Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire

This article reviews six essay collections and one monographon late medieval and early modern political culture in the HolyRoman Empire. Following a general survey of historiographicaltrends and a discussion of the specific contributions of theworks under review (covering topics from international relations,state formation and the role of language to representative assembliesand the exercise of power in towns and villages), it attemptsa preliminary sketch of the basic parameters of pre-modern politics.Prominent insights include shifts in the balance between oral,ritual and written communication, the significance of informalbonds and the negotiated quality of developments at all levelsof government. The conclusion assesses the potential of the‘new’ political history and calls for renewed effortsto link discourses, representations and perceptions to the norms,structures and socio-economic conditions with which they interacted.     

造像塔与造像碑 谈甘肃博物馆藏魏晋文物

自汉武帝开疆辟土,张骞开通西域,骠骑将军霍去病进军河西,设四郡,据两关,边防要塞横跨东西,蜿蜒伸向罗布泊,从此外来文化和宗教借此传播渗透。异域少数民族、游牧民族文化艺术在这里融合新生,创造了丝绸之路的繁荣和灿烂,留下了千年古迹和珍贵文物。其中佛教文物艺术和传统文化艺术,在魏晋十六国时期的河西走廊留下了丰厚的遗产。甘肃省博物馆藏魏晋时期的造像塔、     

一门正在崛起的新学科--《海洋文化与社会》读后

从最广泛的意义上讲,文化包括人类一切的物质创造和精神创造。毫无疑义,它也包括人类一切与海洋有关的创造,就是说包括“海洋文化”。但是长期以来,人们在讨论文化问题时,往往“站在内陆而背对着海洋”,只看到陆地对于人类的生存意义,没有或者很少注意到海洋对于人类社会的重要性;只看到人类在陆地上的生产生活情况,     

Roman soil and Roman sound in Irish hagiography

ABSTRACT

Irish hagiography displays considerable interest in communication between Ireland and Rome, particularly as this featured saints, popes and relics. While people and objects travel between the two places, there is also concern to circumvent the distance involved. This article discusses an episode of miraculous communication in the Irish Life of St Colmán Élo. Here messages and messengers travel from Rome, but time and space are also telescoped through aural and material means: the sound of the bell marking the death of Pope Gregory the Great and a gift from him of Roman soil to be spread on Colmán Élo’s cemetery. The article considers how the two elements function within their hagiographical context to connect Rome and Ireland, and how these places shaped the account. The roles of bell and soil both draw on their associations in Ireland and relate to papal communication as this was experienced and imagined more widely.