Molinos: “The Subject of the Day” in the Ring and the Book

PMLA ◽  
1952 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 308-314
Author(s):  
William Coyle
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Biblical Allusions ◽  
Precise Time

For the background of The Ring and the Book Browning relied heavily on static features of Roman and Aretine life in the late seventeenth century. Many references to streets, buildings, landscapes, customs, politics, and religion could fit a narrative laid in 1650 or in 1750; moreover, the classical and Biblical allusions, which outnumber but resemble those in The Old Yellow Book, carry little connotation of a precise time. Manifestly topical, however, are the references to the heretical teachings of Miguel de Molinos, which Browning termed Molinism. In The Old Yellow Book this heresy is mentioned only once, when the writer of the first anonymous pamphlet suggests that those who do not support a wronged husband against an errant wife may seek to introduce “the power of sinning against the laws of God with impunity, along with the doctrine of Molinos and philosophic sin, which has been checked by the authority of the Holy Office.”

Politics and Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England: The Case of Elizabeth Poole

1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-412
Author(s):  
Manfred Brod
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
American Scholar ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
Political Activist ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Available Information

Elizabeth Poole, “the Abingdon prophetess,” makes a brief appearance, often as a footnote, in several standard political histories of the seventeenth century. However, only two attempts seem to have been made to evaluate fully her significance in the politics and religion of the period, one by Professor Firth in his edition of the Clarke Papers and one by the American scholar Dorothy Ludlow in a thesis published in 1978. Firth’s attempt was uncharacteristically superficial, and he limited himself to retailing Royalist propaganda on the subject; while Ludlow, although she brought together much of the available information, was more concerned with Poole as a woman than as a political activist. This article attempts to put her life and public activities into a wider context. It argues that her example shows that it was not impossible for women of the time to function at the highest political levels. What was significant about Poole was her failure to achieve political aims that were not in themselves unrealistic or lacking in influential support. Finally, this article postulates that female political activity at the decision-making levels was limited to a mode that could support or oppose general political strategies but was ill-suited to the furtherance of specific policies or actions.

The Curious Eye

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Webster
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Human Vision ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Robert Hooke ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Johannes Kepler ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Historical Moment

The Curious Eye explores early modern debates over two related questions: what are the limits of human vision, and to what extent can these limits be overcome by technological enhancement? Today, in our everyday lives we rely on optical technology to provide us with information about visually remote spaces even as we question the efficacy and ethics of such pursuits. But the debates surrounding the subject of technologically mediated vision have their roots in a much older literary tradition in which the ability to see beyond the limits of natural human vision is associated with philosophical and spiritual insight as well as social and political control. The Curious Eye provides insight into the subject of optically mediated vision by returning to the literature of the seventeenth century, the historical moment in which human visual capacity in the West was first extended through the application of optical technologies to the eye. Bringing imaginative literary works by Francis Bacon, John Milton, Margaret Cavendish, and Aphra Behn together with optical and philosophical treatises by Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton, The Curious Eye explores the social and intellectual impact of the new optical technologies of the seventeenth century on its literature. At the same time, it demonstrates that social, political, and literary concerns are not peripheral to the optical science of the period but rather an integral part of it, the legacy of which we continue to experience.

Past, Present, Future: An Overview of Roman Malta

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-255
Author(s):  
David Cardona
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Predictive Model ◽  
Clear Picture ◽  
Maltese Islands ◽  
Restricted Number ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Research

Abstract Roman Malta has been the subject of numerous historical and archaeological studies since the seventeenth century. However, the lack of documented excavations and the restricted number of sites – particularly those within the boundaries of the two main Roman towns – meant that numerous grey areas persist in our understanding of the islands under Roman rule, regardless of how many studies have been done so far. This article attempts to provide an overview of past works, studies and a discussion of the known consensus on knowledge of sites, populations and economies. This in an attempt to provide a clear picture of what we know (and what we do not) about Roman Malta. Finally, I will comment on current and new research and projects which are being carried out by various local entities and foreign institutions to enhance our knowledge of this very important historic era for the Maltese islands. This culminates into a proposal for the use of a predictive model that may help us identify new sites and, consequently, provide new data on this phase.

The Manual of 1614

1984 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-172
Author(s):  
J. D. Crichton
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Teresa Of Avila ◽  
Country Houses ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ordinary Person ◽  
The Many

In recent years, students of recusancy have begun to turn their attention to the inner life of the Catholic community, a development much to be welcomed; and it is understandable that for the most part the centre of interest has been what is called the spiritual life. Influences coming from St. Francis of Sales and St. Teresa of Avila have been traced, and Augustine Baker has rightly been the subject of much study. What needs further investigation, I believe, is the devotional life of the ordinary person, namely the gentry and their wives and daughters in their country houses, especially in the seventeenth century. There were also those who towards the end of the century increasingly lived in London and other towns without the support of the ‘patriarchal’ life of the greater families. No doubt, many were unlettered, and even if they could read they were probably unused to handling anything but the simplest of books. It would be interesting to know what vernacular prayers they knew and said, how they managed to ‘hear Mass’, as the phrase went, what they made of the sacrament of penance, and what notions about God and Jesus Christ they entertained. Perhaps the religious practice of the unlettered is now beyond recall, but something remains of the practice of those who used the many Primers and Manuals that are still extant.

scholarly journals Manuskrypt Jana Amosa Komeńskiego "Dedicatio ad tria regna – czyli Specjalny apel do Europejczyków, przeznaczony przede wszystkim do królestw i państw północnych"

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubomír Hampl
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Native Language ◽  
The North ◽  
The Subject

The translation from Latin and Czech into Polish of an entire important, but still little-known work (Latin Dedicatio ad tria regna – Czech Dedikace třem královstvím – English Dedication to the three Kingdoms) introduces us to a large extent to the subject matter of the “i m p r o v e m e n t o f human affairs”. The translation of this manuscript fills a large gap in Polish comeniology. In the work translated into Polish, we can see how John Amos Comenius persistently and decisively pursued the honorable goal he had set for himself – that is, the pansophic improvement of all human affairs. The Polish-speaking reader will finally be able to “fully” read this work in their native language, in which there are also important elements related not only to pedagogical and educational topics, but above all to socio-philosophical issues and theological-biblical comparative references, centered around the domain of interdisciplinary research. The so-called “Portrait sketch” is also presented, or what hopes Comenius linked to the three described countries, strictly speaking the kingdoms of the North, i.e. Poland, Sweden and Great Britain, during the period of significant changes in seventeenth-century Europe.

scholarly journals “Támbico pilar”: A Precolumbian Eco in Calderón de la Barca?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Sánchez Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Auto Sacramental ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Calderón De La Barca

This short article analyses an apparent hapax (“támbico pilar”) in an auto sacramental by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La cena del rey Baltasar (c. 1630-1635). After presenting the passage and the critics’ opinion on the subject, this essay contextualises the phrase and formulates a hypothesis to clarify the passage by using, among other arguments, other seventeenth-century printed texts.

scholarly journals Notes on the History of the Family of Rumbold in the Seventeenth Century

1892 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 145-165
Author(s):  
Horace Rumbold
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Historical Society ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

In the course of extensive researches in which I have been engaged for some years on the subject of the history of the Rumbold family during the seventeenth century, and more especially at the period immediately preceding the Restoration, I came across a paper in the British Museum which has never, as far as I know, been made public, and is, perhaps, not unworthy to find a place among the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. The curious document in question is headed A Particular of the Services performed by me Henry Rumbold for His Majesty.

The Theologies of Luther and Boehme in the Light of their Genesis Commentaries

1970 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene A. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Jacob Boehme ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scholarly Discussion ◽  
Shed Light

Now that the tremendous influence of Jacob Boehme (1575–1624) upon natural philosophy and religious thought has come to be more fully appreciated, the question of Boehme's relation to Luther's theology has come once again to be the subject of a lively scholarly discussion. This study proposes to compare the position of Luther and Boehme on certain key theological concepts and propositions as they are denned in the Genesis commentaries of the two men. This limited and concrete study may shed light upon the larger question of the relation of their theologies as a whole and the nature of the dependence of Boehme on Luther as mediated by seventeenth-century orthodoxy.

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