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Il genere della medieval crime fiction ha preso il volo (dal punto di vista della quantità e della qualità delle creazioni) dall’inizio degli anni ’80 del secolo scorso, grazie ai romanzi di Ellis Peters (A Morbid Taste for Bones, 1977) e soprattutto di Umberto Eco (Il nome della rosa, 1980). Da allora a oggi oltre 150 tra autrici e autori hanno proposto storie di indagine criminale ambientate nel Medioevo. In questo articolo saranno esaminati alcuni casi interessanti che stanno a cavallo tra romanzo storico medievale e medieval crime fiction, in cui le autrici o gli autori hanno fatto ricorso a personaggi (storici o d’invenzione) impegnati a vario titolo nella riflessione filosofica, teologica o medica medievale. Oggetto di analisi saranno in particolare sia le descrizioni del loro aspetto fisico che i rispettivi ruoli attanziali e narrativi. The genre of medieval crime fiction took off (from the point of view of both quantity and quality of the books) from the beginning of the 1980s, thanks to the novels of Ellis Peters (A Morbid Taste for Bones, 1977) and especially by Umberto Eco (The name of the rose, 1980). Since then, more than 150 authors have proposed criminal investigation stories set in the Middle Ages. In this article we will examine some interesting cases that straddle medieval historical novel and medieval crime fiction, in which the authors have resorted to characters (historical or purely fictional) engaged in various capacities in philosophy, theology or medicine. In particular, both the descriptions of their physical aspect and their actantial and narrative roles will be analyzed.

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The article discusses 11th century philosopher Gaunilo's critique of the book "Proslogion" by the philosopher Anselm, which argues in favor of the existence of God. Anselm's response in the subsequent book "Proslogion 2" is mentioned, as well as counterarguments, parody, and the structure of each philosopher's logic arguments.

Moshe ibn Ezra, the well-known medieval philosopher, scholar, exegete, and Hebrew author, was also a prosodist and critic; as such, he wrote a major treatise on the principles of poetry. However, his own poetic compositions often flout these principles. The present article explores the dichotomy between literary theory and literary practice in ibn Ezra's writings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is mainly concerned with the reception of the theory of a starless ninth orb by Maimonides (1138--1204). Maimonides addressed this topic in two of his works: first, in the third chapter of the Laws of the Foundation of the Torah, part of his code of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah; and, at a later date, in the Guide of the Perplexed. I begin with the approach to the ninth orb in the Laws of the Foundation of the Torah, where it is presented as a starless orb divided into twelve signs named for the twelve zodiacal constellations. My contention is that Maimonides extracted the ideas about the ninth orb from a cosmological work ascribed to Māshā'allāh, an early Abbasid astrologer, or from some later work derived from Māshā'allāh's cosmology. I also clarify the unusual features of this model as presented by Māshā'allāh and try to determine the rationale behind its inclusion in Māshā'allāh's cosmology as well as in Maimonides' Mishneh Torah. This, I maintain, has to do not only with cosmological but also and especially with astrological considerations. Then I briefly study the approach to the ninth orb in the Guide, where it is incorporated in its ''classical'' form, i.e., as the all-encompassing orb imparting the diurnal motion to all the other motions, and weigh the difference between this and the Mishneh Torah. Last, in a short postscript, I broaden the scope to show that Māshā'allāh's cosmology, particularly the ninth starless orb divided into twelve signs, was widely known in the Arabic world before Maimonides, especially among Jewish intellectuals in Muslim Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the workshop "Renovatio et unitas: Nikolaus von Kues als Reformer: Theorie und Praxis der reformatio im 15. Jahrhundert," which was held at the Freie Universität (Free University) of Berlin on February 18-19, 2011. Papers presented discussed aspects of the theological and philosophical thought of Nicholas of Cusa, especially his ideas about reforming Christian theology and the Catholic Church in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe.

The article focuses on the 13th century Spanish philosopher Ramon Llull. It discusses his approach to philosophy, religious conversion and Christian apologetics, comments on his significance for the study of the Catalan language and makes reference to several of his works including "Ars combinatoria," "Vita coaetania" and "Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem" (also known as "Ars magna"). The author also offers biographical details of his life and reflects on Llull's influence on the historical study of interreligious dialogue.

This article examines Gerald Odonis' view on the nature of place as found in his commentary on the Sentences (Sent. II, d. 2, qq. 3-5) and in an anonymous question (Utrum locus sit ultima superficies corporis ambientis immobile primum) extant in manuscript Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 4229. Both texts defend a thoroughly un-Aristotelian conception of place as three-dimensional space. Odonis not only deviates from Aristotle's definition of place as the inner surface of a surrounding body, but also from the positions of his contemporaries, including fellow Franciscans. Despite some remarkable doctrinal similarities between Odonis' view and that of Renaissance innovators like Francesco Patrizi and Bernardino Telesio, it seems unlikely that Gerald played a role in the rise of new conceptions of place in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. An edition of the anonymous Quaestio de loco is given in an appendix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the closely related question about the relationship between being as being and divine being in relation to the metaphysics of medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas. It explains the argument raised by Aquinas that the purpose of metaphysics does not presuppose prior knowledge of God's existence, but its subject is being as being. It also analyzes the denial made by Aquinas that God falls under the notion of being.

Medieval classifications of knowledge ("divisiones scientiarum") were created to impose order on the ever-expanding breadth of human knowledge and to demonstrate the interconnectedness of its several parts. In the earlier Middle Ages the trivium and the quadrivium had sufficed to circumscribe the bounds of secular learning, but the eventual availability of the entire Aristotelian corpus stimulated a reevaluation of the scope of human knowledge. Classifications emanating from the School of Chartres (the "Didascalicon" of Hugh of St. Victor and the anonymous "Tractatus quidam") did not venture far beyond Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Isidore of Seville. Dominic Gundissalinus (fl. 1144-64), a Spaniard who based parts of his elaborate analysis of music on Al-Farabi, attempted to balance theory and practice, in contradistinction to the earlier mathematical emphasis. Aristotle had rejected musica mundana, and his natural science left little room for a musica humana based on numerical proportion. Consequently, both had to be reinterpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval theories of ethics tended on the whole to regard self-perfection as the goal of human life. However there was profound disagreement, particularly in the late thirteenth century, over how exactly this was to be understood. Intellectualists such as Aquinas famously argued that human perfection lay primarily in coming to know the essence of God in the next life. Voluntarists such as the Franciscan John Peckham, by contrast, argued that ultimate perfection was to be achieved in patria through the act of loving God. The present article argues that Giles of Rome and Henry of Ghent defended a different sort of voluntarism with respect to the final destiny of human beings. Rather than claiming that the goal of human life lay in the perfection of the self, they argued instead that ultimate union with God was to be achieved mystically through an act of self-transcendence, which occurred through ecstasy or quasi-deification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A careful reading of Heloise's letters reveals both her contribution to Abelard's ethical thought and the differences between her ethical concerns and his. In her letters, Heloise focuses on the innate moral qualities of the inner person or animus. Hypocrisy—the misrepresentation of the inner person through false outer appearance, exemplified by the potentially deceitful religious habit or habitus—is a matter of great moral concern to her. When Abelard responds to Heloise's ideas, first in his letters to her and later in his Collationes and Scito te ipsum, he turns the discussion away from her original interests. He transforms her metaphor of the habitus as false appearance into a discussion of another type of habitus, the habitual process of acquiring virtue, and integrates her focus on the animus into his developing ideas about sin as intention. Examining the differences between Heloise's ethical thought and Abelard's allows us to appreciate the distinct contributions of both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late medieval discussion of 'nobility' (= nobilitas, dignitas) defined in philosophical terms (as opposed to other social notions like 'aristocracy'), produced a large number of writings, many of which are still unedited. Nevertheless, modern philosophical historiography (developed throughout the seventeenth century and reaching its first apogee with Hegel) has neglected the conceptual debates on nobility. Perhaps having assumed it to be a dead relic of the 'pre-illuminist' past, historians and philosophers understood 'nobility' as a non-philosophical issue and so it still appears in contemporary scholarship. The first aim of this essay is to draw attention to this issue by presenting a sort of preliminary catalogue of the different types of conceptualizations of 'mobility'. By exploring the meanings and philosophical employment of the expressions 'bene nasci' and 'bene natus', this article also reveals a new aspect of the Aristotelian notion of magnanimity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay develops two major arguments. First, if John Buridan's 'first argument' for the reintroduction of natural supposition is only that the "eternal truth" of a scientific proposition is preserved because subject terms in scientific propositions supposit for all the term's past, present, and future significata indifferently; then Albert of Saxony thinks it is simply ineffective. Only the 'second argument', i.e. the argument for the existence of an 'atemporal copula', adequately performs this task; but is rejected by Albert. Second, later fourteenth-century criticisms of Buridan's natural supposition, given in certain Notabilia from the anonymous author in, Paris, BnF, lat. 14.716, ff. 40va-41rb, are nothing but an interpolated hodge-podge of criticisms given earlier in the century against various views of Buridan's by Albert of Saxony. It is this fact that makes Albert the real source of late fourteenth-century criticisms of Buridan's view of natural supposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the works of medieval writer Berthold of Moosburg, the only author to have written a commentary on the Greek Neoplatonic work titled "Elements of Theology." It is stated that his copy of "Exposition super Elementationem Theologicam Procli" is based on the Latin translation of philosopher Proclus Lycaeus' writing made at the end of the thirteenth century. It is during the opening years of the twentieth century that Berthold's commentary began to receive serious attention from scholars. Moreover, it adds that the standard history of the Dominican Order describes him as a German friar who lived in the fourteenth century, however, the exact date of his birth is not known.

Discusses the possible reasons that contributed to the Scientific Revolution in the medieval period. Efforts of Alexandre Koyre's to connect the Scientific Revolution to metaphysical revolution; Principles of the theory of abstraction; Views of philosophers and theologians about the origin of the Scientific Revolution.

The article presents information about French philosopher Marquis de Condorcet. He grew up in a mean, petty-bourgeois environment, his lot not made lighter by the fact that until his eighth year his mother clothed him as a girl. He was bored and this was a boredom which was to remain with him for his whole life. He later, in 1775, followed up the grain riots with articles on the economic plight of the peasants, rather caffing forth the disapproval of his Academy, and developed his opinions in a singularly liberal manner. In due course some of his pamphlets were burnt, his political ally was dismissed, and his mentor died from an overdose of opium on top of her tuberculosis. Condorcet discussed the need for a system of education at some length. He pointed out that servitude and ignorance go hand in hand, that an educated people follows responsible and enlightened leaders, while an ignorant people is easily duped by rogues. Even if the law conserves their liberty, the people must know which man is capable of maintaining the law, or else must come to depend entirely upon one man or one class.