The Fine Incense of Virginity: a late twelfth century wall painting of the Annunciation at the Monastery of the Syrians,Egypt

Abstract

A richly symbolical wallpainting of the Annunciation was brought to light in 1991 in the western conch of the church of the Virgin at the desert Monastery of the Syrians at Scetis (Wadi al-Natriin) in Egypt (figs. 1–5). The interpretation put forward here is that the scene celebrates the Mother of God as the epitome of perfect womanhood at the moment of Christ's conception with her key role reinforced by explicit symbolism of her virginity. This is stated visually, through the liturgical symbolism of the burning censer at her feet, and verbally through the ‘container’ imagery proclaimed on the scrolls of the accompanying prophets: Isaiah, Moses, Ezekiel and Daniel. A detailed townscape represents the town of Nazareth, both the Virgin's own birthplace and the site of the Annunciation.     

Rebellious Tigers,a Patriotic Elephant and an Urdu-Speaking Cockatoo: Animals in ‘Mutiny’ Fiction

British fictional representations of the 1857 Indian ‘Mutiny’ are consistently drawn to tigers. These charismatic animals function as an aspect of a romanticized colonial exotic and perform a symbolic role as embodiments of the limits of imperial power. Tigers often featured as a metaphor for Indian revolutionary activities so that the suppression of the rebellion becomes encoded as a hunt. Taking tiger symbolism as a starting point, this essay explores the relationship of images of animals to imperial authority in late nineteenth-century ‘Mutiny’ fiction. Following a discussion of tigers in G.A. Henty's militaristic accounts of the ‘Mutiny’, I examine G.M. Fenn's tale of an elephant's loyalty to the crown, Begumbagh (1879) and Flora Annie Steel's magnum opus On the Face of the Waters (1896). While Henty and Fenn endeavour to encode a narrative of British superiority in representations of authority over animals, Steel's novel by contrast displays a more ambivalent approach to the nonhuman, evoked most strikingly in the figure of an Urdu-speaking cockatoo that consistently evades the allocation of an over-determined imperial symbolism of power. Tensions between the animal and the human and between the wild and the domestic emerge centrally, therefore, to the key question of political authority in imaginings of this historical crux.     

Van Gulik's The Lore of the Chinese Lute Revisited*

In this article I propose a critical examination of van Gulik's The Lore of the Chinese Lute (LCL) in respect to its bibliographical sources and consequent aesthetic contentions. Despite being arguably the first academic monograph on the ideology of qin and historically a major non-Chinese source for the study of qin in general, the LCL does not represent van Gulik's mature thinking on qin. The LCL is limited by objective circumstances surrounding its writing and flaws in van Gulik's bibliographical engagement. His study of the musicology of Yueji on the basis of inaccurate translation and a neglect of the Neo-Confucian reading of Yueji, his hypothesis of Daoist dominance and Buddhist or Indian influence in the practice of qin with mistaken evidence, his skepticism of the truth of the literati tradition with fundamental bibliographical flaws, all require reconsideration. The current lacuna in the critical investigation of the LCL not only urges contemporary researchers to continue where van Gulik left off, but also calls for new research projects on qin and Chinese literati music in general.     

The Delicate Art of Aggression: Uzun Hasan's Fathnama to Qaytbay of 1469

Medieval Persian imperial correspondence (tarassul) remains relatively untapped as a source of historiographical information, due in no small part to its stylized and ornate character. This ornateness, far from being merely an obstructive husk to the useful pith of data within, constitutes a rich source of information in its own right; indeed, the formal aspects of a given letter may significantly alter the ostensible sense of the text. This study examines as a representative case a fathnama sent by Uzun Hasan to Qaytbay on the occasion of the former's victory over Sultan-Abu Sa‘id in 1469, here contextualized, translated and subjected to formal analysis with reference to contemporary insha’ manuals. For all its submissive rhetoric, the letter's aggressive intent is shown to be activated by its formal structure, which strategically deploys Uzun Hasanid messianic symbolism to challenge the ascendancy of the Mamluk state.     

Vintages of the Sāqī-nāma: Fermenting and Blending the Cupbearer's Song in the Sixteenth Century

Drawing on a rich tradition of anacreontic poetry and taking inspiration from works by Nizāmī and Hāfiz, the sāqī-nāma or “cupbearer's song” emerged as an independent genre in the early sixteenth century and flourished throughout the Persian literary world for the next 250 years. Looking back on the development of the genre, the early seventeenth-century literary historians ‘Abd al-Nabī Qazvīnī and Awhadī Balyānī give contrasting accounts of its formation, but both agree on the significance of the work of Hakīm Partuvī Shīrāzī (d. 928/1520–21). An examination of his sāqī-nāma, together with two other early representatives of the genre by Sidqī Astarābādī (d. 952/1545) and Sharaf Jahān Qazvīnī (d. 968/1561), shows how closely this new genre was tied to the politics and ideology of the new Safavid state and reveals profound structural similarities to the preeminent panegyric genre of the Islamicate world, the qasīda. But once the basic components of the sāqī-nāmā were distilled and taken up by poets outside this socio-political environment, the genre proved to be as protean as the wine symbolism at its core. Cupbearer songs from the end of the century, particularly those of Muhammad Sūfī Māzandarānī (d. 1035/1625–26) and Sanjar Kāshānī (d. 1021/1612), show how the basic elements of the genre could be reconfigured to serve a variety of more personal interests.     

Urban law—I

In this essay, I aim to identify and analyze the influence of Cartesian dualism on Rembrandt's pictorial representations of the self. My thesis is that Descartes and Rembrandt share concerns about philosophy's exploration of human nature, concerns rooted in mind–body dualism. Descartes's corpus bears witness to a growing skepticism about the relation between matter and extension. Likewise, Rembrandt's anatomy lessons lead the viewer to question the value of treating humans as scientific objects. I suggest that by reexamining Rembrandt's work in light of the mind–body problem we generate a fuller understanding of Rembrandt's artistic critique and expression and Descartes's mature scientific thinking and abiding influence. My analysis centers on four Rembrandt paintings: The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Nicolaes Tulp (1632); The Descent from the Cross (1632–1633); The Sacrifice of Abraham (1635); and The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Joan Deyman (1656).     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: W. Ross Cockrill (editor), The Camelid: An All–Purpose Animal, Vol. 1. Proceedings of the Khartoum Workshop on Camels Robert Bideleux,Communism and Development. ohn Hemming (editor), Change in the Amazon Basin. Vol. I, Man's Impact on Forest and Rivers; Vol. II, The Frontier after a Decade of Colonization. Manchester: Manchester Marianne Schmink and Charles H. Wood (editors) Stephanie Griffith–Jones, International Finance and Latin America. Hugh O'Shaughnessy, Grenada: Revolution, Invasion and Aftermath. George Brizan, Grenada: Island of Conflict. From Amerindians to People's Revolution: 1498–1979. Chris Searie, Words Unchained: Language and Revolution in Grenada. London: Maurice Bishop, In Nobody's Backyard: Maurice Bishop's Speeches, 1979–1983: A Memorial Volume. Scott C. Iverson, Quantitative Methods of Public Administration in Developing Countries.     

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).     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: M. G. Wiltshire : Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism: The Emergence of Gautama the Buddha (Religion and Reason 30, gen. ed. J. Waardenburg) P. G. Griffiths , N. Hakamaya , J. P. Keenan and P. L. Swanson (eds and trans): The Realm of A wakening: A Translation of and Study of the Tenth Chapter of Asan̊ga's Mahay anasan̊graha. Graeme Clarke , Brian Croke , Alanna Emmett Nobbs and Raoul Mortley (eds): Reading the Past in Late Antiquity. Alister E. Mc Grath : Luther's Theology of the Cross: Martin Luther's Theological Breakthrough. Ian Tyrrell : Woman's World, Woman's Empire: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880–1930. Patricia Grimshaw : Paths of Duty. American Missionary Wives in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii Mary Zwiep : Pilgrim Path. The First Company of Women Missionaries to Hawaii John P. Maguire : Prologue: A History of the Catholic Church as Seen from Townsville 1863–1983. W. J. Lawton : The Better Time to Be: Utopian Attitudes to Society among Sydney Anglicans, 1885 to 1914. Madeleine Sophie Mc Grath : These Women? Women Religious in the History of Australia: The Sisters of Mercy Parramatta 1888–1988.     

The Origins of American Expansion in Hawaii and Samoa, 1865–1900

From Nixon to Reagan, official US perceptions of West German trade with the Soviet Union (Osthandel) underwent a remarkable evolution. Despite initial skepticism, the Nixon and Ford administrations placed no major obstacles to West German–Soviet economic relations. Carter, however, changed the situation. His stance on human rights and economic sanctions against the Soviets for various developments - along with his belief that West Germany should follow the United States' lead - led Carter to ask Schmidt to curtail Osthandel, an action that contributed to Schmidt's notoriously poor relationship with the US President. Despite coming from a different political party, Reagan initially continued Carter's outlook on Osthandel. Yet rather than emphasize human rights, he publicly stressed Poland's self-determination as the reason to implement his aggressive policy to curb trade with the USSR, even though his advisers feared the strategic implications of greater German dependence on Soviet energy. Carter's and Reagan's early approaches were ineffective. Their actions, especially the latter's, strained US relations with Germany, the United States' most important ally in central Europe. Equally important, both Carter's and Reagan's policies undermined détente with Moscow. Because Nixon and Ford's approach to Osthandel harmed neither US–German relations nor US–Soviet relations, these presidents' responses had conspicuous advantages over succeeding administrations.     

Recovering the histories of women religious in England in the central Middle Ages: Wilton Abbey and Goscelin of Saint-Bertin

Building upon the efforts made by scholars over the past 20 years to enrich our understanding of the vibrancy and sophistication of the literary cultures fostered within English communities of women religious during the central Middle Ages, this article shows that these women kept their communities' histories and preserved their saints' cults through their own writing. The evidence for this is uncovered through comparative analysis of the two extant versions of the post-mortem miracles of the late Anglo-Saxon saint Edith of Wilton (c.961–c.984): the Vita et translatio Edithe, composed c.1080 by the Flemish hagiographer Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (c.1040–d. after 1107), and the early fifteenth-century Middle English Wilton Chronicle. This analysis reveals that the writer of the Chronicle depended on a collection of Edith's and other Wilton saints' miracles that was maintained by their consorors throughout the late tenth and eleventh centuries, independently of Goscelin's account.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Joan M. Gero and Margaret W. Conkey (eds), Engendering Archaeology W. J. Shells and Diana Wood (eds), Women in the Church Penelope D. Johnson, Equal in Monastic Profession, Religious Women in Medieval France Sally Thompson, Women Religious Margaret MacCurtain and Mary O'Dowd (eds), Women in Early Modem Ireland 1500–1800 Lawrence Stone, Road to Divorce: England 1530–1987 Robert B. Shoemaker, Prosecution and Punishment: Petty Crime and the Law in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1660–1725 Marina Benjamin (ed.), Science and Sensibility, Gender and Scientific Enquiry 1780–1945 Sian Reynolds, Britannica's Typesetters: Women Compositors in Edwardian Edinburgh Eleanor Gordon and Esther Breitenbach (eds), The World is III Divided: Women's Work in Scotland in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Leah Leneman, A Guid Cause. The Women's Suffrage Movement in Scotland Angela V. John (ed.), Our Mothers’Land. Chapters in Welsh Women's History 1830–1939 Harold L. Smith (ed.), British Feminism in the Twentieth Century June E. Hahner, Emancipating the Female Sex: The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850–1940 Jane S. Jaquette (ed.), The Women's Movement in Latin America: Feminism and the Transition to Democracy Susan Glenn, Daughters of the Shtetl. Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation David Tyack and Elizabeth Hansot, Learning Together: A History of Coeducation in American Public Schools Lynn D. Gordon, Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era Ileen A. DeVault, Sons and Daughters of Labor: Class and Clerical Work in Turn-of-the-Century Pittsburgh Lisa M. Fine, The Souls of the Skyscraper: Female Clerical Workers in Chicago, 1870–1930 Stephen H. Norwood, Labor's Flaming Youth: Telephone Operators and Worker Militancy, 1878–1923 Nancy F. Cott (ed.), A Woman Making History. Mary Ritter Beard Through Her Letters Jackie Byars, All That Hollywood Allows. Re-reading Gender Melodrama     

Book Reviews

Caroline W. Bynum, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336 Pauline Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women's Power in Eleventh Century England Kate Aughterson (ed.), Renaissance Woman: A Sourcebook. Constructions of Femininity in England Suzanne W. Hull, Women According to Men: The World of Tudor–Stuart Women Valerie Frith (ed.), Women and History: Voices of Early Modern England Eric Josef Carlson, Marriage and the English Reformation Joel F. Harrington, Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany Gillian T. W. Ahlgren, Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity Sherry M. Velasco, Demons, Nausea and Resistance in the Autobiography of Isabel de Jesús, 1611–1682 Margaret R. Hunt, The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender and the Family in England 1680–1780 Mary Waldron, Lactilla, Milkwoman of Clifton: the Life and Writings of Ann Yearsley, 1753–1806 Michèle Cohen, Fashioning Masculinity: National Identity and Language in the Eighteenth Century Susan J. Tracy, In the Master's Eye: Representations of Women, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Antebellum Southern Literature Kathleen Canning, Languages of Labor and Gender: Female Factory Work in Germany, 1850–1914 Anna Davin, Growing Up Poor: Home, School and Street in London 1870–1914 Joel Wolfe, Working Women, Working Men: São Paulo and the Rise of Brazil's Industrial Working Class, 1900–1955 Miriam Cooke and Angela Woollacott (eds), Gendering War Talk Joy Damousi and Marilyn Lake (eds), Gender and War: Australians at War in the Twentieth Century Ruth Lewin Sime, Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics Ann Laura Stoler, Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault's History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things Peggy Bristow, Dionne Brand, Linda Carty, Afua P. Cooper, Sylvia Hamilton, Adrienne Shadd (eds), ’We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up’: Essays in African Canadian Women's History Anne Marie Rafferty, The Politics of Nursing Knowledge Mona Ozouf, Les Mots des Femmes: Essai sur la Singularité Française (Women's Words: An Essay on French Particularity)     

Instrument Transfer as Knowledge Transfer in Neurophysiology: François Magendie's (1783–1855) Early Attempts to Measure Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure

François Magendie's (1783–1855) experimental model for measuring blood pressure in animals, which he developed in 1838, had a major impact on French physiology in the nineteenth century, especially upon Etienne-Jules Marey (1830–1904) in Paris. In due course it was also adopted by other European investigators, such as the Leipzig physiologist Carl Ludwig (1816–1895), and by clinicians who developed it into a major measuring tool. Historians of science, however, have paid hardly any attention to Magendie's further laboratory investigations conducted with the assistance of Jean-Louis Marie Poiseuille's (1799–1869) sphygmomètre (blood pressure meter). After having used the apparatus to conduct his experiments on a variety of blood vessels, Magendie also applied the sphygmomètre in 1840 to the ventricular system of the brain in order to measure cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure. But the scope of this new procedure had yet to be defined: the new measuring device invited many speculative interpretations about the meaning of CSF flow for the physiology of the ventricular system in healthy and diseased brain function. As such, Magendie's experiments produced phenomena in very heterogeneous knowledge areas, and CSF measurement was situated at the interface of quite disparate investigative spaces regarding the structure and function of the brain. In his textbook Leçons sur les Fonctions et les Maladies du Système Nerveux (Lectures on the Functions and Diseases of the Nervous System), Magendie described extending application of the measuring “apparatus of Poiseuille” from blood vessels to parts of the brain. The instrument thus became something of a liquidodynamomètre (liquor dynamometer), that paved the way for later applications, including (after 1896) diagnostic intracranial pressure (ICP) measurement by Theodor Kocher (1841–1917) and Harvey Cushing (1869–1939). The current paper focuses on the experimental contingencies that prompted the instrument transfer in Magendie's laboratory and opened up new epistemological perspectives for research in neurophysiology.     

Walls of history: the use of mythomoteurs in Northern Ireland murals

This study set out to discover in what way murals may possibly reflect the history of the Northern Ireland conflict. The findings suggest that each conflict group's usage of imagery reflects the reality and the very complicated nature of the Northern Ireland conflict which crosses religious, cultural, and political fault lines. It is also apparent that the symbolism of murals creates its own invented versions of history. This is evidenced by both protagonists' usage of myth-symbol complexes and mythomoteurs in order to legitimatise their ethnic origins, religious and political ideologies. It is also axiomatic that many nationalist murals reflect O'Brien's notion of sacral nationalism. The symbolisation used in some Protestant/loyalist murals reflects Old Testament themes, whereas some nationalist murals reflect New Testament themes. Moreover, there is a profusion of murals reflecting diabolical enemy imagery, sanctification/demonisation imagery, militaristic imagery, ethnic victimisation imagery, ego of victimisation and blood sacrifice imagery in chronicling historic victories, rebellions, massacres, suffering, and imprisonment.     

Book Reviews

Denise Nowakowski Baker. Julian of Norwich's Showings. From Vision to Book Lynn Staley. Margery Kempe's Dissenting Fictions Grace M. Jantzen. Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism Anthony Fletcher. Gender, Sex and Subordination in England 1500 to 1800 Laura Gowing. Domestic Dangers. Women, Words, and Sex in Early Modern London Naomi J. Miller. Changing the Subject: Mary Wroth and Figurations of Gender in Early Modern England Naomi Zack. Bachelors of Science: Seventeenth-Century Identity, Then and Now Linda Lopez McAlister (ed.). Hypatia's Daughters: Fifteen Hundred Years of Women Philosophers Kathryn Gleadle. The Early Feminists: Radical Unitarians and the Emergence of the Women's Rights Movement, 1831–51 Barbara Caine. English Feminism 1780–1980 Clarissa Campbell Orr (ed.). Wollstonecraft's Daughters: Womanhood in England and France 1780–1920 Ann-Louise Shapiro. Breaking the Codes: Female Criminality in Fin-de-Siècle Paris Sally Ledger. The New Woman: Fiction and Feminism at the Fin de Siècle Maroula Joannou. ‘Ladies, Please Don't Smash These Windows’: Women's Writing, Feminist Consciousness and Social Change 1918–38 Barbara Evans Clements. Bolshevik Women Alison Oram. Women Teachers and Feminist Politics 1900–1939 Maria Tatar. Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany Katharina von Ankum (ed.). Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture Yvonne M. Klein (ed.). Beyond the Home Front: Women's Autobiographical Writing of the Two World Wars Mary Nash. Defying Male Civilization: Women in the Spanish Civil War Rachel Feldhay Brenner. Writing as Resistance: Four Women Confronting the Holocaust – Edith Stein, Simone Weil, Anne Frank, Etty Hillesum Evelyn Fox Keller and Helen E. Longino (eds). Feminism and Science Mary Maynard (ed.). Science and the Construction of Women Ann Wagner. Adversaries of Dance. From the Puritans to the Present Amy Koritz. Gendering Bodies / Performing Art. Dance in Early Twentieth-Century British Culture     

Book Reviews

James Grantham Turner (ed.) Sexuality and Gender in Early Modem Europe: Institutions, Texts, Images Richard Burt and John Michael Archer (eds) Enclosure Acts: Sexuality, Property, and Culture in Early Modern England Roddey Reid, Families in Jeopardy: Regulating the Social Body in France, 1750–1910 Jann Matlock, Scenes of Seduction: Prostitution, Hysteria, and Reading Difference in Nineteenth-Century France Jeffrey R. Watt, The Making of Modern Marriage: Matrimonial Control and the Rise of Sentiment in Neuchâtel, 1550–1800 Claire Duchen, Women's Rights and Women's Lives in France, 1944–1968 Amanda Anderson, Tainted Souls and Painted Faces: The Rhetoric of Fallenness in Victorian Culture Deborah Epstein Nord, Walking the Victorian Streets: Women, Representation, and the City Angela Groppi, I Conservatori Delia Virtú. Donne Recluse Nella Roma dei Papi Joanne E. Gates, Elizabeth Robins, 1862–1952: Actress, Novelist, Feminist Angela V. John, Elizabeth Robins: Staging a Life, 1862–1952 Kenneth A. Lockridge, On the Sources of Patriarchal Rage: The Commonplace Books of William Byrd and Thomas Jefferson and the Gendering of Power in the Eighteenth Century Christine Bolt, The Women's Movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s Ian Tyrrell, Woman's World/Woman's Empire: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective Audrey Oldfield, Woman Suffrage in Australia: A Gift or a Struggle? The Blaze of Day Nancy A. Hewitt and Suzanne Lebsock (eds) Visible Women: New Essays on American Activism Teresa Anne Murphy, Ten Hours’Labor: Religion, Reform, and Gender in Early Slew England Virginia Bernhard, Betty Brandon, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Theda Perdue (eds) Southern Women: Histories and Identities Catherine Clinton (ed.) Half Sisters of History: Southern Women and the American Past Melvyn Stokes and Rick Halpern (eds) Race and Class in the American South since 1890 Catherine Wessinger (ed.) Women's Leadership in Marginal Religions: Explorations Outside the Mainstream Wendy E. Chmielewski, Louis J. Kern and Marlyn Klee Hartzell (eds) Women in Spiritual and Communitarian Societies in the United States Jean Humez (ed.) Mother's First-Born Daughters: Early Shaker Writings on Women and Religion W. Peter Ward, Birth Weight and Economic Growth: Women's Living Standards in the Industrializing West David Cordingly, Life Among the Pirates: Fact vs Fiction Catherine Wendy Bracewell, The Uskoks of Senj: Piracy, Banditry, and Holy War in the Sixteenth-Century Adriatic B. R. Berg, Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean (New York University Press, New York and London, 1994; rev. ed. of Sodomy and the Perception of Evil) Carol A. B. Giesen, Coal Miners’Wives: Portraits of Endurance Gillian Thomas, A Position to Command Respect: Women and the Eleventh Britannica     

Mixed Constitutionalism and Parliamentarism in Elizabethan England: The Case of Thomas Cartwright

The Admonition Controversy (1572–1577), largely between Thomas Cartwright (1534/5–1603) and John Whitgift (1530–1604) has proven fecund ground for intellectual historians analysing the religious dimension to early-modern political ideas. This paper argues that the religious dimension of Cartwright's mixed constitutionalism needs better explanation, rather than just noting that his ecclesiastical mixed constitutionalism (Presbyterianism) mirrors his political mixed constitutionalism. This paper tracks Cartwright's progressive, dialogical unfolding of his mixed constitutionalism in response to Whitgift's attempt to derive episcopacy from the fact of English monarchy, effectively discrediting the Admonition to Parliament (1572). Furthermore, the essay outlines how the Cartwright–Whitgift debate led Cartwright to emphasise a parliamentarist mixed constitution when most of his contemporaries, especially the more famous mixed constitutionalist, Thomas Smith, portrayed the English parliament leaning noticeably towards the monarch. This analysis accepts that religious polemic was a major driving force in the normalisation of parliamentarism, yet seeks to show exactly how this worked out in one of the most important church–state disputes in Elizabethan England.