The Legenda Aurea
The Legenda Aurea

Author: Sherry L. Reames

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780299101503

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the thirteenth century a young Dominican friar, Jacobus de Voragine, compiled the book that came to be known as the Legenda aurea, a collection of medieval lore about the saints and holidays of the church. Through the centuries this noted book has had a conspicuously uneven reputation: enormous popularity in the late Middle Ages, a precipitous decline during the Renaissance, and a gradual rehabilitation in the modern era. Sherry L. Reames's study of the Legenda aurea offers the first comprehensive account of the book's history and of the qualities that differentiate it from earlier and less controversial works about the saints. The fresh perspective introduced by this study will provide new insights and challenge old myths for historians, literary critics, theologians, and students concerned with medieval culture and hagiography.

More Than a Memory
More Than a Memory

Author: Johan Leemans

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 9789042916883

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Throughout its history, persecutions and martyrdom have been Christianity's faithful companions. Remarkably enough, Christians have always valued martyrdom in a positive way. This positive evaluation of martyrdom most certainly has to do with the absolute, uncompromising nature of it. The martyrs' lives and deaths represent the most uncompromising of answers to the divine call. The focus of the contributions in this volume is not in the first place on reconstructing the historical events of the martyr's life and death "wie es eigentlich gewesen ist," but on the discourse generated by this event as mediated in texts. More than a Memory aims to explore the reciprocal relationship between this discourse of martyrdom and the construction of Christian identity. It will do so by presenting a number of test cases in which this dynamic can be seen at work. They will lead the reader through the entire history of Christianity, starting with the Martyrdom of Lyons and Vienne in the second century and ending in the Latin America of the 1960's. Each article will present a test case of discourse-analysis, attempting to explore the issue of how a document or coherent group of documents contributed to create a distinct Christian identity. Taken together, the essays provide an array of examples of how martyrdom impinged on the way Christian identity has been negotiated in the Christian past. In doing this, the volume at the same time illustrates the sheer importance of martyrdom and the reflection and writing about it throughout the history of Christianity until today.

Texts of the Passion
Texts of the Passion

Author: Thomas H. Bestul

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2015-08-05

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1512800872

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this book Thomas H. Bestul constructs the literary history of the Latin Passion narratives, placing them within their social, cultural, and historical contexts. He examines the ways in which the Passion is narrated and renarrated in devotional treatises, paying particular attention to the modifications and enlargements of the narrative of the Passion as it is presented in the canonical gospels. Of particular interest to Bestul are the representations of Jews, women, and the body of the crucified Christ. Bestul argues that the greatly enlarged role of the Jews in the Passion narratives of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is connected to the rising anti-Judaism of the period. He explores how the representations of women, particularly the Virgin Mary, express cultural values about the place of women in late medieval society and reveal an increased interest in female subjectivity.

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri

Author: Dante Alighieri

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 886

ISBN-13: 0195087429

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Pardiso is the third of three volumes of a new edition and translation of Dantes's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. Similar to volumes I Inferno and II Purgatorio, this translation will be into English prose, emphasizing the literal-vs-phonetic. A newly edited version of the Italian text will be on facing pages and includes fully comprehensive notes with the latest in contemporary scholarship.