Luciano Gargan, Dante, la sua biblioteca e lo Studio di Bologna

Dante’s Christian epic was not created out of nothing; nor did he write his didactic prose without reference to the work of others. This is not despite the poet’s genius but because of it. Dante was a wordsmith, who worked with the materials he had at his disposal, melting them down in the furnace of his mind and recasting them in new forms. But what kind of materials was he dealing with? Is it possible to reconstruct the medieval network of knowledge that the poet drew upon to shape his visi..

Luciano Gargan, Dante, la sua biblioteca e lo Studio di Bologna

Dante’s Christian epic was not created out of nothing; nor did he write his didactic prose without reference to the work of others. This is not despite the poet’s genius but because of it. Dante was a wordsmith, who worked with the materials he had at his disposal, melting them down in the furnace of his mind and recasting them in new forms. But what kind of materials was he dealing with? Is it possible to reconstruct the medieval network of knowledge that the poet drew upon to shape his visi..

The African Paradise of Cardinal Carvajal: New Light on the "Kunstmann II Map," 1502-1506

Le symbole du paradis que l’on voit sur la carte géographique du monde «Kunstmann II» (1502–1506) offre à l’historien un point de départ remarquable pour l’exploration des idées européennes sur un paradis terrestre en Afrique et des perceptions européennes de l’Afrique aux environs de 1500. Une analyse attentive de l’iconographie de cette carte met en lumière son contexte et ses objectifs. Les armoiries présentes sur le grand arbre du paradis appartiennent au cardinal espagnol Bernardino López de Carvajal (1456–1523), ambassadeur de l’Espagne auprès du pape. Carvajal, qui a joué un rôle important dans le cadre du traité de Tordesillas, était un partisan convaincu d’une nouvelle croisade contre l’Islam en Afrique et au Moyen Orient qui visait la reconquête de Jérusalem et l’expansion de la foi chrétienne dans le monde

Mapping the Religious Mind: India and the Medieval Geography of Religion

Religion and geography intersect and interact, particularly in the context of medieval cartography. India was represented on medieval world maps as a country of wisdom and a land of opulence but its depiction has to be seen within the wider context of the Christian vision of history