Medieval History - Science topic

Dear @Yoshinori Shiozawa Kindly check the following links, and attached pdfs; hope, these could be important sources of insight to the answer of your question.

سلسلة عالم المعرفة...رقم ١٥١ تجارة المحيط الهندي في عصر السيادة الاسلامية ٦٦١-١٤٩٨م تاليف: د.شوقي عبد القوي عثمان

The round table is a great idea! I'll be happy to participate in it. Thanks a lot for this initiative.

Yes, of course, I've heard about these planned exhibitions.

I've know about that approximately since 2012, but... :)

I'm also planning an interview with Prof. D. Lortkipanidze and other specialists and I hope it will be successful.

Thank you again for your initiative.

sincerely, G.M.

Hi - good luck. Here is something I put together a few years ago:

Similar things happened in India when foreign invaders attacked and ruled India from 712 to 1707 or so. Possibly 100 Million persons were killed and 25 million were made as slaves in ~1000 years o foreign rule. People of India/Hindusthan suffered so much, but managed barbaric rule somehow. Such things happen in all civilizations. Poor people has to pay the cost. Interestly killers/people has similar mindset even today especially in some parts of world where they are killing their brothers/neighbours even of same religion. Peace is day dream in such regions due to violence being done on the name of religion. 

there are various accounts of them severing the enemy heads and using them to build mounds from which to preach the call to prayer, unfortunately I am away from my library so cannot chase up references at the moment, I would be surprised if you find many references to the treatment of the common dead on the grounds that the treatment of such tends not to be commented on by chroniclers unless it is particularly outstanding one way or the other

the Roman emperor you are thinking of was Valerian, after his death in 260 CE in Sassanian captivity his body was supposedly treated this way

Jesse Lynch:  Since paper reached via the Mulims in the Iberian peninsula, who in turn received the paper-making idea from China via the Silk Road, it is possible that the abbot of Cluny could have acted in the way you describe.  But I would rather hesitate to impose our contemporary notion of the "other," and certainly the Jews are not the object in relation to the use of paper in Europe.  

In Europe, the use of animal skins (parchment=sheep and vellum=young cow) was long established, and as you also note on the question durability, paper did not appeal to the manuscript production.  So, the question of durability and practicality was most likely the factor determining their preference toward animal skin until the Gutenberg printing process was introduced, which naturally favored paper and not animal skins.

Dear Vanessa King,

try to follow:

http://opac.regesta-imperii.de/lang_de/anzeige.php?sammelwerk=Feste+und+Feiern+im+Mittelalter 

Yours sincerely

Zdeněk Vácha

Thank You Marina! I finally found some time to check the examples, and they are very helpful. Thx again.

Dear Yusuf Polat:  By your question, religious structure of Europe in (the) Middle Ages (in the 11th to 12th century), we refer to "secular" and "monastic" buildings, including churches and domestic structures.    

By "secular," we mean such buildings as cathedrals, where bishops and archbishops had their seat, the "cathedra" from which the expression "cathedral" derives, as the head churches of dioceses, and parish churches for the care of parishoners operating within a diocese under the ecclesiastic jurisdiction of a bishop.

As for the "monastic" buildings, they consist of the monastic church as the center, surrounded by both official and domestic structures, such as the chapter house, dormitory, refectory (dining room), lavatory, and buildings necessary for self-sustaining monastic life, including kitchen, mills, baking house, brewing house, etc.  The chapter house, refectory, dormitory and lavatory are all clustered around a cloister, a square or rectangular open area defined by roofed passages on all four sides.  

The Western medieval monastic settings are ultimately based upon the Rules of St. Benedict.

Here, I offer a short list of basic references to the ecclesiastic buildings of the Romanesque (10th,11th to mid-12th century) and Gothic (from the mid-12th century to up to the early 16th century).  [Note that both the beginning and ending of the Romanesque and Gothic periods depend of where we are in Western Europe.  But the dividing line between the two periods can be set at around the middle of the 12th century, when Abbot Suger of St. Denis Abbey just north of Paris, the mausoleum of the French kings, began to replace its Carolingian (9th century) abbey church, starting from the west end complex between 1137 and 1140, and then working on the eastern end, the crypt, choir and ambulatory, between 1140 and 1144.  (Abbot Suger had planned to complete the middle of the middle section of his abbey church, the nave, but he died in 1151 and we have to wait until the mid-13th century, when the rebuilding of the nave together with the remodeling of the choir took place in the latest Rayonnant Style Gothic.]

1. For the Romanesque period architecture:

• Conant, Kenneth J. Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800-1200. 4th ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992 (in the Pelican History of Art Series).

• Kuback, Hans E. Romanesque Architecture. New York: Electa/Rizzoli, 1988. 

• Stalley, Roger, Early Medieval Architecture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 (in the Oxford History of Art series).

2. For the Gothic period architecture:

• Bony, Jean. French Gothic Architecture of the 12th and 13th Centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

• Branner, Robert. Gothic Architecture. New York: Braziller, 1961.

• Coldstream, Nicola, Medieval Architecture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (in the Oxford History of Art series).

• Frankl, Paul. Gothic Architecture. Revised by Paul Crossley. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. (In the Pelican History of Art Series).

• Grodecki, Louis. Gothic Architecture. New York: Electa/Rizzoli, 1985. 

• Scott, Robert E. The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

• Simson, Otto von. The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order. 3rd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

• Wills, Robert. Architectural History of Some English Cathedrals, 2 vols. 1846. Reprint, Chicheley: Minet, 1972.

• Wilson, Christopher. The Gothic Cathedral: The Architecture of the Great Church, 1130-1530. 1st paperback ed., with revisions. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

3. For some specific buildings and concepts:

• Panofsky, Erwin. Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and Its Art Treasures. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.

• ———. Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. 1951. Reprint, New York: New American Library, 1985.

• Tatton-Brown, Tim and John Crook. Salisbury Cathedral: The Making of a Medieval Masterpiece. London: Scala Publishers, 2009.

• Webb, Geoffrey. Architecture in Britain: The Middle Ages. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965. (In the Pelican History of Art Series).

4. On construction technologies:

• Fitchen, John. The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals: A Study of Medieval Vault Erection. Phoenix paperback edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

• Gimpel, Jean. The Cathedral Builders. New York: Grove, 1961.

Mark, Robert. Experiments in Gothic Structure. 1st paperback ed. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984. 

5. Select articles:

a) On Romanesque sources of Gothic architecture, and the concept of the Gothic:

• Branner, Robert. “Gothic Architecture 1160-1180 and its Romanesque Sources,” in Studies in Western Art: Acts of the Twentieth International Congress of the History of Art, vol. 1, Romanesque and Gothic Art., ed. Ida E. Rubin, 92-104. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.

• Frankl, Paul. The Gothic: Literay Sources and Interpretations through Eight Centuries, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960.

b) On Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris, considered as the first major 12th-century building which benefitted from the use of flying buttresses around 1175:

• Bruzellius, Caroline A. “The Construction of Notre-Dame in Paris,” Art Bulletin 69/4 (1987): 540-569.

• Clark, William W. “The First Flying Buttresses: A New Reconstruction of the Nave of Notre-Dame de Paris,” Art Bulletin 66/1 (1984): 47-65.

• Murray, Stephen. “Notre-Dame of Paris and the Anticipation of Gothic,” Art Bulletin 80/2 (1998): 229-253.

c) On Romanesque and Gothic in England:

• Bony, Jean. “French Influences on the Origins of English Gothic Architecture,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 12 (1949): 1-15.

• Crook, John and Yoshio Kusaba. “The Transepts of Winchester Cathedral: Archaeological Evidence, Problems of Design, and Sequence of Construction,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 50/3 (1991): 293-310.

• Crook, John and Yoshio Kusaba. “The Perpendicular Remodelling of the Nave: Problems and Interpretation,” in ed. John Crook, Winchester Cathedral: Nine Hundred Years, 1093-1993, 215-230, Chichester: Phillimore, 1993.

• Kusaba, Yoshio. “Some Observations on the Early Flying Buttress and Choir Triforium of Canterbury Cathedral,” Gesta 28/2 (1989): 175-189.

5. I also offer for your interest a two-part article on understanding how Gothic buildings work from the structural points of view, using the pointed arches, rib vaults and flying buttresses.  This was written in 2010 for non-specialists in the interest group on medieval Salisbury in England, the Sarum Seminar, which is also associated with Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

> Part 1, Sarum Letter, Spring 2010, pp. 1-3: https://d11b8c4d-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/sarumseminar/newsletters/attachments/SarumNewsletter-2010-Spring.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cq-RwEIexBbjMWn97fnt43JdcdSyF4H4c9U_MLH7vXexCWrt8XTJzbt74p2sXe0pZ7PX8smGbP2h4Cwl4KzL0KJ_ZLtUILzdBHqekygrq4_ihMWpbDuOrO3xH7qLAAwJDBQbweehXm8RXb4PQDgtb2zMJpBZZ7xlNmiPBGscXZ5P-03QuZ3UxzjbU8c1pjQMUYNyz23E8uLTKNI0deXrMDQbE8b9IDYlCf819dU3BE_P2qmwj7YW6AU1gpp0z2YnF9vMJ3HCwEGflagnHutYTADysACQQ%3D%3D&attredirects=0

> Part 2, Sarum Letter, Fall 2010, pp. 4-6: https://d11b8c4d-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/sarumseminar/newsletters/attachments/SarumNewsletter-2010-Fall.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cropDMOh-lbe3afzcUuhI5gFIIXJPYAAr4_BqLhPxrwsAAf5AZuy8OBBt5d7NFshdQ38bivTRr7QWLe5H7oqlj0TKv-FKap6lxh1cy7mOOn__FEtwe0iiZQvkqEiEK4pe3KYx4RzSIK6ypq8a6lvi_YFX5_4nc4dnPkjGm-HFNigIsmr7egQQQ0bpEy1VyfrPzPncFLvkNQ6wa0YGCbudbVTWcHrgQOlw_vs-ULufaR2_o1A7hxpdQz8mLpsJfWGBq--0X9u4m3A45tnEKjC38srW6qSg%3D%3D&attredirects=0

> Select bibliography (some of which I have listed above): https://d11b8c4d-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/sarumseminar/newsletters/attachments/2010-YoshioKusabaBibliography.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cqFhKWUlMj-Jrw3PEJPo-PjVazmpBbgH6lzlqSWdgMLajNTNEXiG9lCVflLUcLuV_SyZBoOKN-bOrUVSO-SP-J2YvFNQc96V-XoNsMSSUc-6FjZy-uHD1Emg6xte-Vfpfv5qoonzer6t5RJxKZK86gqsx9EKVJ34-Ykm-Lx5D0I3j1EfTN5XdqSEkLdAHJ0OoBRLBnzsx3-j1_-jPeOEeoBQ_iirjq-kv-pzIHfuMl3z7FDYOz5CDR-hmOoZQ4OuK_kgBeM-g8P_AWhxHY-t2qC_rk1xA%3D%3D&attredirects=0

If you have any questions, please let me know.  

Yoshio Kusaba, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, History of Art

Hasitha,

Thank you for taking the time to research and post an answer. Unfortunately, the dates listed in the references, are earlier than the dates the three individuals reigned.  Then too, clan mac Diarmata became MacDermot, where as the references you posted are for the O'Conor's. Since I posted my question,  I came across a list of the kings of Connacht, and all of them are O'Conor's, so I think that answers my question.

Regards,

Sean

The digital atlas of Roman and Medieval civilisation is very helpful. If you scroll down to kingdoms and towns you can get a geographical representation of the major kingdoms and civil centres.

Thomas,

The original orientation of the stone was likely the prone position.  At some point in time, likely centuries ago, it was erected as it is today by a local farmer or early archaeologist, in the belief that it was originally a standing stone. There are numerous documented cases of this. During my studies of Neolithic and Bronze Age rock art panels in Ireland and the UK, I’ve come across several which have crosses on them, which were without question added millennia later. That said, I’m curious as to whether there are any other carvings on the stone, though given the fact that it’s been exposed to weathering, they may be impossible to see with the naked eye. You might want to contact the NMS, the Discovery Programme or UCD to see if someone might be interested in laser imaging the stone, as has been done with many of the panels of rock art within the Boyne. The reason for suggesting this, are the markings just above the crosses, which are either plow marks or possibly Ogham script, examples of which have been found on orthostats with Site 1 at Knowth, in both the Eastern & Western passages.  (see attached photo)

Approx. 1km southwest of the cemetery, are a number of enclosures and ringforts, though whether they have any association to the inscribed stone would be impossible to say.

ME027-085---- Ring-ditch

ME027-086---- Ringfort

ME027-100---- Ringfort

ME027-101---- Ringfort

ME027-069---- Enclosure

ME027-070---- Enclosure

ME027-071---- Enclosure

Ringforts are a ‘product’ of the Iron and Medieval Ages, so the crosses could date to the Early Christian Period. However, in a great many cases that classification is incorrect, as monuments are known to have been adopted millennia later and remodeled. As such, the monuments may date to the Neolithic or Bronze Ages.  Case in point are An Forradh and Tech Cormaic at the Hill of Tara, which are believed to date to the time of Cormáic mac Art (254 – 277 AD).  However, based on geophysical evidence and my interpretation of the motifs on L.2 within the Mound of the Hostages, those two monuments were originally multivallated ring barrows dating to the Neolithic.

(see https://www.academia.edu/7152873/Orthostat_The_Mound_of_the_Hostages)

Regards,

Sean

Not straight away. But from own research experience you could contact the state archives in Bremen, Hamburg, Stade and Luebeck. They are very helpful and could not only provide primary sources but dozens of books and articles

I presume you mean an additional space to the east of the altar which is itself ad orientem?? While large swaths of medieval europe adopted the westwerk formation (so the emphasis being at the other end of the church), apparently there was a gallery or addition in a series of Spanish churches. To the best of my knowledge Jamie Lara has done the most work on this...I would track down Jamie's work (he is no longer at Yale, and I've lost track of where he is teaching now).

It has been too many years for me to recall this precisely, but I seem to remember allusions to an article from the early 20th century on notes made by scribes in Irish manuscripts. If you have a look at Leonard Boyle's bibliography on paleography you will find it there.

Splendid (and unimaginably expensive) facsimiles have been produced of insular MSS -  Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels. These usually have fine, scientific introductions (I have a vague memory of a piece on the pigments in the Intro. to the Book of Kells). Don't forget Early English MSS in Facsimile and their introductions. In addition, there are British and Irish (and other) websites that offer digital images off insular MSS == after some reading in the codicological and paleographical literature, the best thing you can do is spend your time examining the MSS themselves, and of course, informed use of Google search can take you to images of MSS and secondary literature.

Though I have not come across such article(s) that directly touches the subject you raised; however, the plethora of new books on the subject as a whole itself reveals that the Crusade is still relevant today. Karen Armstrong's the Holy war is a good piece dealing the impact of the crusades on today's world. I am of the opinion that the present geopolitical upheavals in the MENA region are but  neo-crusades supported by the dictators of the region. I also believe, in future, the crusade topic will again emerge and will attract  a renewed scholarship focussing especially the cultural encounters during the crusades. This aspect has been largely ignored by the historians. In a nutshell, two aspects: military as well as mutual relationship of the crusades will go side by side.

The answer to your question is most probably that Bernard is referring to a passage in the Republic that he does not know directly but has seen quoted in one of the many authors listed in the previous answer. If I were trying to find the exact source, I would refer to the work of Stephen Gersh and Peter Dronke. Here are two starting points.

"This feat tests a man’s stamina and balance. Clasp hands under your right knee and raise it up. Place your toes against your opponent’s toes. Push with your toes and try to force your opponent to lose his balance. First person to unclasp their hands loses."

Compassion is probably a combination of genetics and cultivated virtue. A problem in the medieval times is that they did not understand the cause of the plague, and it took time to identify effective means to contain and limit the disease. People may have used different strategies to cope with and overcome their fear. Today we know the cause of epidemics and know reasonably well how to protect ourselves against them. This helps overcoming the fear. In the medieval times, people may have had other reasons to believe that they would not be affected by the plague, or they may have have had religious reasons, and put their fate in the hands of God. Another example is the tuberculosis hospitals, where compassionate people were helping out despite having a great risk of becoming infected themselves. Some people survived the disease or were immune, and they could help those who got the disease.

An analogy from our times is how the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa was handled. Many doctors have volunteered to help out, despite having a risk of being infected themselves.

From a church history perspective the Jesuits were counter reformation movement that was at the service of the papacy. They were paratroopers of the counter reformation period. If the papacy had the right to anoint kings and Emperors what was the significance of this anointing? Who has the ultimate power, the one who anoints or the one anointed? The same can be said on crowning. Remember the Dictatus Papae of Hildebrand. The Jesuits justified such depositions and were involved in the 30 years war in that ravaged Europe.

Hi Jan,

here is an example from Switzerland:

Heidemarie Hüster Plogmann, Schlämmfunde aus dem Kloster St. Johann in Müstair. In: H.R. Sennhauser (Hrsg.), Müstair, Kloster St. Johann. 4 Naturwissenschaftliche und technische Beiträge, 2007, Zürich, 227·247.

(38 shells of Ostrea edulis from the medieval monastery: p. 240-242).

Best regards,

Stefan

Dear Benjamin,

I'm afraid you will find the main informations in France.

Notre Dame de Calais is protected as an historical monument :

From this website, you can contact people for more informations.

Inrap and other archaeologists (in the 60's or the 70's) made some survey, maybe you can ask informations in our Service régional de l'Archéologie

and ask for a login to consult INRAP reports :

(please contact the archaeologist. before using the datas)

And maybe you can find informations here :

Costenoble 1963

Costenoble C., « Histoire de la paroisse Notre-Dame à Calais », Bulletin historique et artistique du Calaisis, 15, pp. 15‑27.

Costenoble 1967

Costenoble C., « Histoire de Notre-Dame de Calais », Bulletin historique et artistique du Calaisis, 28/35, pp. 214‑224.

Rodière 1931

Rodière R., « Statues de l’église Notre-Dame de Calais », Bulletin de la Commission Départementale des Monuments Historiques du Pas-de-Calais, 6, pp. 137‑139.

Verrier 1961

Verrier J., « L’église Notre-Dame à Calais », Congrès archéologique de France, 119, pp. 213‑223.

In this university report, you can find some interesting layouts and an historical analysis :

Buissard 1983

Buissard M., La construction d’une paroissiale pendant l’occupation anglaise. Notre Dame de Calais des origines à 1558, Mémoire de Maîtrise, s.l. : Université Lille 3.

You can consult this document in the Georges Lefebvre library in Lille 3 university.

To find some pictures of Notre Dame (and maybe books or articles)

and

The archives municipales of Calais and the archives departementales du Pas-de-Calais may have some interresting documents for you.

I'm sorry, I don't have any information about Saint-Nicolas.

Sincerely yours,

Christine

“From the end of the third century, the monastic idea exercised a preponderant influence on the arrangement and formation of the canonical Office. It is possible to give a fairly exact account of the establishment of these Offices in the second half of the fourth century by means of a document of surpassing importance for the history we are now considering: the "Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta", written about A.D. 388, by Etheria, a Spanish abbess. This narrative is specifically a description of the Liturgy followed in the Church of Jerusalem at that date…

In the preceding sections, the history of the ecclesiatical Office has been unfolded from its inception. If this history could be put into few words, though necessarily forming an incomplete statement, it might be said that from the first to the fifth century it was in formation; from the fifth to the eleventh century it was in process of development and expansion; and during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Breviary properly so called was emerging into being. From then till now (that is, from the fourteenth century onwards) might be termed the period of reform. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries represent for the Liturgy, as for the greater number of other ecclesiastical institutions, a period of decline, for it is the time of schisms, and in that one word everything harmful is summed up. The few documents that are available for the liturgical history of that time attest this, as, for example, the "Gesta Benedicti XIII" and the "XV Ordo Romanus". Disorder and abuses crept into the Liturgy as into everything else.

Dom Bäumer, in his "Histoire du bréviaire", repeatedly points out that it is impossible to separate the history of the Liturgy from the occurrences that make up the general history of the Church, and that the phases through which the general history takes us are reflected in the evolution of the Liturgy. It is not surprising, therefore, that the sojourn of the popes at Avignon and the Great Schismhave exerted their baneful influence on the history of the Liturgy. And the reaction is still being felt. Raoul de Tongres, who died early in the fifteenth century, was even at that early period a critic and a reformer; in his famous work "De observantiâ Canonum" he agitated for some settlement of liturgical rules. The "XV Ordo Romanus" already referred to, the work of Amelius, sacristan to Urban Vand librarian to Gregory XI, breathes the same idea.

The Humanism of the Renaissance, which had its ardent champions even in the Church — as Bembo, Sadoletus, etc., to say nothing of certain popes — caused the idea of a special reform of the Breviary, in the direction of greater literary purity and perfection, to be entertained in certain quarters. Strange schemes were propounded, little in consonance with the spirit of the Church. A Florentinecanon, Marsiglio Ficino, and Peter Pomponatius, for instance, suggested that the clergy should read the classical authors instead of the Breviary. Others, though not going so far as this, thought the diction of the Breviary barbaric, and wanted to translate it into Ciceronian Latin. The corrections suggested included such astounding phrases as the following: the forgiveness of sins becomes "superosque manesque placare"; the Begetting of the Word was to be "Minerva Jovis capite orta"; the Holy Ghost was "Aura Zephyri coelestis", etc. These attempts failed; nevertheless, at a later date, under Urban VIII, similar Humanist tendencies came again to the surface and this time asserted their power by an emendation of the hymns. Amongst such attempts may be mentioned that of Ferreri. He was the Bishop of Guarda Alfieri in the Kingdom of Naples, a Humanist, and wrote under the auspices and patronage of Leo X. He began with the hymns. His work, which has been preserved, is interesting and contains some very beautiful pieces, polished in style. A good number of them have, unfortunately, nothing more of the spirit of poetry in them than harmony and rhythm; they are wanting in inspiration and above all in the warmth of piety; nearly all are strewn with Pagan names and allusions, representing Christianverities, as "Triforme Numen Olympi" for the Trinity, "Natus Eumolpho Lyricenque Sappho . . . Thracius Orpheus", referring to theBlessed Virgin, etc. Ferreri also busied himself with a revision of the Breviary, but nothing was published, and now no trace of the materials he collected is forthcoming.

Another attempt at reform, much better known, and having results of far-reaching importance, was that of Quignonez, Cardinal of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, who was entrusted by Clement VII with the task of completing the work begun by Ferreri. He was aFranciscan, and had been successfully employed on various commissions. His revision was the most original that has ever been attempted, and liturgical experts, like Guéranger, Edmund Bishop, and Bäumer, have studied his labours in detail. Only the principal points of his scheme can be mentioned here. Considered theoretically, it cannot be denied that his Breviary is drawn up on easy, convenient, and logical lines, and, on the whole is felicitously arranged. But in the light of tradition and of liturgical principles the only possible verdict in that Quignonez' Breviary, being constructed on a priori principles, violating most of the liturgical rules, must be condemned. The author starts with the theory, contrary to all tradition, that an essential difference exists between the public celebration of the Office and its private recitation. For private recitation, therefore, all such portions as antiphons, responsories, versicles, little chapters, even hymns may be eliminated, as, according to Quignonez, these are meant solely for choir use. According to his arrangement, the entire Psalter was to be recited once a week — an excellent idea, in consonance with primitive practice; but it was applied too rigidly and narrowly, for no attention was paid to the suitability of certain psalms to special feasts. Feasts were never to change the order of the psalms, which were to be recited successively from 1 to 150.

The Council of Trent, which effected reforms in so many directions, also took up the idea of revising the Breviary; a commission was appointed concerning whose deliberations we have not much information, but it began to make definite inquiries about the subject entrusted to it. The council separated before these preliminaries could be concluded; so it was decided to leave the task of editing a new Breviary in the pope's own hands. The commission appointed by the council was not dissolved, and continued its investigations.St. Pius V, at the beginning of his pontificate (1566), appointed new members to it and otherwise stimulated its activity, with the result that a Breviary appeared in 1568, prefaced by the famous Bull, "Quod a nobis". The commission had adopted wise and reasonable principles: not to invent a new Breviary and a new Liturgy; to stand by tradition; to keep all that was worth keeping, but at the same time to correct the multitude of errors which had crept into the Breviaries and to weigh just demands and complaints. Following these lines, they corrected the lessons, or legends, of the saints and revised the Calendar; and while respecting ancientliturgical formularies such as the collects, they introduced needful changes in certain details. More intimate accounts of this revision should be studied at length in the approved authorities on the history of the Breviary. Here it will be enough to give a short sketch of the chief points affecting this Breviary, as it is substantially the same as that used at this date. The celebrated Bull of approval, "Quod a nobis" (9 July, 1568), which prefaced it, explains the reasons which had weighed with Rome in putting forth an official text of publicprayer, and gives an account of the labours which had been undertaken to ensure its correction; it withdrew the papal approbationfrom all Breviaries which could not show a prescriptive right of at least two centuries of existence. Any Church which had not such an ancient Breviary was bound to adopt that of Rome. The new Calendar was freed from a large number of feasts, so that the ferialOffice was once more accorded a chance of occupying a less obscure position than of late it had. At the same time the real foundation of the Breviary — the Psalter — was respected, the principal alterations made being in the lessons. The legends of the saints were carefully revised, as also the homilies. The work was one not only of critical revision, but also of discriminating conservatism, and was received with general approval. The greater number of the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, and, generally, all theCatholic States, accepted this Breviary, saving only certain districts, as Milan and Toledo, where ancient Rites were retained…”

APA citation. Cabrol, F. (1907). Breviary. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved February 19, 2015 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02768b.htm

MLA citation. Cabrol, Fernand. "Breviary." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907.

19 Feb. 2015<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02768b.htm>.

Fuente: Cabrol, Fernand. "Breviary." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. (Castellano): <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02768b.htm>.

Dear Stephen,

Thanks for your answer.

I wish you a happy new year 2015

Thank you Steven, I found a newspaper article about the woman but no relevant publication. I'll keep looking!

I would like also to recommend a book The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, by Lewis Mumford.

He traces the history of cities back to their origins in Mesopotamia, exploring how they evolved out of villages into walled fortresses. 

I'd also be interested in knowing whether you're referring to a particular battle, such as Civitate, James.

Johannes makes some good points, in particular with regard to heavy vs light cavalry, but it really depends on the context you are looking at.  If you are looking at the period after cataphracts had disappeared from the Byzantine armed forces in the late 9th/early 10th century, but before their place was taken by any alternative heavy cavalry, then Norman knights would have been very effective against Byzantine light cavalry.  But that would also be dependent on whether the terrain favoured the Normans, and several other factors.

In open plains or desert, light cavalry can destroy heavy through slowly wearing their opponents down through projectile fire from far enough away to avoid face to face fighting.  There are many examples of that.

Another factor, though, is whether one side knows what to expect from the other.  If the Byzantine cavalry you refer to were light cavalry only used to  fighting other light cavalry, then being charged by heavy cavalry for the first time could catch them completely off guard.

You can take a look at Geoffrey Nathan, The Family in Late Antiquity. The Rise of Christianity and the Endurance of Tradition. London -- New York 2000. It is quite interesting

James ,

Greek conversions of n/17 and bn/19 by Ahmes method may be of interest.

I modern Number theory guy, Kevin Brown and I worked on this data in 1995. Only in 2005 was the Coptic/Greek n/17 and n/19 series decoded by Ahmes' 2/n table style:

A link to Ahmes's scaling method and style is pertinent

as well as to Fibonacci's three notations, the first of which is an algorithmic modification of Ahmes and Greek rational number scaling methods discussed by:

Best Regards,

Milo Gardner

Liber Abaci is not associated with Greek arithmetic in Euclid's style, but with the Greek logistic tradition, of which we have not sufficient evidence (see the reference of Plato to it).

I would recommended the book of Ana Echevarría Arzuaga (2006): Caballeros en la frontera. La guardia morisca de los Reyes de Castilla, 1410-1467. Madrid, UNED, which highlights a very particular aspect of chivalrous relations between Christians and Muslims how Muslims knights converted or not may become servants of Christian monarch during more than half a century.

I don't know if it can be useful, but in original classical tradition mermaids were creatures half woman and half bird, only later associated with snakes and then fish, then in some way similar to the figure of Quetazlcoatl. In addition, although I do not know associations between the Virgin of Guadalupe and the mermaids, those relating the Virgin of Copacabana are well known (http://cdigital.uv.mx/bitstream/123456789/1877/1/199076P125.pdf).

Another element to consider is that already in Europe the figure of the Virgin condense a set of pre-existing elements of the female deities (Isis, but also others) and that coming to America it found new meanings not always associated with those that have evolved in Europe, where the mermaids, in the Middle Ages, had become a symbol of lust, but also, especially among northern seaside communities, has been used to illustrate the two natures of Christ.

Another interesting thing is that ancient Aztecs believed that water was the domain of a goddess called Chalchiuhtlicue. Today they represent her as a woman with long hair and a fish tail like a mermaid.

Get in touch with Bill Schipper at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He is still working on Rabanus' encyclopedia.

Of course, in the end, you're right— any theoretical ideas of the powers of the royal person are overshadowed by the realities of what happened. But the theoretical aspect of what "ought" to have happened may lead to some interesting revelations. Thanks very much for all your help!

I've checked the Chanson de Roland and it does not seem that the champion uses Charlemagne's sword. The Poema de mio Cid and Cantar de mio Cid are the same work.