Compitum

Matthieu Pignot (éd.), Latin Anonymous Sermons from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (AD 300-800), Turnhout, 2021.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia, vol. 86
288 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-59122-3
€ 75 (excl. VAT)

Bringing together specialists of early Christian preaching, this book is the first collective volume dedicated exclusively to the study of Latin anonymous sermons.
This volume contains the proceedings of the international conference on anonymous sermons, funded by the F.R.S.-FNRS and held on 16 May 2019 at the Université de Namur (Belgium), within the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and the research centre Pratiques Médiévales de l'Écrit (PraME). It brings together scholars working on late antique and early medieval Latin preaching, and follows on previous volumes on Augustine and African sermons published in the Ministerium Sermonis subseries. The focus here is on Christian Latin preached texts, thought to date from the period c. 300-800 AD, which are not currently attributed to a known author. Long neglected because of their uncertain attribution, these sermons offer new material for the study of late antique and early medieval Christianity. The contributions assembled here provide an essential entry point to the study of these little-known sermons: after an introduction which sets the aims of the book, discusses the state of the art and describes main avenues for research, individual papers present future tools to classify sermons and explore their medieval transmission in manuscripts, offer new critical editions of previously unknown sermons, and develop methods and reliable criteria to shed new light on their historical context of composition. Both engaging with current issues and challenges and offering innovative case studies, this book opens up new ground for future research on late antique and early medieval Latin Christian preaching in general.

Scott G. Bruce (éd.), Litterarum dulces fructus. Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honour of Michael W. Herren, Turnhout, 2021.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia, vol. 85
511 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-58976-3
€ 100 (excl. VAT)

Litterarum dulces fructus presents studies about medieval languages and literature in northern Europe in late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Drawing inspiration from the scholarship of Professor Michael Herren, founding editor of The Journal of Medieval Latin, this florilegium of studies advances our understanding of the dynamics of Latin and vernacular literature and learning in the early medieval world. Taken together, the papers gathered in this volume cast light on authors, poets, glossators, and compilers at work as they grappled with linguistic and literary ambitions and challenges, while negotiating their use of ancient authorities to address contemporary concerns.

Adrián Fernández González, Historia de Alejandro Magno de Quinto Curcio por Micer Alfonso de Liñán. Estudio y edición del BNE, Mss/7565, Turnhout, 2021.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Alexander redivivus (AR 14)
363 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-59491-0
100 €

Interesado en las hazañas de los grandes caudillos de la Antigüedad, el aragonés Alfonso de Liñán (†1468) tradujo las Historiae Alexandri Magni de Quinto Curcio al castellano a partir de la versión italiana de Pier Candido Decembrio. El texto se conserva todavía en la Biblioteca Nacional de España, bajo la signatura BNE Mss/7565. Testimonio valioso para el estudio de la traducción medieval y sus funciones, el códice recuerda sobre todo la fascinación de aquel lectorado por Alejandro Magno, ya conocido en la literatura castellana desde el Libro de Alexandre. En los albores del Renacimiento, el macedonio va a ser un modelo para una nobleza que debe definirse bajo nuevos criterios. El presente volumen ofrece el estudio y la edición de esta traducción y desvela los intereses de un noble aragonés por la figura alejandrina.

Daniel Markovich, Promoting a New Kind of Education: Greek and Roman Philosophical Protreptic, Leyde, 2021.

Éditeur : Brill
Collection : International Studies in the History of Rhetoric, 16
xvi-328 pages
ISBN : 978-90-04-46723-1
119 €

Authors of Greek and Roman philosophical protreptics imitate a kind of exhortation initially associated with Socrates, creating a thread of typically protreptic intertextuality that classifies protreptic as a genre of philosophical literature. Tracing this intertextuality from the Socratic authors to Boethius, the book shows how Greek and Roman protreptics define philosophy as a revisionary form of education, articulate the ultimate goals of this education, and associate their authors and audiences with philosophy as a new discursive practice and a new way of living. These texts constitute the first chapter in the history of educational revision and thus offer thoughts that continue to inform every debate on educational goals.

Source : Brill

Antón Alvar Nuño, Jaime Alvar Ezquerra et Greg Woolf (éd.), Sensorium: The Senses in Roman Polytheism, Leyde, 2021.

Éditeur : Brill
Collection : Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 195
xvi-458 pages
ISBN : 978-90-04-45973-1
124 €

SENSORIVM: The Senses in Roman Polytheism explores how a range of cults and rituals were perceived and experienced by participants through one or more senses.
The present collection brings together papers from an international group of researchers all inspired by ‘the sensory turn'. Focusing on a wide range of ritual traditions from around the ancient Roman world, they explore the many ways in which smell and taste, sight and sound, separately and together, involved participants in religious performance. Music, incense, images and colors, contrasts of light and dark played as great a role as belief or observance in generating religious experience.
Together they contribute to an original understanding of the Roman sensory universe, and add an embodied perspective to the notion of Lived Ancient Religion.

Alexander Meeus et Kai Trampedach (éd.), The Legitimation of Conquest. Monarchical Representation and the Art of Government in the Empire of Alexander the Great, Stuttgart, 2020.

Éditeur : Franz Steiner Verlag
Collection : Studies in Ancient Monarchies, 7
363 pages
ISBN : 978-3-515-12781-3
68 €

Within a single decade (334–325 BC) Alexander III of Macedon conquered much of the known world of his time, creating an empire that stretched from the Balkans to India and southern Egypt. His clear intention of establishing permanent dominion over this huge and culturally diverse territory raises questions about whether and how he tried to legitimate his position and about the reactions of various groups subject to his rule: Macedonians, Greeks, the army, indigenous elites. Starting from Max Weber's "Herrschaftssoziologie", the 15 authors discuss Alexander's strategies of legitimation as well as the motives his subjects may have had for offering him obedience. The analysis of monarchical representation and political communication in these case-studies on symbolic performances and economic, administrative and religious measures sheds new light on the reasons for the swift Macedonian conquest: It appears that Alexander and his staff owed their success not only to their military talent but also to their communication skills and their capacity to cater to the expectations of their audiences.

Source : Franz Steiner Verlag