Noah’s Grandson and St. James: Rewriting the Past in Eighteenth-Century Spain

ABSTRACT

In the late seventeenth century, when Spain gradually emerged from the general crisis that had afflicted the country, several members of the cultural elite became acquainted with the new sophisticated theories and methods of modern science. This newly acquired knowledge inspired these novatores (innovators) to examine Spain’s history and historiography. They intended in the first place to integrate and align Spain with European culture at large, since the religious and ideological obstacles of the past were supposedly no longer in force. Their second purpose was to establish a scientifically based historical discourse focused on the genuine achievements of Spain over the centuries and its contribution to European civilization. They were thus willing to confront the long-standing distortions arising from propaganda, either from the outside—such as the “black legend” forged by the enemies of Spain—or from inside—such as the “fake glories” forged by earlier historians. Diverse circumstances, however, limited their enlightened endeavour, and whoever was eager to resume it in the eighteenth century came up against the restrictions imposed on modern culture by Enlightened despotism.     

Appropriating the Aurora: Christopher Hansteen and the Circumpolar Auroral Rings

Abstract

The Norwegian astronomer and mathematician Christopher Hansteen (1784–1873) is best known for his career-long contribution to the study of terrestrial magnetism. In his monumental Magnetismus der Erde (1819), he suggests that the earth had two magnetic axes and thus four magnetic poles. It is less known that Hansteen planned to publish a second part of Magnetismus der Erde devoted solely to the polar lights, but this work was never completed. In this article, I reconstruct Hansteen's strategy for studying the aurora borealis and explain how the polar lights were connected to his four-pole theory. I emphasize in particular the spatial and geographical dimension of Hansteen's approach, focusing on his analysis of both the auroral corona and the auroral ring. In accordance with his own theory of terrestrial magnetism, he suggested the existence of four such circumpolar auroral rings, each centered around one of the four magnetic poles identified in Magnetismus der Erde. Hansteen's auroral project entailed an appropriation of earlier ideas and methods, especially those of Edmond Halley and Alexander von Humboldt. He sought to bolster the claim for the privileged position of the Scandinavian countries for observing and analyzing the aurora.     

Rewriting Merovingian history in the tenth century: Aimoin of Fleury's Gesta Francorum

Aimoin of Fleury's Gesta Francorum has mostly been ignored apart from its importance as a source for the Grandes Chroniques de France. Aimoin's editorial techniques in reworking his Merovingian‐era sources deserve more attention, however. Through a process of selective editing, strategic silence, and rhetorical invention he compiled a history that would appeal to its probable target audience, King Robert II of West Francia. The most noteworthy changes wrought by Aimoin are the assignment of a divinely appointed imperial and evangelizing mission to the Franks and the transformation of Clovis into an exemplary Christian king.     

Rewriting the founder: Werden on the Ruhr and the uses of hagiography

The rich hagiographical corpus, charters and privileges of the monastery of Werden on the Ruhr allow unparalleled access to its ninth-century history. This article focuses upon three ninth-century vitae of its founding saint which delineate both the transformations which Werden underwent in the course of the century and the ways in which the monastery attempted to respond and adapt to these changes. In so doing, it illuminates the role that saintly relics and hagiography could play in the formation of Christian communities both within and beyond cloister walls.     

The Artist and the Archaeologist: A Presentation in Memory of Christopher and Sonia Hawkes

The paper is an adapted version of a talk given in December 2001 at the Institute of Archaeology in Beaumont Street in dedication of a plaque and the lithograph 'Landscape of the Megaliths' by Paul Nash to the memory of the late Professor Christopher Hawkes, the founder of the Institute and first professor of European Archaeology from 1946 to 1972, and Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, Lecturer in Anglo–Saxon Archaeology from 1973 to 1994, by Christopher's son.     

Ethnicity as adaptation: Strategies and systems

John W. Bennett, ed. The New Ethnicity: Perspectives from Ethnology. 1973 Proceedings of The American Ethnological Society. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1975. xi + 334 pp. Tables, figures, and references. $9.95.

Leo A. Despres, ed. Ethnicity and Resource Competition in Plural Societies. World Anthropology: An Interdisciplinary Series. The Hague and Paris: Mouton Publishers, 1975. (Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Company.) xii + 221 pp. Tables, figures, biographical notes, and indexes. $12.50.     

War in the Land of Egypt: Yusuf al-Qa'id: Translated by Olive and Lorne Kenney and Christopher Tingley

Book reviewed in this article: Houses Behind the Trees: Mohamed El-Bisatie: Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies     

书写和口传:论中国宗教的两种类型

基于对传统关于中国宗教类型划分观点的批判性解读,本文认为从教理授受角度看中国宗教经典宗教和民间宗教两大类,它们分别奠基于“书写”和“口传”这两种宗教理解和传播方式。文章的第一部分分析了学界关于中国宗教类型的五种划分,文章的第二、三部分阐述了“经典宗教”和“民间宗教”的具体意涵及它们之间的显著区别,章的第四部分探讨了经典宗教和民间宗教的相互交涉。     

Rewriting the Latin liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre: text,ritual and devotion for 1149

ABSTRACT

An extraordinary reform of Jerusalem’s liturgy took place under the patriarchate of Fulcher of Angoulême (1146–57). The refocusing of Jerusalem’s rite positioned the commemoration of Easter as its central theological theme. This was effected to a level unparalleled in the liturgical traditions of the West. However, rubrics from extant twelfth-century liturgical books from Jerusalem further reveal how this reform was made to coincide with the 1149 rededication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the 50-year celebration of the capture of Jerusalem. From this newly discovered perspective, this study argues that liturgy, through its active rewriting, formed an integral part of a hitherto unexplored religious programme carried out by Patriarch Fulcher. Liturgy, alongside architecture and civic festivities, was used as a central tool to reshape the devotional identity of Jerusalem and the Latin East.