Search results for "anglo-saxon"

The World of Anglo-Saxon Learning

2007

D uring the Anglo-Saxon period, English schools were among the finest in Europe. From English schools came the great masters whose writings instructed generations, centuries even, of Insular and continental students alike: one has only to think of the works of Aldhelm, Bede and Alcuin, which were copied and studied intensively up to the twelfth century and beyond. This achievement is all the more remarkable when one considers that the Anglo-Saxons were among the first peoples in Europe who were obliged to learn Latin as a foreign language if Christianity - a religion of the book par excellence - was to flourish. Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, English schools benefited from the instructi…

Boundaries between law and religion: considerations regarding the use of curses in the documents of Norman Sicily

2022

The word ‘boundary’ does not only indicate a physical division between different worlds. The border often represents a point of contact. This concept of a ‘boundary’ is particularly critical in the field of legal history because often the plurality of iura contributes not only to the fusion of different cultures but also to the creation of new ones. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance and the meaning of expressions of Anathema and curse it’s possible to find in some Latin documents that date back to the Norman period of Sicily. This period is pivotal for the consolidation of the secular and spiritual power of the Church and the use of curses by the lay power highlights…

Hagiography in Anglo-Saxon England: Adopting and Adapting Saints’ Lives into Old English Prose (Textes et Études du Moyen Âge, 73)

2014

This volume gathers fourteen new essays devoted to Old English prose saints’ lives from the late Anglo-Saxon period. Moving from diverse methodological approaches and building on the most recent developments in primary and secondary scholarship, the contributions comprehensively consider the texts and contexts of the vernacular hagiographic output both by Ælfric, the major hagiographer of his day, and by anonymous authors. Attention is devoted also to the post-Conquest legacy of Anglo-Saxon hagiography, as Ælfric’s Lives of Saints continued to be read, copied, edited, and readapted throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In the new stress on the Latin source-texts, among which the lo…

Where Do They Belong? Typology and Meaning of the Signs of the Last Judgement in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts

2013

Furto, incantesimi e perdono

2013

The essay explores the role of theft in Anglo-Saxon society, studying in particular the charms, the laws, and the homilies. A section of the essay is devoted to the legend of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ and its circulation in England.

A Poem for All Seasons: Alcuin’s “O vos, est aetas”

2017

There is no complete account of the transmission of Alcuin’s poems, which is apparently quite unpredictable if not random. The circulation of a number of short compositions, which accompany his treatises and his letters, and their circulation together, is so far uncharted. Particularly intriguing is the manuscript tradition of “O vos, est aetas,” a poem in seven distichs, in which young men are encouraged to learn rhetoric and to cultivate virtue. The poem generally occurs in connection with two prose works by Alcuin, the De dialectica (henceforth DD) and the Disputatio de rhetorica et virtutibus (henceforth DR). It may be copied either between the two treatises, before the prologue poem of…

Incantesimi in inglese antico contro un dweorg

2021

The word dweorg with the meaning ‘dwarf’ was certainly available in Anglo-Saxon England, as attested to by the earliest glossaries, such as those of Épinal and Erfurt, where it is used to render the Latin nanus and pumilio. OE dweorg also occurs in a group of five charms and medical recipes, where it seems to designate an ailment, characterized by a strong and sudden onset of fever. Particularly, in the remedies contained in the Medicina de quadrupedibus and in the Peri didaxeon – both translations of Latin medical treatises – OE dweorg means ‘fever’. In the Old English period, the semantic value of the term shifted, ending up to denote the pathological condition itself. More specifically, …

Napoleone Colajanni e la questione razziale

2020

Il saggio propone una lettura della questione della razza nella riflessione di Napoleone Colajanni (1847-1921) e ne sottolinea aspetti anticipatori di una sensibilità che avrebbe caratterizzato la riflessione successiva condotta in ambito antropologico. The essay proposes a reading of the question of race in the reflection of Napoleone Colajanni (1847-1921) and highlights aspects anticipating a sensitivity that would have characterized the subsequent reflection conducted in the anthropological field.

Germanic Women in the Eyes of Law

2018

Germanic laws focused mainly on community and kinship ties, they clearly defined social divisions and organized the life of the community. The law was not to be perceived as a product of the times, it was passed on from generation to generation and conveyed the wisdom of the elder. Every crime against another person or their property, independently of whether it concerned family laws, laws of property or any other laws, had to be compensated in accordance with customary rules as well as the social status of the aggrieved. The paper takes the perspective of social and cultural anthropology and aims to shed some light on the legal situation of women in Germanic laws. The author’s aim is to in…