty of the market-driven symbolic order of the present. The article argues that by transmitting the responsibility for resistance from writer to readers, Redonnet inscribes in storytelling a hope for discovering new bearings for the future.     

La resignificación de los márgenes del teatro independiente: Oratorio,del Teatro Estudio Lebrijano

Abstract

Oratorio, by Alfonso Jiménez Romero and Teatro Estudio Lebrijano, is arguably among the most representative plays of 1970s Spain’s independent theater. This play experienced many changes and adjustments before it was staged in the Festival Mondial de Théâtre de Nancy in 1971. These changes were tested in performances in Andalusia before audiences with little exposure to theater but sympathizing with the play. By studying a production that developed for three years, this article challenges the claims that support a history of theater as a catalogue of finished products. This article aims at considering the creative process that emerges from the direct contact with audiences in performing spaces. Independent theater archives have limitations, but they are made up with oral histories from troupe members. This article studies both the incorporation of theatrical devices associated with ritual participation of the audience and the use of flamenco reassessed as protest music. The latter included in the play as an artistic device since the tour in Andalusia. This play made explicit references to the Spanish Civil War, which prompted physical reactions from the audience in towns where the repression was fierce.     

El Castell de Falgars (Beuda,la Garrotxa): a Roman Republican watchtower in north-east Hispania Citerior

Abstract

El Castell de Falgars (Beuda, la Garrotxa) is a circular watchtower built in the late Republic, during the Romanization of Hispania, which controls a wide territory of the current Province of Girona (Catalonia). The present paper analyses the causes that led to its construction, as well as the reasons for its rapid abandonment before the end of the first century BC. It also describes the phases of reoccupation of the building during the second half of the third century AD and in the Middle Ages, detected through archaeological excavations carried out at the site between 2010 and 2012.     

Exegetical Traditions and the Artes Praedicandi in the Collationes de tempore of Frater Petrus (Fourteenth Century)

Oklahoma City, Museum of the Bible Foundation, MS 465 is a fourteenth-century codex containing the Collationes de tempore of one Frater Petrus. The codex was designed and assembled for easy reference to individual texts and sections. The 145 Latin texts address themes derived from the liturgical readings for the Sundays and moveable feasts of a complete year. They are collations in a strict sense, treating concise themes through a rigid pattern of division and subdivision of topics that are illuminated by equally systematic forms of amplification. Their pattern closely resembles the layout for collations described in the Ars faciendi sermones of Geraldus de Piscario (fl. 1330s).     

The Preacher Facing a Reluctant Audience According to the Testimony of Exempla

Abstract

In spite of the fact that from a theological point of view disobedience can sometimes be positive, in the preachers’ sermons to the people (ad populum), disobedience is always a strongly condemned sin. We focus on the sermones vulgares of Jacques de Vitry and on collections of exempla. In order to analyse the forms of reluctance and contestation to the norms proclaimed by the sermons, we evaluate the steps of this resistance ranging from lack of attention and disrespect to criticism and even hostility. Nevertheless, sometimes one must recognize that it is the preacher’s incompetence that leads to the failure of his pastoral care, for example when the preacher prepares unclear sermons (like Jacques de Vitry when he was a beginner) or is unable to tell a story or to make himself heard. It is even worse when the preacher conveys bad opinions. However, the biggest trouble comes when inattentive and disrespectful listeners are able to interrupt the preacher to contest any inconsistencies in the sermon or mistakes in the doctrine. When the sermon has no effect on the audience, it has clearly failed to get its message across. The preacher can also face competition from singers, jugglers and dancers who can distract the audience from the sermon.     

The role of the past in late medieval hidalgo historical writing and memory

ABSTRACT

This essay is structured around two themes: the writing of history and memory. On the one hand, it analyses the use of the past in Lope García de Salazar's Libro de las buenas andanças e fortunas (1471–5). His approach to history is imbued with nostalgia for a legendary past, and more specifically for a political arrangement between the Lord of Biscay and the lesser nobility (hidalgos) which ensured respect for their privileges. This is set in contrast to a second group of material, legal documentation relating to the town of Escalante in Cantabria. Historically under seigniorial control, the inhabitants created a collective memory that framed a past prior to the fourteenth century which was free of lords and feudal obligations.     

New and past geochemical data on fresh to brine waters of the Salar de Atacama and Andean Altiplano,northern Chile

The paper deals with the major chemistry and stable isotopes (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, sulfur, strontium) of waters and solutes from the Salar de Atacama basin (Rio Pedro, Honar Creek and Laguna Chaxa) and Andean Altiplano (Laguna Miñique and Laguna Miscanti). The water inflows of the Salar are chemically quite different, the Rio San Pedro being of Na‐Cl type and the Honar Creek of Na‐HCO₃ type, in keeping with the sedimentary‐evaporitic and volcanic nature of the catchment rocks respectively. The δ³⁴S and δ¹⁸O values of sulfate and the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of strontium in the streams match those of drained rocks, whereas the δ¹³C values of dissolved carbonate are largely controlled by vegetation. The lagoons are evaporated meteoric water bodies, and the relative air humidity estimated from the slope of the isotopic evaporation line is in accordance with historical data on air humidity in the area. The Laguna Chaxa is Na‐Cl rich, and its isotopic composition are consistent with a mixed sedimentary‐volcanic provenance of sulfur and strontium solutes. The Laguna Miñique is Na‐SO₄ rich, and its sulfate δ³⁴S is nearly identical to that of Laguna Chaxa. The δ¹³C(HCO₃) values are quite different in the Laguna Chaxa and Laguna Miñique, with the former being notably enriched in ¹³C probably because of preferential uptake of ¹²C by the high biological productivity occurring in the lagoon. The limited set of new data is interpreted in the context of a much larger literature database. In particular, previous chemical data on inflows and brines in the Salar de Atacama were revisited, and compared with evaporation path models and mineral stability diagrams (boron, lithium and Mg‐minerals) computed using updated software and thermodynamic databases. The modeling shows that the removal of boron and lithium from sulfate‐rich brines possibly occurs, respectively, as ulexite and sulfate salts, and carnallite should be the final magnesium phase of the brine evolution.     

El episodio de los Horacios y Curiacios de Tito Livio en el Poema de Mio Cid

La declamación del Cid durante las Cortes de Toledo desemboca en el sangriento enfrentamiento entre una tríada de sus mejores soldados contra tres miembros del clan de Carrión. Este combate triple responde al nuevo sistema triádico que gobierna este tercer cantar. La crítica cidiana sostiene una influencia de la épica francesa para este episodio al igual que defiende la necesidad del autor del poema por mantener un patrón triple. Sin embargo, la peculiaridad del número de combatientes y el papel que el monarca Alfonso VI como juez desempeña durante la asamblea tienen una raíz literaria. Esta pugna entre ambas tríadas y el hecho de que el rey delegue la supervisión del pleito recuerda el episodio de los Horacios y Curiacios de Tito Livio en el libro primero de su Ab urbe condita. La influencia de la obra de Tito Livio durante la Edad Media, y en concreto el éxito de este episodio belicoso, posibilita argumentar una base literaria para la confección del episodio cidiano. Así, el cambio numérico de este último cantar y la postura del rey atesoran una matriz erudita que demuestra los intereses culturales del genio creador del Poema de Mio Cid.     

The Capitulare de Villis,the Brevium exempla,and the Carolingian court at Aachen

For all the scholarship done on the Capitulare de villis and the Brevium exempla, much about them remains unclear, and no new interpretations have been offered in the last few decades. This article reads the documents without some of the assumptions prevalent in previous scholarly interpretations, and alongside both the written and material record, especially the archaeological evidence from Charlemagne's properties at Aachen and throughout his realm. It argues that the Capitulare de villis and the Brevium exempla were most likely issued shortly after 794, as a result of the logistical issues introduced when Charlemagne's court became resident at Aachen.     

Irrefutable arguments: Teresa de Cartagena defends her right to authorship

Teresa de Cartagena wrote a masterful text of consolation for all who suffer illness or impairment entitled Arboleda de los enfermos [Grove of the Infirm] in which she recounts her spiritual response to the onset of deafness. The work was maligned, not for its content, but rather because detractors refused to believe that Arboleda could have been penned by a woman, especially one who suffered from a physical impairment. Teresa responded to those who doubted her authorship by writing a second text, Admiraçión operum Dey [Wonder at the Works of God]. She felt compelled to respond to her critics in order to assert a single, and irrefutable, truth: God gave her the ability to write Arboleda, and, since anything is possible for God, to deny her authorship is tantamount to denying the omnipotence of God. She declares that any reader who doubts her authorship does not believe that God is capable of miraculous deeds. She argues that it is rare for a woman to write but certainly not impossible if God so wills it. This article explores how Teresa constructs and builds what, on the surface, appears to be a simple, in not outright indisputable, tenet of Christian doctrine, i.e., God’s unlimited and inscrutable power.