Between Herbals et alia : Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals

This study reports a corpus-based study of medieval English herbals, which are texts conveying information on medicinal plants. Herbals belong to the medieval medical register. The study charts intertextual parallels within the medieval genre, and between herbals and other contemporary medical texts. It seeks to answer questions where and how herbal texts are linked to each other, and to other medical writing. The theoretical framework of the study draws on intertextuality and genre studies, manuscript studies, corpus linguistics, and multi-dimensional text analysis. The method combines qualitative and quantitative analyses of textual material from three historical special-language corpora of Middle and Early Modern English, one of which was compiled for the purposes of this study. The text material contains over 800,000 words of medical texts. The time span of the material is from c. 1330 to 1550. Text material is retrieved from the corpora by using plant name lists as search criteria. The raw data is filtered through qualitative analysis which produces input for the quantitative analysis, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS). In MDS, the textual space that parallel text passages form is observed, and the observations are explained by a qualitative analysis. This study concentrates on evidence of material and structural intertextuality. The analysis shows patterns of affinity between the texts of the herbal genre, and between herbals and other texts in the medical register. Herbals are most closely linked with recipe collections and regimens of health: they comprise over 95 per cent of the intertextual links between herbals and other medical writing. Links to surgical texts, or to specialised medical texts are very few. This can be explained by the history of the herbal genre: as herbals carry information on medical ingredients, herbs, they are relevant for genres that are related to pharmacological therapy. Conversely, herbals draw material from recipe collections in order to illustrate the medicinal properties of the herbs they describe. The study points out the close relationship between medical recipes and recipe-like passages in herbals (recipe paraphrases). The examples of recipe paraphrases show that they may have been perceived as indirect instruction. Keywords: medieval herbals, early English medicine, corpus linguistics, intertextuality, manuscript studiesTutkimus on korpuspohjainen tutkimus keskiaikaisista englanninkielisistä lääkekasvioppaista (nykyisten kasvioiden edeltäjät), jotka kuuluvat keskiaikaisiin lääketieteen teksteihin. Tutkimus kartoittaa intertekstuaalisia linkkejä lääkekasviopastekstilajin sisällä, ja näiden tekstien muodostamia linkkejä muihin lääketieteellisiin teksteihin. Linkin muodostajina ovat samansisältöiset tekstikatkelmat. Päätutkimusongelmana on: miten, ja mihin teksteihin lääkekasvioppaat linkittyvät, sekä oman tekstilajinsa sisällä, että oman ja muiden lääketieteen tekstilajien välillä? Työ kuuluu intertekstuaalisuus- ja tekstilajitutkimukseen, ja se ammentaa teoreettisen viitekehyksensä edellä mainittujen lisäksi käsikirjoitustutkimuksesta, korpuslingvistiikasta, ja monimuuttujatekstianalyysista. Tutkimuksen materiaalina on käytetty kolmea keskiaikaisen ja varhaisen uusenglannin elektronista tekstikorpusta, jotka sisältävät lääketieteellisiä tekstejä vuodesta 1330 vuoteen 1550. Kaiken kaikkiaan materiaali käsittää yli 800.000 sanaa tekstiä. Tutkimuksen metodi yhdistää kvalitatiivisen ja kvantitatiivisen lähestymistavan materiaaliin. Tutkimukselle relevantit tekstikatkelmat on haettu automaattisesti korpuksista. Tässä tutkimuksessa intertekstuaalisuuden evidenssi on materiaalista ja rakenteellista, toisin sanoen tekstikatkelmille on yhteistä joko sisältö tai rakenne, tai molemmat. Lääkekasvioppaat ovat tekstitraditioltaan lähimpänä lääkintään ja terveyden hoitoon liittyviä tekstejä, koska näiden tekstilajien sisältämät reseptit käyttivät lääkekasveja ainesosinaan. Lisäksi lääkekasvioppaat lainasivat reseptejä reseptikokoelmista, koska niitä tarvittiin lääkekasvien lääkinnällisten ominaisuuksien esimerkeiksi. Usein lainatut reseptit menettivät tekstityypin tunnusmerkkinsä lääkekasvioppaissa, ja niinpä reseptien kaltaisia tekstikatkelmia kutsutaan tässä tutkimuksessa reseptiparafraaseiksi

Research Developments in World Englishes

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Discussing key issues of current relevance and setting the tone for future research in world Englishes, this book provides new perspectives on the diverse realities of Englishes around the world. Written by an international team of established and renowned scholars, it is the inaugural volume in the new series Bloomsbury Advances in World Englishes, dedicated to advancing research in the field. Chapters discuss important topics in contemporary world Englishes research, including de-colonial approaches, emerging varieties in post-protectorates and international uses as communicative events to highlight the globalizing aspect of English as a semiotic code. The book also expands on cultural conceptualizations to investigate the connections between Englishes and localized cultural knowledge and ongoing changes and attitudes towards local forms in multilingual settings. Closing with an examination of how world Englishes and the use of English as a lingua franca could influence the future teaching of Englishes, Research Developments in World Englishes presents a detailed picture of contemporary research approaches and points the way towards exciting future directions

Research Developments in World Englishes

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Discussing key issues of current relevance and setting the tone for future research in world Englishes, this book provides new perspectives on the diverse realities of Englishes around the world. Written by an international team of established and renowned scholars, it is the inaugural volume in the new series Bloomsbury Advances in World Englishes, dedicated to advancing research in the field. Chapters discuss important topics in contemporary world Englishes research, including de-colonial approaches, emerging varieties in post-protectorates and international uses as communicative events to highlight the globalizing aspect of English as a semiotic code. The book also expands on cultural conceptualizations to investigate the connections between Englishes and localized cultural knowledge and ongoing changes and attitudes towards local forms in multilingual settings. Closing with an examination of how world Englishes and the use of English as a lingua franca could influence the future teaching of Englishes, Research Developments in World Englishes presents a detailed picture of contemporary research approaches and points the way towards exciting future directions

‘Many Other Things Worthy of Knowledge and Memory’: The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and its Annotators, 1499-1700

Due to its elaborate woodcuts and artificial language, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1499, hereafter ‘HP’) has traditionally been presented as a fringe anomaly within the histories of the book and of Italian philology. Other studies have examined the influence of the HP in art and literature, but there has been little study of the role of readers in mediating that influence. This framing of the HP as unreadable visual marvel has impeded consideration of Aldus’ creation as a used text within the wider fabric of humanism. Liane Lefaivre’s conceptualisation of the HP as a creative dream-space for idea generation was a significant step towards foregrounding the text’s readers. This thesis set to testing this hypothesis against the experiences of actual readers as recorded in their marginalia. A world census of annotated copies of the HP located a number of examples of prolific annotation, showing readers making use of the HP for a variety of purposes. Benedetto and Paolo Giovio applied a Plinian model of extractive reading to two copies at Como and Modena, reading the HP in a manner analogous to the Natural History. Ben Jonson read his copy of the 1545 HP as a source for visual elements of stage design. An anonymous second hand in Jonson’s copy read the text as an alchemical allegory, as did the hands in a copy at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. Pope Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi) combed the text for examples of verbal wit, or acutezze, while comparing Poliphilo’s journeys through an architectural dream with his own passages through Rome. Informed by analogy with modern educational media, I have reframed the HP as a ‘humanistic activity book’, in which readers cultivated their faculty of ingegno through ludic engagement with the text

Lost in Translation: Adapting Supernatural Concepts from Old French Chivalric Literature into the Old Norse riddarasǫgur

While the post-millennial research of Old Norse literature saw an increased interest in the study of translated riddarasǫgur, the scholarly focus in these studies rests, for the main part, on the effects of translation, the role and representation of women and the studies of emotion portrayed in the narratives. However, the effect of translation on supernatural concepts – especially of Old Norse concepts – has, so far, been left unaddressed. The present thesis, thus, aims to bridge this gap in scholarship by investigating how the Old Norse translations and adaptations of Old French chivalric works had an altering and long-lasting effect on the Old Norse mythological landscape. Indeed, the present research project hopes to establish the translated riddarasǫgur as a valued source for the study of the development of Old Norse supernatural concepts. By highlighting the influx of foreign Old French ideas and their impact on the Old Norse literature and mythology, this study aspires to present new approaches regarding the understanding of the development of Old Norse supernatural concepts as well as their subsequent changes. Bearing the human element in translation as well as medieval translation practices in mind, the present thesis investigates twelfth- and thirteenth century Old French courtly romances and associated material as well as the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Old Norse translations, redactions and reworkings thereof. The supernatural motifs (specifically the álfar, dvergar, jǫtnar and different forms of magic and magic wielders) described in these narratives will be examined in detail. The thesis includes an article concerning each concept which studies the differences and similarities in the concept’s presentation and measures the potential long-term effects initiated by the said translations by investigating later fornaldarsǫgur, indigenous riddarasǫgur and Icelandic folk legends. The first paper contained in the present thesis concerns the use of the Old Norse supernatural concept of the álfar (sg. álfr) as a translation for the Old French term fées (sg. fée), while the second article investigates the usage of the word dvergar (sg. dvergr) as a translation for the Old French nains (sg. nain) in the investigated literary corpora. The penultimate article examines the utilisation of the concept of the Old Norse jǫtnar (sg. jǫtunn) as a translation for the Old French idea of the jaiants (sg. jaiant), and the fourth and final article investigates the different notions and manifestations of magic and magic wielders displayed in the investigated Old French sources as well as their respective Old Norse renditions. This research project hopes to open this particular field of research to the broader scientific community by laying down what may be seen as the first stepping-stone for a series of related studies.Rannsóknir fræðimanna á þýðingum riddarasagna hafa eflst til muna eftir aldamótin en hið sama gildir ekki um rannsóknir á sjálfum efniviðni sagnanna, svo sem hvernig birtingarmynd kvenna er sýnd gegnum tilfinningar þeirra í sögunum. Hingað til hefur lítið verið kannað hvort og þá hver áhrif þýðingar efnis um yfirnáttúrulega hluti og atburði sem snúa að norrænni trú hafa verið. Markmið þessarar ritgerðar er að sýna fram á áhrif fornra franskra riddarasagna á hugmyndaheim norrænna manna um umhverfi sitt og landlýsingu, auk þess að sýna fram á áreiðanleika riddarasagna að því er varðar hugmyndir norrænna manna um hið yfirnáttúrlega. Ritgerðin greinir slíkar hugmyndir í hinum forn-frönsku bókmenntum og skoðar áhrif þeirra og innblástur í norrænum bókmenntum og goðafræði og sýnir þannig hvernig skilningur manna á yfirnáttúrulegum atburðum hefur þróast í aldanna rás. Í ritgerðinni er athyglinni einkum beint að hinum norrænu þýðingum tólftu og þrettándu aldar ástarsagna fornfranskra bókmennta og skoðað sérstaklega hvaða hlutverki hinn mannlegi þáttur og þeirra tíma þýðingarhefðir gegna. Yfirnáttúrulegar verur, svo sem álfar, dvergar og jötnar, auk ýmissa galdrahugtaka, sem fram koma í þessum frásögnum eru teknar til ítarlegrar skoðunar, og fjallað er um hverja áðurnefnda tegund í sérstökum kafla. Með samanburði við seinni tíma fornaldarsögur, upprunalegar riddarasögur og íslenskar þjóðsögur eru þessar þýðingar skoðaðar í þeim tilgangi að greina áhrif á hin yfirnáttúrulegu fyrirbæri í þeim. Í fyrsta hluta þessarar ritgerðar er fjallað um álfa í norrænum heimildum og goðsögulega tengingu þeirra við forn-franska hugtakið fées (eint. fée), annar hlutinn fjallar um dverga og hliðstæða tengingu þeirra við fornfranska hugtakið nains (eint. nain) með bókmenntafræðilegri nálgun. Meginkafli ritgerðarinar fjallar á sama hátt um jötna og hlistæða tengingu þeirra við fornfranska hugtakið jaiants (eint. jaiant). Í síðasta kaflanum er svo fjallað um norrænar galdrahefðir og galdratrú með hliðsjón af birtingarmynd þeirra í fornfrönskum bókmenntum. Með ritgerð þessari vonast höfundur til að opna gátt inn á lítt kannað fræðasvið sem getur eflt og víkkað rannsóknarhugmyndir og -aðferðir fræðimanna í fornnorrænum rannsóknum. (Ingunn Ásdísardóttir þýddi.)Rannsóknarsjóður Háskóla Íslands/ The Doctoral Grant of the University of Iceland Research Fun

Magical Verse from Early Medieval England: The Metrical Charms in Context

This thesis contextualises the Old English Metrical Charms, a selection of twelve alliterative texts from early medieval England. These compositions approach poetic language in a different way from most other literary genres. When performed, they should produce changes in the physical world. Their desired results reflect early medieval concerns. Some are occupied with bodily wellbeing and hope to cure sick patients or prevent undesirable conditions. Others focus on restoring material wellbeing, redressing theft or requesting agricultural benefits. Scholars conventionally find the Metrical Charms challenging. There are several reasons for this circumstance. The Old English texts sometimes presuppose an awareness to obscure stories and events, and they employ a poetic register characterised by rare words and neologisms. Similarly, the Metrical Charms blur modern distinctions between science, magic, and religion, maintaining a complicated relationship with Christianity. They also demonstrate intricate transmission patterns: some show influences of written and oral media; most preserve overt and covert connections to texts in other languages. The thesis employs a comparative methodology and examines the Metrical Charms against a broader background of (often medieval but sometimes modern) European charm traditions. Old English charms are rare. Middle English, Latin, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian charms survive in greater numbers and sometimes resemble the Old English texts. The precise relationships between these compositions have remained underexplored. A comparative methodology affords the unique possibility of linking notoriously complex passages in the Metrical Charms to similar sections from analogous texts. The thesis finds this approach is effective in retrieving the meaning of obscure words and phrases. It offers new solutions for some of the field’s most longstanding interpretative problems

The life and legend of Giles of Santarem, Dominican friar and physician (d.1265) : a perspective on medieval Portugal

"One of the aims of this thesis is to establish the medical background of Giles of Santarem; it does not attempt a full survey of medicine in medieval Portugal. In order to do this it has been necessary to bring together a wide variety of primary and secondary sources which are essential to the reconstruction of Giles' intellectual milieu. In so doing, it is hoped that this will provide an introduction to the relatively neglected topic of medieval Portuguese medicine. Until the 1980s, references to Giles of Santarem were either found in medical studies Such as those described above, or in works of Dominican history. Since then the Dominican perspective has been strengthened, but largely as a result of the publication of editions of sixteenth-century Dominican vitae. First of all in 1981-2, Aires Nascimento produced an edition of the ‘Vita beati Gilii Sanctarenensis’ of Baltazar de Sao Joao. This was followed in 1995 by the critical edition of the ‘De conversione miranda D. Aegidii Lusitani’ of André de Resende by Virginia Soares Pereira. The former editor is a medievalist with a firm interest in social and intellectual history, but he makes no indepth study of the text; the latter is primarily interested in the early-modern context of the author and makes only a cursory study of the medieval basis of the vita. These texts are probably the most important sources for the life of Giles of Santarem and considerable effort is taken to establish the reliability of such late sources and examine the complex process of legend-building that they reveal. Other recent work on Giles of Santarem has largely been carried out by local historians, particularly of Santarem and Vouzela, Giles' traditional place of birth. The most significant, and scholarly, of these is the aforementioned exhibition catalogue ‘S. Frei Gile a sua Época’. This very recent interest suggests that there has been a realization that Giles of Santarem had far more importance in medieval Portugal than has hitherto been accorded him. His life, as will be shown, opens a window onto many vistas: early Dominican settlement, genealogy, education, medical treatment, dissemination of texts, the politics of the civil war, hagiography, and historiography... Historians need to realize that the study of medieval Iberia makes little sense without an appreciation of all the Iberian kingdoms. Portugal may have been in extremis mundi in the Middle Ages, but it was certainly very much part of the medieval world and needs to be studied, both for its own contribution to European history and for the influence the wider world had on the development of its society and institutions. The following in-depth study of the life and legend of Giles of Santarem seeks to provide a key to this approach." -- from the Introductio

Theophilus' On Diverse Arts: The Persona of the Artist and the Production of Art in the Twelfth Century.

De diversis artibus (On Diverse Arts) is one of the rare tracts on art and art-making to survive from the Middle Ages. Written by a monk using the pseudonym Theophilus, dated to the early twelfth century, and localized to northern Germany, the treatise comprises three books of instructions on the arts of painting, glass, and metalwork, each introduced by a prologue. Eight nearly complete copies of the text survive, including two from the mid-twelfth century. Seventeen additional manuscripts preserve either incomplete copies or excerpts. Drawing on the evidence of all these manuscripts, the dissertation examines how the text may have been read and understood in its twelfth-century context and later, and what it might reveal about attitudes toward art-making. When prologues and instructions are studied together, On Diverse Arts emerges as an integrated, carefully structured text with a sophisticated agenda. Emphasizing material hierarchies and spiritual ascent, it effectively unifies the theory and practice of art. The first chapter of the dissertation introduces the manuscript copies of On Diverse Arts and follows the remarkable story of its reception over the centuries: manuscripts were avidly collected and read by artisans, humanists, and antiquarians, and their interests still affect our own. The second chapter draws evidence from one early manuscript to uncover the internal structure of the text and to set the stage for a discussion of the parallels between On Diverse Arts and contemporary pedagogical and exegetical literature. The third chapter reexamines the identification of Theophilus as the monastic artisan Roger of Helmarshausen in the oldest copy of the text. I propose that the memory of the artist gave specific meaning to style and ornament in a network of monasteries, and I thereby I redirect questions of identity to issues of memory. The fourth chapter starts with one manuscript’s marginal notations to demonstrate how Theophilus’ tract moralizes the labor of the artist, transforming art-making into the practice of virtue or vice. Finally, the fifth chapter draws upon a composite manuscript to shed light on the variable generic status of On Diverse Arts and the place of art-making within medieval schemes of knowledge.Ph.D.History of ArtUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75830/1/heididi_1.pd