Where the Middle Ages Begin
Eighth-century York owed its reputation as one of the most intellectually influential cities in Europe to the library and school headed by the scholar Alcuin. But while rich and vivid evidence exists about the school, all trace of the library has disappeared. A new exhibition at the Old Palace, which houses the present-day York Minster […]
Intellectual Networks of Humanists at the Councils of Constance and Basel in the 15th Century By Takashi Jinno The Communications and Networks of Medieval Cities in the West: The Sixth Japanese-Korean Symposium on Medieval History of Europe (2007) Introduction: The vivid interests in the classical works of Greek and Latin authorities were revived in the […]
The Intellectual Infrastructures and Networks at Paris in 12th and in early 13th centuries By Hee-Man Lee Paper given at The Communications and Networks of Medieval Cities in the West: The Sixth Japanese-Korean Symposium on Medieval History of Europe – held at Keio Gijyuku University (2007) Introduction: Although it was the capital of Capetian dynasty, Paris was […]
Plato, Byzantium and the Italian Renaissance By Jonathan Harris History Teaching Review Year Book, Vol.19 (2006) Introduction: The ideas of the Athenian philosopher, Plato (429-347 BC), encapsulated in the form of dialogues, have exerted such an abiding influence on western philosophy and political thought that it is easy to forget that for many centuries, between […]
Liberty and advocacy in Ennodius of Pavia: the significance of rhetorical education in late antique Italy By S.J.B. Barnish Hommages a Carl Deroux, Vol.5 Christianisme et Moyen Age Néo-latin et surviance de la latinité, edited by Pol Defosse (Bruxelles: Latomus, 2002-2003) Introduction: In two declamations composed to support his student protégés at Deuterius’ school of […]
Tzetzes’ Letters and Histories: A Sample in English Translation with Notes and Introduction By Aaron Heinrich Master’s Thesis, University of Oregon, 2009 Abstract: The letters and commentaries of the 12th century Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes are an important source of literary material from classical Greece and offer an invaluable record of classical scholarship in his […]
Editorial practice in Smaragdus of St Mihiel’s commentary on the Rule of St Benedict By Matthew D. Ponesse Early Medieval Europe, Vol.18:1 (2010) Abstract: This paper examines the editorial principles that guided Smaragdus of St Mihiel (fl. 809–26) in the composition of his commentary on the Rule of St Benedict. Scholars in the late eighth […]
Professor Ian McNeely discusses the book written by him and Lisa Wolverton “Reinventing Knowledge”. This event took place August 15, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series. Here is an intellectual entertainment, a sweeping history of the key institutions that have organized knowledge in the West from the classical period onward. With elegance and wit, […]
In the following I shall attempt to present at least a broad evaluation of the impact Greek scholars had on the acculturation of Hellenic humanism in the late fifteenth and the early decades of sixteenth century Italy.
Mental Images, Memory Storage, and Composition in the High Middle Ages By Mary J. Carruthers Das Mittelalter Vol.13 (2008) Introduction: This essay could be thought of as an extended meditation on the ancient myth that Mnemosyne, “memory”, is the mother of all the muses. That story places memory at the beginning, as the matrix of […]
Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon born around 730 and educated at York, represents part of that transformation. Many like him who had been educated in the cathedral and monastic schools of England, Ireland, Spain, and Italy no doubt had been destined to replace their own masters. Instead, as adults they found themselves transplanted to the kingdoms of the Franks, where their learning, pedagogical skills, and books were put to a new task.
From Sophistopolis to Episcopolis: The Case for a Third Sophistic By Alberto Quiroga The Journal of Late Antique Religion and Culture, Vol. 1 (2007) Abstract: The term ‘Second Sophistic’ was already coined in Antiquity to denote a movement of literary and cultural renewal in the Greek and Hellenistic world during the first two centuries AD. […]
Religion and culture in classical Islam and the Christian West By George Makdisi Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian and Georges Sabagh (Cambridge University Press, 1999) Synopsis: Examines the development of the institution of scholasticism, which began in the Middle East in the ninth century, and expanded into Western Europe […]
The republican idea By William J. Connell Renaissance Civic Humanism: Reappraisals and Reflections, edited by James Hankins (Cambridge University Press, 2000) Synopsis: Examines the historiography on the issue of the idea of republicanism among Florentube humanist thinkers such as Bruni and Machiavelli in fifteenth century Italy. Click here to read/download this article (PDF file)
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