The Rhetorical Occasions of Gothic Sculpture

Lately I have become interested in medieval sculpture, a medium of art which seems to open up an unusually wide range of issues appropriate to the heroic scope, if not exactly the intellectual interests, of Sophus Bugge. My concern is not so much the medium itself, as the intellectual predicament of its study. In this lecture I have chosen to focus on Gothic sculpture, of which many fine examples survive in wood in Scan-dinavia and especially Norway.1 My concerns will not be stylistic, iconographic or technical. Instead I will consider the agency of sculpture, how its function relates to its purpose, and how that purpose is social. To shed light on these matters I propose to consider rhetorical engagement

The Reception of the Principles in England

According to Michael Podro, Heinrich Wölfflin was ‘explicitly concerned with the construction of critical systems’ . His reception in England, however, was anything but systematic and, as I shall suggest, was characterized far more by the role of individual historians and critics, and by small groups, than by institutions. The coterie, the ‘invisible college’ has always mattered in the English intellectual and critical tradition and with it the conversation of friends and allies. Indeed, English reception of Heinrich Wölfflin’s work started in earnest with the critic, artist and art guru from one such coterie, the Bloomsbury group, Roger Fry (1866-1934) (Fig. 1). In the December 1903 number of The Athenaeum, Fry had reviewed Wölfflin’s Die klassische Kunst (1899), there retitled for English readers as The Art of the Italian Renaissance and more generally known by the title Classic Art . Fry’s main concern in this review was more the canon than method: to him, Wölfflin was rehabilitating the art of the seicento, sight of which had been lost since Burckhardt. The quattrocento had abandoned the grand style, the Sublime, for the sweet, rational, middle style: but then Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo restored ‘greatness’, religious idealism, the power of ‘condensation’ or concentration of effect. In effect, from an English perspective, Fry spotted in Wölfflin a rehabilitation of the grand manner of Reynolds

Retrieving Landmark Salience Based on Wikipedia: An Integrated Ranking Model

Landmarks are important for assisting in wayfinding and navigation and for enriching user experience. Although many user-generated geotagged sources exist, landmark entities are still mostly retrieved from authoritative geographic sources. Wikipedia, the world’s largest free encyclopedia, stores geotagged information on many geospatial entities, including a very large and well-founded volume of landmark information. However, not all Wikipedia geotagged landmark entities can be considered valuable and instructive. This research introduces an integrated ranking model for mining landmarks from Wikipedia predicated on estimating and weighting their salience. Other than location, the model is based on the entries’ category and attributed data. Preliminary ranking is formulated on the basis of three spatial descriptors associated with landmark salience, namely permanence, visibility, and uniqueness. This ranking is integrated with a score derived from a set of numerical attributes that are associated with public interest in the Wikipedia page―including the number of redirects and the date of the latest edit. The methodology is comparatively evaluated for various areas in different cities. Results show that the developed integrated ranking model is robust in identifying landmark salience, paving the way for incorporation of Wikipedia’s content into navigation systems

An Early Miniature Copy of the Choir Vault of Wells Cathedral at Irnham, Lincolnshire

The parish church of St Andrew at Irnham in Lincolnshire possesses a richly carved stone monument dating to around 1340 which bears the arms of Sir Geoffrey and Agnes Luttrell, associated with the celebrated Luttrell Psalter. The form, imagery and function of this monument are problematical and are discussed first in order to create a context for an unusual aspect of its architecture, namely that its inner vault is a miniature copy, unique in this part of England, of the main vault of the choir of Wells Cathedral, a so-called ‘net’ vault. Amongst the reasons for such an unusual citation may be the existence in Somerset, in the diocese of Wells, of one branch of the Luttrell family at the time this monument was raised.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via https://doi.org/10.1080/00681288.2016.122019

Writing in Britain and Ireland, c. 400 to c. 800

No abstract available

Imagem e territórios das elites burguesas galegas: a escultura funerária (séculos XIV-XV)

As well as a clear rising of the sumptuous tombs is asserted during the 14<sup>th</sup> and 15<sup>th</sup> centuries within the sphere of nobility, also an increase in the decoration of graves took place in that of the bourgeois elites. In fact, this phenomenon of emulation with regard to the urbanized <i>fidalguia</i> will be the most characteristic one of this enriched bourgeoisie, which is an essential part of the municipal oligarchies. We will analyse some aspects of this class representation, especially concerning funerary sculpture, and from a perspective of critique of ideology and lacanian theory, especially in what refers to a paradigmatic example, the tomb of Joám do Campo in São Domingos de Bonaval.<br><br>De la misma manera en que en el ámbito de la nobleza se asiste a un claro aumento del número de sepulcros exentos y bajo arcosolio durante los siglos XIV y XV, también en el de las élites burguesas corroboramos un incremento en la decoración de sus enterramientos. De hecho, este fenómeno de emulación y/o homologación a respecto de la hidalguía urbanizada será el más característico en el seno de esta burguesía enriquecida, parte esencial de las oligarquías municipales. Analizaremos algunos aspectos de esta representación de clase, especialmente en relación a la escultura funeraria, y desde un enfoque de crítica de la ideología y teoría lacaniana, en especial por lo que respecta a un caso paradigmático como es el del sepulcro de Joám do Campo en São Domingos de Bonaval.
 
 [gl] Do mesmo jeito que no âmbito da nobreza se assiste a um claro aumento do número de sepulcros isentos e baixo arcossólio durante os séculos XIV e XV, também no das elites burguesas corroboramos um incremento na decoração dos seus enterramentos. De feito, este fenômeno de emulação e/ou homologação perante a fi dalguia urbanizada será o mais característico no seio desta burguesia enriquecida, parte essencial das oligarquias municipais. Analisaremos alguns aspeitos desta representação de classe, nomeadamente em relação à escultura funerária, desde um enfoque de crítica da ideologia e teoria lacaniana, em especial no que respeita a um caso paradigmático como é o do sepulcro de Joám do Campo em São Domingos de Bonaval

Dancing with death. A historical perspective on coping with covid-19

In this paper, we address the question on how societies coped with pandemic crises, how they tried to control or adapt to the disease, or even managed to overcome the death trap in history. On the basis of historical research, we describe how societies in the western world accommodated to or exited hardship and restrictive measures over the course of the last four centuries. In particular, we are interested in how historically embedded citizens' resources were directed towards living with and to a certain extent accepting the virus. Such an approach of “applied history” to the management of crises and public hazards, we believe, helps address today's pressing question of what adaptive strategies can be adopted to return to a normalized life, including living with socially acceptable medical, hygienic and other pandemic‐related measures

Both “illness and temptation of the enemy”: melancholy, the medieval patient and the writings of King Duarte of Portugal (r. 1433–38)

Recent historians have rehabilitated King Duarte of Portugal, previously maligned and neglected, as an astute ruler and philosopher. There is still a tendency, however, to view Duarte as a depressive or a hypochondriac, due to his own description of his melancholy in his advice book, the Loyal Counselor. This paper reassesses Duarte's writings, drawing on key approaches in the history of medicine, such as narrative medicine and the history of the patient. It is important to take Duarte's views on his condition seriously, placing them in the medical and theological contexts of his time and avoiding modern retrospective diagnosis. Duarte's writings can be used to explore the impact of plague, doubt and death on the life of a well-educated and conscientious late-medieval ruler

Infectious Fear: The Rhetoric of Pestilence in Middle English Didactic Texts on Death

This article examines literary references to bubonic plague in a sample of late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century English texts that are didactic in tone and address the theme of death, including Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale”, John Lydgate’s “Danse Macabre” and the anonymous The Castle of Perseverance and “A Disputation between the Body and Worms”. Although there have been broad surveys of bubonic plague in Middle English literature, as well as studies of isolated texts, this article is the first to examine the role of pestilence in a group of texts linked by theme and authorial intention. It contributes to current understanding of the disease in late medieval literature and culture, showing how authors utilised the idea of pestilence as a frightening cause of sudden death and as a form of rhetoric serving to encourage readers to reflect on mortality, the spiritual health of the soul and the prospect of salvation. Whereas previous research has shown that doctors, priests and writers interpreted the pestilence as a divine punishment for sin, this study demonstrates how that belief could be exploited for rhetorical purposes. The rhetoric of pestilence emerges as a powerful contemplative tool urging readers to practise self-examination, penitence and a more active, strategic approach to death