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This volume is a selection of papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Middle English held at Wyzsza Szkola Filologiczna (Philological School of Higher Education) in Wroclaw, Poland, from April 30 to May 3, 2015. The contributors cover a wide range of topics in the area of language and literature. The linguistic papers constitute the majority of contributions and focus on problems from phonology to grammar, semantics and pragmatics. The literary contributions discuss various aspects of Middle English texts.

Et in Arcadia ego scrive Goethe a sigillo di un viaggio nella città di Roma – l'ideale Arcadia di scrittori, artisti ed intellettuali della modernità. Il presente volume raccoglie capitoli dedicati alla figura dell'Urbe in quanto città-Arcadia: come delle ideali vie consolari, tali interventi si sviluppano verso le più varie diramazioni tematiche, pur avendo tutti lo stesso punto di origine o di arrivo: Roma, intesa alla luce del valore architettonico, storico oppure anche simbolico. Una prima ideale “via” di discussione parte dalla Polonia, un'altra passa attraverso l'Inghilterra, una terza “via” unisce idealmente la Grecia con la Russia; un'ultima si origina dalla Roma antica e spazia dal Cinquecento fino ad arrivare alla fin de siècle e al Novecento. Et in Arcadia ego is what Goethe writes after his journey to the city of Rome, to denote the ideal Arcadia for writers, artists and intellectuals of modernity. The present collection comprises chapters dedicated to the figure of Rome as an Arcadia-city: like ideal consular roads, these papers develop into varied thematic branches, even though they all have the same starting, or ending, point – the city of Rome, analyzed from the point of view of its architectural, historical or symbolic value. One ideal “road” of discussion starts in Poland, another “road” passes through England, a third ideally combines Greece and Russia; yet another ideal discussion “road” originates from the ancient Roman myths, runs through the 16th century and reaches the fin de siècle and the 20th century.

This volume is a collection of thirty papers written by authors from around the world. The writers focus on topics related to their own research interests. As a result, readers obtain a worldwide perspective on World War II from academics working on nearly every continent, proving that World War II was, probably, the first ever truly global experience for humanity. Present are many and different perspectives on the war. Eighty years after the end of World War II, these academics share their knowledge and reflections about a gruesome, but still not very remote time. In the new millennium, their studies should remind readers that the ‘end of history'has been an impossible illusion and warn that peace and stability in international relations are not a given.

The contributions in this book focus on U.S. migration policies, receiving society, ethnic communities and return migration. The authors analyze various aspects of migratory history ranging from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. They cover such topics as the times when Eastern European immigrants in the USA encountered hostility and marginalization, the efforts to create American Polonia military formations during the WWI, the problem of ethnic mobilization among Ukrainian political migrants in the U.S. as well as how state policies influence the movement of people. All the contributions are extended and revised versions of the papers presented at the 7th Workshop American Ethnicity and Ethnic Community Building.

Este segundo volumen de homenaje a Joseph Snow, en el que han participado reconocidos especialistas internacionales, contiene un conjunto de acercamientos a los grandes poemas del mester de clerecía, así como varios trabajos sobre prosa castellana medieval. Se abordan cuestiones relativas al Libro de buen amor o a la obra de Berceo, pero también a Gil Vicente, la tradición oral o la herencia medieval de los siglos XV y XVI. El volumen constituye una valiosa presentación de los grandes motivos de la poesía y la prosa castellanas en los primeros siglos de la literatura española.

Der Band enthält Analysen zur Geschichte und Kultur zweier Nachbarstaaten, ihrer Verflechtungen und Gegensätze von 1848/49 über den Ersten Weltkrieg, Faschismus und Nationalsozialismus bis in die Gegenwart. Die Beiträge verbindet die Frage, wie Italiener:innen und Deutsche Geschichte zu „machen'oder ihr zu entgehen versuchten und wie sie sie reflektierten. Sie reichen von ironischer Brechung der Nationsbildung im Roman, von Frauen und Monarchen als Akteure 1848/49, über Divenkult vor 1914, die Wahrnehmung des frühen Faschismus durch deutsche Juden und den Versuch, jüdische Reformpädagogik von 1933 trotz Staatsrassismus in Italien fortzusetzen, bis hin zu SS-Propaganda im besetzten Norditalien und dem Leben italienischer Zwangsarbeiter in Berlin. Für die Zeit nach 1945 geht es um Demokratisierungen, auch in den Geschichtswissenschaften, Italiens Prägung durch kommunistische Kultur, die viele Deutsche anzog, den Vergleich Süditalien-Ostdeutschland und die Erinnerung an Mussolini heute.

This volume comprises articles by scholars from three disciplines – literary studies, TEFL methodology, and history – from three universities – University College Cork (UCC), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven/Leuven Centre for Irish Studies (KU Leuven/LCIS), and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg/Irish Studies Würzburg (JMU/ISWÜ) – in three European countries – Ireland, Belgium, and Germany. The contributors explore Irish ‘history in stories'from the vantage point of their national and disciplinary contexts, emphasizing cultural knowledge and historical lessons to be drawn from ‘texts'from and about the Irish past.

Who were Romania's diplomatic representatives in the Balkans during the Second World War? How did they select and forward information? What personal mark did they add to negotiations and diplomatic notes? What was the relationship between the career diplomats and the political authorities in Romania in the context of a dictatorial regime in Bucharest? These are just some of the questions the book aims at providing answers to. Moreover, this “questionnaire” applied to the Balkans does not only elicit answers that reflect developments and processes in the area. It allows reflections on the broader decision-making architecture, on the entire Romanian foreign policy of that period and on the functioning mechanisms of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relation to the rigours of a totalitarian state.

Medizinische Inhalte waren in der periodischen Presse stets vielfältig vertreten. Aus sozial- und wissenschaftshistorischer Perspektive nimmt das Buch Tages- und Wochenzeitungen ebenso in den Blick wie «klassische» Rezensionsorgane, populäre Gesundheitszeitungen sowie Zeitschriften mit dezidiert wissenschaftlichem Anspruch. Anhand von vier geografisch und zeitlich gestreuten Fallstudien beleuchten die Autor•innen des Sammelbandes unterschiedliche Facetten der deutschsprachigen periodischen Presse Zentraleuropas im langen 19. Jahrhundert. Die Beispiele rekonstruieren die Entwicklung von Medien mit medizinischen Inhalten, ihre Entstehungs- und Erscheinungszusammenhänge, ihre Herausgeber sowie Praktiken der Wissensvermittlung.

The book is designed as a methodological exercise in cultural studies described as'engaging', which refers to a specific research approach requiring cooperation and the inclusion of individuals and communities in the research process, using a rich repertoire of humanistic traditions as a tool of social criticism. The key is to treat cultural studies as a workshop in which the researcher changes from a distant observer into a practical person – a public intellectual and craftsman at the same time. The turn from “engaged” to “engaging” research methodologies described in the book is strongly rooted in the tradition of the philosophy of praxis and the theory of social practices, from Aristotle, through Marxist theories, to contemporary participatory action research. Today, however, the practical approach in the humanities takes on particular importance in the context of the so-called ontological turn. The book tries to answer the question whether cultural studies based on the category of practice has a chance to be a new form of critical thinking under the conditions of post-anthropocentric humanities.

Kantor: Non/Presence is a unique work in theatre studies by a single author. The book far exceeds the framework set by its eponymous protagonist. Fazan reveals where following Tadeusz Kantor can lead and how radically the discourse of theater studies should be transformed in contact with his vast, heterogeneous oeuvre.Zbigniew Majchrowski, University of GdanskThe monumental monograph testifies not only to Fazan exceptional erudition but also her deep personal commitment to the study of Kantor's oeuvre. Reaching far beyond theater studies, Fazan's reference-rich analysis can be appreciated by those involved in art history, photography, stage design, architecture, and memory studies.Marcelina Obarska, Culture.pl

The book proposes a new category – heterotopia of affect – which builds upon Michel Foucault's typology. The category refers to changes of the places that accumulate contents of ideological, historical, religious, and national character. The book tells the history of a very Polish edifice as well as its surrounding cultural milieu and the history-creating role of the scientific community. The author focuses on the Staszic Palace whose fate reveals how – at different times in history – it catalyzed activities in search of radical changes in the mental landscape of the Polish community.

This book contributes to various political debates about Central Europe in terms of its literary-symbolic geography. The author contends that the research about Central Europe must, first of all, be exempted from its mythicisation. The idealisation of a past of monarchical and tolerant coexistence represents a dangerous stereotype to be deconstructed, rather than resurrected. The monograph offers an up-to-date critical view of Central Europe that takes into account various historical, geopolitical, and, above all, cultural-spiritual standpoints.

The book presents the life of Louis Wolowski (1810–1876). Born into a family of Frankist Jews in Warsaw, Wolowski participated in the Polish insurrection of 1830–1831 and later settled in France. Specializing in political economy, Wolowski became a professor at the prestigious Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers at the age of 29 and a member of the Academy in 1855. In 1852 he founded Crédit Foncier, one of the most important French banks and actively participated in the banking revolution of the second half of the 19th century. He also had a political career. Wolowski served as a deputy and from 1875, a life senator. Representing the liberal center of the French political scene, he played a crucial role in the establishment of the Republic in France.

„Eine Frau muß Geld und ein eigenes Zimmer haben, um schreiben zu können“, lautete die Forderung Virginia Woolfs aus dem Jahr 1929. Der Band setzt sich mit den verschiedenen Formen auseinander, die dieses Thema in den fiktionalen und nichtfiktionalen Texten von Autorinnen des deutschen, österreichischen und spanischen Exils annahm, und untersucht, ob und wie sie sich einen eigenen Raum erschreiben konnten und wie dieser beschaffen war: welche Erfahrungen in die Werke eingingen und wie sie dargestellt wurden, welche Genres vorgezogen wurden und inwiefern sie auch ideologisch fundierten Kriterien unterlagen. Somit versteht sich diese Studie als interkultureller Beitrag zur Erforschung des literarischen, essayistischen und philosophischen Schreibens von Frauen im Exil.

In the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, nearly one-third of the population of today's Slovenia permanently settled in countries around the world. Many more were traveling back and forth, searching for work to ensure the survival of the family members left behind at home and the prosperity for the families and communities they were creating abroad. From one of the smallest nations in Europe, barely reaching one and a half million inhabitants at the time, people departed in numbers reaching 440,000. This book tells their stories, about the'daring dreams of the future,'as the Slovenian poet Oton Župancˇicˇ—whose words open the book—so beautifully put it. The people who left took recipes for their foods, accordions for their music, and love for their culture and language, which was, and has remained, a linguistic island between Vienna and Venice. In their new communities, they built homes, churches, and cultural institutions that have survived until today.

Reinhart Koselleck concepisce la'Sattelzeit'come quel periodo storico compreso tra il 1750 e il 1850 che, trasformando il futuro nel luogo del progresso illimitato, segna definitivamente l'avvento della Modernità. Lo studio di Richard Häni dimostra che nel mondo culturale questa trasformazione si realizza nell'attuale penisola italiana al più tardi a partire dal Cinquecento. L'autore, andando alla ricerca dei presupposti culturali della'Sattelzeit'koselleckiana, illustra in che modo Sperone Speroni, Benedetto Varchi, Giorgio Vasari e Giambattista Vico interpretarono la propria modernità, come essi percepirono l'antichità classica e più in generale in che modo intesero il rapporto fra antichi e moderni in relazione al progresso e al futuro delle arti, della letteratura e della filosofia italiana.

This book compares the school image of the wartime past of the Falange and the Polish Workers'Party (PPR), created during the turbulent first decade of Francoism in Spain and Communism in Poland. Demonstrating the political usefulness of the Party was crucial to the consolidation of both regimes. The legitimisation of the new regime called for emphasising the Party's war effort, not only in defeating the enemy but also in its struggle for social issues. Forschool-taught history, the early years of both dictatorships marked a period of breaking with prewar educational concepts and introducing and testing new ‘revolutionary'pedagogical solutions. This book not only explains theaspirations of political rulers to rebuild the students'memory, but also contributes to our understanding of the textbook authors'perception of the recent past. It analyses the meanings of terms specific to mythical stories, such as nation, power, heroes and their deeds, and wartime struggle.

Es besteht kein Zweifel daran, dass die italienische Rechtssprache durch die Übersetzung der napoleonischen Gesetzbücher geprägt wurde. Das Buch geht diesem Einfluss anhand von Archivquellen nach und zeichnet ein umfassendes Bild der beteiligten Akteure, Prozesse und Produkte. Dabei lassen sich durch erhaltene Berichte und Briefe nicht nur Arbeitsprozesse von der Rekrutierung der Mitarbeiter bis zum Druck der Gesetzbücher verfolgen – im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung stehen zwei Abschriften des Code de commerce, die in unterschiedlichen Phasen des Übersetzungsprozesses entstanden sind. Diese Abschriften werden in einen Zusammenhang mit Berichten und Briefen gestellt, sodass Korrekturen und Diskussionen der Übersetzungskommission nachvollziehbar werden.Diese Arbeit ist mit dem Preis der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 2023 sowie mit dem Premio Gaspara Stampa des Deutschen Italianistikverbands (DIV) für hervorragende Qualifikationsschriften 2024 ausgezeichnet worden.

This book provides multifaceted analyses of everyday interpersonal violence in the Kingdom of Valencia and Catalonia between the 14th and 17th centuries. Employing qualitative and microhistorical approaches, its contributors weave a narrative tapestry where revenge among religious minorities, the impact of war on Muslim rural communities, and the phenomenon of banditry intertwine to reveal the social and cultural complexity of the era. Furthermore, its chapters explore piracy and mercenary activities, uncovering how these practices influenced social and economic dynamics. Their contributors also delve into the trials against witches and the repression of heretical deviations or non-normative behaviors, offering a critical view on how these events were framed within the struggle for power and social control. The cumulative work of the authors not only sheds light on dark and forgotten aspects of history, but also prompts reflections on the nature of violence and its role in the construction of collective identities. With meticulous research and an interdisciplinary focus, this book is essential for understanding the history of violence in the Iberian Peninsula and its transcendence on contemporary society.

Die Beiträge des Sammelbands behandeln innovativ und vergleichend Fragen zu zeitgebundenen Phänomenen der periodischen Presse. Der zeitliche und mediale Rahmen spannt sich von Andreas Gryphius'Perikopendichtung über Zeitschriften und Kalender sowie das im Mittelpunkt stehende Zeitungswesen des 18. Jahrhunderts bis zum Feuilletonroman des Vormärz. Geographisch liegt der Fokus auf Mitteleuropa, dessen periodisches Pressewesen im behandelten Zeitraum eine wesentliche Ausweitung und Differenzierung erfuhr. Vor allem die Berichterstattung wird im Hinblick auf zentrale Phänomene wie Nachrichtenübermittlung, Aktualität, Periodizität, Beschleunigung und Entschleunigung in ihren materiellen und immateriellen Dimensionen untersucht, aber auch Wissensvermittlung und Räsonnement sowie das Anzeigenwesen und Paratexte kommen ins Blickfeld. Soweit auffindbar, werden auch archivalische Quellen in die Analysen einbezogen. Im Dreischritt Produktion, Distribution und Rezeption dominiert die erste Etappe.

In this path-breaking book, he reflects on the evolution of Polish Jewry in these years against the background of its enormous contribution to Jewish religious traditions and its tragic fate in the Holocaust. A Jewish community, ‘small in numbers'but with a ‘big presence', continues to function in Poland. This book is essential reading for all those who wish to understand this remarkable phenomenon.Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies,Brandeis UniversitySmall Numbers, Big Presence is history rooted in assiduous dispassionate research, but no less, in passionate commitment to Polish Jewry. As much Pole as Jew, Stanislaw Krajewski was a witness to Poland's postwar Jewish renaissance and the Jews'de-assimilation. A frontliner in many struggles and triumphs, he tells the story with an insider's knowledge of the intricacies of events and personalities.Moshe Rosman, Bar-Ilan University, IsraelThe most important is Stanisław Krajewski's ability to capture complex phenomena with often mutually exclusive interpretations in a surprisingly new and original way.Stanisław Obirek, Professor at the American Studies Centre,University of Warsaw

The monograph is the result of research conducted between 2014 and 2018 in historical museums in Central and Eastern Europe. The main goal of the book is to verify the thesis about the existence of supranational collective memory in societies affected by the shared experience of totalitarianism. The analysis of the extensive research material allowed the author to distinguish social practices and types of exhibitions. Historical policies conducted by individual states exhibit features in common, their goal being to accustom people to the difficult past, to shape the positive images of the countries and to create the cultural founding myths of the post-communist states. Historical museum exhibitions become the executors of these ideas by introducing official interpretations of the communist period.

Historiography is one of the most systematic accounts of the fate of culture. It is also a record of human—reflexive and reflective metaphors of the world, simultaneously anthropomorphizing and humanizing it. Historical imagination captures the world in its classical form directly, and in its non-classical form indirectly, through the lens of anthropomorphization. This enables the adaptation of the world to the human dimension or, in other words, to be constructed on a human scale. Historiography and historical thinking, especially the traditional forms, are close to the figures of public discourse because they offer meanings commensurate with it. Additionally, they are openly imbued with values, making them susceptible to easy, casual and biased interpretations. Thanks to these features, historical thinking and historiography provide a framework for texpressing currently important values and the common and specific emotions centered around them.

The history of Upper Silesia is intertwined with the activities of Silesian priest Konrad Szweda, a victim of persecutions by German Nazism and Soviet communism. This book contains previously unknown letters and secret correspondence of Fr. Konrad Szweda, enriching the literature of personal documents related to World War II. These egodocuments, part of an anthology of invaluable source texts on the human spirit in “inhuman times”, offer historical material for further research on the clergy. Biographical details and factual nuances reveal surprising paradoxes, forgotten contexts, and facts, challenging established stereotypes and inspiring deeper insights into the complex fabric of the past.

From the images carved and painted to the buildings edified, from liturgical objects to reliquaries and tombs, from books to personal objects of piety, this volume reflects the many domains where the relation between materiality and devotion can be a prospect and a problem. It intersects the material, functional, performative and aesthetic dimensions with the different readings it calls for, the cognitive and emotional apprehensions, the representations (erudite and popular) it associates with, the practices that it sustains, the memories that polarize and legitimize, the powers that were affirmed through it. It discloses the diversity of variants such as wealth and social position, literate training, and gender differences.

This edited volume offers the first overview on human-animal history in the Baltics. Investigating historical entanglements between human and non-human animals from the pre-Christian times to the Soviet period and discussing a wide range of species, the volume integrates transnational study of Baltic history and culture with interdisciplinary human-animal studies. Taking the interrelatedness of species as a premise, the contributions focus on a variety of contacts and their representations in written, material, visual and other sources of Baltic history.　Covering a time period of nearly one thousand years, the chapters also make it possible to trace continuity and change in Baltic human-animal history over extended periods.

Today, fallen soldiers of the Second World War find their resting places across the globe. While many nations openly honor their military, Germany maintains a more reserved approach to its war dead. During the war, fallen soldiers were hailed as heroes, but after 1945, the treatment of the deceased and their graves underwent a profound transformation. Janz, focusing on the Eastern Front during wartime and then the post-war Soviet Union and Russian Federation, explores this transformation through three key moments: 1. the treatment of the bodies, burial practices, and exhumations; 2. the burial sites, including cemetery construction and design; and 3. the realm of commemoration, encompassing memorial ceremonies and rituals. These rituals evolved from the hero worship of Hitler's Wehrmacht to the mourning and reconciliation policies of the post-war West German government with Russia. This study offers an examination of the German military dead amidst controversies surrounding Wehrmacht soldiers and their challenging commemoration in the present day.

Dr. Benken's book is a case study of the life and death of Jan Rodowicz, nom-de-guerre Anoda, who served as a combatant in the Polish pro-independence underground resistance movement during the Second World War. The operations in which Anoda was involved, his conduct during and after the War, especially in the investigation following his arrest by the Communist security service and the mystery shrouding his death while under interrogation, turned him into a symbol for the young people of Poland in those times. His generation was forced to fight for its freedom against two criminal totalitarian systems, the Nazi Germans and the Soviets, paying with their life or health for the ideals they did not want to give up.

In this volume, six experts from Europe and Africa present new insights from the field about various aspects of Germany's colonial rule in Africa, raising doubt about the hitherto interpretations of some important events. The outbreak of violence in Rwanda 1904 was neither an anti-colonial Hutu uprising nor the result of a royal court intrigue against German rule, but instead a response to raids, the White Father missionaries had carried out against the local population. German colonialism in Rwanda was much less benevolent than it is today recalled in Rwanda, because its main edge was directed against the population in the North whose collective memory has been marginalized in the royal abanyiginya narrative, under colonial rule and after the genocide. Other chapters deal with the link between colonial boundaries and ethnic conflict and the counter-intuitive consequences of the German/Namibian settlement about colonial atrocities against the Herero and Nama.

The publication is a collection of research articles that provide an insight to mnemonic governance – a process of shaping the shared social imaginary of the past by legislators, courts, scholars and other actors. This phenomenon can be observed as an element of political discourse or as changes in law consolidating certain officially recognized states. The contributions in this volume offer a political, legal and historical analysis of transitional justice legislation, emerging memory laws, and the societal perception of the past. With this publication, we intend to contribute to the ongoing and changing debate surrounding memory politics and highlight the practical consequences of mnemonic governance.

Vorliegender Band versammelt Vorträge, die auf einer gemeinsam von der UAM zu Posen und der CAU zu Kiel veranstalteten Konferenz im Jahre 2019 gehalten wurden.

This treatise on religious studies traces the European tradition of astrology from its oriental beginnings to the present day. The aim is to get a view of the different mythological, philosophical and theological ideas of the cosmos (especially with Platonic and Aristotelian borrowings), which astrology has repeatedly reformulated and carried through all epochs. However, it seems as if astrology had lost its plausibility with the overcoming of the geocentric world view by Copernicus and Kepler and could only continue to exist as an'intellectual regression'(Theodor Adorno). This view is countered by the thesis, founded here, that astrology has been able to survive the changes in world views unscathed because it designs philosophical (holistic) patterns of reasoning into the relationship between cosmos and humans, which in a Platonic sense understand the cosmos as an intelligent and vital organism.

The process of the Orthodoxization of memory in Russia started long before the Russian Orthodox Church engaged in the memory politics. It was a grassrooted process initiated by both the living and the dead. By using religious symbols and rituals, various groups of living were restoring their relationship with the forgotten dead of Soviet repressions and war. When the Moscow Patriarchate has returned to active public life and started developing its religious memory infrastructure, the Orthodoxization process got a new up–down dimension. Finally, a turn of the Putin's regime towards religious commemorative practices caused the disappearance of the boundary between religious and political memory. The bricolage memory, consisting of elements of Orthodox tradition and Soviet memory culture, appeared.

Das Handbuch gibt einen fundierten Einblick in die Epochen des Mittelalters und der Renaissance in der Romania. Es ist für Studierende und Fachkolleg•innen aus angrenzenden Disziplinen konzipiert. Das Buch vermittelt historisches, kulturelles und sprachlich-literarisch-künstlerisches Grundlagenwissen über die gesamte romanischsprachige Welt, vom Gebiet der Dakoromania auf dem Balkan über die Italo- und Galloromania sowie die Iberische Halbinsel bis hin zum amerikanischen Kontinent. Die Beiträge des ersten Themenbereichs führen in Wissens- und Denktraditionen von der Antike bis zum 16. Jahrhundert ein, der zweite Bereich zeichnet die religiöse, gesellschaftliche und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung nach und im dritten Abschnitt werden sprachliche, literarische sowie künstlerische Phänomene exemplarisch erläutert.

The book explores the key concerns in the United States of America, as well as around the world today, related to the significance of ecology, eco-consciousness and climate change. The chapters by individual authors reflect the topics both from a theoretical and from an ecocritical perspective. In the former case, they analyze effects of the present ecological crises (i.e. climate change and pandemics), the emergence and development of environmental humanities, posthumanism, ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and ecotheology. In the latter case, they offer readings of American literary texts of the 20th and 21st centuries as significant case studies.

The book is the last volume of an extensive four-volume monograph devoted to the work of Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883), one of the most outstanding Polish authors. The impact of Norwid's oeuvre does not fade, as he addresses fundamental and timeless issues, such as the moral and spiritual condition of man or his place in the world and history, and seeks to answer universal questions. The volume includes articles devoted to the analysis of selected sources and inspirations underlying Norwid's work, as well as comparative texts tracing the manifestations of the commonality of thoughts and views connecting Norwid with the leading writers and artists of different periods. As a result, we received a multi-faceted image of an artist who, on the one hand, was strongly rooted in the tradition and modernity of Western European culture, and on the other, was characterized by great openness and sensitivity to otherness and cultural diversity.

The book explores the hitherto rarely discussed connection of magic with politics in the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius and Ammianus Marcellinus, offering insight into the way language of magic and ritual pollution is used as means of characterization and historiosophical commentary on the nature of power and political struggle. Religious deviation and innovation, theurgy, necromancy, black and erotic magic, the topoi of an emperor-magician, a semi-divine emperor-healer/saviour and a witch/poisoner, all play an important role in the analyzed texts. Magic is depicted as a way of abusing the official state religion; every such abuse disturbs pax deorum and brings misery on both the perpetrator and the whole state.

Kaiser Friedrich II. und sein Astrologe Michael Scotus haben vor allem die deutsche Forschung seit Generationen fasziniert. Allerdings steht das Ausmaß der Faszination oft im umgekehrten Verhältnis zu gesichertem Wissen. Dieses Buch unternimmt im ersten Teil den Versuch einer Neubewertung der bekannten Quellen, während der zweite Teil paradigmatisch den Liber de signis et imaginibus celi untersucht, jenen illustrierten astrologischen Traktat also, der neben dem Liber Physionomie Michaels erfolgreichstes Werk darstellt und im Laufe der Jahrhunderte immer wieder abgeschrieben, übersetzt und in textlichen wie bildlichen Auszügen tradiert wurde – und der hier erstmalig ediert und übersetzt ist.

Die Materialität des Todes ist ein besonders lohnendes Studienobjekt und verbindet Forschungsdiskurse, deren Austausch neue Perspektiven auf Tod und Sterben in der lateineuropäischen Vormoderne eröffnet. Dieser interdisziplinäre Sammelband geht den Möglichkeiten nach, die sich durch die intensive Erforschung eines Objekts (Grabkrone Konrads II. in Speyer) oder die Verbindung von Schriftquellen und anthropologischer Fundsituation (Philipp von Schwaben) ergeben. Er fragt nach Grabgestaltung und Grabdenkmälern, nutzt germanistische, epigraphische, mentalitätsgeschichtliche und Digital Humanities-Methodiken. Wie sterben Frauen in der mittelalterlichen Literatur, wie spricht man im Mittelhochdeutschen über den Tod? Und wie geht man damit um, wenn der Leichnam fehlt, weil der Kaiser fern seines Reiches in Kleinasien auf dem Kreuzzug verstirbt? Zusammen ergeben sich damit neue Perspektiven auf ein erforschtes, aber längst nicht erschöpfend verstandenes, allgegenwärtiges Phänomen des menschlichen Lebens: Unser Sterben.

This is a critical edition of Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb's account of his trip to Slavic countries at the end of the 10th century. It presents a translation (from Arabic) and interpretation of Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb's account with philological commentary, a reconstruction of the biographical identity of Ibrahim Ibn Jacob of Tortosa and an identification of the date of his trip. Pieces of information given by Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb (or added by Al-Bakri from other sources) contain a number of facts regarding the social, economic, and political development of the entire Slavic world in the early middle ages.

This book gives explanations for the growing gap in wealth and income and the rise of anti-democratic movements. The power of the elites today is supposedly founded on merit (education, intelligence etc.), but a closer look shows that a well-marked-out pool is just self-re-producing. The power these in-groups wield often leads to moral insensibility, made worse by a condescending attitude towards people further down the food chain. The pre-dominance of the model of the nation-state, with its centralism and top-down structure, is one of the roots of this problem, as is the lack of comparisons and value judgements; examples from transport and urbanism show that they are possible. The deplorable situation is made worse by the “anti-“social-media scuppering open and productive discussions.

Im Gefolge des Ersten Weltkriegs kam es 1919-1921 zwischen dem wiederentstandenen Polen und Sowjetrussland zum Krieg. Als die Rote Armee schon kurz vor Warschau stand und ihr Sieg sicher schien, gelang den Polen die Wende. Der polnische Oberbefehlshaber Józef Piłsudski stieß mit einem überraschenden Manöver in die Flanke der gegnerischen Truppen und zwang sie zum Rückzug. Es wird allgemein als Wunder an der Weichsel bezeichnet.Das Buch schildert nicht nur militärische Geschehnisse, sondern tritt auch in übergreifende Debatten ein. Dazu gehört die Frage, ob damals auch der Angriff auf Deutschland erfolgen sollte. Sie wird von fast allen namhaften Historikern bejaht. Der Autor vertritt, auf Fakten gestützt und mit Dokumenten belegt, die entgegengesetzte These.

This volume presents the outcomes of qualitative research on the meaning of religion in selected CEE regions. In several case studies, we reveal some features of social perception of religion present in verbalized and institutionalized social experiences and practices. We argue these societies develop their own social model of religion, which seems to be largely based on cultural, religious, and historical schemes dating back to the Habsburg Monarchy. They locate religious identity on a continuum with civic identity. Historical diversity may be endorsed as “traditional pluralism” while equality and tolerance is considered unnecessary. Capturing contradicting images of historical and contemporary pluralism may offer new insight into the puzzle of religion and politics in the CEE region.

Le 1er janvier 1960, la Confédération helvétique procède à la reconnaissance diplomatique du Cameroun oriental qui vient d'accéder à l'indépendance. Les deux Etats établissent peu après des relations diplomatiques en 1961. Un tel rapprochement est sous-tendu par plusieurs enjeux qui favorisent l'intensification des contacts dans trois domaines névralgiques : la diplomatie, la coopération technique et les relations économiques. En s'appuyant largement sur des sources primaires d'origines suisse et camerounaise, cette production historienne examine les hauts et les bas de ce partenariat sur cinquante-deux (52) années. Elle expose en outre, de nombreuses pistes qui permettent d'envisager la dimension prospective de cette bilatéralité avec optimisme.

Die Geschichte Dithmarschens in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts bietet sich wie kaum ein anderes Beispiel für eine Verknüpfung von Regionalgeschichte und Hansegeschichte an: Von 1468 bis 1558 arbeitete die dithmarsische Landesführung im Schatten der von den dänischen Königen respektive Herzögen von Schleswig und Holstein ausgehenden Bedrohungen mit Lübeck, dem ‚Haupt‘ der Hanse, bündnispolitisch zusammen. Ihren Höhepunkt erreichte diese Kooperation im Rahmen der Absetzung Christians II. und während der Grafenfehde. Diese langjährige Partnerschaft wurde mitunter um die Hansestädte Hamburg und Lüneburg erweitert, sodass sie als eine wichtige Komponente des Beziehungsgeflechts auf der Kimbrischen Halbinsel am Übergang von Mittelalter zur Frühen Neuzeit verstanden werden muss.

'Strongly affected by modern history and facing dilemmas of modernity, Central and Eastern Europe has been healing fresh wounds for the past 30 years. The present volume analyzes the contemporary challenges related to the heritage of 1989. The peaceful revolution brought substantial socio-cultural, institutional and strategic transformations, setting a long-term course for Central and Eastern European policymaking. Recently, however, these legacies, namely the geopolitical aspects of the transformation, the policies of collective memory, and even intrasocietal issues, have been questioned more than ever. It seems the region is approaching the end of a revolutionary cycle of transition. This volume tries to investigate this phenomenon as it unfolds.'--

This case study sketches the trans-professional and transnational careers of two upwardly mobile and cosmopolitan actors in the incoming “Century of the Genoese.” These examples of biography in history are analytically framed within the stream of research on social mobility in medieval and early modern Italy, and then compared with the organizational and institutional behavior of some Atlantic entrepreneurs of the sixteenth century. Thisframework also takes into account the dualism and transactional focus of the Genoese polity with the aim of reassessing the historical reasoning on entrepreneurship proposed by business historians who responded to the “Schumpeter's plea” in this regard.

This volume gathers a variety of scientific contributions, from young and experienced researchers alike, on the evolution of frontiers/borders, from the late Middle Ages to the end of the Early Modern Period (eighteenth century). The expansion of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, its diplomatic and military interactions with the Hungarian Kingdom, daily life in medieval borderlands, administrative and military organization of frontiers, transfer of military knowledge and technology, social and demographic impact of border warfare and the militarization of eighteenth century borders are some of the subjects approached by the authors. Their research provides a complex comparative perspective over a region which shares both common and divergent features with the rest of Europe.

Between 1919 and 1920, the eastern territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were temporarily administered by the Civic Management of Eastern Territories, established by Józef Piłsudski. The residents of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania were to determine their future governance. Piłsudski placed the Civic Management outside the structures of the Polish government, while his opponents from the Polish nationalist wing wanted to suborn it to the government in Warsaw. Based on hitherto unknown archival documents, the author describes the reasons for the failure of Piłsudski's federation idea, both on the Polish side, as well as errors by Belarusian leaders and the policy of the Lithuanian state.