scholarly journals Baptizing the Romans

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 43-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Romano

This article focuses on Ordo Romanus XI, a liturgical script that describes the process for performing baptism. Including its preparatory meetings. First, the essay discusses the context in which the source was created, and second draws on its evidence to understand elements of the society of its origin. It is argued that the source was composed in the city of Rome in the second half of the seventh century, and it was intended to introduce innovations into the celebration and conception of baptism there. While previous research has characterized the source as one milestone in the history of baptism, a close reading of it provides valuable hints as to the behavior, attitudes, and identity of seventh-century Romans, both on individual and collective levels. Baptism inducted people into Christian society, cleansed them from sin, and made salvation possible. It mediated both human and supernatural relationships. Further, it strengthened Christian belief, gender roles, and the conception that Romans were the new Israelites. Keywords: baptism, liturgy, Ordo/Ordines, Ordo Romanus XI, city of Rome, history, religious mentalities. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Line Cecilie Engh ◽  
Stefka G. Eriksen ◽  
Francis F. Steen

"This special issue of Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia (from now on Acta) interrogates religious practices of reading, writing, praying and engaging with texts, images, architecture, music, and ritual spaces in late antique Rome and medieval Europe. More specifically, it aims to analyze and deepen our understanding of how liturgy and religious practice modeled and modified selves and communities, how they shaped and transformed identities and built communities - both individual and collective, religious and lay".   On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 113-129
Author(s):  
Joëlle Rollo-Koster

This essay argues that liturgists responded to the Great Western Schism (1378-1417), with liturgical rubrics. During this period, authors were essentially motivated with the recovery of ecclesiastical unity. I will analyze how Pierre Ameil, a contemporary of the Schism and the author of a ceremonial book or ordo attempted to reconstruct unity by developing a new rubric centered on the rituals surrounding the pope's death. By keeping the papal body one, both natural and institutional, Ameil responded to the College of Cardinals whom he knew was responsible for the initiation of the crisis. Contrary to current historiography that sees liturgists building institutional continuity during the Vacant See on the college of Cardinals, the essay proposes that Ameil built continuity on the embalmed papal corpse presenting it as both natural and institutional, at once finite and eternal. Keywords: Great Western Schism, liturgy, body, Papal funerals, senses, Pierre Ameil.  On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 211-224
Author(s):  
Rakel Igland Diesen

This article focuses on miracle narratives associated with saints originating in the Nordic region, written from the 12th to the 15th century, where a rich collection of images of children present around and inside of churches and at shrines can be found. Many of the tales portray children in devotional activities, giving an indication of how children moved and acted in these spaces. The events described often transpire during prayers and services, and show how children were seen and heard in spaces where liturgical activity shaped the rhythms of the day and the year. By examining how children are presented, as present and participating in these spaces, and by noting the bits of sensory information given in the narratives, this article adds to our mental image of the religious practices as well as sensory experiences of medieval children. Keywords: Medieval children, miracles, Nordic saints, hagiography, sensory experience.  On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Arthur Westwell

This article examines a number of Carolingian liturgical manuscripts (Wolfenbuttel Herzog August Bibliothek Wissenbourg 91, Cologne Dombibliothek MS 138, Vienna Österreichische Nationalbibliothek cod.ser.n. 2762 and Paris Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 227) each containing texts now known as the ordines romani. These texts are "stage directions" for the liturgy, distinguished by their reference to the practices of the church of Rome. While the ordines romani certainly give precious information about Roman liturgical practice, the Frankish contribution to shaping and displaying these texts inline with their own priorities and usages must be acknowledged too. For example, these manuscripts all combine ordines romani with texts about Roman history and topography. For these readers, the desired imitation of Roman liturgical practice was not about copying any particular text or practice by rote, but a deeper form of participation that involved the construction of an image of Rome across a whole manuscript. The given image of Rome responded to the institutional or personal needs animating the manuscript. These manuscripts compel us to imagine diverse practices of reading within and without liturgical performance. Keywords: pontificals, topography, Ordines, manuscripts, Carolingians. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 133-160
Author(s):  
Line Cecilie Engh

This article uses analytical concepts from cognitive science to explore and deepen our understanding of how medieval monastics imagined themselves as characters within biblical narratives. It argues that Cistercian monks - and in particular Bernard of Clairvaux - used techniques of imaginative immersion to enter and blend themselves into biblical viewpoints and events, thereby engaging the monks in epistemically and personally transformative experiences. The article concludes that this served to build community and to enculture monks and converts. Specifically, the article offers a close reading of two of Bernard's liturgical sermons, Sermon Two for Palm Sunday and Sermon Two on the Resurrection, to show how his sermons 1) traverse time and space and 2) blend viewpoints. Examples are also taken from texts by John Cassian, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and William of St. Thierry. Keywords: Bernard of Clairvaux, blended viewpoint, deictic displacement, lectio divina, liturgical time and space.  On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 101-112
Author(s):  
Wim Verbaal

Liturgy is one of the more underestimated entries of the Gregorian reform. Surely, this is due to the difficulty of getting a clear view of concrete and detailed liturgical evolutions and renewals. It seems, however, to have been one of the more important elements at stake during the short period of the bitter and hard confrontations between the leading layers of the Church around 1100. Besides, between about 1050 and 1150, Rome saw an intense building activity of new churches according to new plans that seem to have been partly dictated by liturgical renovations. Notably, Pope Innocent II seems to have realized the importance of liturgy as a weapon to be used against his ecclesiastical and secular opponents. Thanks to the remarkable Liber politicus by Benedict the Canon (around 1140), we can have some ideas of the way innocent II used liturgy as a means to install his own imperial papacy. My contribution will have a closer look at Benedict's Liber politicus in its literary context as a means to reimagine Rome. The Liber will prove to be much more than a liturgical manual or a strange collection of disparate writings. Behind it lies a strong view of the political role of the papacy and of liturgy as a means to achieve and express papal supremacy. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 177-195
Author(s):  
Valentina Covaci

The fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 and the loss of the Frankish Levant in 1291 triggered new calls or crusade and the literature dedicated to "the recovery of the Holy Land" (pro recuperatione Terre Sancte). The exhortation to war and the urgency of Jerusalem's deliverance were also expressed through liturgy. This article examines two liturgical texts, a "Votive mass for the recovery of the Holy Land" (Missa devota ad recurandam Terram Sanctam) and an "Introit to the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord" (Ad Sanctum Sepulcrum Donin introitus), transmitted in manuscripts from the Franciscan library in Jerusalem, the Biblioteca Generale della Custodia di Terra Santa. This article explores the two liturgical texts in the historical context of fifteenth-century Jerusalem, when the Franciscan friars where the only Latin clergy allowed to serve at the Holy Places. Historical accounts produced in this milieu evince the friars' efforts to memorialize the deeds of the crusader kings, celebrated as liberators of the Holy Land. The liturgical texts analysed here complement this militant memorialization. Keywords: Jerusalem, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Franciscan liturgy, recovery of the Holy Land.  On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Dale Kinney

The Basilica Julii (also known as titulus Callisti and later as Santa Maria in Trastevere) provides a case study of the physical and social conditions in which early Christian liturgies 'rewired' their participants. This paper demonstrates that liturgical transformation was a two-way process, in which liturgy was the object as well as the agent of change. Three essential factors - the liturgy of the Eucharist, the space of the early Christian basilica, and the local Christian community - are described as they existed in Rome from the fourth through the ninth centuries. The essay then takes up the specific case of the Basilica Julii, showing how these three factors interacted in the concrete conditions of a particular titular church. The basilica's early Christian liturgical layout endured until the ninth century, when it was reconfigured by Pope Gregory IV (827-844) to bring the liturgical sub-spaces up-to-date. In Pope Gregory's remodeling the original non-hierarchical layout was replaced by one in which celebrants were elevated above the congregation, women were segregated from men, and higher-ranking lay people were accorded places of honor distinct from those of lesser stature. These alterations brought the Basilica Julii in line with the requirements of the ninth-century papal stational liturgy. The stational liturgy was hierarchically organized from the beginning, but distinctions became sharper in the course of the early Middle Ages in accordance with the expansion of papal authority and changes in lay society. Increasing hierarchization may have enhanced the transformational power of the Eucharist, or impeded it. Keywords: S. Maria in Trastevere, stational liturgy, tituli, presbyterium. On cover:Monks singing the Office and decorated initial A[sperges me.]. Gradual Olivetan Master (Use of the Olivetan Benedictines), illuminated manuscript on parchment ca. 1430-1439. Italy, Monastero di Santa Maria di Baggio near Milan, Ca 1400-1775.Beinecke Ms1184: The olivetan Gradual. Gradual. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 150250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Ottoni ◽  
Rita Rasteiro ◽  
Rinse Willet ◽  
Johan Claeys ◽  
Peter Talloen ◽  
...  

More than two decades of archaeological research at the site of Sagalassos, in southwest Turkey, resulted in the study of the former urban settlement in all its features. Originally settled in late Classical/early Hellenistic times, possibly from the later fifth century BCE onwards, the city of Sagalassos and its surrounding territory saw empires come and go. The Plague of Justinian in the sixth century CE, which is considered to have caused the death of up to a third of the population in Anatolia, and an earthquake in the seventh century CE, which is attested to have devastated many monuments in the city, may have severely affected the contemporary Sagalassos community. Human occupation continued, however, and Byzantine Sagalassos was eventually abandoned around 1200 CE. In order to investigate whether these historical events resulted in demographic changes across time, we compared the mitochondrial DNA variation of two population samples from Sagalassos (Roman and Middle Byzantine) and a modern sample from the nearby town of Ağlasun. Our analyses revealed no genetic discontinuity across two millennia in the region and Bayesian coalescence-based simulations indicated that a major population decline in the area coincided with the final abandonment of Sagalassos, rather than with the Plague of Justinian or the mentioned earthquake.


2008 ◽  
Vol 81 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-270
Author(s):  
Jean Stubbs

[First paragraph]The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered. Samuel Farber. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. x + 212 pp. (Paper US$ 19.95)Cuba: A New History. Ric hard Gott . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. xii + 384 pp. (Paper US$ 17.00)Havana: The Making of Cuban Culture. Antoni Kapcia. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2005. xx + 236 pp. (Paper US$ 24.95) Richard Gott, Antoni Kapcia, and Samuel Farber each approach Cuba through a new lens. Gott does so by providing a broad-sweep history of Cuba, which is epic in scope, attaches importance to social as much as political and economic history, and blends scholarship with flair. Kapcia homes in on Havana as the locus for Cuban culture, whereby cultural history becomes the trope for exploring not only the city but also Cuban national identity. Farber revisits his own and others’ interpretations of the origins of the Cuban Revolution.


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