Medieval Literature

“Chaucer’s Ghoast and Gower’s Confessio Amantis.”

by Essaka Joshua

Notes and Queries 242, n. s. 44 (1997): 458–9.

‘Hound Supporting the Falcon in Hunting: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen’s De arte venandi cum avibus, 3, 28’

by Bogdan Burliga

Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae 22 (2009), pp. 71–77

‘Literacki aspekt Kroniki oliwskiej’

by Bogdan Burliga

[w:] Dzierżawcy, literaci, posłowie [Studia z Dziejów Średniowiecza 16], red. B. Możejko, M. Smoliński i S. Szybkowski, Malbork 2011, ss. 53-67

Editions of the Somniale Danielis in Medieval and Humanist Literary Miscellanies

by Valerio Cappozzo

Dissertation Thesis, Indiana University 2012. Advisor: Prof. H. Wayne Storey

This study examines the ways in which the dream manual was materially bound together with collections of early Italian... more This study examines the ways in which the dream manual was materially bound together with collections of early Italian visionary literature. The Somniale Danielis was a widely circulated dream manual in the late Middle Ages. It guided the interpretation of dreams and also served as an important tool in the understanding of medieval literary dreams. Thus it is an important aid in the identification and description of traditional dream topoi. The entries of the dream-book represent a framework within which medieval vision poetry develops its network of images and motifs. In a larger sense, the medieval miscellany often provides us insights into the “utility” of common texts at diverse levels of reception and use. These usually thematic collections made by copyists at the request of a reader or a user not only supply us with little-known texts excluded from codices arranged by author or genre, but also give us a view into how different cultures associated diverse texts.
Since different versions of the manual were produced often for “local purposes”, this study provides diplomatic-interpretative editions of five representative texts of the Somniale Danielis in Latin and Italian in the context of medieval and humanist literary miscellanies. In addition to a study of the cultural contexts in which we find these versions of the Somniale, this study also offers a synoptic edition of the five texts with a focus on the diverse terms that are used to convey key concepts of medieval dream manuals. From this same comparative apparatus, the final part of the dissertation includes an inventory of dream symbols.

Orderic Vitalis: New perspectives on the historian and his world (Call for papers)

by Daniel Roach

9-11 April 2013, St John’s College, University of Durham

Call for papers
Orderic Vitalis:
New Perspectives on the Historian and His World

(9-11 April... more Call for papers
Orderic Vitalis:
New Perspectives on the Historian and His World

(9-11 April 2013, St John’s College, University of Durham)

The organising committee of the Durham University Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference 'Orderic Vitalis: New Perspectives on the historian and his world' invite abstracts from prospective speakers. This event, funded by the Durham University IMRS, will provide a forum for the dissemination of new research into the life and works of the monastic scholar, Orderic Vitalis. With plans already in place to publish a 'companion' volume on Orderic, this conference will aim to re-invigorate existing work and open new lines of research around a figure whose legacy has proven vital to scholars of the Anglo-Norman world.

While the conference welcomes papers on a wide scope of topics, we particularly invite abstracts for papers relating to the following areas:

•The manuscript history of Orderic's Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic's scholarly and scribal career away from the Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic’s travels, administrative activities, and studies away from Saint-Évroul.

•Orderic’s world view and his networks of knowledge-exchange and transfer.

•The 'rediscovery' of the Historia ecclesiastica by early modern audiences, and Orderic's subsequent influence on the development of Anglo-Norman studies.

Prospective speakers are invited to submit abstracts of between 250-300 words, and should also include their contact details (name, affiliation, e-mail address). The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2012. Limited bursaries towards travel costs will be offered to postgraduate speakers. If you wish to apply for one of these, please indicate this when submitting an abstract.

For further information about Orderic Vitalis: New perspectives on the historian and his world or to submit an abstract, please email Charlie Rozier, at: c.c.rozier@durham.ac.uk or Dan Roach at: dr229@exeter.ac.uk, or visit:
www.dur.ac.uk/imrs/conferences/orderic_vitalis/

Der involvierte Leser. Immersive Lektürepraktiken in der spätmittelalterlichen Mystik-Rezeption, in: Immersion im Mittelalter, hg. von Hartmut Bleumer (Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 167, 2012) (in Druckvorbereitung)

by Balázs J. Nemes

The article approaches the immersive potential of Mechthild von Magdeburg's “Fließendes Licht“, dispensing the reader... more The article approaches the immersive potential of Mechthild von Magdeburg's “Fließendes Licht“, dispensing the reader from his role as a spectator and turning him into a participant, something which has frequently been claimed by the new German medieval studies. This particular kind of recipient is, certainly, an ideal-typical reader, a literary construct with the function to display the strategies of persuasion in “Fließendes Licht“ and the special literacy or the functional inclusion of the text. It should be all the more interesting to have a look at a specific historical recipient as this allows making the text's calculated aesthetic impacts plausible or outlining them with regard to the history of receptions. The instructions by Heinrich von Nördlingen from the first half of the 14th century, addressed to Margareta Ebner and the Dominican nuns of Maria Medingen near Dillingen, which told them how to incorporate and read „Fließendes Licht“ will be the centre of my analysis. This particular example and the recourse to circulating thoughts about the phenomenology of immersion shall show which requirements have to be fulfilled in a special religious context of reception to obtain the effect of immersion. Heinrich's directives are perfectly suitable for this line of questioning as they create the model of an involved reader, amounting to the requirement to get into the diegesis of the text and to identify with the literary figure.

Im Beitrag geht es um das in der neueren germanistisch-mediävistischen Forschung vielfach behauptete immersive Potential des „Fließenden Lichts“ Mechthilds von Magdeburg, den Leser seiner Rolle als Beobachter (spectator) zu entbinden und ihn zu einem Teilnehmer (participant) der textuell entworfenen virtuellen Realität zu machen. Freilich handelt es sich bei diesem Typ vom Rezipienten um einen idealtypischen Leser, ein literaturwissenschaftliches Figurenkonstrukt also, dessen Funktion darin besteht, die im „Fließenden Licht“ verfolgten Persuasionsstrategien und damit die besondere Literarizität bzw. funktionale Einbindung des Textes sichtbar zu machen. Umso interessanter dürfte es sein, den Blick auf einen konkreten historischen Rezipienten zu lenken, ermöglicht er doch, die von der Forschung beobachteten kalkuliert wirkungsästhetischen Effekte des Textes zu plausibilisieren bzw. rezeptionsgeschichtlich zu perspektivieren. Im Mittelpunkt meiner Untersuchung stehen die an Margareta Ebner und die Dominikanerinnen von Maria Medingen bei Dillingen gerichteten Anweisungen von Heinrich von Nördlingen aus der Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts, wie sie das „Fließende Licht“ aufnehmen und lesen sollen. An diesem Fallbeispiel und im Rückgriff auf die kursierenden Überlegungen zur Phänomenologie der Immersion gilt es zu zeigen, welche Voraussetzungen speziell in einem religiösen Rezeptionskontext erfüllt werden müssen, damit es überhaupt zum Effekt der Immersion kommt. Heinrichs Direktiven eignen sich für diese Fragestellung insofern bestens, als sie das Modell des involvierten Lesers entwerfen, laufen sie doch auf die Forderung hinaus, sich in die Diegese des Textes zu begeben und sich mit der Textfigur zu identifizieren

Dating Peredur: New Light on Old Problems

by Natalia Petrovskaia

Published in the Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 29 (2009), pp. 223-243

Boccaccio e l'invenzione del libro illustrabile: dal Teseida al Decameron

by Martina Mazzetti

"Per Leggere", 21, 2011

Das Nibelungenlied

by Konstantin Dragaš

Author: Tunç Türel

Reading the Texts of Henryson's Fables

by Kevin J. McGinley

The Bottle Imp 4 (2008)

'In brief sermone ane pregnant sentence': Puns and Perspectivism in Robert Henryson's The Testament of Cresseid

by Kevin J. McGinley

In "Joyous Sweit Imaginatioun": Essays on Scottish Literature in Honour of R.D.S. Jack, edited by Sarah Carpenter and Sarah M.
Dunnigan, (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007), pp.41-57.

The Feinyit and the Feminine: The Gendering of Poetry in Robert Henryson’ s Orpheus and Eurydice

by Kevin J. McGinley

In Woman and the Feminine in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004), pp.74-85

Античные источники ирландской «Ахиллеиды»

by Dmitry Nikolaev

Рукопись. В соавторстве с М.В. Шумилиным (на самом деле статья в первую очередь его) — для сборника Тронских чтений 2012 года.

В работе высказывается предположение, что некоторые из вставок в ирландском переложении «Ахиллеиды» Стация могут... more В работе высказывается предположение, что некоторые из вставок в ирландском переложении «Ахиллеиды» Стация могут восходить к несохранившемуся античному мифографическому источнику.

Some thoughts on Sir Gawain

by Tibor Tarcsay

A seminar paper, no more.

The Cynewulfian version of the "hoptasia" - presentation

by Tibor Tarcsay

To be presented before the SEAS Scholarly Circle

Following on Pamela Gradon's article, an in-depth investigation of the possible sources and motivations behind... more Following on Pamela Gradon's article, an in-depth investigation of the possible sources and motivations behind Cynewulf's "Huns and Goths and the Frankish people, and Hugas".

Review of Tara Williams's "Inventing Womanhood: Gender and Language in Later Middle English Writing"

by Claudia Yaghoobi

in Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Illusions of Love: The ‘Woman-Who-Never-Was’ and the 'Libro de buen amor'

by Nicholas Ealy

Sexuality, Sociality and Cosmology in Medieval Literary Texts, Edited by Jennifer Brown and Marla Segol, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 (ISBN: 978-0230109803)

This essay examines the connection in the 'Libro de buen amor' between the Archpriest’s cosmological imperative to... more This essay examines the connection in the 'Libro de buen amor' between the Archpriest’s cosmological imperative to love and the portrait of an ideal lady given to him by Amor. In this analysis, the essay argues that the portrait both embodies the Archpriest’s endless search for love and symbolizes the very nature and limits of human desire.

Calisto's Narcissistic Visions: A Reexamination of Melibea's "Ojos Verdes" in "Celestina"

by Nicholas Ealy

Forthcoming in eHumanista 21 (2012)

In Act 1 of Fernando de Rojas’s Celestina (1499), Calisto praises the beauty of Melibea largely in terms of the... more In Act 1 of Fernando de Rojas’s Celestina (1499), Calisto praises the beauty of Melibea largely in terms of the clichéd portraiture common to chivalric romance. Her green eyes (ojos verdes), however, contrast with more widespread depictions where authors tend to describe eyes in terms of their luminosity (shining, starry or mirror-like). This article proposes a new means of considering Melibea’s ojos verdes as a complex symbol joining the psychophysiology of sight to the conflicted desire that both sustains and undermines Calisto’s amorous feelings. The greenery of the eyes thus comes to serve as a metaphor for the transcendental, rapacious, and narcissistic modes of desire linked to vision and the gaze between lovers. In this study, I demonstrate how (1) the ojos verdes are etymologically and textually associated with traditions of beauty, carnality, and mirrored vision and (2) these issues coalesce around the theme of Ovidian narcissism present within the text. This dual objective is elucidated through an analysis of the beatific vision Calisto claims to experience in Act 1, where the reference to ojos verdes appears, the undoing of these exalted eyes in their connection to falconry and rapacious desire, and the link between Melibea’s eyes, narcissistic imagery, and the greenery of the garden in Act 19.

En el primer acto de Celestina (Fernando de Rojas, 1499), Calisto alaba en gran medida la belleza de Melibea en términos del retrato esteriotipado común a los libros de caballería. Sus ojos verdes, sin embargo, contrastan con representaciones más generalizadas donde los autores tienden a describir los ojos en cuanto a su luminosidad (brillantes, estrellados o como espejos). Este estudio propone una nueva forma de interpretar los ojos verdes de Melibea como un símbolo complejo que une la psicofisiología de la visión al deseo conflictivo que sostiene y socava los sentimientos amorosos de Calisto. El verde de los ojos viene a servir como una metáfora de los modos del deseo trascendental, codicioso y narcisista vinculados a la visión y la mirada entre los amantes. En este estudio, demuestro cómo (1) los ‘ojos verdes’ están conectados tanto etimológicamente como textualmente a las tradiciones de la belleza, la carnalidad y la visión de espejo y (2) estos asuntos se unen en torno al tema del narcisismo ovidiano presente en el texto. Este doble objetivo se dilucida a través de un análisis de la visión beatífica que Calisto sostiene experimentar en el primer acto, donde aparece la referencia a ‘ojos verdes,’ la ruina de estos ojos exaltados en su asociación con la cetrería y el deseo rapaz, y el vínculo entre los ojos de Melibea, las imágenes narcisistas, y el verde del jardín en el acto 19.

"Como la uña de la carne": dolor y ternura en el Cantar de Mio Cid

by Carlos Mata Indurain

Carlos Mata Induráin, «“Como la uña de la carne”: dolor y ternura en el Cantar de mío Cid», Río Arga. Revista de Poesía, núm. 124, cuarto trimestre de 2007, pp. 19-26.

Эпические черты в монодии Михаила Италика на севастократора Андроника Комнина [The epic motives in Michael Italicus' monodia on the sebastocrator Andronic Comnenus]

by Sergei A. Kozloff

In: Проблема континуитета в византийской и поствизантийской истории: Тез. докл. XIII Междунар. науч. Сюзюмовских чтений (Екатеринбург, 18–20.11.2010 г.). Екатеринбург: Изд-во УрГУ, 2010. С. 48–50.