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The current paper tries to examine the mystifications around the life and work of the XVI century French occultist and author Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus. The main questions posed in this study stem from a curiosity about the way Nostradamus shaped his own legendary status through his writings, healings, prophecies, and divinations.By looking into a number of historiographical, biographical and autobiographical sources, among which texts by Nostradamus himself and references by some of his contemporaries, such as Pierre de Ronsard, this inquiry has stumbled upon interesting models and patterns of self-mythologisation present in Nostradamus’s life and work.One of the main conclusions of the investigation would be that the French author’s Jewish background offered him a tradition of and an inclination towards the prophetic – a “prophetic guild” of sorts, in which he could seamlessly position himself. He adopted the lore of old-testament prophets and mixed it with a good dose of what could be considered the trendy teachings of his day - kabbalah, astrology, divination, and alchemy. He followed a path similar to the one laid out by fellow healer and occultist – the physician Paracelsus. Throughout his career as a healer and a “seer”, Nostradamus is known to have used his knowledge of healing potions to treat the very eminent patients seeking his help, some of whom were cardinals and members of the French royal family. In 1554, Nostradamus started writing his Les Prophéties (“The Prophecies”). Over time, his poetic musings on the future of the old continent grew to 942 quatrains and it happened so that they resounded greatly with the collective spirit of XVI century Europe, battered by outbreaks of the plague and terrified by the ongoing Ottoman invasions. By shrouding the message of his “Prophecies” in mystery, or probably never imbuing them with a definite meaning, Nostradamus would leave us insufficient reasons to think they aren’t merely obscure, apocalyptic poetry. Nevertheless, their author has done more than many self-proclaimed mystics to cement his status as one of the world’s most reputed and, at the same time, most disputed prophets, as controversial as the term, in itself, might seem.
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The study focuses on Petar Beron’s, Raino Popovich’s, Konstantin Fotinov’s and Sava Dobroplodni’s views on childhood revealed in their writings. Moments from their works tell us their answers to the question „What's a child?“, which the beginnings of modernization had put on the public agenda. For them, children should not be seen oximoronically as „little grownups“. One of their strongest messages is for a new understanding of childhood and children as a stage in human development, requiring from adults specific treatment. Along with Locke, they believed that a kid's mind is a tabula rasa focusing on its being free of the „original sin“. Childhood is „innocent“; corporal punishment should be abolished, and the other punishments should be inflicted on a strictly individual and equitable basis. Some of them were especially strong on defending the right of girls to school education. More traditional are they regarding the power distribution at home and school: free choice is the domain of adults; children don't have enough knowledge and experience to be vested with it (reminding one of Locke again). But unlike Locke, Beron, Popovich, Fotinov and Dobroplodni seem to see the goal of moral education to be the production of subjects, not citizens. Their belief that children should be trained to re-act in mâlchanie, blagochinie, pokorenie and smirenie (roughly: reticence, respect of one's betters, submissivness and humbleness) definitely points that way.
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The main purpose of this essay is to show that well before the beginning of the 20 century, in the face of the beginning of Italian colonial policy and of an ever increasing interest of Italian diplomacy towards the fate of the young Balkan state (especially the Kingdom of Serbia), during the epoch of Francesco Crispi, there existed well-proven, excellent projects of economic and financial penetration beyond the Adriatic sea, through the construction of a railroad which runned transversely the Balkans. The aim of these highly strategic projects was to subtract some important commercial positions to Austria-Hungary and Germani, which at the end of the 19 century dominated sud-Danube Europe. The basic sources for this study are inedited and edited Italian and Serbian diplomatic documents, in which are explained the potentialities and the reasons of the success and of the unsuccess of the Italian railway strategy.
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The aim of this work is the multi-factor analysis of motivational priorities which English privateers and pirates had in the second half of the 16th century in their naval battles with the Spanish fleet. The historical context allows to explain different impacts of material and spiritual motives on their behaviour in a new way. It has been concluded that religious motivation was essentially weaker than economic one, both among the robbers and among their promoters. The increased role of the economic incentives became possible due to the harsh economic crisis in England and popular rumours about extremely great loot taken from the Spanish ships. On the other hand, spiritual stimuli were weakened by the lack of the religious unity of the English nation, and, respectively, of the English mariners. In particular, the current study has shown that there were not only Protestants and atheists but also secret Catholics in the crews that plundered the Spaniards.
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The purpose of the article is to identify the artistic and stylistic features of carved candlesticks, to carry out the analysis of constructive schemes and to determine the typology of multi-branched candlesticks in the decorative adornment of the matsevahs of Eastern Galicia from the XVI through to the first third of the XX century. The methodology of the research involves the use of a number of methods: historical-comparative, formal-stylistic, structural-typological. For analysis of compositional solutions, art criticism categories, as well as practical experience of visual, stylistic, morphological-compositional and complex analysis were used. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that for the first time the basic principles of constructing compositions with the use of the candlestick motif have been analyzed for the first time, the artistic and stylistic features of carved candlesticks have been thoroughly investigated, their typology has been determined, the analysis of constructive schemes of the multi-branched candlesticks-menorahs in the decorative adornment of the matsevahs of Eastern Galicia XVI - the first third of XX. Conclusions. Through the analysis of the ornamental decoration of the matsevahs of the ancient Jewish cemetery of Galicia, one can distinguish several dominant motifs according to the nature of the image: zoomorphic, ornithomorphic, plant ornamentation, subject motifs, architectural elements, symbols of Judaism. The motif of the candlestick is one of the most commonly used motifs in the memorial plastics of the Galician matsevahs of the 18th and the mid-19th centuries, and its artistic and stylistic peculiarities are the embodiment of the high skill of Galician masters-carvers. Of significance is the different stylization of the form, the interpretation of individual structural elements of the candlestick in different regions of Eastern Galicia. In the formation of monuments, influences of stylistics from leading styles of European art are observed, in particular - baroque, rococo, secession. The completion of individual elements or details of the subject motif under investigation has been significantly influenced by the traditions of Ukrainian art, in particular.
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Kada u društvu usahne racionalan govor, onda svakakve kreature postanu tumači povijesti i ljudskih sudbina. Oni čekaju tu iza povijesnih promjena paradigmi društvenog života i bez imalo odgovornosti kroje sudbinu cijelih narodnih grupa. Tako se javlja na povijesnoj sceni model dominacije etničkog diskursa nad cjelinom društvenog života ljudi, a u političkom životu na mjesto demokratije staje etnokratija, na mjesto nacionalne (državne) političke orijentacije stupa partikularni etnopolitički totalitarizam i protiv demokratske politike nezaustavljivo raste etnopolitika, biopolitika i populizam.
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The Bosnian Franciscans, throughout their seven centuries-long history, have expressed the strong Franciscan spirituality which has been a dominant power of social change in Europe during the 14th-17th century. European Franciscans were a novelty during the structural crisis of the Church. Inspired by biblical sources, they were enthusiastic in the mission as witnesses and followers of Jesus Christ, ready for heroic sacrifice. On one hand, they were very independent and charismatically self-confident, but on the other hand, they were permanently integrated into the Church because of their faith, despite occasional conflicts. The Bosnian Franciscans came to Bosnia as inquisitors, teachers and healers of the Bosnian Church’s Christianity and survived there for five centuries under the Ottoman occupation. In such an environment, they gradually established a pastoral model of faith and of the church, in which religion pervaded the entire life of Bosnian Catholics despite the Islamic society.
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Will man einen Überblick über die Bibliotheksgeschichte Siebenbürgens in den letzten 500 Jahren bieten, geht man meist auf herkömmliche Weise vor und präsentiert eine konventionelle Zusammenfassung des Themas, mit einem besonderen Akzent auf die Geschichte der Büchersammlungen als Institution. Dabei wird davon ausgegangen, dass Institutionsbibliotheken von vielen Menschen genutzt werden. Aus diesem Blickwinkel stellen die institutionellen Sammlungen den Grund und beinahe das einzige Objekt der Bibliotheksgeschichte dar. Die Problematik der sogenannten bibliotheca publica, das heißt der „öffentlichen“ Bibliothek ist allerdings komplexer.
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Cila Bosna i Hercegovina je prostor štokavskoga naričja. Presudna su tri kriterija klasificiranja štokavskoga naričja koji omogućuju odvajanje jednoga dijalekta od drugoga: 1. stupanj razvoja akcentuacije (je li akcentuacija novoštokavska ili nije); 2. refleksi jata (ikavski, ekavski i ijekavski); 3. šćakavizam ili štakavizam (šć, žǯ ili št, žd). Ti kriteriji govore i o genezi određenoga idioma i o suvremenim strukturalnim činjenicama. Jatski kriterij je i strukturiran i genetski (Lisac, 2003). Po kriteriju refleksa jata tri su dijalekta (i)jekavska: a) istočnohercegovački-krajiški (istočnohercegovački); „Po jezičnim kriterijima (i)jekavski novoštokavski; b) istočnobosanski ili nenovoštokavski (i)jekavski; c) zetsko-južnosandžački ili nenovoštokavski (i)jekavski. Dva su dijalekta ekavska: a) šumadijsko-vojvođanski ili novoštokavski-ekavski i b) kosovsko-resavski ili nenovoštokavski ekavski. Jedan je dijalekt ikavski (zapadni dijalekt ili novoštokavsko ikavski), jedan s različitim refleksima jata (slavonski ili nenovoštokavski arhaični šćakavski).“ (Lisac, 2003: 29).
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Review of: Stipo Manđeralo "Lučonoše", Buybook, Sarajevo / Zagreb, 2019; Review by: Rapko Orman
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One of the most merited Bulgarians of the national Revival period, who supported the national awakening in Macedonia in the 19th century, was the enlightener from Veles, Jordan Hadjiconstantinov-Djinot (1818-82). Por about years he worked as a teacher in Macedonia - in his native town of Veles, in Skopje, Tetovo and Prilep, and everywhere he preached for the opening of Bulgarian schools and for education in the Bulgarian language, instead, of Greek. This inevitably provoked a harsh conflict with the Greek Phanariots and the Turkish authorities and caused his exile to Aiden, Asia Minor (1861-3).
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In Hungary, official memory and history discourses often distinguish between ‘Jews’ and ‘Hungarians’, harking back to the Horthy-era concept of the ‘Christian national’ state. This dichotomy clashes with modern ideas of citizenship and acts as a carrier of antisemitism. This lecture analyses the role of political authority in fostering integration or exclusion over a long time span. It begins with the attitudes of those holding political power in the Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages, when the distinction between Jews and Christians was based on religious affiliation. In particular, two processes will be examined: one leading to increased integration, granting protection and rights, and the other promoting segregation, demonisation and hostility. The lecture will then focus on key moments in modern history, exploring the functions of these two contradictory but related processes. It will finally tackle the question of the role of the state in (dis)continuities between medieval exclusion and modern antisemitism.
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The geographical location of the village of Bakici, surrounded by clearings and forests, gives an image of a naturally enclosed place with numerous remains of monuments in which six sites with monuments from the Middle Ages (Pod Klisa or Varosiste, Klisa, Grebljica, Vlaskovac, Slavanj) and one ( Svatovsko Greblje) from the period of administration of the Ottoman Empire in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The population is predominantly engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, occupations that, together with mining, in the previous centuries influenced the formation of the cultural landscape of this settlement. The continuity of living and working in these areas is obvious. In the central part is the medieval site of Pod Klisa or Varosiste with two ornate chest-shaped stecak tombstones. Northwest of Pod Klisa or Varosiste, there is Klisa with the remains of a medieval church dedicated to St. Roko and a necropolis with 24 stecak tombstones. Southwest of the Klisa site, between the high cabinets by the road leading from Donji Bakici to the village of Krivajevice, is the Vlaskovac site with an obelisk-shaped monument made of limestone monolith. Between Klisa and Vlaskovac, there is a smaller ridge overgrown with pine trees, which houses the Grebljice site and a necropolis with 14 stecak tombstones. In the central part of the settlement of Slavanj, there is a necropolis with 43 stecak tombstones. At the foot of the settlement of Slavanj, on the site of the Svatovsko Greblje or the high ground, there are ancient monuments in the shape of a nisan tombstone. At this place, every year in June (June 24), a Muslim prayer is performed, giving the name of the locality itself - the sanctuary (dovište).
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The Organic Regulation, or Organic Statute of Moldavia, as it is generally wellknown – together with a similar document for Wallachia – during the Russian occupation of the Romanian Principalities (1828−1834), being promulgated, first in Bucharest, in July 1831, and then in Iași, in January 1832. The both documents have formed an object of controversy among historians, who have described them, alternately, as liberal and authoritarian. Far from being a document of Russian essence, as some analysts have asserted, the Organic Statute of Moldavia, like that of Wallachia, represented the first modern law with constitutional character for the extra-Carpathian Romanian society. The Organic Statute provided for a centralized state system and the separation of the executive and legislative powers. The executive branch was to be headed by a prince, who was to be elected for life by a special Assembly of high boyars. The legislature was also composed of members of this class. The Assembly could pass laws, but the prince had a veto right. The prince could also prorogue the Assembly, although he could not dissolve it without the permission of the Ottoman Empire, in its capacity of suzerain power, and the Russian Court, as a protective one. The Assembly voted the budget (a novelty in Romanian political life), but it could not force the prince out of office. It could, however, appeal over the head of the ruler directly to Ottoman and Russian courts. So, the possibility of foreign interference was thus assured all along the line. The new statute offered great benefits to the boyars, who used this opportunity to make gains at expense of the peasants. With the end of the Ottoman right of preemption on Romanian products (by the Adrianople Treaty of 1829), and with the growing demand from the West European states, the landowners saw the opportunity to make greater profits from their estates, being designated for the first time, by law, as the fulfill owners of the land. In terms of consti-tutional theory, some notable firsts: as the introduction of the budgetary principle, majority rule, remuneration of the civil service on a professional basis, promotion by merit, a state educational system, a health service, a national militia, and the finality of legal decisions were impressive for that epoch. The Organic Statute (Regulation) of the both Principalities may be considered significant enough to give its name to a whole period and coincides well enough with Romania’s national rebirth. Taking in account the perfect structure and the similarity of all legal dispositions either for Moldavia or for Wallachia, that historical moment and document mean, also, the first step on the long way of union of those Principalities, and making the Romanian national state. The next steps will be taken in the years 1848, through the customs union, 1859, thanks to political unity, and finally, in 1862, when the administrative union registered on the world map a new modern state, Romania.
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From another perspective, a turning point could be a point at which change occurs to a greater or lesser degree, ranging from a simple change in ruler to noteworthy − but perhaps even unnoticed at the time − social or economic changes. The word “metamorphosis” might apply here, suggesting a kind of natural process, just as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. At the same time, change as such is an inevitable part of history. It is obvious that things change. There has been no end of debate among historians about the degree to which societies are influenced by change and which are the product of continuity. Turning points are interesting because they frequently raise the problem of developing a “new normal,” issues of “Now what?” and “Quo vadis?” They also raise questions about opportunities seized, fumbled, or lost, which seem inherently interesting.
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The abolition of the Ottoman monopoly created favorable conditions for the development of agricultural production. The owners of the estates, consolidating their profits obtained in the previous period, have the possibility under the regime of Organic Regulation, to accelerate the reserve of developing process, by further, limiting the right of peasants to use the land and by increasing the work obligations. At the end of the regulatory period, the land reserve extends, over of a surface that reaches half of the total arable land, grassland and lawn. During these transformations, boyars changes its appearance, is getting closer to the bourgeoisie, through concerns and mentality. Anastasie Bașotă is proving to be a man of the new times, with entrepre-neurial spirit and skill, manifested not only in a new, modern way of accounting, but also in trying to practice on his estates a more rational agriculture, in accordance with market demand. Even if he was one of the most enterprising, Bașotă wasnʼt the richest. His estates being wasted (the Dorohoi, Botoșani, Iași, Roman lands), they could be administered at that time with great weight, fully demanding initiative, skill and orientation − qualities that Anastasie Bașotă has fully demonstrated. Bașotă has been involved in various economic activities, depending on market demand, from practicing agriculture and animal husbandry to marketing agricultural and craft products to get to the practice of usury and establishment of the “Cambial Society”. Without giving up to the advantages that came from exercising administrative functions, Anastasie Bașotă was much more attached to the direct land exploitation or through the lease.
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This research should inform Serbian public about an important edition Monumenta Germaniae Historica, where – for two hundred years – were published sources about the history of western Europe and that greatly helps researchers of historical circumstances and the facts observed from a proper scientific methodology. In this way, almost two centuries has matured itself historical methodology in the context of history as a science, and has influenced the creation of new generations of researchers in the all world; which are, in the 21st century with the the Internet opportunities, able to access historical sources when writing about from State and Church topics in the medieval history of Western Europe. In the year of Jubilee, two centuries of the edition – Monumenta Germaniae Historica (1819–2019), this Institute boasts excellent cooperation with – perhaps the world’s largest Publishing House (Brepols) in the presentation of scientific research in the area of philosophy, history and theology. Also the Institute with Brepols may announce the possibility of a modern, simple and fast access to all publications published under their auspices, and to allow all international universities and institutes studing the sources of the history of medieval Western Europe.
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The article is a pioneer attempt in Polish literature to develop a synthetic resume and the characteristics of the work of the Italian Baroque composer Leone Leoni. Leoni was highly valued in his time; also, he is said to be one of the creators of dramma per musicagenre, and his religious compositions served as model examples of counterpoint for many centuries. The first part of the text presents the state of research concerning the life and work of the artist; then, the second part contains his biography. The last part discusses Leoni’s works. Finally, the rank of his output is regarded.
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