Medieval Sex Education, Or: What About Canidia?

This essay considers two witnesses to the reception of Horace in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, particularly Epode 5, which features one of Horace's most disturbing and disruptive figures, the witch Canidia.  One witness is the comic reworking of Epode 5 in Anselmo da Besate's Rhetorimachia; the other is a drawing in Leiden ms. Gronovius 15, which shows Canidia and her young victim, the boy whom she is intending to kill in order to make a love charm.   Horace was a standard school author, and these two witnesses also point to a scholastic context of some sort.  I examine them closely to consider what sort of "sex education," or socialization and initiation to a sexual role, might be accomplished by exposing young students to the more bizarre and obscene elements of Horace's poetry (even when deflected into comedy),  and the threat to one's poise and composure, the embarrassment that comes with them. 

Rediscovery and Canonization: The Roman Classics in the Middle Ages

Issue 3 of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures explores the theme of the rediscovery and canonization of the Roman classics in medieval Western European literary culture, beginning in the eleventh century and reaching a wide impact on literary and intellectual life in the twelfth century. It is headed by an article by Birger Munk Olsen whose immense and comprehensive work of cataloguing and analyzing the entire record of manuscripts containing Roman classics copied before 1200 is nearing completion (L‘étude des auteurs classiques aux XIe et XIIe siècles, 5 vols). Within our journal’s scope of medieval European literature we have found it both rewarding and fitting to take Munk Olsen’s work as a prism for what is a striking literary phenomenon across most geographies and chronologies of medieval Europe: the engagement with the pre-Christian classics.The catalogue and the synthesis by Munk Olsen put many kinds of new studies on a firm footing. In this issue of Interfaces we present three 'frontiers' or types of scholarship on the rediscovery and canonization of the Roman classics all taking their cue from the meticulous way L’étude has charted out this territory

Merlin’s Open Mind:Madness, Prophecy, and Poetry in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini

This essay considers the observatory in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini, with its seventy doors and seventy windows, as a structuring emblem of the title character’s state of mind and, by extension, the poem’s poetics and epistemology.Monika Otter, ‘/i&gt’;, in Openness in Medieval Europe, ed. by Manuele Gragnolati and Almut Suerbaum, Cultural Inquiry, 23 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 127-43 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-23_07

La Vie des deux Offa, l' Enfance de saint Edmond et la logique des «antécédents»

The Two Offas, St. Edmund's Childhood, and logic of the Prequel - This essay examines two Latin texts on the borderline between historiography and romance : Matthew Paris' s Vitae duorum Offarum and Gaufridus de Fontibus' De Infantia sancti Eadmundi. Both are conceived as « prequels » to existing monastic histories, extending the foundation history of their respective houses (St. Albans and Bury St. Edmunds) farther into the past. While both wish to be taken seriously as historical texts, they resemble the enfances of vernacular chanson de geste and romance and make extensive use of their formal properties and narrative motifs. This hybridity, far from undermining them, works to their advantage. In particular, it is the peculiar narrative logic of the prequel that makes these texts work. Based on an alreadly existing narrative and glossing it after the fact, a prequel pretends to come chronologically before that prior narrative and to prepare and motivate it. This ambiguity deemphasizes historical reference and shifts the narrative's truth claim onto a purely textual level, which is obviously helpful for the kind of imaginative, propagandistic history these monastic chroniclers are engaged in.Cet essai examine deux textes à la frontière de l'historiographie et du roman : les Vitae duorum Offarum de Matthieu Paris et le De Infantia sancti Eadmundi de Gaufridus de Fontibus. L'un et l'autre sont conçus comme des « antécédents » aux histoires monastiques existantes, étendant le récit de fondation de leurs maisons respectives (Saint Albans et Bury St. Edmunds) encore plus loin dans le passé. Alors même qu'ils espèrent être pris sérieusement comme des textes historiques, ils ressemblent aux enfances des chansons de geste et des romans, utilisant largement leurs propriétés formelles et leurs motifs narratifs. Une telle hybridité, loin de les miner, travaille à leur avantage. En particulier, c'est la logique spécifique de l'antécédent qui permet à ces textes de fonctionner. Reposant sur des récits déjà existants et les glosant après coup, l'antécédent prétend venir chronologiquement avant le récit antérieur, l'annoncer et le motiver. Cette ambiguïté enlève l'accent accordé à la référence historique et déplace la revendication de vérité du récit sur un plan purement textuel, ce qui, à l'évidence, est utile pour ce genre d'histoire imaginaire et de propagande à laquelle les chroniqueurs monastiques s'emploient.Otter Monika, Redon Odile, Hordynsky-Caillat Lada, Sansy Danièle. La Vie des deux Offa, l' Enfance de saint Edmond et la logique des «antécédents». In: Médiévales, n°38, 2000. L'invention de l'histoire, sous la direction de Christopher Lucken et Mireille Séguy. pp. 17-34

Genetic associations of Nrf2-encoding NFE2L2 variants with Parkinson s disease a multicenter study Genetic associations of Nrf2-encoding NFE2L2 variants with Parkinson s disease a multicenter study

Abstract Background: The transcription factor Nrf2, encoded by the NFE2L2 gene, is an important regulator of the cellular protection against oxidative stress. Parkinson? s disease is a neurodegenerative disease highly associated with oxidative stress. In a previously published study, we reported associations of NFE2L2 haplotypes with risk and age at onset of idiopathic Parkinson? s disease in a Swedish discovery material and a Polish replication material. Here, we have extended the replication study and performed meta-analyses including the Polish material and four new independent European patient-control materials. Furthermore, all SNPs included in the haplotype windows were investigated individually for associations with Parkinson? s disease in meta-analyses including all six materials

Association of Nrf2-encoding <it>NFE2L2 </it>haplotypes with Parkinson's disease

Abstract Background Oxidative stress is heavily implicated in the pathogenic process of Parkinson's disease. Varying capacity to detoxify radical oxygen species through induction of phase II antioxidant enzymes in substantia nigra may influence disease risk. Here, we hypothesize that variation in NFE2L2 and KEAP1, the genes encoding the two major regulators of the phase II response, may affect the risk of Parkinson's disease. Methods The study included a Swedish discovery case-control material (165 cases and 190 controls) and a Polish replication case-control material (192 cases and 192 controls). Eight tag single nucleotide polymorphisms representing the variation in NFE2L2 and three representing the variation in KEAP1 were chosen using HapMap data and were genotyped using TaqMan Allelic Discrimination. Results We identified a protective NFE2L2 haplotype in both of our European case-control materials. Each haplotype allele was associated with five years later age at onset of the disease (p = 0.001) in the Swedish material, and decreased risk of PD (p = 2 × 10-6), with an odds ratio of 0.4 (95% CI 0.3-0.6) for heterozygous and 0.2 (95% CI 0.1-0.4) for homozygous carriers, in the Polish material. The identified haplotype includes a functional promoter haplotype previously associated with high transcriptional activity. Genetic variation in KEAP1 did not show any associations. Conclusion These data suggest that variation in NFE2L2 modifies the Parkinson's disease process and provide another link between oxidative stress and neurodegeneration.</p

Association of Nrf2-encoding NFE2L2 haplotypes with Parkinson\u27s disease.

BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress is heavily implicated in the pathogenic process of Parkinson\u27s disease. Varying capacity to detoxify radical oxygen species through induction of phase II antioxidant enzymes in substantia nigra may influence disease risk. Here, we hypothesize that variation in NFE2L2 and KEAP1, the genes encoding the two major regulators of the phase II response, may affect the risk of Parkinson\u27s disease. METHODS: The study included a Swedish discovery case-control material (165 cases and 190 controls) and a Polish replication case-control material (192 cases and 192 controls). Eight tag single nucleotide polymorphisms representing the variation in NFE2L2 and three representing the variation in KEAP1 were chosen using HapMap data and were genotyped using TaqMan Allelic Discrimination. RESULTS: We identified a protective NFE2L2 haplotype in both of our European case-control materials. Each haplotype allele was associated with five years later age at onset of the disease (p = 0.001) in the Swedish material, and decreased risk of PD (p = 2 x 10(-6)), with an odds ratio of 0.4 (95% CI 0.3-0.6) for heterozygous and 0.2 (95% CI 0.1-0.4) for homozygous carriers, in the Polish material. The identified haplotype includes a functional promoter haplotype previously associated with high transcriptional activity. Genetic variation in KEAP1 did not show any associations. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that variation in NFE2L2 modifies the Parkinson\u27s disease process and provide another link between oxidative stress and neurodegeneration

Genetic associations of Nrf2-encoding variants with Parkinson's disease - a multicenter study

Background: The transcription factor Nrf2, encoded by the gene, is an important regulator of the cellular protection against oxidative stress. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease highly associated with oxidative stress. In a previously published study, we reported associations of haplotypes with risk and age at onset of idiopathic Parkinson's disease in a Swedish discovery material and a Polish replication material. Here, we have extended the replication study and performed meta-analyses including the Polish material and four new independent European patient-control materials. Furthermore, all SNPs included in the haplotype windows were investigated individually for associations with Parkinson's disease in meta-analyses including all six materials. Methods: Totally 1038 patients and 1600 control subjects were studied. Based on previous haplotype associations with Parkinson's disease, five tag SNPs were genotyped by allelic discrimination and three functional promoter SNPs were genotyped by sequencing. The impact of individual SNPs and haplotypes on risk and age at onset of Parkinson's disease were investigated in each material individually and in meta-analyses of the obtained results. Results: Meta-analyses of haplotypes showed association of haplotype GAAAA, including the fully functional promoter haplotype AGC, with decreased risk (OR=0.8 per allele, p=0.012) and delayed onset (+1.1 years per allele, p=0.048) of Parkinson's disease. These results support the previously observed protective effect of this haplotype in the first study. Further, meta-analyses of the SNPs included in the haplotypes revealed four SNPs associated with age at onset of Parkinson's disease (rs7557529 G>A, -1.0 years per allele, p=0.042; rs35652124 A>G, -1.1 years per allele, p=0.045; rs2886161 A>G, -1.2 years per allele, p=0.021; rs1806649 G>A, +1.2 years per allele, p=0.029). One of these (rs35652124) is a functional SNP located in the promoter. No individual SNP was associated with risk of Parkinson's disease. Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that variation in the gene, encoding a central protein in the cellular protection against oxidative stress, may contribute to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Functional studies are now needed to explore these results further.peer-reviewe