Water power and the plan of St Gall

An analysis of the scale used by the designer of the Plan of St Gall allows for no other conclusion than that the mill and mortars shown on this Plan were water driven. Because of the paradigmatic nature of the Plan this means that hydraulically operated mills and mortars were by the makers of the Plan considered to be standard equipment of a Carolingian monastery — a conclusion supported by a wealth of other documentary source material available for this period.The Romans knew the water mill, but made little use of it. Its general adoption and diffusion in Merovingian and Carolingian Europe is in this study attributed to the rise and spread of Benedictine monasticism. It received its primary impetus from the need to provide milled and crushed grain in bulk for communities of considerable size, including a leisure class of men who had to be freed from the normal chores of toiling for life so that their energies could be directed to their primary task: the Work of God (Opus Dei). Water-powered trip hammers were in use in China before the birth of Christ. Their portrayal on the Plan of St Gall suggests that they were introduced in western Europe, not by Marco Polo, as some propose, but in the age of folk migrations or the early Carolingian Period.     

《后汉书》词语释义献疑

《后汉书》是一部重要的历史文献,从训诂的角度看,无论是古注还是目前通行的辞书,对这部文献词语的释义还都存在着瑕疵。要给不同研究领域的学者者提供更为完善的注本,就需要训诂研究者不断作出努力。《汉语大词典》对《后汉书》中出现的"(莫)适"、"将顺"、"简落"、"随辈"等4条词语的释义,都还不尽如人意。我们对这4条词语的释义力求做到追根溯源,着眼于《后汉书》却不局限于《后汉书》,以使释义验之他文而皆合。于其未详则俟有道。     

‘Christ and the soul are like Pyramus and Thisbe’: An Ovidian Story in Fifteenth-Century Sermons

ABSTRACT

The sophisticated ways in which several fifteenth-century preachers used Ovidian stories and their allegorical interpretations prove that late medieval sermons represent a promising but neglected area for classical reception studies. Preachers – whose names are today almost forgotten by scholars but whose sermons circulated at large in early printed books – considered Ovidian allegories as powerful instruments for instructing, entertaining, and moving their audiences. This article begins with a review of the literature on the presence of Ovid in sermons, and discusses the methodology to study the transformation of classical myths in preaching. Then, it focuses on four sermons that incorporated the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which appears in the sermon collections written by Conrad Grütsch, Johann Meder, and Jacobus de Lenda. The repeated use of this Ovidian myth allows us, therefore, to investigate how different preachers appropriated and re-elaborated this story, and the role that it played in diverse contexts. Finally, the analysis of these texts also sheds light on the use of the Ovidius moralizatus in fifteenth-century sermons.     

Preaching and History: The Audience of Ranulf Higden’s Ars componendi sermones and Polychronicon

In his Ars praedicandi sermones, in traditional yet rich metaphoric language, Ranulf Higden compares Christ to a fountain, a shepherd, a rock, a lily, a rose, a violet, an elephant, a unicorn, and a youthful bridegroom wooing his beloved spouse. Ranulf encourages preachers to use such metaphors while using them himself, rendering his text a performed example of what he encourages. This text is clearly linked to two others: Ranulf’s Latin universal history, the Polychronicon, and John Trevisa’s English translation of it. In the Polychronicon, Ranulf relates the life of Christ, utilizing some of his own rhetorical suggestions from his preaching manual. He also depicts a cross-section of good and bad preachers, including Gregory, Wulfstan, Eustas, St Edmund, and one William Long-Beard and his kinsman, who exemplify (in different ways) the wisdom conveyed in Ranulf’s instruction in the Ars praedicandi. This essay suggests that the literary relationship between the preaching manual and the Polychronicon supplies additional support for the idea that the audience of the latter was not noblemen exclusively, but also clergymen who preached and had responsibility for the care of souls (cura animae).     

吉林大学图书馆馆藏抄稿本家谱叙录

本将吉林大学图书馆藏的二十一种稀见抄稿本家谱做以叙录,旨在揭示馆藏,亦供家谱研究及爱好参考利用。     

Legal Frameworks in the Sermons of Caesarius of Arles

Abstract

The texts of Caesarius of Arles are rightly counted among the most important historical sources for the Early Middle Ages. Despite this well-known fact they are insufficiently studied from the point of view of social history. The domain of law is especially neglected. Information on this subject is contained mainly in the numerous comparisons which Caesarius drew between the religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices he strove to impose on his flock, and the social realities of Arles of his day. The juridical terminology which he occasionally used is also quite revealing. Most of the data is of course on canon law. It is less informative than one could have hoped but it does shed light on some important areas, such as the social make-up of the parishioners; attendance at church by women, youngsters, and slaves; baptismal practices; the tithe, and almsgiving. Caesarius’ sermons also contain valuable facts pertaining to the persistence of many Roman legal notions and practices belonging to what can be qualified as ‘civil law’. Of special interest are the different data concerning ownership rights. On the one hand, the sermons prove that Arlesians of the sixth century were for the most part content with quasi-legal notions sufficient to describe their rights in this domain. On the other hand, the bishop’s use of words leaves no doubt that the predominant legal notion regarding ownership, to the detriment of all others, was possession.     

折戟沉沙铁未销,自将磨洗认前朝——读力之教授《〈楚辞〉与中古文献考说》

力之教授《〈楚辞〉与中古文献考说》是一部逻辑严密、材料翔实的论文集,三十二篇论文分别在《楚辞》和中古文献领域构建起完整的研究体系。全书始终站在＂以古还古＂的立场上,在历史语境中考察问题。该书特点大要有三,曰：探共性,辨众说,溯源头。     

St Anselm and the English investiture controversy reconsidered

The Investiture Controversy in England has generally been viewed as a two-sided contest between king and pope. But in reality the struggle was between three parties — king, pope, and primate. St Anselm, devoted to his duties as God's steward of his office and its privileges, worked against both King Henry I and Pope Paschal II to bring into reality his idea of the proper status of the primate of all Britain. Anselm had a vision of a political model which he conceived as God's ‘right order’ in England, and all his efforts were directed toward fulfilling this vision.The Investiture Contest may be divided into two parts. The first phase began when Anselm was thwarted by Henry I's duplicity in the archbishop's attempt to force the king to accept the decrees of Rome at the height of a political crisis. Anselm may have seen these decrees as beneficial to the Canterbury primacy. From 1101 to 1103, Anselm wavered between supporting either party completely, meanwhile securing from Paschal all the most important privileges for the primacy of Canterbury. Each time Paschal refused to grant a dispensation for Henry, as Anselm requested, he granted Anselm a privilege for the primacy. Thus Anselm's vision of the primate as almost a patriarch of another world, nearly independent of the pope, was fulfilled by 1103.At this point, Anselm abandoned his vacillation between king and pope, and worked seemingly on behalf of Paschal, but in reality on behalf of the Canterbury primacy. During this second phase, Anselm's political adroitness becomes clear by a correlation, never before made, between the church-state controversy and Henry's campaign to conquer Normandy. By careful maneuvering and skilful propaganda, Anselm forced Henry to choose between submitting to the investiture decree or failing in his attempt to conquer Normandy. At the settlement, a compromise was worked out, Henry conceding on investitures, and Paschal conceding on homage. But investiture was only secondary to Anselm. He ended the dispute not when Henry submitted on investitures, but only when he had gained from Henry concessions which made the primate almost a co-ruler with the king, as his political vision demanded. Only after a public reconcilliation with his archbishop did Henry feel free to complete the Norman campaign.Thus the Investiture Controversy was a three-way struggle. Both king and pope compromised, each giving up some of their goals. But Anselm emerged from the contest having won nearly all his political objectives.     

《缘督庐日记》稿本述略

叶昌炽的《缘督庐日记》手稿现藏苏州市图书馆①。1990年和2002年,两家出版社据日记手稿本分别影印出版了全本日记,使研究者得以见到全部日记。但新印的两个本子都没有介绍手稿的形制。日记中的夹页及扉页等处的零散文字没有影印出来,被涂抹的部分也没有进行介绍,所以日记并非真正意义上的全本。为使研究者能了解日记全本的真实面貌,笔者就在苏州市图书馆所见日记手稿情况加以介绍。