Symbolic Identity and the Cultural Memory of Saints

Symbolic Identity and the Cultural Memory of Saints PDF

Author: Anu Mänd

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2018-07-27

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1527515710

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This volume examines the relationship between medieval cults of saints and regional and national identity formation in Europe both during and, to some extent, beyond the Middle Ages. It studies how collective identities have been expressed through saints’ cults and their appropriations in texts, visual representations, and music. Attention is given to various aspects of the role of medieval saints’ cults in European identity formation, as saints were used in the service of both religious and political agendas. Focusing on a range of European regions, this volume uses cults of medieval saints and their religious, cultural and political appropriations over time as a vehicle for studying changing cultural and social values. The articles here report research carried out under the European Science Foundation’s collaborative EuroCORECODE project: Symbols that Bind and Break Communities: Saints’ Cults as Stimuli and Expressions of Local, Regional, National and Universalist Identities (2010–2013/14), an international, interdisciplinary research venture funded by the National Research Councils of five countries: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, and Norway.

The Cults of Sainte Foy and the Cultural Work of Saints

The Cults of Sainte Foy and the Cultural Work of Saints PDF

Author: Kathleen Ashley

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-06-28

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1000396789

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Bringing together artifacts, texts, and practices within an interpretive framework that stresses the cultural work performed by saints, Kathleen Ashley presents a comparative study of the cults of the medieval Sainte Foy at a number of the sites where she was especially venerated. This book analyzes how each cult site produced the saint it needed, appropriating or creating whatever was required to that end. Ashley’s approach is thoroughly interdisciplinary, incorporating visual, religious, medieval, and women’s and gender studies as well as literary studies and social history. She uses the theoretical framework of "cultural work" to analyze how the cult of Sainte Foy was sponsored and received by specific groups in different locales in Europe. The book is comprehensive in terms of historical as well as geographical range, tracing the history of the cult from the early Middle Ages into the present day. It also includes historiographical analysis, examining the way the cults of Sainte Foy have been represented in various historical accounts. Ashley’s narrative challenges the boundary between "elite" and "popular" culture and complicates the traditional vernacular vs. Latin language binary. A chief aim of the study is to show how "art" objects always operated in conjunction with other cultural texts to construct a saint’s cult. The volume is heavily illustrated, showing artifacts such as stained-glass windows and wall paintings which are not readily available from any other source. This book will be of special interest to scholars in art history, medieval history, gender studies, and religion.

Hagiography and the History of Latin Christendom, 500–1500

Hagiography and the History of Latin Christendom, 500–1500 PDF

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-12-02

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 9004417478

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The twenty-one essays of Hagiography and the History of Latin Christendom, 500-1500 employ innovative methods to unlock the historical potential of hagiographical sources and reach new discoveries about the medieval world that extend well beyond the study of sanctity.

The Routledge Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1300

The Routledge Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1300 PDF

Author: Florin Curta

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-29

Total Pages: 886

ISBN-13: 1000476243

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The Routledge Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1300 is the first of its kind to provide a point of reference for the history of the whole of Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. While historians have recognized the importance of integrating the eastern part of the European continent into surveys of the Middle Ages, few have actually paid attention to the region, its specific features, problems of chronology and historiography. This vast region represents more than two-thirds of the European continent, but its history in general—and its medieval history in particular—is poorly known. This book covers the history of the whole region, from the Balkans to the Carpathian Basin, and the Bohemian Forest to the Finnish Bay. It provides an overview of the current state of research and a route map for navigating an abundant historiography available in more than ten different languages. Chapters cover topics as diverse as religion, architecture, art, state formation, migration, law, trade and the experiences of women and children. This book is an essential reference for scholars and students of medieval history, as well as those interested in the history of Central and Eastern Europe.

Sacred Waters

Sacred Waters PDF

Author: Celeste Ray

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-02-18

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 100002508X

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Describing sacred waters and their associated traditions in over thirty countries and across multiple time periods, this book identifies patterns in panhuman hydrolatry. Supplying life’s most basic daily need, freshwater sources were likely the earliest sacred sites, and the first protected and contested resource. Guarded by taboos, rites and supermundane forces, freshwater sources have also been considered thresholds to otherworlds. Often associated also with venerated stones, trees and healing flora, sacred water sources are sites of biocultural diversity. Addressing themes that will shape future water research, this volume examines cultural perceptions of water’s sacrality that can be employed to foster resilient human–environmental relationships in the growing water crises of the twenty-first century. The work combines perspectives from anthropology, archaeology, classics, folklore, geography, geology, history, literature and religious studies.

Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe

Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe PDF

Author: Zecevic

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 633

ISBN-13: 0190920718

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The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe summarizes the political, social, and cultural history of medieval Central Europe (c. 800-1600 CE), a region long considered a "forgotten" area of the European past. The 25 cutting-edge chapters present up-to-date research about the region's core medieval kingdoms -- Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia -- and their dynamic interactions with neighboring areas. From the Baltic to the Adriatic, the handbook includes reflections on modern conceptions and uses of the region's shared medieval traditions. The volume's thematic organization reveals rarely compared knowledge about the region's medieval resources: its peoples and structures of power; its social life and economy; its religion and culture; and images of its past.

Making Livonia

Making Livonia PDF

Author: Anu Mänd

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-06-09

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1000076938

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The region called Livonia (corresponding to modern Estonia and Latvia) emerged out of the rapid transformation caused by the conquest, Christianisation and colonisation on the north-east shore of the Baltic Sea in the late twelfth and the early thirteenth centuries. These radical changes have received increasing scholarly notice over the last few decades. However, less attention has been devoted to the interplay between the new and the old structures and actors in a longer perspective. This volume aims to study these interplays and explores the history of Livonia by concentrating on various actors and networks from the late twelfth to the seventeenth century. But, on a deeper level, the goal is more ambitious: to investigate the foundation of an increasingly complex and heterogeneous society on the medieval and early modern Baltic frontier – ‘the making of Livonia’.