scholarly journals Plato and Aristotle in Hebrew Garb: Review of Dov Schwartz, Jewish Thought in Byzantium in the Late Middle Ages

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Bowman
Author(s):  
Ram Ben-Shalom

The focus in this book is on the historical consciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages, and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history and culture. The book shows that in these southern European lands Jews experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive to and knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this had significant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness. Among the topics discussed are what Jews knew of the significance of Rome, of Jesus and the early days of Christianity, of Church history, and of the history of the Iberian monarchies. The book demonstrates that, despite the negative stereotypes of Jewry prevalent in Christian literature, they were more influenced by their interactions with Christian society at the local level. Consequently, there was no single stereotype that dominated Jewish thought, and frequently little awareness of the two societies as representing distinct cultures. The book demonstrates that in Spain and southern France, Jews of the later Middle Ages evinced a genuine interest in history, including the history of non-Jews, and that in some cases they were deeply familiar with Christian and sometimes also classical historiography. The book enriches our understanding of medieval historiography, polemic, Jewish–Christian relations, and the breadth of interests characterizing Provencal and Spanish Jewish communities.


2003 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
A. D. M. Barrell

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-446
Author(s):  
Sylvain Roudaut

Abstract This paper offers an overview of the history of the axiom forma dat esse, which was commonly quoted during the Middle Ages to describe formal causality. The first part of the paper studies the origin of this principle, and recalls how the ambiguity of Boethius’s first formulation of it in the De Trinitate was variously interpreted by the members of the School of Chartres. Then, the paper examines the various declensions of the axiom that existed in the late Middle Ages, and shows how its evolution significantly follows the progressive decline of the Aristotelian model of formal causality.


Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 548-549
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen

The late Middle Ages witnessed the creation of numerous fencing books, mostly in Germany, illustrating the many different techniques, weapons, styles, strategies, and the movements, as Patrick Leiske discussed only recently in his Höfisches Spiel und tödlicher Ernst (2018; see my review here in vol. 32). Some of the true masters and teachers of this sport and fighting technique were Johannes Liechtenauer, Peter von Danzig, Sigmund Ringeck, and Hans Talhoffer, whom Leiske also discusses in a separate chapter.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
José María Salvador González

As is well known, St. Francis of Assisi heroically embraced evangelical poverty, renouncing material goods and living in abject poverty, in imitation of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, through his writings and oral testimonies collected by his disciples, the saint fervently urged Christians to live to some degree voluntary poverty , of which Christ was the perfect model. By basing this reading on some Poverello’s quotations, this paper intends to show the potential impact that these exhortations from San Francisco to poverty may have had in the late medieval Spanish painting, in some iconographic themes so significantly Franciscan as the Nativity and the Passion of the Redeemer. Through the analysis of a large set of paintings representing both issues, we will attempt to put into light if the teachings of St. Francis on evangelical poverty are reflected somehow in Spanish painting of the late Middle Ages.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document