For the 16th birthday of the hereditary prince Carl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach on 3 September 1773, his teacher Christoph Martin Wieland had the play “The Choice of Hercules”, a “dramatic cantata”, performed at the Weimar court theatre. Did Wieland thus connect to a tradition of the Hercules myth connected with the dynasty or the place…[Read more]

This essay traces the transformations of aristocratic representation using the example of the Russian Tsar’s daughter Maria Pavlovna (1786–1859), who was married to the Weimar court in 1804. Maria Pavlovna endeavoured to put her informal ruling techniques, charitable undertakings as well as her patronage and memorial ambitions in Weimar’s ‘…[Read more]

“The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope published in 1712 is a mock-heroic narrative which satirically
glorifies trivial incident of cutting of locks of protagonist Belinda. This poem was written in the
Augustan Era (1660-1784) which is marked by the period of scientific reason and rationality, whose
effect can be seen on the writers of those…[Read more]

Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy creates a subtle apologia for the “middling sort” by challenging the socially constructed predicates of aristocratic privilege. A scrivener’s son, Kyd undertsood oeconomia, or household management, as both the means for material advancement among the “middling sort” and a potential threat to aristocratic insular…[Read more]

Examines Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and the epistemological challenges of differentiating twins in light of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, specifically his theories of substance and individuation.

Shortly after publishing the first edition of his Essays in 1597, Francis Bacon drafted De sapientia veterum, a series of unpublished essays designed to re-read classical mythology as indicative of political and scientific truths. An early, if partial, expression of Bacon’s project to facilitate mastery over the natural order, De sapientia has c…[Read more]

By applying translation theories and discourse analysis to the study of thirteenth-century English law, it is apparent that some of the terms used in secondary works and printed editions of primary sources are not based on the actual manuscript sources but instead modern biases (intersecting ethnicity and gender). The knock-on effect of this…[Read more]

This essay examines English Renaissance chess manuals in order to understand why chess, a game that encourages subterfuge and stratagem, was nonetheless figured as the paradigmatic example of a virtuous pastime. Particular attention is given to da Odenara Damiano’s The Pleasaunt and Wittie Playe of the Cheasts (1564), Arthur Saul’s The Famous Gam…[Read more]

The multimedia aspects of one of the most beautifully illuminated charters is in the focus of this paper.

Th is essay deals with the relevance of medieval grants of arms in art history, focusing on the aspects of innovation and quality. Th e fi rst part discusses the origins of innovative prototypes that did not yet match the quality of later grants of arms. Th e second part presents a selection of qualitative landmarks in the history of grants of…[Read more]

An introductory lecture for non-specialists on medieval schooltexts for sex education of pre-pubescent boys: Rota Veneris, Pamphilus De Amore and, especially, Facetus ‘Moribus et vita’, of which a most complete 13-14th century translation into Catalan survives. The author has published numerous scholarly papers and an academic book on this subject.

The music chapel of the Cathedral of Segorbe has historically played a primordial role in the history of Spanish music, constituting a focus of musical activity that attracted a numerous group of singers, instrumentalists, organists and chapel masters who formed part of the aforementioned chapel, whose antecedents date back to the mid-13th…[Read more]

Schematic (bullet-point) overview of Old Saxon and Old High German metre, with a particular emphasis on alliterative verse. My goal is to sketch out the main features of the metre, especially in comparison with Old English, rather than to delve into theoretical fundamentals (though an appendix touching on that topic is included). I also append a…[Read more]

This article examines Mary Magdalene’s biblical identity and poetic representation in selected sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish texts. An alternative reading or “re-visioning” (Adrienne Rich’s term) of the narratives that tell her story reclaims her figure from masculinist characterizations of Mary Magdalene that have made an enduring…[Read more]

In this book chapter, Dr. Davis examines the depiction of a dissimulated desire for material improvement (mejora) as it is expressed in the epic poetry of imperial Spain, particularly in Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana. She shows that within the aristocratic context of the times, the desire for personal betterment or “mejora” is always contingent…[Read more]

In this book chapter, Dr. Davis examines the depiction of a dissimulated desire for material improvement (mejora) as it is expressed in the epic poetry of imperial Spain, particularly in Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana. She shows that within the aristocratic context of the times, the desire for personal betterment or “mejora” is always contingent…[Read more]

The nautical motif of the ex-voto (votive offering) is a lyric genre that reflects poetically the possible experience of a shipwreck survivor. Paradoxically, many of the poets who evoke the perils of sea travel never left Spain or, at most, sailed only the waters of the Mediterranean. Their writing of the sea remained consistently codified in…[Read more]

The nautical motif of the ex-voto (votive offering) is a lyric genre that reflects poetically the possible experience of a shipwreck survivor. Paradoxically, many of the poets who evoke the perils of sea travel never left Spain or, at most, sailed only the waters of the Mediterranean. Their writing of the sea remained consistently codified in…[Read more]

The biographical trajectory of the Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez can be described as exciting and his musical contribution as transcendent in an era of sublime creativity that coincided with the artistic and intellectual rediscovery of the values of classical Greco-Latin antiquity. A contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo,…[Read more]

The biographical trajectory of the Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez can be described as exciting and his musical contribution as transcendent in an era of sublime creativity that coincided with the artistic and intellectual rediscovery of the values of classical Greco-Latin antiquity. A contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo,…[Read more]