We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
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
More...History, Patronages, and Insight into the Teutonic Order and the Christian Population in Prussia (Thirteenth–Fifteenth Centuries)
This article summarizes the history of the relics of St Barbara in Althaus Kulm (Starogród Chełmiński), a topic with extensive research in Polish and German circles, but only recently addressed by scholarship in English. It begins with an overview of the relics’ history and a summary of St Barbara’s vita, pointing out the quick rise in her cult in the Teutonic Order’s Prussian territory (Ordensland). Following this, it assesses the function of the relics through three lenses: warfare, daily life, and as a symbol of the Order’s power using three methodological frameworks. These are hierophany (manifestations of the sacred) for warfare, naming practices for studying the impact of St Barbara on the local population, and as a reflection of the Order’s territorial power (Landesherrschaft). The article ultimately demonstrates that the relics were a significant element of the multifaceted structure of religious life in medieval Prussia, both within and outside of the Teutonic Order. Appended to the text are two previously unpublished accounts of the relics of St Barbara and their arrival in Althaus, demonstrating the reputation of the shrine not just in the Ordensland, but within Christendom. It concludes with a summary of the research findings, and a consideration of these findings in light of more ‘recent’ interpretations of the Teutonic Order and the Prussian Crusades.
More...
This paper analyses the history of ethical thinking of Kazakhs and its context in the nomadic traditions of Central Asia, which arises from an ancient branch of Turkic-speaking culture and includes layers of IndoIranian, Chinese and Arab cultures. The position of Kazakhs on the Silk Road has meant that ethical thought has been influenced by ideas from across Eurasia. However, even with the coming of Islam and later invasions, Kazakh thought has retained its distinctiveness and elements dating back to its early origins. The paper explores the evolution of ethical thinking from Korkyt-Ata in the VIII century to that of the Abai Kunanbayev in the XIX century Kazakh Enlightenment. Throughout Kazakh history, the expression of ideas and their relationship with society (rulers and people) has been through poetry and song. Kazakh poetic philosophizing is a fusion of mind and heart, Sufi mysticism and rational knowledge. Further traditions, such as the principle of hospitality, are also key elements in the evolution of Kazakh ethical thinking.
More...
While approaching a well-researched topic, that of the fortified churches of Transylvania, the scope of this article is to look for possible answers to the question why the Saxons built so many fortified churches in Transylvania. For their number seems to be larger here than in other European states. To find these answers I examined the local topography, historic context (the Mongol invasion and the later battles with the Ottomans), typology, stages of building, identity and culture of the builders (Saxons), the role played by the church/religion at the time.
More...
The article analyzes materials from the Archive of V. Rozov. They contain knowledge important for modern historical linguistics and dialectology. The material is based on a deep and systematic study of charters from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which Rozov made in publications of 1917 and 1928. Basically, the Archive comprises manuscripts written in the Kyiv period, as well as from 1925 to 1940, when V. Rozov taught at the universities of Skopje and Zagreb. New archival materials, which have not yet been the subject of a separate historical and linguistic study, reveal the expansion of the scientific concept of V. Rozov – from studying the phonetics of the Volyn dialect and the charters of Švitrigaila to a generalized presentation of the classification of business documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and dialectal differentiation of the language.
More...
An assessment of the reliability of results obtained during the work of the Combined Expedition, aimed at clarifying the location of the Battle on the Ice of 1242, has gained particular relevance over the last decades. Unpublished sources still not in scholarly circulation, especially diaries kept by expedition leader G. N. Karayev in 1956–1960, but these have a great significance for studying this problem. An analysis of their content allows ones to specify that at the first stage (in 1956) there was preliminary research (field trip, examining data from historical studies on the microregional geography, collecting information from locals). In 1957, thanks to the efforts of G. N. Karayev, specialized organizations were involved in performing such tasks as diving work, and after 1958 the expedition’s significantly expanded activities were done under auspices of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Documents preserved in the archive indicate that all the observations were carried out according to plan and were thoroughly recorded. Moreover, research that required special skills (diving work skills, work with equipment, etc.) were carried out exclusively by the people with special training. The documents also convey the emotional atmosphere that used to rule in this expedition: enthusiasm and the desire of participants to qualitatively complete the task.
More...
The subject of article is the history of the musical and poetic composition of the Christmas sticheron “Σήμερον ὁ Χριστός” by Johann Damascene with the Gospel quotation “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will toward men” (Lk. 2:14), as well as the circle of associated stichera in Byzantine, Old Russian and Kiev-Lithuanian traditions. The musical text of the hymns is represented in Greek manuscripts by Chartres, Coislin and middle-Byzantine neumes; Old Russian chant books were analyzed using znamenny neumes and singer notation; and Kiev manuscripts - using Kievan five-line notation records. The melody of the Christmas sticheron emphasizes the importance of the Gospel quotation with long melismatic musical fragments of the quotation itself and the previous sentence. This sticheron became a model for several hymns to Epiphany, Purification of the Most Holy Mother of God, Annunciation and Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Mother of God, the majority of which were excluded from liturgical use. There are various ways of creating a new sticheron based on the model: prosomoion may be a calque or an independent composition with certain elements of model tune. The latter case of the sticheron to the Entry into the Temple “Σήμερον τῷ ναῷ προσάγεται” has its own musical text history in three traditions, independent from that of the model. Chants of Old Russian manuscripts of 11th-14th centuries are similar to those of a Byzantine origin, but in the 15th-17th centuries the music of these two traditions has developed in different ways. The Kievan chant tradition, similar to both Old Russian and Byzantine ones, is a point of intersection of chant cultures.
More...
This text is devoted to venerable Gregory the Sinaite of Vojlovica. The motif for this is hagiologic and it is reflected in the need to explore saintly side of Gregory’s personality, and to remove existing suspicions, all of that in context of his canonisation by the church. Starting with scarce and undisclosed historical sources and facts, that cannot be easily validated, we are going to access archaeological and anthropological way of exploring this topic which will prove to be very vital. We will also bring about collected texts relevant for this topic. The importance of this effort can be seen in its answer to questions asked many times: who is Gregory the Sinaite whose relics (remains) are in Vojlovica? Is he the same Gregory Sinaite whose relics (remains) are in Gornjak? This is a multidisciplinary text which is in its entirety devoted to this topic and it corroborates renewed celebration of God’s benefactor Gregory, which would imply hagiographic, iconographic and hymnographic elements.
More...
L’acte d ’arborer le drapeau national à Vlora le 28 Novembre 1912 mit fin à une époque de guerres et d ’efforts séculaires, couronna l’oeuvre brillante de la Renaissance, dont les architectes devinrent toute une pléiade d ’hommes illustres, du fusil et de la plume que l’Albanie fit sortir de son sein dans cette époque révolutionnaire. «Ces grands hommes - a dit le cam arade Enver Hoxha - sont inspirés avant tout des aspirations de notre peuple pour la libération, pour l’indépendance nationale, pour la démocratie, ils sont inspirés de l’ardent désir pour m ettre comme il faut à l’évidence notre ancienne culture, dans tous les pays où vivaient les Albanais, pour la faire diffuser, l’étudier plus à fond, l’enrichir advantage.
More...
Imam al-Shatibi is one of the most important and most outstanding personalities of Muslim Spain. He lived at the time of defence of the last Muslim stronghold in Andalus - Granada - from the enemy who surrounded it from all sides. His name and work came into focus of contemporary fiqh and usul al-fiqh researches in the context of their increasing interest in his understanding and elaboration of the objectives of Shari'ah...
More...
Abu Hayyan lived at the turn of the 13th to the 14th century and is one of the most significant representatives of the late Andalus grammarian school. After he had used what Al-Andalus of that time could offer to him. Led by a strong desire to learn, he went to the East. After he had visited many countries in the East, he settled in Cairo, where he spent the rest of his life studying and teaching others.
More...
Insofar as it is possible to use history to understand one’s time, three main lessons can be drawn from the study of the Middle Ages. First, repeated confrontation with new populations did not prevent the foundation of a single cultural community. Then, among the causes that allowed this assimilation, there is what could be called an “inferiority complex,” which paradoxically pushed the men of the Middle Ages to constantly innovate out of admiration for their prestigious predecessors. Finally, the desire for unity was allied with numerous tensions and a de facto pluralism, since the poles around which to unify were themselves several: philosophical wisdom inherited from Athens, civil law transmitted from Rome, the Christian faith received from Jerusalem.
More...
The Author of this essay tries to show the value of medieval aesthetics by putting it in dialogue with some fundamental aspects of contemporary aesthetics. A description of those issues that most contrast with current culture is outlined: the predominance in the Middle Ages of religious faith and its fusion with the tradition of Greek thought in a metaphysical perspective, in order to elaborate the aesthetic theory, developing an ontological theory of beauty and art. On the contrary, the current era, still very indebted to modernity, is installed in a position of enormous metaphysical fragility and religious faith, excessively restricting reason to scientific rationality. In this sense, the Middle Ages can inspire us in the quest, already undertaken by certain currents of phenomenology, of expanding reason. In this framework, the difficulties of medieval aesthetics in order to conceive clearly the difference between beauty and good are analysed, then it has been something that has been done better in modern lines that have not lost the transcendental, from Immanuel Kant to Xavier Zubiri. Various conceptions of the Middle Ages are asserted, fundamentally from the hand of Umberto Eco, and without idealizing it, important values stand out in it nonetheless. The thesis is defended that it is not possible to completely renounce the theory of proportion, but that it must be expanded on the basis of a richer ontology, which, together with the ‘real-things’ of the world, takes into account the ‘sense-things’, according to the proposal of Xavier Zubiri. This allows us to critically assume the expansion of the aesthetic horizon (the opening of aesthetic values) typical of the contemporary without falling into nihilism.
More...
A huge collection of ceramics finds was discovered by digging a basement on the court of the family house in the village Šintava (district Galanta, Slovakia), in March 2020. For this reason, the Department of Archaeology at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra realized archaeological excavation. During the excavation were documented three settlement features, which were secondary filled mostly with the ceramics. Some of them were fragments of stove tiles, especially panel stove tiles with different types of motifs. In this study, the collection of stove tiles are presented and evaluated by iconography, morphology, type-chronological classification, and also an extension on the territory of Slovakia. The finding itself is also evaluated within Šintava past settlement.
More...
This study briefly analyzes a fifteenth-century Byzantine work written by John Kananos, which describes the Ottoman attack of Constantinople led by Sultan Murat II that took place in 1422. This text is the main source for this historical event, as the author himself was an eyewitness of the Ottoman assault. Concerning the reasons for writing his account, Kananos is very clear from the beginning of the treatise. He planned to narrate the defeat of the Ottoman armies by the Byzantine defensive, which was aided by the Panagia to a decisive end. In this regard, the text can also be read as an encomion dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin, as Kananos considered her to be the saviour of Constantinople. The connection between Virgin Mary and the Byzantine capital stretches from the moment of the foundation of the imperial city by Constantine the Great until the end of Byzantium. Hence, since its inauguration Constantinople was dedicated to the Mother of God, and later the Byzantine religious tradition placed Panagia at the center of the City’s numerous salvations from the foreign attacks.In his text, John Kananos describes how the Ottoman armies fled from Constantinople after Panagia showed herself on the fortifications of the City, aiding the poor Byzantine defensive. To create a contrast between the vast and fiercely power of the Ottoman armies and the weak Byzantine troops, the author introduces vast descriptions concerning the assault machines brought by the Ottomans to conquer Constantinople. Moreover, in order to parallel the divine aid received from the Theotokos with the prophetical predictions made by the Persian scholars and the Turkish ‘patriarch’ Mersaites on the fall of Constantinople, Kananos vividly describes the outcome of the armed conflict, which brought together divine and earthly powers, on the one hand, and many nations, both Christian and Muslim, on the other. In general lines, Kananos’ narration is a vibrant description of a medieval siege, an important Byzantine source for the history of late Byzantium, an anti-Ottoman work infused with late Byzantine perceptions on Islam, as well as a miracle tale dedicated to the Most Holy Mother of God. The study is followed by the first translation into Romanian of this Byzantine work, which had been annotated, offering to the reader historical and philological explanations, as well as bibliographical references.
More...
In our paper we deal with testaments of clergymen in the Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages in relation with bishops and archbishops. As the highest ranked officials of the Church, bishops represented guarantees and protectors of testamentary law of clerics. Their episcopal power became a pledge for practical exercise of their testamentary law in the kingdom. They performed tasks as witnesses, executors or they provided confirmation of last wills in higher ranks of the hierarchy. At the same time they were recipients of various testamentary messages in material, financial or spiritual forms or they formed messages of such kinds. In our paper we also analyze personal testaments of bishops and archbishops.
More...
The town of Zvolen with a population of over 43 000 is an important regional center and traffic node of Central Slovakia. Although in close neighbourhood of the town, historical Podzámok or Subcastle quarter (Zólyom Várallya in Hungarian) made historically an administrative unit subordinate to Zvolen castle, not to a free royal town. The castle itself was since 13th Century also the seat of both the Zvolen County and Zvolen castle domain. In this paper we reconstruct the shape and evolution of Podzámok over time. As a service village of the castle, earliest structures by royal courtyard already existed prior to 1244 AD. They were represented by a toll-house, manor house, barns, royal garden and a fishpond, respectively. Since 1619 AD the habitation became a property of Eszterházi House. Medieval buildings were gradually supplemented by houses of clerical staff, brewery, lord´s pub, butchery, mill, saw-mill, artisan workshops and cottages. Spatial development of Podzámok was not only influenced by military function of the castle, but also by local natural conditions (= flooded area of river Slatina). The 18th Century was a period of relative economic boom, in contrast to a consecutive 19th century. Besides historical written data, our knowledge of Podzámok is mainly based on little-known plans and maps of 1708-1711, 1753 and 1860, respectively. The last standing buildings of Podzámok – besides the castle itself and the cannon bastion – are those of manorial brewery and distillery.
More...