The Polybian Moment: The Transformation of Republican Thought from Ptolemy of Lucca to Machiavelli

Recent research has emphasized the continuities in European republican political thought from the late Middle Ages until well into the Renaissance and even beyond. Two of the central figures in the story of the persistence of republicanism are Ptolemy of Lucca, who is commonly viewed as the quintessential late medieval republican, and Niccolò Machiavelli, whose work is generally regarded as the classic statement of early modern republicanism. We argue that these two remain conceptually at considerable remove from one another, a claim we illustrate by analyzing the impact of the reception, Latin translation and transmission of the Histories of Polybius, and especially the theory of constitutional change proposed in Book 6. The unavailability of the Histories to Ptolemy and its rather ample use by Machiavelli at the beginning of the Discourses signal an important divergence in the theoretical principles underlying the defense of republican institutions. In turn, this variation captures one facet of the distinct qualities of republican thought that separated the intellectual terrain of the early fourteenth century from that of the sixteenth century.     

突厥王冠与吐蕃王冠

一、突厥王冠的考古发现 2001年8月,一支由土耳其和蒙古考古学家组成的联合考察队在位于今蒙古国首府乌兰巴托以西45公里的鄂尔浑河畔突厥第二汗国毗伽可汗陵园内,发掘出土了数以千计的金银珠宝,被学术界称之为"毗伽可汗宝藏"(Treasure of Blige Khagan).这一发现后来由我国考古学家林梅村较为详尽的介绍给国内,从而也引起了国内学术界的广泛关注①.在这批宝藏当中,有一顶王冠十分华贵醒目,林梅村从蒙古国立历史博物馆编的<毗伽可汗宝藏说明>一书中转载了这顶王冠的照片②,使我们可以观察到它的一些细部特征:这顶王冠为一顶金冠,王冠冠沿为一长条形的带状金边,在这条金边的上下两条边缘上钻出若干小孔,可用来连缀其它金片,在这条金边的正中和左右两方各錾出一个大孔,可能原系用来镶嵌宝石之用.     

The second issuance of a Tuscan gold coin: the gold groat of Lucca, 1256

In 1252 Genoa and Florence embarked upon the issuance of gold coins. Although Genoa's effort ultimately failed due to an internal economic crisis, the Florentine florin dominated the international money markets of western Europe and beyond for the next two and a half centuries. Lucca, Florence's Tuscan neighbor, likewise ventured into the issuance of a gold coin at least by 1256. However, Lucca's gold issue was apparently of a modest scale and never mounted a challenge to the florin. This article establishes the date ante quern at which Lucca made her return to gold and attempts to explain why the Lucchese gold groat did not become a significant factor in Europe's earliest experiment with bimetallism.     

Illustrations of Domestic Manners During the Reign of Edward I

Abstract

A small ivory head of a tonsured man, expertly carved in relief, was found in 1991 during excavations at the great eighth-eleventh century Lombard monastery at San Vincenzo al Volturno. The head was excavated with other fragments of carved ivory, antler and bone, in the vicinity of the collective workshop of the monastery, and was doubtless carved in this workshop. The head-type is a variant on an early Byzantine formula which was employed in Rome by the sixth century and subsequently, in the eighth century, was adopted by artists working for noble Lombard patrons in northern Italy. The painters responsible for decorating the churches and claustral buildings of San Vincenzo in the first half of the ninth century also used this type, and in details of its carving the new ivory head seems to show the direct influence of painted heads of early ninth-century date from the walls of the monastery. The relief was probably intended for the embellishment of a small casket or the cover of a book. The new head, besides being a significant addition to the tiny corpus of surviving carvings in ivory from early medieval Italy, shows the craftsmen in the monastery's workshop had at their disposal a material which was both rare and prestigious in the period.     

Alien coins and foreign exchange banking in a medieval commune: Thirteenth-century Lucca

In der Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts liefen Gerüchte durch Europa von einem mächtigen christlichen Herrscher im Rücken des Islam, mit Namen ‘Priester Johannes’, in dessen riesigem Reich den Berichten nach sozialer Frieden herrschte, wunderbare Völker, Tiere und Pflanzen, auch wertvolle Edelsteine mit wunderkräftiger Wirkung zu finden sein sollten.Nachdem dieses Reich anfangs in Indien gesucht wurde, verlegte man es im 13. Jahrhundert nach Zentralasien und im 14. Jahrhundert nach Äthiopien. Heinrich der Seefahrer und seine Kapitäne versuchten, diesen mächtigen Herrscher zu erreichen, um mit ihm den Islam im Rücken anzugreifen. Aber erst 1517 gelang es den Portugiesen, den äthiopischen Herrscher persönlich zu treffen und ihm gegen seine islamischen Gegner zu helfen. Durch ungeschickte Politik machten sich die Portugiesen verhaβ, wurden verfolgt und 1640 endgültig aus Äthiopien vertrieben.Mit einem interdisziplinären Ansatz, der sich im wesentlichen auf die Fächer Geschichte und Ethnologie, aber auch Geographie, Germanistik und Theologie, stützt, wird der Versuch unternommen zu klären, ob es diesen Priester Johannes wirklich gab und wo sein Reich lag oder, falls es beides nicht gab, wer im 12. Jahrhundert Interesse an der ‘Erfindung’ einer solchen Person hatte und welche Folgen dies in den folgenden Jahrhunderten zeigte.     

Alien coins and foreign exchange banking in a medieval commune: Thirteenth-century Lucca

The tithing returns sent to Rome in 1296 from the dioceses of Tuscany reveal a variety of coins, foreign to each particular episcopate, included in the mix. This article deals with the presence, and presumably prior circulation, of coins of foreign provenence in thirteenth-century Lucca as indicated in the Lucchese notarial materials of the period. The results are analyzed and then compared with the representation of the types of coins included in Lucca's 1296 tithe, and explanations set forth as to why certain coins, e.g. the gros tournois, should be conspicuously under-represented in comparison with other Tuscan dioceses while the Venetian groat was over-represented. It is further argued that the determining factor for the lack or abundance of certain alien coins in Lucca turns on the availability or absence of routine mechanisms for the transfer of obligations abroad through foreign exchange banking which obviated the need for significant shipments of physical specie or bullion.