Why did science and natural philosophy suffer such disparate fates in the two great civilizations of Christendom and Islam?
Anselm on Free Will
September 10, 2015 By
New book explores medieval philosopher’s contribution to current debate
To See with the Eyes of the Soul: Memory and Visual Culture in Medieval Europe
February 28, 2015 By
In this article I shall therefore take a closer look at how people thought about the subject of memory and why memory was considered so important in the Middle Ages.
The Importance of Being Good: Moral Philosophy in the Italian Universities, 1300–1600
January 1, 2015 By
This paper therefore explores how important moral philosophy was, during the Italian Renaissance, as an independent university subject, and whether its status had a direct relationship with that of rhetorical studies
Flee the loathsome shadow: Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) and the Medici in Florence
November 9, 2014 By
This article examines the changing political landscape of Medicean Florence, from Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), through the letters of the celebrated neo-Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99).
The Sophistication of The Consolation
September 25, 2014 By
‘In spite of the variety and difference of opinion, still all men agree in loving and pursuing the goal of good.’
Religious Education as the Basis of Medieval Literature
September 15, 2014 By
The medieval literature was written with a purpose to teach Christian dogmas to the masses. The prose and poetry of the time meant to show men the ugliness of sin and the beauty of goodness.
Turning Toward Death: The Medievals’ Terrestrial Treatment of Death in Art During the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
September 8, 2014 By
Throughout the Middle Ages, religious iconography was a main theme of art and the Church heavily patronized works that embodied virtuous ideals. Art was often used as a religious implement in which the Church instructed the illiterate masses. However, art can also represent pain and trauma acting as an outlet for the artist.
The Friars Preachers: The First Hundred Years of the Dominican Order
September 7, 2014 By
When Dominic of Caleruega began preaching in southern France in the early 1200s, he would have had no idea of the far reaching influence that the band of men he would attract would leave such a broad and enduring influence on medieval history.
Northern Renaissance? Burgundy And Netherlandish Art In Fifteenth-Century Europe
August 25, 2014 By
Everyone who has studied medieval or modern history knows that the periodisation of the eras on either side of the Renaissance provides much food for thought. This contribution aims irst to address the usefulness of the widespread concept of the ‘Northern Renaissance’.
Emotions and Cognitions : Fourteenth-Century Discussions on the Passions of the Soul
August 22, 2014 By
Medieval philosophers clearly recognized that emotions are not simply “raw feelings” but complex mental states that include cognitive components. They analyzed these components both on the sensory and on the intellectual level, paying particular attention to the different types of cognition that are involved.
The Medieval Understandings of Participation
July 17, 2014 By
Richard Cross, Stephen Gersh and Douglas Hedley speaking at the University of Notre Dame
‘Protecting the non-combatant’: Chivalry, Codes and the Just War Theory
May 23, 2014 By
The concept of chivalry, a traditional code of conduct idealised by the knightly class relating to times of both peace and war, dominated the medieval period and many of the scholars who contributed to the principle of jus in bello were in fact writing about chivalry.
Boethius’s Misguided Theodicy: The Consolation of Philosophy
April 28, 2014 By
Anicius Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy (c. 524) is a bold attempt to reconcile the gravity of the author’s imprisonment and impending death with a world governed by a just God.
Hobbes, Augustine, and the Christian nature of man in Leviathan
February 14, 2014 By
Scholars of Thomas Hobbes can be loosely divided into two camps: those who believe Hobbes retained strong medieval elements in his philosophy and those who argued that Hobbes’ philosophy marks a clear break from both Ancient philosophy and Christianity.
Res et significatio : The Material Sense of Things in the Middle Ages
February 14, 2014 By
This essay serves as an introduction to Friedrich Ohly’s life and work and offers an analytic orientation to the methodological and historical questions taken up by this special issue of Gesta dedicated to medieval conceptions of significationes rerum (the signification of things).
Men Who Talk about Love in Late Medieval Spain: Hugo de Urriés and Egalitarian Married Life
February 13, 2014 By
In the last third of the fifteenth century, Hugo de Urriés’s work can offer the modern reader a very rare and informative perspective from the points of view of social history and history of ideas.
Cecco D’Ascoli and Church Discipline of Natural Philosophers in the Middle Ages
February 8, 2014 By
Probably the only natural philosopher of the Middle Ages to be burnt at the stake at the behest of the Church was one Francisco degli Stabili (c. 1269 – 1327) in Florence in late 1327.
Do Animals Go to Heaven? Medieval Philosophers Contemplate Heavenly Human Exceptionalism
January 26, 2014 By
Beginning in about the second century C.E., Christian philosophers reflected upon the nature of human beings, our purpose on earth, and our path to the promised afterlife. In the course of these reflections, they considered our relationship to nature, and the non- human animals that share our world.
‘The Torrent of the Human Race:’ The Concept of Movement in the Works of Saint Augustine and Its Impact on the Medieval Imagination
January 22, 2014 By
For Augustine, movement was essential in four respects. First, it described the nature of the relationship between an eternal God and a finite, temporal, material world. Second, movement constituted the basic imperative of the Christian message: man’s soul is compelled to move toward God or perish eternally.
Marvels and Allies in the East. India as Heterotopia of Latin Europe in the 12th Century
January 18, 2014 By
It has long been said that Latin Europe lost its connection to the East, specifically to Asia, in the early Middle Ages. But this is only part of the truth. From late Antiquity on, there were Christians in many places between the Mediterranean Sea and China.
Reading the Ancients: Remnants of Byzantine Controversies in the Greek National Narrative
January 13, 2014 By
In the eyes of his contemporaries, as Anna Komnene suggests in her Alexiad, Italos was a pagan wolf in the clothing of a Christian sheep, anxious to overcome Christianity in favour of Hellenic (i.e. pagan) philosophy
Charisma, Medieval and Modern
January 2, 2014 By
Popularized by the mass media, Max Weber’s sociological concept of charisma now has a demotic meaning far from what Weber had in mind. Weberian charismatic leaders have followers, not fans, although, exceptionally, fans mutate into followers.
The medieval principle of motion and the modern principle of inertia
January 1, 2014 By
Aquinas’s First Way of arguing for the existence of God famously rests on the Aristotelian premise that “whatever is in motion is moved by another.” Let us call this the “principle of motion.” Newton’s First Law states that “every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.” Call this the “principle of inertia.
Leonardo’s Literary Writings: History, Genre, Philosophy
January 1, 2014 By
This dissertation, conceiving Leonardo as a moral philosopher, provides interpretations that lead to the conclusion that his thought pervades both his major and minor works and that these literary writings must be viewed as an extension (and result) of Leonardo’s greater notions of the world and of how all parts relate to one another.
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