Virgin Marys of Medieval Livonia
The article presents the exhibition "Virgin Marys of Medieval Livonia" held in the Art Museum of Estonia - Niguliste Museum in Tallinn (25.10.2019-16.08.2020).
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The article presents the exhibition "Virgin Marys of Medieval Livonia" held in the Art Museum of Estonia - Niguliste Museum in Tallinn (25.10.2019-16.08.2020).
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This study tries to present the history of a highland region of Transsylvania, its political-administrative and ethno-demographical evolution till its unification with the Saxon autonomous district. Primarily there have been arias with different juridical status in this region. The first-mentioned (and for a century, the most important one) of them was Radna/Rodna, a mining town with thousands of German (maybe Bavarian) inhabitants and their own autonomous institutions (magistrate, priest, inn, prison, market place, mills, gold and silver mines, etc.), working out a local law-book (cca 1270). The town (together with the Saxon district from Beszterce/Bistriţa) was the possession of Hungarian queens, that’s why it was exempted from the authority of shires (comitatus – megye) and organized as a county (comitatus – ispánság), ruled by an earl (comes) appointed by the royal family. They should not be mistaken for the members of the Radnai family, similary wearing the title comes: these were in fact the local leaders of the German community, named gräve~gereb (which ones could be found in many Saxon settlements from Transsylvania). At the same time, the Radnais weren’t the landowners of the town (there were living freeholders submitted only to the king and queen), unless they acquired more than seven surrounding nonprivilaged serf-villages (between 1239 and 1291). Appart from Radna, the settlements from Radna Valley (being serf-villages, too) lay on the territory of Inner Szolnok- shire. In 1334 we can find here only eight villages (Mákod/Mocod, Naszód/Năsăud, Telcs/Telciu, Nyírmező/ Feldra, Szentgyörgy/Sângeorz-Băi, Cybles, Korowgh, Hydmezeu, the last there have dissapeared till 1440). Their names suggest us the presence of a very sparse Slavic and Hungarian population. We can find out too, that the landowners of this estate was the up-mentioned Radnai family, but in the middle of the 14th century they lost all their domains (forced by other nobles or by economical needs) and the family has disappeared. The Radna Valley in cca 1378 (after the extinction of its last owners, the Pogány family) fell to the king and have been joined with the royal domain of Radna. This domain was governed (as a service-estate, called honor) by the Szekler earls, their castellanes and officiales. It seems to me, that because of the despotic local governement of one of the castellanes, Prokop (cca 1400), most of the settlements from the valley became depopulated, and the repeated attempts of the later Szekler earls to bring colonists here, failed. In 1440 both Radna with the royal castle and the villages from valley (now, beside of those from 1334, there are four new settlements: Zágra/Zagra, Szálva/Salva, Rebra, Kisrebra/Rebrişoara) are “in maiori parte ... vacuas et inhabitatoribus destitutas”. Probably the decline of the town is caused by the exhaustion of mines – an economical problem, which couldn’t be balanced by the presence of the tax office, placed at the commercial route to Poland and Moldavia. In 1440 the domain was donated by queen Elisabeth to the Jakcs de Kusaly family, with the aim of insuring their aid in the starting civil war (this purpose failed because of the former conflicts of the family with the royal power). The short period of landowning of the Jakcss (till 1451?) is important because of the topographical and demographial informations given by a charter from 1450, relating the division of the estate among the members of the family. According to this, on the domain there were 144 houses (sessio), which means cca 900 souls. Their names shows, that most of these serfs were Rumanian ethnics – we shall meet their leeders (kenez, woyuoda) in the second part of the century. It seems, that the Jakcss succeeded to recolonize the region and to estabilish a new village (Major/Maieru), too. However, the colonization has been continued in the following decades too (in 1495 there are already 444 houses and in 1523 appeared a new village: Hordó/Coşbuc). The Jakcs family lost this domain in the 1450’s because of their conflict with the governor John Hunyadi. That’s why in 1467 it is mentioned as a royal estate again. Not for a long time, because in 1469 king Mathias Hunyadi – trying to unite the anti-Turkish defence-sistem from Transsylvania – gave it to the Saxons from Beszterce/Bistriţa district. However, the new status of the territory has been unclear for most of the contemporary people (mainly for collectors of taxes): they considered that it had changed only the landowner, but the region remained part of the shires and the noble-right, while the Saxon people said, that it had become part of their autunomous district and that’s why it is duty-free. In his renewed donation (1475), king Mathias accepted the Saxon point of view and offered to Radna the Saxon privileges.
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The article discusses the migration processes in the territory of Northern Bukovina during the developed Middle Ages. This is the time of turbulent political events that subsequently influenced the further fate of the population inhabiting this territory.Local population developed in the mainstream of the evolution of ancient Rus lands. Intensive socio-economic development of the territory of Northern Bukovina in the 12th — early 13th century led to an increase in population and to episodic migrations.This picture changed in the late 13th—14th centuries. The Mongol-Tatar invasion negatively affected the development of the region. The population constantly suffered from the confrontation of Poland, Hungary, the Galicia-Volhynia principality, the Golden Horde and the Moldavian Voivodeship. Due to this (plus abnormal natural phenomena), these territories were sparsely populated. The majority of the population affected by the migration movement moved to the Prut-Siret interfluve or headed to the Carpathians.With the entry of this territory into the Moldavian Voivodeship, the situation changed. The domestic policy of the rulers and the change in the external international situation contributed to a significant re-emigration and re-settlement of the Prut-Dniester interfluve. Most settlements arise here in the late 14th — early 15th centuries. By the middle of the 15th century, the external reserves of colonization were exhausted, internal feuds intensified. All this led to a long decline in migration processes in the study area.
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Ecclesiastical architecture of the medieval Crimea is characterized by awide spread of one-nave constructions with a rectangular naos and an off-set semicircular or faceted apse; these churches were widely spread in fortresses, monasteries, residential quarters, mansions, communities and cemeteries. At this stage of studies, we can be more or less certain about two migration processes, which had an impact on the architectural evolution of the one-nave churches on the coastline of the peninsula. The first one dates to the 9th – 10th centuries and was connected with the targeted direct and complex (economic, military-political and cultural and religious) colonization of the Southern Crimea by the Byzantine Empire. This process involved some masters from Cherson and was associated with construction of churches of classical design. The second migration wave dates back to the late 13th – 14th centuries, when refugees from the regions conquered by the Golden Horde, particularly from Cherson, Eski-Kermen, Sogdeia and their environs, had to migrate to remote mountainous areas. This process produced numerous churches with lateral entrance.
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The Illustrated Chronicle, manuscript from 1360, known under the Latin name Chronicon Pictum, ended with the story of the Battle of Posada. The armed clash that took place in 1330 between Hungary and Wallachia is today remembered as a momentous victory for the newly founded Basarab dynasty. Two miniatures depicting the Battle of Posada included on pages 143 and 146, often overlooked in the context of historical elaboration, are an integral part of the story and complement the written text. The picture serves as a record of events and additionally provides information on the then costumes, armaments and artistic means of expression. The analysis of the Battle of Posada based on the 14th-century Illustrated Chronicle is an attempt to supplement historical research with an analysis of miniature painting.
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The paper focuses on the personal actions of Bishop Andrew of Prague and the situation within the church in the Czech Lands after the Fourth Lateran Council. Andrew is a central representative in the process of immediate reception of the Fourth Lateran Council in the Czech Lands. Previous research has focused on the fundamental question of Andrews’s episcopate: his conflict with King Ottokar I regarding the church reforms introduced in the Czech Lands between 1216 and 1222. However, it is necessary to study the conflict in a long-term perspective (from the middle of the twelfth till the end of the thirteenth centuries) and in the context of the promotion of the patronage law, the judicial exemption of clergy, and the enforcement of church control over tithes. The analysis shows that the church was a strongly decentralized institution controlled by local lay elites and damaged by nepotism. The private life of the clergy was corrupted by concubinage and, resulting from that, we can see attempts to create ―clerical dynasties.‖ The route to a change only began with Bishop Andrew and the implementation of the change would not have been possible without the overall transformations of the political, economic, social and mental structures.
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Review of: Marcus Wüst - Stephan Flemmig: Zwischen dem Reich und Ostmitteleuropa. Die Beziehungen von Jagiellonen, Wettinern und Deutschem Orden (1386–1526). (Quellen und Forschungen zur sächsischen und mitteldeutschen Geschichte, Bd. 44.) Franz Steiner. Stuttgart 2019. 706 S., Tab. ISBN 978-3-515-12309-9. (€ 116,–.)
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The paper is based on field records of koled’s from Dubrovnik littoral. Koleda songs belong to oral lyrical ritual songs, and a significant number of them have been Christianized. Usually each verse ends with a chours koledo, koledo. The structure is close to toasts and blessings. Although the motifs in the koleda poems are interwined with the motifs of Advent and Christmas oral lyrical religious songs, they are predominantly secular. Koleding is a traditional congratulatory procession in which koleds sing koleda. The custom of koleding has been preserved to this day, but in a slightly modified form and it is only performed on Christmas Eve. It used to be koleding for the New Year, as well as on the feast of the Three Wise Men or during field works. Koleds are an important part of tradition and identity of the inhabitants of the Dubrovnik area. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to preserve old customs and koledas. The emphasis is on koledas which have aesthetic value and take a special part in the intangible cultural heritage of Croatia.
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While the first wave of Christianization in China in the 13th and 14th century is associated with the Franciscan order, the Jesuits were the pillars of its second wave from the 16th to 18th century. The activities of the Jesuits in China can be described as the most massive and significant presence of Europeans and European culture until then. The fact that some of them were active long after the ban on Christianity by the Chinese emperor in 1724 and the ban on Jesuit order by the pope in 1773 is undoubtedly an indisputable proof of the importance of the Jesuits in China. The last of them acted in Beijing until 1813. The reasons for the success of the Jesuits in comparison with the failure of other Europeans to establish themselves in China can be summarized in two points. First, they learned the Chinese language and Chinese culture and were able to deal with the Chinese at the appropriate intellectual level. They convinced sceptical officials that Christianity had a long tradition in China and that to respect Christianity is in the spirit of the Confucian principle of reverence for ancestors.
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Thomas Aquinas is generally known as an opponent of usury, which means any interest on a loan (i.e. any payment over the principal capital). The doctrine created by Aquinas can be called anti-usury doctrine. In medieval economic and legal reality, other legal institutes, instead of the mutuum, had been applied for using things (real estate, chattels) without the transfer of their ownership – rent (locatio conductio rei), borrowing (commodatum) and leniency (precarium). In addition, the effects of the anti-usury (and anti-debt) doctrines caused the rise of the institute of agency. In symbiosis with the development of agency, there were (regulated) markets as a tool to combat crime and create legal certainty for which the institute of agency was important; and markets were important for the proper function of agency.
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This essay analyzes emotionally-charged descriptions of the Holy Land’s locations, composed by Byzantine and Slavic pilgrims, from the 12th to the 15th century. The author considers that such episodes were meant to assist the audience in their imaginary journey. By concentrating on curiosities, dangers, beauties of landscape, or physical efforts, the authors created a feeling of presence at the sites, here-and-now. On the other hand, the accounts of pious, bodily performances and the Erlebnisse of encounters with the Divine facilitated the audience’s access to the spiritual experiences and helped them to conduct the transformative journey mentally.
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The work of Theodor Anton Ippen (1861–1935), Orientalist and Consul of the Habsburg Empire in Scutari, presents a special interest for the Christian topography of north and central Albania. This article is a short critical approach on Ippen’s reports on six churches, with emphasis on their fresco decoration (Byzantine, Late Gothic, and Post-Byzantine one). Ippen’s contribution is still valuable, as it brings out documentation on previously unnoticed monuments and frescoes of medieval Albania, some of which have not even survived.
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This article deals with the existing assumptions about the occurrence and the layers of murals and construction works at the Chapel of the Holy Archangels in the Monastery of Bachkovo. Two Greek inscriptions found while carrying out restoration work are published for the first time: one above the window in the south wall, and the second inscribed on the basement of the drum on which the dome rests. The former is a donor’s inscription and the author deems it to have contained the name of the founder along with that of the painter, while the latter is hymnographical/liturgical and though surviving and uncovered fragmentarily until mid-2020, its content refers to the Archangels. Both inscriptions are palaeographically dated to the fourteenth century and are associated with the donation activities of King Ivan Alexander in the cloister. The deciphered inscriptions confirm the correctness of the assumption of some researchers that by the mid-fourteenth century the church was dedicated to the Archangels. The author inevitably addresses the question of the function of the chapel in the medieval period and how it correlates with the lower floor, the catholicon and the old gates. Here once again he argues that the Chapel of the Holy Archangels was not a mortuary one. In addition to the overall argumentation, Emmanuel Moutafov draws a number of parallels from the historical, theological, philosophical and artistic contexts of the age.
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The article shows that Thomas Aquinas in many of his works (De ente et essentia, Summa theologiae, Sententia in Aristotelis Metaphysicam) interprets the passage Aristot. Metaph. II 1, 993 19‑31, as expounding a theory of degrees of truth and of being, which is not the true Aristotelian doctrine. This is due to the fact that he interprets «the eternal things», mentioned by Aristotle in that passage, as the heavenly bodies, and their principles as the unmoved movers, while Aristotle is speaking of the eternal truths, i.e. the truths of scientific knowledge, and of their principles, which are the axioms. The origin of Thomas’ interpretation is the commentary by Alexander of Aphrodisias, which Thomas knew via Averroes.
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In the area from Senj to Maslenica many mediaeval sites have been documented. They are fortresses, sacral buildings and cemeteries from 5th to 16th centuries. Archaeological localities and the related finds from the areas of Senj, Sveti Juraj, Senj Starigrad, Stinica, Prizna, Jablanac,Karlobag, Starigrad-Paklenica and Rovanjska, which belong to early Christianity and the Croatian Middle Ages will be elaborated upon. The contribution is based on the results of previous archaeological research and surveys, which are already known and their own research.
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One of the most important issues facing the Mamluk State since its establishment was to continue the struggle with the Crusaders who settled in the region. In fact, after the failure of the 3rd Crusade, Egypt became the new strategic target of the Crusaders under the Ayyubid administration. The developments that started during the reign of Sultan Baybars continued in the period of Kalavun and al-Eshref until the conquest of Akka. From this point on, ez-Zâhir Baybars marched at the head of a large army at the beginning of February 1265 and took over the cities of Kaysariyye, Yafa, Aslis, and Arsuf. In the summer of 1266, he tookover Safad and er-Remle. It caused a heavy blow to Armenia Minor. In 1267, Sultan Baybars looted the districts of Taberiyye and Akkâ and invaded the cities of Jaffa, es-Shakif, and Arnun the following year. Finally, he crowned the invasion wars against the Crusaders with the conquest of Antioch (April 1268). Baybars’ conquering of Antioch has been marked by contradictions. However, he will eliminate the crusader presence in Antioch and its surrounding by various methods and occupy the areas in the north of Syria, and finally narrow the area of the Crusader activity. It is an extremely important event that Antioch was conquered by Muslims in 1268. Because Antioch is the second principality established by the Crusaders in the East (1097) after Urfa, and the capture of this place is a piece of new evidence that the great structure that the Crusaders set up in Syria towards the end of the 11th century began to collapse.
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The authors analyse the nobility’s rights of inheritance comprised in the Tripartitum and valid for the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom. For the process of inheritance, it was relevant whether the property to be inherited was hereditary property (bona hereditaria) or acquired property (bona acquisita). Furthermore, it was important whether the property was acquired by the charter of enfeoffment (royal donation) as well as what the gender of a potential heir was. This was due to different limitations with regard to the exercise of rights of inheritance by a female offspring, particularly concerning the inheritance of landed property. In particular, rules of prefection are analysed. The prefection was a legal instrument stipulating that in case of the extinction of the male line, the estate of the nobleman could be inherited by the daughter who was “promoted” to a son by a royal privilege. This was an example of the so-called special inheritance right and was seen as an institution damaging the interests of collateral branches. When it was introduced, the prefection was contrary to the customary inheritance law but was, nevertheless, applied in practice providing the possibility of keeping the property within the (nuclear) family by the female line and excluding the collateral branches of family.
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This paper discusses the function, purpose, place and formal characteristics of the Greek and Roman mythological motifs in the poems that are part of Carmina Burana, a medieval collection of poetry dating from the first half of the 13th century. Different relations established between the aforementioned motifs and lyrical subjects are also examined, as well as how these motifs fit into the context of the individual poem and the entirety of Carmina Burana. The paper focuses exclusively on the motifs which belong to the ancient Greek and Roman traditions, and not on those of the Judeo-Christian provenance, although the latter are numerous in their own right. Also, as Publius Ovidius Naso is often regarded as the main influence on the goliards, traces of his works and militaristic concepts of love visible in the poems of Carmina Burana are also highlighted and examined. The focus of this paper is on those poems which belong to the basic thematic elements usually attributed to the goliards, including tavern, wine, gambling, physical love and satirical and anticlerical overtones.
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The Livonian Chronicle of Henry is one of the most important cornerstones of Latvian “historical memory”. One of the most ideologically problematic issues is the question of the relationship between invaders and local Orthodox rulers. This topic is closely related to the extent of the Christian faith among the local population before the German mission. Currently, most Latvian researchers literally take over the chronicle that the first missionaries to the Livs were Germans, but in Latgale lands Orthodoxy had spread only into the ruling circles. Archaeologists, on the other hand, lack a clear answer to the question: Why up to the 16th century cult items of the Byzantine rite survived to the inhabitants of today’s Eastern part of Latvia? Furthermore – Why was the creation of Latin dioceses and the dissemination of the Latin burial ritual in the area delayed? These phenomena are related to the continuity of the burial ritual from the 12th to the 14th century, which is usually associated with the supposedly formal Christianity of the natives in the 13th century and their subsequent double faith. As medieval chronicle research has reached a new level of understanding of the source in recent decades, it would also be time to look at the highlighted issues differently. The article addresses the local political events of interest to us in Livonia, based both on medieval theological postulates and in the context of global political developments of the time, which were of particular concern to the spiritual authorities. It is important to note that the establishment of Livonia took place at a time when the Roman Church was beginning active efforts to join the Byzantine rite Church. The Conquest of Constantinople in 1204 opened up unprecedented political opportunities that were realised in church unions in several countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Galicia). In both the conquered Greece and the lands of the union, the Latin did not require a change in the language or ritual of the liturgy. Subordination to Rome and administrative unity with the West were immediately demanded, but the changes were postponed. Thus, the lack of information on church construction, congregation formation, and tithe enforcement in both the Jersik Principality and eastern Tolova is logical: Latin practice in the newly joined Byzantine rite lands shows that in Livonia, in the Slavic language.
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Review of: Mira Kolar-Dimitrijević - MLADEN MEDAR, SEDAM STOLJEĆA SAJMOVANJA NA PODRUČJU BJELOVARSKO-BILOGORSKE ŽUPANIJE. PRESJEK KROZ POVIJEST SAJMOVA I IZLOŽBI STOKE, Bjelovar 1999., izd. Bjelovarskog sajma d.o.o. i Gradskog muzeja Bjelovar, str. 1.-87
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