Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'History of the Bible in the Middle Ages'

La Bible anglo-normande (B.a.n.) et la Bible de Jean de Sy (BJdS) sont deux traductions bibliques en langue d'oïl du XIVe siècle d'un intérêt considérable, mais encore peu étudiées. La B.a.n. est une traduction anonyme de la Vulgate, transmise par trois manuscrits. Elle représente non seulement l'une des premières versions complètes de la Bible en français, mais aussi peut-être la plus ancienne traduction biblique intégrale en prose produite en Angleterre. Au cours des dernières années, un intérêt renouvelé pour B.a.n. s'est manifesté par l'édition de livres isolés, mais l'œuvre reste en grande partie inédite.La BJdS fait partie d'un projet de traduction intégrale de la Bible en prose commandé par le roi de France Jean le Bon au frère dominicain Jean de Sy. Cependant, le travail de traduction s'est arrêté en 1356, après la capture du souverain à la bataille de Poitiers. L'ouvrage nous est parvenu dans un seul manuscrit incomplet, le ms. Paris, BnF, fr. 15397, chef-d'œuvre de l'enluminure médiévale qui contient uniquement le Pentateuque. Il n'existe à ce jour que des éditions de courts extraits du texte et de la riche glose exégétique qui l'accompagne.L'un des points les plus intéressants est le débat sur la relation entre ces deux traductions de la Bible : si, à la fin du XIXe siècle, S. Berger considère la BJdS comme une excellente réécriture de la B.a.n., en 2007, P. Nobel avance l'hypothèse que les deux ouvrages descendent d'une même source française perdue. D'autres chercheurs, en revanche, affirment l'indépendance des deux bibles, sans toutefois fournir de preuves à l'appui.Notre étude vise à fournir les éditions critiques du livre du Deutéronome de la B.a.n. et de la BJdS et à clarifier la relation entre les deux traductions. Le choix du Deutéronome nous permettra d'examiner un livre de la Bible au caractère hétérogène, qui alterne de courts passages narratifs avec des prescriptions juridiques et religieuses. Le présent travail doit donc être considéré comme un premier pas vers une édition plus complète de deux importantes traductions médiévales de la Bible en français, mais aussi comme une base pour de futures études traductologiques, linguistiques et lexicales.Le ch. 1 propose une contextualisation historique et culturelle des deux traductions, centrée sur leurs milieux de circulation respectifs : l'Angleterre du XIVe siècle et la cour royale de Jean le Bon. On explorera également le vaste commentaire exégétique de la BJdS et la possible relation entre la B.a.n. et une traduction du XIIIe siècle réalisée en Terre Sainte, la Bible d'Acre.Le ch. 2 est consacré à l'étude des rapports entre les deux bibles et leurs sources latines. Au sein de la vaste tradition de la Vulgate, on tentera d'identifier la famille à laquelle appartiennent les modèles latins utilisés comme base de traduction pour la B.a.n. et la BJdS. Les indices textuels compatibles avec une dynamique de révision sur la Vulgate dans les deux branches de la tradition de la B.a.n. seront analysés en détail.Le ch. 3 porte sur la délicate question des rapports entre la B.a.n. et la BJdS. La comparaison avec d'autres traductions, comme la Bible d'Acre et la Bible du XIIIe siècle, permettra d'avoir une vision plus approfondie du problème.Le ch. 4 présente l'examen linguistique des témoins : pour la B.a.n., l'analyse portera principalement sur le ms. L, manuscrit de surface de l'édition ; pour la BJdS, on procédera à une étude préliminaire des traits les plus importants, en l'absence de travaux antérieurs sur la langue du copiste.Une Note aux textes (ch. 5), avec des descriptions codicologiques et l'indication des critères de transcription et de reconstruction textuelle, précède les éditions du livre du Deutéronome de la B.a.n. et de la BJdS (ch. 6). Les deux textes sont accompagnés de commentaires philologiques et littéraires ; pour la seule traduction de Jean de Sy, on fournit également une liste des sources citées dans la glose par le dominicain
The Bible anglo-normande (B.a.n.) and the Bible de Jean de Sy (BJdS) are two 14th-century French biblical translations of considerable interest, but still largely unexplored. The B.a.n. is an anonymous translation of the Vulgate, of which three copies survive. In addition to being one of the earliest extant complete French biblical versions, the B.a.n. is probably the first full prose vernacular Bible produced in England. In recent years, a renewed interest in the B.a.n. has led to the edition of individual books, but the work remains largely unpublished.The BJdS was initially conceived as a full prose translation of the Bible, commissioned by the king of France Jean le Bon to the Dominican friar Jean de Sy. However, it was interrupted in 1356, with the capture of the sovereign at the Battle of Poitiers. The work is preserved in a single acephalous manuscript containing only the Pentateuch, the ms. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 15397, a well-known masterpiece of medieval illumination. Only small parts of the text and of its rich exegetical gloss have been published so far.The debate on the relation between the two Bibles is a point of special interest: while at the end of the 19th century S. Berger considered the BJdS an excellent revision of the B.a.n., in 2007 P. Nobel suggests that the two translations descend from the same lost vernacular source. Other scholars, on the contrary, affirm the independence of the two works, without providing the support of sufficient evidence.The present study aims to provide a critical edition of the book of Deuteronomy of the B.a.n. and the BJdS and to clarify the relationship between the two Bibles through the comparative analysis of the two translations. The choice of Deuteronomy allows us to examine a book of the Bible which alternates short narrative passages with legal and religious prescriptions, unlike Leviticus, in which the legislative aspect predominates. Moreover, Deuteronomy does not present the reiteration of fixed phrases that turn entire chapters of Numbers into monotonous lists, perhaps less significant from the point of view of translation. The present study is therefore intended as a first step towards a more complete edition of two important medieval French translations of the Bible, as well as a starting point for future linguistic, translation and lexical studies.The first chapter proposes a cultural-historical background of the two Bibles, with a special focus on their circulation contexts: 14th-century England and the royal court of Jean le Bon. It will also explore the BJdS's exegetical gloss and the potential connection between the B.a.n. and a 13th-century translation made in the Holy Land, the so-called Bible d'Acre.The second chapter investigates the relations between the two translations and their respective Latin sources. Within the vast tradition of the Vulgate, we will try to identify to which Latin family the sources used for the redaction of the B.a.n. and the BJdS belong. We will analyse in detail the textual evidence suggesting a revision on the Latin Vulgate in the two branches of the B.a.n. tradition.The third chapter deals with the controversial relationship between the B.a.n. and the BJdS, also through comparison with other medieval translations (Bible d'Acre and Bible du XIIIe siècle).The fourth chapter is dedicated to the linguistic analysis: for the B.a.n., we will mainly examine the ms. L, manuscrit de surface of the edition; for the BJdS, a preliminary study of the most relevant features will be conducted, in the absence of other linguistic studies on the witness.The description of the manuscripts and the explanation of the criteria adopted for the constitutio textus (fifth chapter) precede the critical edition of the book of Deuteronomy in the B.a.n. and the BJdS (sixth chapter). Both editions are followed by commentary notes; after Jean de Sy's text we present a list of the sources mentioned in the gloss
La Bible anglo-normande e la Bible de Jean de Sy sono due volgarizzamenti biblici in lingua d’oïl del XIV secolo di considerevole interesse, ma tuttora scarsamente indagati. La Bible anglo-normande (d’ora in avanti B.a.n.) è una traduzione anonima della Vulgata, trasmessa da tre manoscritti.1 Oltre a costituire una delle prime versioni complete della Bibbia in francese esistenti, la B.a.n. è verosimilmente il più antico volgarizzamento biblico integrale in prosaprodotto in Inghilterra. Negli ultimi anni, un rinnovato interesse per la B.a.n. ha portato all’edizione di singoli libri, ma l’opera rimane in gran parte inedita. Di conseguenza, restano ancora da chiarire aspetti relativi alla collocazione culturale del testo, alle sue fonti e alla circolazione. La Bible de Jean de Sy (BJdS) rientra invece in un progetto di traduzione integrale della Bibbia in prosa commissionato dal re di Francia Jean le Bon al frate domenicano Jean de Sy. Il lavoro fu però interrotto nel 1356, con la cattura del sovrano nella battaglia di Poitiers. L’opera ci è pervenuta attraverso un unico manoscritto acefalo contenente solo il Pentateuco, il ms. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 15397, conosciuto anche come capolavoro dell’arte libraria medievale. Nonostante la BJdS sia stata definita «la plus gigantesque tentative de traduction française et d'exégèse de la Bible qui ait vu le jour au Moyen Age» (AVRIL 1972, p. 123), ad oggi sono stati pubblicati solo brevi estratti del volgarizzamento e della ricca glossa esegetica che accompagna il testo. Il controverso rapporto tra le due traduzioni bibliche rappresenta un nodo di primario interesse: se alla fine dell’Ottocento Berger ritiene che la BJdS sia un’ottima riscrittura della B.a.n., nel 2007 Nobel avanza l’ipotesi che i due volgarizzamenti discendano dalla stessa fonte volgare andata perduta. Altri studiosi affermano invece l’indipendenza delle due opere, pur senza fornire il supporto di prove. Il presente studio mira a fornire un’edizione critica del libro del Deuteronomio della B.a.n. e della BJdS e a chiarire la relazione tra le due bibbie mediante l’analisi comparativa dei due volgarizzamenti. Il campo d’indagine è circoscritto al Deuteronomio, in quanto sezione completamente inesplorata di entrambe le traduzioni, al contrario della Genesi e dell’Esodo, dei quali sono disponibili per la B.a.n. l’edizione REVOL 2006 e il recente studio di SCHWALLER 2023. La scelta del Deuteronomio consentirà di esaminare un libro della Bibbia dal carattere eterogeneo, che alterna brevi brani narrativi a prescrizioni giuridico-religiose a cominciare dalla rievocazione dei Dieci comandamenti da parte di Mosè (Dt V, 1-21), diversamente dal Levitico, nel quale l’aspetto legislativo è nettamente predominante. Inoltre, il Deuteronomio è esente dalla reiterazione di formule fisse che riducono interi capitoli del libro dei Numeri a monotoni elenchi, forse meno significativi dal punto di vista della traduzione. Invitiamo dunque a considerare il presente lavoro come un primo passo verso un’edizione più completa di due importanti traduzioni medievali della Bibbia in francese, nonché come base per futuri studi traduttologici, linguistici e lessicali. Il capitolo 1 propone un inquadramento storico-culturale delle due traduzioni, con particolare attenzione ai rispettivi contesti di circolazione: l’Inghilterra del XIV secolo e la corte reale di Jean le Bon. Si approfondiranno inoltre l’esteso commento esegetico della BJdSe la potenziale relazione tra la B.a.n. e una traduzione duecentesca confezionata in Terra Santa, la cosiddetta Bible d’Acre (...)

Ensconced as sheriffs of Worcestershire since Norman times, the Beauchamps owed their earidom to a particularly fortunate marriage in the thirteenth century. Thereafter, they, like other magnate families, owed their increasing prosperity to marriage alliance and to royal service, found wanting only when the Crown itself exhibited weakness. Though virtually all the Beauchamp earls belonged to the later middle ages, the chance survival of their records and other factors have dictated that emphasis be laid on their history after 1369 and that, within that period, a personal bias be given to the life of the fifth earl. The balance has been redressed, however, by the discussion of other aspects not confined to the years 1401-39. The fourth earl's disgrace in 1397 marked the nadir of Beauchamp fortunes, a situation reversed by the advent of Henry IV. The beginning of the Lancastrian regime practically coincided with the majority of Earl Richard, who oversaw the recovery and expansion of the family's wealth and influence and prepared the way for their short-lived dukedom. This was extinguished, along with their earldom, on the failure of the male line in 1446. Detailed attention is given to the estate administration and finances of the fourth and fifth earls, who took an interest in such matters. As a result, they probably enjoyed a fairly steady income from land (political loss aside) in the period 1395-1423, and its expenditure reflected their current preoccupations: lawsuits, the purchase of property, the war, and patronage. The Beauchamps dispensed largesse to a numerous following, the subject of a final chapter dealing with the cost and nature of their patronage, the composition and stability of the affinity, and the interaction of the war and peace-time retinues.

Early medieval Europe is not well known for its crowds, unlike Antiquity or the later Middle Ages. After sixth-century demographic and urban decline, crowds were smaller, less spontaneous, and easier to control than in other periods of European history. This study, the first comprehensive analysis of collective behaviors and representations in Europe from c. 500 to c. 1000, argues that crowd-scarce early medieval societies nevertheless organized their institutions around the behavior of crowds. Assemblies, festivals, fairs, and the church’s invisible multitude of saints ensured that collective behavior remained central to early medieval public life. Under the impact of Christian values and new physical realities, elites abandoned old prejudices against mobs and rabbles while embracing the crowd’s legitimacy, with enduring results for later medieval political and religious life. In chapter 1, archaeological and demographic evidence reveal how early medieval gatherings co-opted seasonal agglomerations such as markets, harvests, and festivals. Early medieval gatherings depended on the temporary accumulation of populations, and so became less spontaneous than their Roman antecedents. Chapter 2 draws on the sociology of crowds and on written and archaeological sources to trace the decline of late antique crowd spaces (the old circuses, theaters, baths, and colonnades of Roman cities). It shows why and where early medieval elites developed new, medieval gatherings, such as royal and church assemblies, hunts, armies and war-bands, and political ceremonies. In chapter 3, the semantic history of collectivity in early medieval Latin and vernacular writings demonstrates how technical and connotative distinctions in ancient words for crowds became attenuated in the face of new concepts. The same word that had meant “a dangerous rabble” in the first century could be used to describe a sacred gathering of monks in the ninth century. Chapter 4 studies patterns to which crowds conformed in the imaginations revealed by written sources: clichés and type-scenes which repeated themselves in saints’ lives, histories, liturgy, and poems. Many of these literary devices reinforced links between crowds and legitimacy. Nevertheless, the chapter ends with counter-examples, in which elites expressed anxieties about crowds using new, gendered polemics. Chapter 5 investigates rituals and their representations, like royal assemblies and liturgical rites, which arose at the intersection of early medieval material horizons for physical assembly and early medieval mentalities. It argues that the role of crowds in early medieval ritual gatherings, and their representation in visual media, endured in subsequent medieval political, religious, and legal institutions. It concludes by showing how eleventh-century demographic and urban expansion sparked a new crowd regime, which departed but also arose from the concepts and practices shaped in the first half-millennium of the Middle Ages.
History

The focus of the thesis is the diplomatic and legal implications of the capture of ships at sea in the later Middle Ages. It challenges key assumptions in much secondary literature concerning the definition of piracy, seeking to explore several major themes relating to the legal status of shipping in periods of war or diplomatic tension in this period. The thesis draws primarily on diplomatic, legal and administrative records, largely those of English royal government, but also makes use of material relating to France, Holland and Zealand, Flanders and the Hanse. The majority of studies on this subject stress the importance of developments which occurred in the fifteenth century, yet I have found it necessary to follow the development of the law of prize, diplomatic provisions for the keeping of the sea and the use of devolved sea-keeping fleets back to the start of the thirteenth century. This thesis questions the tendency of historians to attach the term ‘piracy’, with its modern legal connotations, to a variety of actions at sea in the later Middle Ages. In the absence of a clear legislative or semantic framework a close examination of the complexity of practice surrounding the judgement of prize, the provision of restitution to injured parties, and diplomatic mechanisms designed to prevent disorder at sea, enables a more rounded picture to emerge. A detailed examination of individual cases is set within the broader conceptual framework of international, commercial and maritime law. Chapter 1 provides a study of the wartime role of devolved flees by means of a case study of Henry III’s Poitou campaigns of 1242-3. It demonstrates that private commissioned ships undertook a variety of naval roles including the transport of troops, patrolling the coast and enforcing blockades. Further, it argues that it is anachronistic to criticise private shipowners for seeking profit through attacks on enemy shipping as booty was an integral incentive in all forms of medieval warfare. Chapter 2 provides a detailed examination of the application of letters of marque, one of the principal means of obtaining redress for injuries suffered at the hands of the subject of a foreign sovereign. It demonstrates that far from being a justification for ‘piracy’ letters of marque were highly regulated legal instruments applied in the context of an internationally accepted body of customs. Chapter 3 examines the concept of neutrality and the relationship between warfare and commerce through a study of Anglo-Flemish relations during the Anglo-Scottish wars between 1305 and 1323. It argues that universal standards of neutrality did not exist in this period and that decisions on prize took place within the context of an ever-changing diplomatic background. Chapter 4 focuses on the provision of restitution once judgement had been made through an examination of a complex dispute between English merchants and the count of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland spanning the opening decades of the fourteenth century. It emphasises the ad hoc nature of restitution with a variety of means devised to compensate the injured parties and the difficult and often inconclusive process undergone by litigants against a backdrop of competing interests, both local and national. The thesis concludes that the legal process surrounding the capture of shipping was civil rather than criminal in nature. The plaintiff’s need to obtain restitution was the driving force behind such actions rather than the state’s desire to monopolise the use of violence at sea. The reliance of the English crown on devolved shipping made such a policy fiscally impractical.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the sheriffs appointed in fourteenth-century England, the period identified by both Stubbs and Maitland as having witnessed the shrievalty's final emasculation. This thesis is not a continuation of Morris' work on the sheriff, and neither is it directly concerned with the shrievalty's role in English constitutional history. Morris was a historian of administration rather than administrators. He excelled at unravelling the minutiae of procedure and the day-today routine of shire affairs. It is, of course, impossible to divorce officials from their work. Sheriffs appointed during the fourteenth century were a direct reflection of what the office entailed and its perceived place in the framework of shire administration: thus, Maitland's 'decline and fall of the sheriff' left the office in the hands of Cam's 'country squire'. However, the emphasis of this thesis is on the sheriff rather than the shrievalty. Sheriffs were a numerically select group, but who were they? Why were they appointed? What qualities, if any, set these men apart from their peers? Prosopography, rather than procedural history, holds the key to these problems and in terms of its methodology this study owes far more to McFarlane than it does to Morris.

The medieval period witnessed many attempts at organization, of both the mundane and sacred spheres. The otherworldy realms of heaven and hell are familiar to the modern reader, as is purgatory, but it was during the middle ages that the existence of another realm, limbo, was posited. This realm had its beginnings in questions of Christology and the extent to which Christian salvation could or could not be extended to non-Christian peoples. Its development was also shaped by questions of infant baptism, and the fate of those infants who died lacking this baptism. By the thirteenth century, it becomes more proper to speak of "the limbos", as the idea of limbo is split into two realms: the limbo of the Fathers (limbus patrum), wherein were placed the notable figures of the Old Testament, and the limbo of children (limbus puerorum). wherein were placed unbaptized infants of the Christian era. This thesis examines the development of the idea of limbo, concentrating primarily on works of speculative theology. It begins with the roots of the idea of limbo to be found in the writings of Augustine of Hippo and in the apocryphal Christian work, the Gospel of Nicodemus. From there, the questions of original sin, divine redemption, and baptism which shape the development of the idea of limbo are examined in the writings of several influential twelfth-century authors, including Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Peter Lombard. The earliest uses of the term "limbo" are examined in the works of William of Auvergne and William of Auxerre, and the full theology of limbo is considered in the works of the high scholastic writers Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure. Finally, the thesis concludes with a fusion of theology and art in an examination of the unique depiction of limbo in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2004.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 8, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-04, Section: A, page: 1460. Chair: Leah Shopkow.

Medieval castle slighting is the phenomenon in which a high-status fortification is demolished in a time of conflict. At its heart are issues about symbolism, the role of castles in medieval society, and the politics of power. Although examples can be found throughout the Middle Ages (1066–1500) in England, Wales and Scotland there has been no systematic study of the archaeology of castle slighting. Understanding castle slighting enhances our view of medieval society and how it responded to power struggles. This study interrogates the archaeological record to establish the nature of castle slighting: establishing how prevalent it was chronologically and geographically; which parts of castles were most likely to be slighted and why this is significant; the effects on the immediate landscape; and the wider role of destruction in medieval society. The contribution of archaeology is especially important as contemporary records give little information about this phenomenon. Using information recovered from excavation and survey allows this thesis to challenge existing narratives about slighting, especially with reference to the civil war between Stephen and Matilda (1139–1154) and the view that slighting was primarily to prevent an enemy from using a fortification. The thesis proposes a new framework for understanding how slighting is represented in the archaeological record and how it might be recognised in the future. Using this methodology, a total of 60 sites were identified. Slighting often coincides with periods of civil war, illustrating the importance of slighting as a tool of social control and the re-assertion of authority in the face of rebellion. Slighting did not necessarily encompass an entire site some parts of the castle – halls and chapels – were typically deliberately excluded from the destruction. There are also examples which fit the old narrative that slighting was used to prevent a fortification falling into enemy hands, but these cases are in the minority and are typically restricted to Scotland during the Scottish Wars of Independence. Given the castle’s role in shaping the landscape – acting as a focus for seigneurial power and precipitating the creation and growth of towns – it is important to understand how slighting effected nearby associated settlements. The evidence suggests that larger towns were able to prosper despite the disruption of slighting while smaller settlements were more likely to decline into obscurity. Importantly towns themselves were very rarely included in the destruction of slighting.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2006.
"Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 9, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-08, Section: A, page: 3118. Adviser: Dyan Elliott.

This dissertation contributes to medieval feminist scholarship by forging new insights into the relationship between gender theory and developing notions of orality and textuality in late medieval Europe. I examine three conventional satirical depictions of women as deviant speakers in medieval literature---as loquacious gossips, scolding shrews and cursing witches---to reveal how medieval perceptions of oral and textual discursive modes influenced literary representations of women. The dissertation demonstrates that our comprehension of the literary battle between the sexes requires a recognition and understanding of how discursive modes were gendered in a culture increasingly defining itself in terms of textuality. My work pursues the juxtaposition of the rational, literate male and the irrational, oral female across a wide range of texts, from Dunbar and Chaucer's courtly literature, to more socially diffused works, such as carols, sermon exempla and the Deluge mystery plays, as well as texts, like Margery Kempe's autobiography and witchcraft documents, that pertain to historical women. I demonstrate the social impact of this convention by anchoring these literary texts in their socio-historical context. The significance of my identification of this nexus of orality and femininity is that I am able to delineate an ideology profoundly affecting the way women's speech and writings have been received and perceived for centuries. This notion of gendered discourse can also redefine how we perceive medieval literature. Mikhail Bakhtin's discursive principles---ideas that stem from his application of the dynamics of oral communication and performance to the literary text---help to liberate new meanings from old texts by allowing us to read against the grain of convention. Both Bakhtin's theory of dialogism and Walter Ong's summary of the psychodynamics of orality suggest that orally influenced discourse is less interested in monolithic truth than in the art of tellin

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Eurasian Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, 2007.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 19, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0695. Adviser: Christopher I. Beckwith.

This thesis examines the representation of weeping rulers in early medieval sources, focusing on the Carolingian empire between 790 and 888. The meanings applied to tears are culturally specific: thus, exploring how, why, when and where rulers cried can illuminate the dynamics of power and ideals of kingship in this period. This thesis provides a survey of a poorly understood phenomenon. It also challenges several assumptions about the nature of early medieval power. Rulers wept not only over their own sins (a well-recognised phenomenon), but also over the sins of others and out of a desire for heavenly glory. Thus, they wept in a ‘monastic' or ‘priestly' way. This was something associated more with certain rulers than others. As such, tears can be used as a lens through which developments in ideas about the relationship between secular rulers and the ecclesiastical hierarchy can be traced. The thesis is divided into six sections. The historiographical importance of this topic is discussed in the introduction. Chapter one assesses the understanding of tears in biblical, Roman and Merovingian sources. Chapter two focuses on the representation of tears in texts associated with the court of Charlemagne (d. 814). Chapter three explores how authors loyal to Louis the Pious (d. 840) used tears to respond to criticisms of him and his wife, the Empress Judith (d. 843). Chapter four turns to exegetical material written between 820 and 860 and examines how biblical rulers were represented weeping. In particular, the reception of these previously unrecognised images in royal courts and their influence on narrative sources will be considered. Chapter five explores sources from the later ninth century, focusing particularly on the writings of Hincmar of Reims (d. 882) and Notker of St Gall (d. 912). Chapter six considers tears in three case studies drawn from post=Carolingian sources. Finally the concluding section outlines the significance of this thesis for our understanding of Carolingian and post Carolingian political culture and the history of weeping in the middle ages.

Gregory the Great described the government of souls as ‘the art of arts,’ a sentiment that the Fourth Lateran Council would echo in 1215. This thesis takes as its fundamental proposition that this ‘art’ can be understood as a ‘craft’, one that is responsible for producing and maintaining a Christian subjectivity marked by introspection, inwardness, and a strong distrust of externalities. Using a theoretical framework influenced by Michel Foucault I suggest a tradition of administering and producing these subjects through ‘pastoral power.’ Charting the trajectory of these ideas from the ascetics of the early church through to fifteenth-century Middle English texts, I explore the dynamics produced by texts invested in producing this specific form of subjectivity as they expand their reach from a specialised audience of monks to an increasingly laicised vernacular sphere. This investigation is broken into two halves. The thesis begins with a re-reading of Michel Foucault’s theories of power and subjection. Here I suggest that there are important conceptual connections between Foucault’s concept of ‘discipline’ and medieval approaches to the care of the soul. The first half of the thesis stresses the longue durée development of pastoral power, focussing on two particular historical moments. The first of these chapters engages with the pastoral and monastic thinkers of the early church, who developed two overlapping regimes – that of body and spirit. The second turns to the Ancrene Wisse, arguing that the it responds to the developments of twelfth-century spirituality by suggesting a form of spiritual engagement that is increasingly imbricated in the mundane world. The second half of the thesis focuses on a number of texts produced in Middle English during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Two chapters focus on a collection of pastoral texts produced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The first focuses on the hermeneutic dynamics of these texts whilst second chapter assesses the use of documentary imagery and theories of legal accountability in the same texts. The final chapter suggests that certain proto-autobiographical texts, represented by the work of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, are conditioned by the concerns and dynamics of pastoral power, which also affects the practices modern readers bring to bear on them.

This dissertation plots the myriad connections between Southern France and the multicultural Iberian Peninsula during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, the people to people contacts which effectively connected Southern France with the Islamic world. The example of courtly culture demonstrates the pattern of informal cultural absorption that resulted from these contacts, as aspects of Andalusian courtly culture were adopted and adapted to Occitan court settings, fitting within a pattern of Pan-Mediterranean courtly culture. This courtly culture absorption was a result of the long-term and broad-based people to people connections and acculturation between Occcitania and the multi-cultural Iberian world. First, using charter evidence, the interaction between the two Iberias, one Islamic and Arabic, the other Christian and Latin, is traced through the people, institutions, and infrastructure that passed from one Iberia to the other. By the early twelfth century, major Islamic medinas with large Arabic-speaking populations had been incorporated into the Christian kingdoms. In the close confines of these medina/urbs,day-to-day life brought different religious and ethnic groups together. Properties bought, sold, and exchanged involved people of different faiths and backgrounds. Women, like the nuns at Sigena outside Huesca, or the Islamic and Jewish brides of French settlers, often had a unique role to play intercultural interaction. On the other side of the Pyrenees, several types of cross border relationships occurred: family ties through marriages and alliances, institutional ties through monastic and church affiliation, and travel ties through legates, bishop and abbot appointments, and pilgrimage. Roads to the Spanish shrine of Saint-James of Compostela blanketed southern France, bringing pilgrims to stops along the way at Sainte-Foy de Conques, Saint-Sernin de Toulouse, the Cathedral of Bayonne, and La-Sauve-Majeure. The archival and published charters of these towns and monasteries of Occitania show how these relationships created the means for acculturation, interaction and communication between Occitan and Iberia. As a consequence of these trans-Pyrenean relationships, people with Iberian, Arabic-language origins, interacted with Occitan peoples bringing greater awareness of the intellectual and material culture of Iberia with its cosmopolitan sensibilities. My dissertation demonstrates the cultural reverberations resulting from cross-cultural contact. While most agree that there was some Arabic influence on medieval Europe, it is generally limited to instances where there is a clear paper trail, such as translated scientific, medical and philosophical texts. There is still significant scholarly resistance to the idea of a more generalized cultural influence due to the theory that connections between Arabic-speaking populations and Europeans were limited and inhibited by language and cultural barriers. we accept that people absorb cultural influence in many ways, including orally, visually, and in what are termed 'low culture' registers, often imperfectly understanding what they scavenge, contact and communication become key to understanding acculaturation. My methodology, using names, ethnicity, and information on captured in charters to identify cross-cultural interaction and evidence of cultural influence, focuses on the pathway from the Arabophone world to Occitania. Since charter evidence shows that cross-cultural interaction was long-term, rapidly increasing over the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and broad-based, involving many areas of Occitania and many types of people. acculturation would be the expected outcome.

This thesis is a biographical study of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem and later Latin emperor of Constantinople (d. 1237). John’s extraordinary career is touched on by many commentators concerned with the crusades and the Latin East in the early thirteenth century, but it has not been properly re-assessed for more than seventy years. A comprehensive re-examination opens up new angles on the political structures and social landscapes that produced it. John’s career illustrates some residual strengths of the Jerusalemite monarchy just before the start of the Hohenstaufen epoch. It also sheds light on a period in the history of the Latin empire all too easily regarded as largely a void. But within the biographical context, the thesis’s focus is more on the complex interplay between the Latin West and East in the early thirteenth century. A principal theme in this regard is the mobility, in geographical and politico-hierarchical terms, of a specific echelon of the high aristocracy in early thirteenth-century Europe, building on Bartlett’s conception of the contemporaneous western European ‘aristocratic diaspora’. Aristocrats who are ‘not quite first rank’ can be discerned on the make in regions, both west and east, distant from their original homelands. Much of the significance of that lies in the context, the variety of opportunities, and also the limitations on such figures. Whilst this thesis dwells on John’s experience of patronage and dependency, it also identifies grounds for tensions in his ‘new’ environments, as well as highlighting the opportunities and pitfalls presented by ‘dynastic interstices’. In this way, the thesis unpacks many of the ‘more normal’ features of the aristocratic diaspora out of John’s exceptional career. The thesis links together the thematic material to focus, in particular, on the interactions between various Western great powers and John as a client figure.

Throughout the course a long life in which he served as a cleric, a Cluniac monk, and an archbishop, Hugh of Amiens (c. 1085-1164) wrote a number of works including poems, biblical exegesis, anti-heretical polemics, and one of the early collections of systematic theology. This dissertation aims to provide an intellectual biography of Hugh which grants a better understanding not only of his motivations and ideals, but also some of those of the wider clerical and monastic world of the twelfth century. It examines each of Hugh's theological and literary compositions with their manuscript distribution, chronology, and contemporary setting, giving an in-depth exegesis of the texts including their concerns, sources of material, and their meaning within the context of their day. So too does it compare him with contemporaries who were writing similar works, from the compilers of sentences to biblical versifiers. Many themes surface in this work. One of these is the influence that both the scholastic and the monastic worlds had on Hugh. His writings show that he, along with many of his contemporaries, was secure in drawing inspiration from the contemplative spirit of the cloister as well as the methodical and disputatious endeavours of the schools. Another key theme is the extensive influence of St. Augustine, not just upon Hugh's thought, but also upon the thought of most of Hugh's contemporaries. The role of Hugh's works in the origin of systematic theology also emerges, as does their relation to events in the larger religious, social, and political scene, such as the rise of popular heresies and new religious movements, the condemnation of Gilbert de la Porree (c. 1076-1154), and the schism under Pope Alexander III (c. 1100-81). It concludes that Hugh was not only an intriguing individual, but also a representative of many of the important and widespread trends of his day.

The subject of this thesis is the theology of the late 13th- early 14th century churchman 'Abdisho' bar Brikha. Better known by modern scholars for his poetry and canon law, he is far less recognised as a religious controversialist who composed works in Arabic as well as Syriac to answer Muslim criticisms. My overall argument contends that 'Abdisho''s hitherto neglected theological works are critical to our understanding of how anti-Muslim apologetics had by his time become central to his Church's articulation of a distinct Christian identity in a largely non-Christian environment. 'Abdisho' wrote his apologetic theology at a time when Christians experienced increasing hardship under the rule of the Mongol Ilkhans, who had officially converted to Islam in 1295. While the gradual hardening of attitudes towards Christians may well have informed 'Abdisho''s defensive stance, this thesis also demonstrates that his theology is built on a genre of apologetics that emerged as early as the mid-8th century. Our author compiles and systematises earlier debates and authorities from this tradition while updating them for a current authorship. In doing so, he contributes to the formation of a theological canon that would remain authoritative for centuries to come. My analysis of 'Abdisho''s oeuvre extends to three doctrinal themes: the Trinity, the Incarnation, and devotional practices (viz. the veneration of the Cross and the striking of the church clapper). I situate his discussion of these topics in a period when Syriac Christian scholarship was marked by a familiarity with Arabo-Islamic theological and philosophical models. While our author does not engage with these models as closely as his better-known Syriac Christian contemporary Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286), he nevertheless appeals to a literary and theological idiom common to both Muslims and Christians in order to convince his coreligionists of their faith's reasonableness against centuries-long polemical attacks.

The subject of this dissertation is the awareness of linguistic diversity in the Hebrew Bible—that is, the recognition evident in certain biblical texts that the world’s languages differ from one another. Given the frequent role of language in conceptions of identity, the biblical authors’ reflections on language are important to examine. Of the biblical texts that explicitly address the subject of linguistic diversity, some are specific, as in references to particular languages (e.g., “Aramaic”), while others refer to linguistic multiplicity generally, as in the Tower of Babel episode (Gen 11:1–9). Linguistic difference is also indicated implicitly, as when the speech of Laban in Gen 29–31 exhibits Aramaic-like features that emphasize his foreignness. Building on previous studies of limited scope, my approach is to collect and analyse the evidence for awareness of linguistic diversity in the biblical books comprehensively. Drawing on concepts from sociolinguistics, including style-switching, code-switching, and language ideology, I categorize such evidence and explain its significance with respect to its literary and historical contexts. I thus contribute to wider debates on the sociolinguistics of ancient Hebrew, the development of the concept of the “holy language” in Judaism, and the topic of linguistic diversity in the broader ancient Near East. I find that the notion of linguistic diversity is used in the Hebrew Bible to set up, and also to challenge, boundaries of various kinds, be they territorial, as in the Shibboleth test (Judg 12:5–6), ethnic, as with the Judaean-Ashdodite children (Neh 13:23–4), or theological, as in Jeremiah’s Aramaic oracle against idols (Jer 10:11). My analysis shows that references to linguistic diversity are concentrated in texts of the Achaemenid Persian period and later, reflecting changes in the sociolinguistic circumstances of Judaeans. Yet in all periods Israel and Judah’s encounters with the empires Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia influenced attitudes towards linguistic diversity, whether this influence be manifested in fear (Jer 5:15) or ridicule (Esth 8:9). Overall, linguistic difference is not the primary means by which the biblical authors distinguish Israel from the nations, nor do they attribute a unique religious function to their own language.
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

This thesis employs a gendered reading of contemporary accounts in order to explore how men’s expert performances in tournaments enabled them to achieve high status manhood during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century when England witnessed a resurgence of chivalry. In applying medieval concepts of masculinity to ideals of both kingship and nobility in the early modern period, it argues for continuity across a period of history that has often been treated as two distinct stages. The aim is to shed light on how tournaments were a fundamental aspect of Edward IV, Henry VII and Henry VIII’s kingship and masculinity, but also on other nobles and gentry men at these courts who also took this martial display seriously. By examining how men’s performances in the joust were used as a means to evaluate their suitability for royal matches, service in warfare and attendance in the privy chamber, I uncover how those few men who dominated the tiltyard were able to achieve an unrivalled masculine status and close friendship with Edward IV and Henry VIII. The emphasis on a chivalrous version of masculinity as a prevalent model for men of high status during the late medieval and early modern period has brought to the forefront of this study a new group of courtiers, who have largely been missing from the historiography.

The field of medieval gender studies is a growing one, and nowhere is this expansion more evident than the recent increase in studies which address the roles of medieval women in times of war. While this change in research has been invaluable in helping to reveal the many important wartime roles performed by medieval women, previous studies have been too narrowly focused. Scholars have examined particular aspects of women’s military activities without analysing the full extent and significance of their involvement, and their studies have focused geographically either on women in Western Europe or on women in the crusade movement without considering the relationship between these two areas. This thesis bridges the geographic and analytical gap by looking longitudinally at the female military experience from the late-eleventh to the early-fifteenth century in Western European society (predominantly France and England), on crusade, and in the Holy Land. An examination of medieval legal, philosophical, and political debates and discussions provides theoretical understanding of contemporary attitudes toward women and their perceived roles in war. Subsequent chapters focus on how women functioned as military leaders, supporters of military activity, and victims of wartime violence. Perceptions of these women in the writings of contemporary chroniclers are also evaluated. The disparity between theoretical attitudes toward women in war and the realities of medieval women’s military experiences is revealed through discussion of their extensive, though largely unstudied, participation in wars of the period. It is argued that historians must adopt a broader understanding and awareness of not only women’s ‘involvement’ in war, but also the importance of their contributions to medieval military history.

This work deals with "special" burials among the Anglo-Saxon and Slavs in the early medieval period. The individuals in these graves are frequently labelled as "deviant", "criminals", as "socially other". This dissertation aims to focus more on the possible danger which "special" individuals represented for their communities after their death and on the possibility that the “special” burials were those of potential revenants or vampires. The introduction begins with a brief sketch of the evolution of approaches to burial by archaeologists and historians writing in English. It goes on to argue that “deviant burial” is not a self-explanatory category, but can be applied to a variety of very different inhumations. It suggests it might be better termed “special’ burial or the burial of the “special’ dead and formed part of regular inhumation practice; and it argues that the best way to understand these practices is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural framework. In particular, it discusses the possible insights offered by the development of the cognitive study of religion and belief, with particular reference to death and burial practices and introduces a “theoretical alternative model” for accessing how the deceased was treated from corpse to the grave. Chapter 1 examines Anglo-Saxon "special" burials, focusing on selected cemeteries where we can observe multiple occurrences of "special" burials or the employment of several "special" practices in one locality. These will first be analyzed with regard to the location of deposition and secondly compared within the wider framework of Anglo-Saxon "special" burial practices. Comparison with "special" funerary rites recorded elsewhere in the world by anthropologists will lead to the proposal of an alternative approach to some of recent and current interpretations of these practices. Chapter 2 focuses on Slavic archaeological material represented by the "special" graves excavated in Slovakia and the Czech Republic: both burials from cemeteries and also a group of individuals deposited in a range of objects found during excavation of Slavic settlements - in grain silos, wells or pits. As with Anglo-Saxon graves, the Slavic "special" burials are analyzed from the point of view of location and then in more global context of Slavic society. The possible interpretations of these findings are discussed. Chapter 3 focuses on the primary sources and their descriptions of "pagan" funerary rituals. It charts shifts in ideas and attitudes towards "special" funeral practices ranging from descriptions of these "pagan" practices, through efforts to delimit and penalize them in the law codes, to narratives of revenant sightings and descriptions of how to recognize and destroy them. This chapter will indicate some of the theories and new approaches proposed in the thesis. The concluding chapter brings these strands together. In particular, it discusses the possible insights offered by the development of the cognitive study of religion and belief, with particular reference to death and burial practices. It examines the changing patterns of religion - from traditional or "pagan" to Christianity – and the ways in which this change influenced both "special" burial practices and perceptions of vampires and revenants, with particular reference to the Christian doctrine of Purgatory. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the theories proposed on the basis of the material collected in this work and reference to corresponding interpretative shifts in present day archaeology and history.

This dissertation discusses medieval and Renaissance clerical and cultural constructions of femininity and female masculinity, and it analyses the complex relationship between such conceptions and the literary representation of the transvestite woman. Medieval theology legitimated female masculinity as transcendence of temporal sexuality. A woman who contained her affective femininity and replaced it with rational and ascetic behaviour was frequently lauded for having become male in all but body. In the middle of the first millennium, hagiographic legends abounded in which women appear to have embodied the patristic equation between spiritual rationality and masculinity. This dissertation proposes a radically different interpretation: the saint exchanges a sexualised form of femininity--ironically imposed upon her by a male society--for a non sexual but nevertheless feminine self valuation.
Early modern culture perceived transvestism in a multiform manner. It signifies monstrosity in the polemical pamphlet, serves to indicate an estimable apex of humanity in Shakespearean comedy, and represents women in roles that range from monstrous disrupter to adept uniter in the works of such other playwrights as Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton. While the pamphlet's social commentary argues that masculinity rendered a woman monstrously unfeminine, the literature finds ways of interrogating definitions of the sex-gender system in a world which was constantly and fundamentally mutating. The drama employs elements such as inversion, monstrosity and transgressions of class to negotiate a society in flux.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of English, 2007.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-10, Section: A, page: 4305. Adviser: Lawrence M. Clopper. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 20, 2008).

In the past historians have used the works of Honorius Augustodunensis to answer the question of who he was. In doing this the intellectual importance of his work has often been overlooked. Honorius was one of the most popular writers of the early twelfth century, and his most popular work was the Imago Mundi. The purpose of this study is to examine the work and its historical context and to furnish an English translation of the complete text. The present work looks at each book of the Imago Mundi and its sources to develop a concept of Honorius' writing style and his methods. It also examines twelfth-century manuscripts of the Imago Mundi and their houses of origin to construct a reason for the work's popularity, both in Honorius' own time and for centuries after.

Conversion to Christianity was a process that transformed the Roman world not only religiously but also cultural and socially. In the passage from Late Antiquity to Early Middle ages, namely from the fourth to seventh century, while the new religion and way to deal with life and death overcomes the pagan past, cultures and societies responded to this profound change in different ways. In the Roman West, the way in which Christianity was adopted and interpreted by its followers was different, depending on their cultural background but also on the way the new religion was introduced. The purpose of this thesis is to study this complex process of conversion, substitution and adaptation in three different areas: Gaul, Hispania and Britannia. Based on the study of cultural and religious hybridity I analyse ecclesiastical sources and archaeological findings to draw a comparative analysis of these three areas, individuating differences and similitudes caused by local specificities or a common behaviour. My aim is to understand how people behaved when immersed in a context of religious and cultural encounter, and why certain choices are made, consciously or not, in order to create a sort of religious crafting that was directed to adapt the new religion to their needs and expectations at the same time that paid attention to their cultural traditions and their past.
La conversione al cristianesimo fu un processo che trasformò il mondo romano non solo dal punto di vista della religione, ma anche per quanto riguarda cultura e società. Nel passaggio dal Tardo Antico all’Alto Medioevo, più precisamente dal quarto al settimo secolo, mentre la nuova religione e le modalità per affrontare vita e morte superarono il passato pagano, le culture e le società risposero a questo profondo cambiamento in modi differenti. Nell’Impero Romano d’Occidente, il modo in cui il cristianesimo venne adottato e interpretato dai fedeli fu diverso a seconda del loro background culturale e del modo in cui la nuova religione fu introdotta. Il proposito di questa tesi è di studiare questo complesso processo di conversione, sostituzione e adattamento in tre differenti aree geografiche: Gallia, Hispania e Britannia. Basandomi sugli studi di ibridizzazione religiosa e culturale, analizzo fonti ecclesiastiche e reperti archeologici per delineare un’analisi comparata in queste tre differenti aree; individuo quindi differenze e similitudini causate da peculiarità locali o comportamenti comuni. Il mio obiettivo è di comprendere il comportamento delle persone quando esse sono immerse in un contesto d’incontro culturale e religioso, il perché delle loro scelte, consce o meno, relative alla creazione di una sorta di religiuos crafting che ebbe l’obiettivo di adattare la nuova religione ai loro bisogni e aspettative senza dimenticare l’attenzione alle tradizioni culturali e al passato.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the nature of military behaviour during the High Middle Ages, in what is normally called the Age of Chivalry. I am not entirely comfortable with this appellation, which is why I have chosen to discuss the ethos and practice of warfare. My focus is essentially on the societies of north-western Europe which displayed certain characteristics in warfare, which they exported into the Mediterranean region and further east. It is somewhat of a simplification to describe this military culture as that of 'knight and castle'; but it is a convenient starting point. In what follows I have drawn together fourteen of my published articles over the period 1982-2005, in order to present my interpretation of the main strands that can be identified in warfare between 1050 and 1250. Although I continue to be research active and have published, or I am still in the process of publishing, half-a-dozen articles over the last five years, I felt that I could best present a coherent thesis from the pieces which I have selected.

The Red Jews are a legendary people; this is their history. From the late thirteenth to the late sixteenth century, vernacular German texts depicted the Red Jews, a conflation of the Biblical ten lost tribes of Israel and Gog and Magog, as a savage and unnaturally foul nation, who are enclosed in the 'Caspian Mountains', where they had been walled up by Alexander the Great. At the end of time, they will break out and serve the Antichrist, causing great destruction and suffering in the world. The hostile identification (c. 1165) of Jews with the apocalyptic destroyers of Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 20 expresses a new and virulent antisemitism that was integrated into the powerful apocalyptic traditions of Christianity. None of the few scholars who have noticed the Red Jews in medieval and early modern vernacular texts has sought out, collected and examined the complete body of medieval and early-modern sources that feature the Red Jews. This study provides a long-term analysis of the intimate connections between antisemitism and apocalypticism via a forgotten and submerged piece of German 'medievalia', the Red Jews. The legend gradually dissipated. Until the beginning of the seventeenth century it was a medieval lens through which Germans saw events relating to the Turkish threat in the East; after that time, the Red Jews disappeared from European texts.