This article is part of the Dossier on Tacitus published in last year's issue of Grotiana. It offers a combined study of both the content and the language and style of Grotius' account of the capture of Breda in the second book of the Historiae, published in 1657 together with the Annales under the title Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis. A thorough analysis of Grotius' account of this eventful and dramatic turning point in the Dutch (...) revolt reveals that it is nothing but a defective and occasionally unclear rehearsel of the standard narrative of the capture based on the well-known and in Grotius' day widely read history-books written in French and Dutch. The rather artificial imitation of Tacitus's brevitas on the stylistic level does not suffice to qualify Grotius's account as a masterful piece of Tacitean writing, because it does not highlight the motives of the chief characters in the story nor the connection between the events and their effects, and because Grotius fails to present his own perspective on this important episode in the war against Spain. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to assess the nature and proper context of Grotius's imitation of Tacitus. It starts by establishing how the Tacitean style is characterised in the literary criticism around 1600. It then explores the qualities of Grotius's imitation from both the seventeenth-century and the modern perspective. It concludes that Grotius's imitation shows Tacitus's style in a characteristically seventeenth-century mirror, in that it emphasises Tacitean syntax, brevity and choice of words , as well as (...) political edge and iudicium, but overlooks the narrative and structural qualities of the longer lines of composition in Tacitus's works, that are recognised in modern interpretations. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to show, by the example of Hugo Grotius's Annales et Historiae de rebus Belgicis (AH), that the nature and content of the concept of Tacitism (Tacitist, Tacitean) in the period around 1600 was markedly different from modern perceptions of the style and political purport of Tacitus's works. This gap between current and early-modern conceptions of Tacitus is important to bear in mind for intellectual historians dealing with early-modern intellectual currents such as (...) Reason of State, Neo-Stoicism, Tacitism, and others. This article first describes how the Tacitean style is characterised in literary criticism around 1600; then it explores the qualities of Hugo Grotius's imitation of Tacitus from the 17th-century perspective and from that of some main aspects of the present-day view of Tacitus. It concludes that Grotius's imitation shows Tacitus's style in a characteristically 17th-century mirror, in that it puts emphasis on Tacitean syntax, brevity and choice of words (the stylistic micro-level), as well as on political iudicium and Reason of State, but omits imitation of the narrative and structural qualities of Tacitus's composition, and their implications, which are central to modern interpretations. ☆ This article is part of the outcome of a research project on Grotius's Annales et Historiae conducted at the Radboud University Nijmegen in 2004–2008 with a VENI-grant from the Dutch research organisation NWO. I thank Corinna Vermeulen, Marc van der Poel, Hans Blom and HEI's anonymous referees for their comments on this piece. (shrink)

Summary This article focuses on the Tacitist thought shared by Justus Lipsius and Hugo Grotius. Contrary to what his later works might suggest, in the years before the Dutch political crisis of 1618, Grotius appears willing to look at history and contemporary politics in terms of the Tacitist and reason-of-state-based categories defined in Lipsius's political works. A specific Lipsian inspiration seems present in Grotius's Amsterdam address of 1616, and his analysis of the early Dutch Revolt in the Annales (...) et Historiae is determined by categories of thought which at the time were identified with Lipsius's intellectual legacy. (shrink)

The subject of this article is the way in which Grotius imitated his Roman model Tacitus in his own Annales. He does this by quotations and allusions, but also, more subtly, by adopting some of Tacitus stylistic peculiarities like brevitas, inconcinnitas and the insertion of sententiae. The imitation of Tacitus is most conspicuous in important sections of the Annales like the opening chapters and the introductions of the main characters. Tacitus is the prime model of Grotius, but not (...) the only one, as is shown by borrowings from Sallust, Pliny the Younger and Vergil. (shrink)

Les Annales ont tracé, depuis leurs débuts dans les années 1930, des frontières avec la sociologie. L’étude de trois moments majeurs (l’ère des fondateurs, le moment Braudel et la décennie 1980) permet de saisir le travail d ‘horographie comme un enjeu sans cesse actualisé dans les rapports de force institutionnels et épistémologiques. L’identité collective des Annales, émergeant dans ces débats de délimitation avec la sociologie, s’appuie sur un réseau de valeurs et de références continuellement ajusté.

This paper considers Grotius's emendations to the text of Tacitus in his 1640 Notae et emendationes, with a particular emphasis on those passages in which Grotius has made a lasting contribution to our understanding of the ancient author: An. 1.32.3, 6.3.1, 11.14.3, 15.47.1, H. 2.1.2, Ag. 10.5, 46.2. It also argues that in four further passages his contribution deserves to loom a little larger in the text, or at least in the apparatus criticus, of Tacitus's works than it presently (...) does. These emendations are a valuable indication of Grotius's close engagement with the text of an author whose style he aims to reproduce in his own historical writings. (shrink)

The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of Samuel Pufendorf’s road from his early Elementa jurisprudentiae universalis, published in late 1660 to the eight ‘books’ of De jure naturae et gentium from 1672. In the latter, Pufendorf completed a methodical shift from the more geometrico method to a universal jurisprudence based upon a wide range of humanistic arts, including history. In this connection, Pufendorf gave more credit to Hugo Grotius and his De jure belli ac pacis than in (...) the earlier work. The paper redefines the role that Pufendorf’s contacts with the Chief Minister from Mainz, Johann Christian von Boineburg and his closest collaborators, Hermann Conring and Johann Heinrich Boecler played in Pufendorf’s shift of approach to ‘universal jurisprudence’. Hitherto underexplored correspondence of Boineburg with Boecler permits a reconstruction of the polemic that Boineburg incited and fuelled between Pufendorf and Boecler. Pufendorf’s reflections of the events in the Preface of the first edition of De jure naturae et gentium and later Christian Thomasius’s account in Paulo plenior, historia juris naturalis made the intermezzo into an essential part of the foundation myth of modern natural law. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 38, Issue 1, pp 148 - 175 In his _Historia Gotthorum_, Hugo Grotius set up a Swedish ‘Gothic myth’, a powerful historiographical construct aimed at increasing Swedish prestige by identifying the ancient Swedish as the forebears of the late antique Goths, Vandals and Lombards. Entering into dialogue with fellow historiographers was vital to this venture. The ‘Prolegomena’ to _Historia Gotthorum_ are accordingly marked by an extensive polemical dimension. A critical discourse analysis of both explicit and hidden polemics (...) in this text reveals a clever combination of scholarly argumentation on the basis of historical evidence and strategic image-building to convince the reader. Furthermore, Grotius regularly drew on the works of contemporary colleagues for his historical evidence. The present article sheds light on the various argumentation strategies deployed in the ‘Prolegomena’ to _Historia Gotthorum_ and the role of early modern historiographical texts as treasure troves of historical knowledge. This not only offers further insight into Grotius’s historiographical practice, but also provides an excellent example of how early modern historical writers interacted with the texts of their immediate colleagues. (shrink)

La présente étude rassemble les passages de l’Ab Vrbe condita de Tite-Live où un terme lié au rire est associé à un discours ou à une parole rapportée, afin de les confronter aux vues exprimées par Cicéron et Quintilien sur le rire en contexte rhétorique. Si tous les passages étudiés s’insèrent très bien dans la conception rhétorique du rire, l’historien latin s’appuie sur celle-ci pour offrir une répartition originale entre usages acceptables et formes abusives du rire qui participe à la (...) construction des portraits personnages et de l’œuvre. (shrink)

The 7725 letters of Hugo Grotius's correspondence of the years 1594 to 1645 reflect the highlights and drawbacks of an eventful career. Some important gradual developments and abiding features in the letters will be pointed out. In this way Grotius's political and scholarly activities can be analysed from the perspective of the correspondence.

An Emotional History. The Affective Dimension of Historical Discourse Resumen: Se trata de indagar en la dimensión afectiva del uso del concepto de historia, así como del concepto mismo. Más allá de la pretensión científica de una historia escrita sine ira et studio, el texto se sitúa en la encrucijada del giro emocional reciente, que ha potenciado la historia de las emociones justo en el momento en que el concepto moderno de historia ha entrado en crisis. Tras un análisis de (...) la dimensión afectiva del trabajo del historiador y de los motivos emocionales que subyacen al concepto moderno e ilustrado de historia, se interroga por la propia historicidad como objeto de deseo y móvil de las acciones humanas. Deseo que se plasma en varias formas comunitarias de emoción, variables en el tiempo. Entre ellas, se sugiere, han dominado últimamente el sentimiento de lo sublime y el duelo. Se propone, en definitiva, un “sentimiento de la historia” como elaboración cultural de la temporalidad.: This essay explores the affective aspects in the use of the concept of history. Although history claims to be written sine ira et studio, the modern notion of history has entered into crisis precisely at the moment when the emotional turn takes place, and the history of emotions becomes mainsteam. After an analysis of the affective dimension of the historian’s work and of the emotional motives underlying the modern, enlightened concept of history, I explore historicity itself as an object of desire and a motive for human actions. This desire is embodied in various communal forms of emotion, variable over time. Among them, it is suggested, the feeling of the sublime and mourning have dominated lately. It is proposed, in short, a “feeling of history” as a cultural elaboration of temporality. Palabras clave: historicidad, historia conceptual, afectividad, Koselleck, comunidad emocional, entusiasmo, sublime. Keywords: historicity, conceptual history, affectivity, Koselleck, emotional community, enthusiasm, sublime. (shrink)

Among the paradoxical aspects of Hobbes's scepticism attention has recently turned to Hobbes's fool of Leviathan , chapter xv, where Hobbes makes a claim about justice that paraphrases Psalm 52:1: "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." It is a charge of which Hobbes himself could be suspected, but in fact we see that it is on this startling claim that his legal positivism rests. Moreover it is embedded in a theory of natural law that Hobbes (...) inherited from the late scholastics and that he shares in common with Grotius as a practical solution to the problem of scepticism. Indeed, the fool is not even honoured with the designation "sceptic." He is simply dumb, stultus , one of the mindless mob, or those led astray by priests. Hobbes's treatment of the fool as stultus is Epicurean, as we see in the Historia Ecclesiastica , where he gives the topos special attention, and Epicureanism helps us solve the puzzle of the fool. (shrink)

This contribution aims at reconstructing the system of legal sources as it can be recognised in all its clarity in the De iure praedae. After pointing out that Grotius applied in this work the mathematical method, it is observed that the law has a clear voluntaristic character: 'voluntas universorum ad universos directa lex dicitur'. Even the 'first notion', quoted in Regula I, that is the lex aeterna, has this specific character: 'Quod Deus se velle significarit, id ius est'. Interesting is (...) also the way in which the issue of the ius naturae is developed. Actually, natural law is consistent with Regula I precisely because it is bound to God as a manifestation of his will: 'Dei voluntas non oraculis tantum et extraordinariis significationibus, sed vel maxime ex creantis intentione apparet'. Thus, the creation of the ius gentium primarium and ius gentium secundarium follows the same pattern: it is always a voluntas that splits into a cascade like a 'baroque fountain'. At the end of the same argument we find finally the ius civile: 'Quidquid respublica se velle significavit', as Regula V states. In conclusion, the system of legal sources in De iure praedae is based on premises that differ in many respects from the legal sources of De iure belli ac pacis. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is focused on presenting the method of historical analysis built by Michel Foucault in his book Histoire de la Folie à l’Âge Classique as a “History of the Other”. Such term appears for the first time at Les Mots et les Choses’s Preface, in which Foucault analyses his method in the quoted book on madness (but also in La Naissance de la Clinique). In this sense, firstly we have to verify the hypothesis of this relation (...) between Foucault’s archeological method as a Thought of the Otherness, precisely concerning to that “Other History” proposed by the philosopher. Secondly, we need to analyse specifically Histoire de la Folie as a privileged work, as far as the approach on the relation with the other is concerned. KEY WORDS – Archeology of knowledge. History. Alterity. Madness. (shrink)

Historical objectivity is a polysemic concept whose genesis and validity merit more non-polemical attention than it usually receives. As a notion that encapsulates the special applications of the language of objectivity to methodological and ethical issues faced by historical scholars all across the human sciences, it will be addressed here from a perspective that combines conceptual history, history of ideas, and theoretical reflection. A peculiar mode of claiming objectivity will be at focus, one that assumes that historians can bring together (...) two attitudes often regarded as mutually contradictory: objectivity and engagement. My main assertion is that from at least the mid 19th century a new avenue for historical thought was opened, as a few intellectuals challenged the traditional requirement that histories be written sine ira et studio; and especially as they did so while at the same time upholding a strong commitment to the value of research. I intend to show how in the mode of engaged objectivity, a disposition like anger, which was traditionally taken to be a historiographical vice, was turned into a potential virtue. This general point will be illustrated with a case study of the underlying motives and the structural configurations of Alexandre Herculano's History of the Origin and Establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal, a confessedly committed, utterly critical, and sometimes furious research-based historical account. (shrink)

In one of the working notes from the Visible and the Invisible, Merleau-Ponty expresses the intention of resuming his critique of Lévi-Strauss ‘s notion of Gestatung in a future version of the text. The recent publication of the notes from the course at College de France (1954-55), and particularly the first of them regarding “L ‘institution dans ľhistoire personelle et publique”, allows a more thorough understanding of that otherwise rather obscure reference. In this paper, we track Merleau-Ponty’s critique of the (...) anthropologist’s theory of history in the courses on institution as well as in other texts of the sarne period (and particularly relevant is the reference to Les aventures de la dialectique). The French philosopher pursues a conceptual path that may move beyond the radical relativism professed by the Lévi-Strauss, which is nothing but a supplement of natural objectivism, and aims at a “ relativization of the relative”. We thus see how Merleau-Ponty focuses this question on the notion of “historical” and “social” perception, suggesting a “ perceptive” reading of the categories proposed by Lévi-Strauss. We believe that this particular phase of the merleau-pontyan reflection on history is a step of the greater importance in the theoretical path towards the ontological inquiries of his last works. (shrink)

SummaryThis paper analyses the revival of Pliny's Naturalis historia within the scientific culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, focusing on a French effort to produce an edition with annotations by scientists and scholars. Between the Renaissance and the early eighteenth century, the Naturalis historia had declined in scientific importance. Increasingly, it was relegated to the humanities, as we demonstrate with a review of editions. For a variety of reasons, however, scientific interest in the Naturalis historia grew in (...) the second half of the eighteenth century. Epitomizing this interest was a plan for a scientifically annotated, Latin-French edition of the Naturalis historia. Initially coordinated by the French governmental minister Malesherbes in the 1750s, the edition was imperfectly realized by Poinsinet a few decades later. It was intended to rival two of the period's other distinguished multi-volume books of knowledge, Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopédie and Buffon's Histoire naturelle, to which we compare it. Besides narrating the scientific revival of the Historia naturalis during this period, we examine its causes and the factors contributing to its end in the first half of the nineteenth century. (shrink)

SummaryGrotius has a rudimentary theory of sociability. Only with hindsight has a remark about appetitus societatis been promoted to the starting point of a theory that flourished in the writings of later natural jurists. In this article, I address the issue of the appearance in Grotius's natural law of sociability [as the 1715/38 English translation of John Morrice renders appetitus societatis, following Barbeyrac's sociabilité]. Writing in the just war tradition, Grotius is first of all interested in finding out the (...) conditions for peace, and although injustice is a condition of war, it is not per se true that injustice is a perversion of society. Apparently, not all societies are perfect and the violence of war and the legal actions of peace are both instruments for achieving a greater modicum of justice in this world. Yet appetitus et custodia societatis is called the foundation of justice. Grotius achieved this context for sociability in phases, through a series of writings from c. 1600 until De iure belli ac pacis of 1625, and its revision of 1631. In this development the notion of fides plays an intriguing role, through which we can obtain a better understanding of the meaning of appetitus societatis in the later work. The present article is a sequel to a previous publication, on fides in De iure praedae. Analysing the genesis of appetitus societatis in De iure belli ac pacis, I argue that Grotius was changing his strategy over the years, without however arriving at a definitive solution to the question of what commits men to the pursuit of justice. (shrink)

quamobrem aggredere, quaesumus, et sume ad hanc rem tempus, quae est a nostris hominibus adhuc aut ignorata aut relicta. nam post annales pontificum maximorum, quibus nihil potest esse iucundius, si aut ad Fabium aut ad eum qui tibi semper in ore est, Catonem, aut ad Pisonem aut ad Fannium aut ad Vennonium uenias, quamquam ex his alius alio plus habet uirium, tamen quid tam exile quam isti omnes?3iucundiusω: iucundiusDavies: ieiuniusUrsinus: nudiusRob. Steph.The manuscript readingiucundiushas had a few defenders, but nearly (...) all editors have chosen to emend, and of the several emendations proposed, the favourite has been Orsini'sieiunius, adopted recently in Jonathan Powell's Oxford Classical Text, in Andrew Dyck's magisterial commentary, and in the new edition of the fragments of the Roman historians. Although the emendation can now be considered canonical, it is nevertheless worthwhile to restate and augment the arguments for retaining the manuscript reading. (shrink)

quippe Byzantium fertili solo, fecundo mari, quia uis piscium in metapontum erumpens et obliquis subter undas saxis exterrita omisso alterius litoris flexu hos ad portus defertur.For Byzantium is favoured with fertile soil and teeming seas, since a multitude of fish, bursting out and spooked by rocks slanting beneath the water, leave off the curve of the opposite shore and are wafted to these harbours. That is the text of the second Medicean and all of its descendants. For centuries now the (...) unfitness of the words in metapontum has been obvious to editors. J. Lipsius conjectured innumera Pontum, G. Brotier innumera Ponto, N. Bach and G.A. Ruperti immensa Pontum. F. Ritter returned to the problem again and again, first proposing immensa Ponto, then immensum Ponto, i.e. ‘immensa multitudine’, and finally in meatu Ponti. Bach's and Ruperti's remedy is clearly the most efficient. Modern editors agree in printing uis piscium immensa Pontum erumpens, ‘an immense multitude of fish, bursting out of the Pontus'. Neat, but perhaps unnecessary. My object here is to defend the text of the manuscripts. (shrink)

O estudo visa apresentar os supostos teóricos e as tensões essenciais da tematização da ideia de Quinto Império na Defesa Perante o Tribunal do Santo Ofício, do P.e António Vieira. A visão profética de Vieira assume o contraste entre um tempo de inautenticidade na relação teândrica, subsidiário da Queda adâmica e objectivado na sucessão dos quatro impérios (cf. Daniel, 2, 27-45), e a novidade absoluta do acontecimento de Cristo, que se espera vir a manifestar-se na pacificação terrena do processo histórico (...) e na constituição duma comunidade universal segundo o Espírito. A tese, que só um estudo ulterior poderá demonstrar, é a de que a perspectiva do Quinto Império, em Vieira, será, ainda subsidiária das categorias dominantes no tempo dos quatro impérios, em que a experiência escatológica se refracta antropocentricamente pelas finalidades, e relações de poder, político-civilizacionais. /// Cette étude presente les présupposés théoriques et les tensions essentielles de Ia thématisation de Tidée de Cinquième Empire dans Ia Défense Auprès du Tribunal du Saint-Office, du P. António Vieira. La vision prophétique de Vieira assume le contraste entre un temps d'inauthenticité dans Ia relation théandrique, temps faisant suite à Ia chute adamique et objective dans Ia suc-cession des quatre empires (Cfr. Daniel, 2, 27-45), et Ia nouveauté absolue de Pévénement du Christ, dont on attend Ia maniféstation dans Ia pacification terrestre du cours de Thistoire et dans Ia constitution d'une communauté univer-selle selon l'Esprit. La thèse, que seule une étude ultérieure pourra démon-trer, considere que Ia perspective du Cinquième Empire, chez Vieira, será encore marquée par les catégories dominantes au temps des quatre empires, ou Texpérience eschatologique se refracte anthropocentriquemente à travers les fínalités, et relations de pouvoir, d'ordre politico-civilisationnel. /// The aim of this study is to show the theoretical suppositions and the essential tensions that exist in the thematization of Father António Vieira's Fourth Empire in the Defense before the Court of the Holy Office. Vieira's prophetic vision assumes the contrast of the time of inautenticity, related to the fali of Adam and exemplified in the succession of the fourth empires (Cfr. Daniel, 2, 27-45), with the absolute novelty implied in Christ's Comming; this awaited Event promises to produce a terrestrial pacification in the historical process and a universal community lives according to the Spirit. The thesis, which only a letter study will demonstratem is that the perspective of the Fifth Empire is still dependent on the dominant categories of time in the fourth empiresm were eschatological experience displays itself in the finalities and relations of civilization and political power. (shrink)

Hugo Grotius’s Philosophorum sententiae de fato et de eo quod in nostra est potestate has, so far, received little scholarly attention, even though it provides us with an interesting insight into Grotius’s philosophical interests. This text, published posthumously in 1648 by Grotius’s wife, Maria van Reigensberg, contains translations of texts from various philosophers on the question of fate. The aim of this article is to 1) place the debate on fate, in which Grotius was actively involved throughout all his life (...) and career, in the wider context of the theological and philosophical debates on free will and divine foreknowledge; 2) acknowledge the importance played by Grotius’s psf, a gnomological collection of philosophical sources ranging from Pythagorean philosophers to early patristic authors all providing different, although converging arguments in favor of the existence of free will; and 3) suggest that debates on fate are distinctively linked by Grotius with those on the importance of law and punishment as a guarantee of order. This “legalistic” interpretation of fate ultimately allows Grotius to reconcile divine decrees with human liberty. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Non-Appearance of the Phoenix at Tacitus Annals 6.28Elizabeth KeitelBook 6 is the stepchild of the first hexad of the Annals, little studied and even less appreciated, perhaps because of the large lacuna which breaks the continuity of the narrative after book 4, perhaps because of its allegedly static and monotonous content summarized thus by Syme: “The concluding book of the hexad carries a dreary epilogue down to the (...) extinction of the old emperor, with many prosecutions and deaths, with little extraneous or antiquarian matter for variegation.” 1 But let us consider here the placement and function of one minor episode in book 6, the alleged appearance of the Phoenix in Egypt.Paulo Fabio L. Vitellio consulibus post longum saeculorum ambitum avis phoenix in Aegyptum venit praebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum multa super eo miraculo disserendi. de quibus congruunt et plura ambigua, sed cognitu non absurda promere libet. sacrum Soli id animal, et ore ac distinctu pinnarum a ceteris avibus diversum consentiunt qui formam eius effin{x}ere; de numero annorum varia traduntur. maxime vulgatum quingentorum spatium; sunt qui adseverent mille quadringentos sexaginta unum interici, prioresque alites Sesoside primum, post Amaside dominantibus, dein Ptolemaeo, qui ex Macedonibus tertius regnavit, in civitatem, cui Heliopolis nomen, advolavisse, multo ceterarum volucrum comitatu novam faciem mirantium. sed antiquitas quidem obscura: inter Ptolemaeum ac Tiberium minus ducenti quinquaginta anni fuerunt. unde nonnulli falsum hunc phoenicem neque Arabum e terris credidere, nihilque usurpavisse ex his, quae vetus memoria firmavit. confecto quippe annorum numero, ubi mors propinquet, suis in terris struere nidum eique vim genitalem adfundere, ex qua fetum oriri: et primam adulto curam sepeliendi patris, neque id temere, sed sublato murrae pondere temptatoque per longum iter, ubi par oneri, par meatui sit, subire patrium corpus inque Solis aram perferre atque adolere. haec incerta et [End Page 429] fabulosis aucta: ceterum aspici aliquando in Aegypto eam volucrem non ambigitur. 2(Ann. 6.28)Previous scholarly discussion of this episode has not answered two basic questions: why the historian has placed it in 34 C.E., when Pliny the Elder (NH 10.2) and Dio (58.27.1) date it to 36, and why Tacitus devotes a whole chapter to what may have been a non-event, since he suggests that there was no genuine appearance of the bird in Tiberius’ time. These questions lead inevitably to a discussion of the role of this episode in the structure of book 6 and its relationship to the book’s predominant themes. I propose that Tacitus has placed the Phoenix in the year 34 to highlight two important concerns in book 6: the destruction of the nobility, and the unnatural cruelty of Tiberius and his heir, Gaius.Let us first address the question of Tacitus’ source or sources. Hahn may well be right that the source was an antiquarian work like that of Pliny the Elder, though not Pliny himself (praebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum multa super eo miraculo disserendi, Ann. 6.28.1). However, because Dio also reports the Phoenix, Hahn believed that it was already noted by the annalistic tradition when it reached Tacitus. Townend believed that Tacitus would not deliberately shift the Phoenix if he had found it clearly dated in his main annalistic source. Rather, the historian discovered this information, without any precise indication of the year, in a semihistorical work by Tiberius Balbillus, a former prefect of Egypt and probably the son of Thrasyllus, Tiberius’ astrologer. Then Tacitus simply inserted it at the first convenient place. We know from Pliny that Claudius displayed a Phoenix at Rome as part of his Secular Games, though no one believed it genuine (NH 10.2.5). So it is also possible that Tacitus, a member of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis in 88 C.E., when they were in charge of Domitian’s Secular Games (Ann. 11.11.1), might have had access, in the records of his priestly college, to a discussion of the possible link between the Egyptian Great Year and the Roman saeculum. This would have led him to conclude that the report of the Phoenix of the last years of Tiberius’ reign could not have been genuine, and it... (shrink)

This paper aims to show how at the end of the Sixteenth Century, translating in latin modern and comtemporary historiography, first written in Italian, had limits: as S. Lambino saw reading Nicola Stupan’s translation into latin of the Dialoghi della historia by Francesco Patrizi, the latin language could not carry out the vivacity and the colours of the modern discourse, and even could not translate exactly the meanings. The modern texts in this kind of translation could acquire a larger audience, (...) but could also lost part of their identity: in this case, the fact does not depend from the ability of the translator but actually from the convenience, or inconvenience, of the ancient language, unable to adapt exactly the modern concepts to ancient ways of thinking and writing. (shrink)

This article deals with a set of images which were probably the first in history to be reproduced on four continents: the Jesuit Jerome Nadal's Evangelicae Historiae Imagines, first published in Antwerp in 1593. It begins with a brief discussion of what we know about Nadal's life and the production history of his book, as well as its relationship to his Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangelia quae in sacrosanto missae sacrificio toto anno leguntur, which acts as a commentary to (...) the Imagines. Then follows a description of the structure of the two books, and how they narrate and expound the significance of the Gospels. The remaining sections discuss the adaptations of Nadal's imagery. While his work has received much attention from scholars around the world in recent decades, the aim of the present article is to bring together research on the use and re-use of these images in Europe, the Americas, India, China, Japan, Iran and Ethiopia, and to make clear their global impact in a way that has not been attempted before. (shrink)

Na articulação que Suárez (1548˗1617) e Grócio (1583 a 1645) propõem entre o direito natural, o direito internacional e o direito civil, estão em jogo o fundamento e o futuro do direito humano positivo, expresso política e historicamente por estes últimos dois, ao ponto de a lei natural, por manifestar uma origem que excede a vontade humana, só poder ser um princípio invariavelmente justo. Por ser indissociável do ser dos indivíduos e da especificidade das suas relações, bem como também da (...) sua inserção na ordem mundial, esta questão é, para Suárez, ontológica e política. Já para Grócio, e do ponto de vista do estudo e da condução da prática humana, ela está ligada a uma antropologia jurídica que tem por tema a natureza humana, os vínculos que os homens são obrigados a estabelecer entre si e as diferentes formas como organizam a comunidade humana num determinado espaço. Há um compromisso comum a estas duas orientações, o qual, partindo da construção de um espaço jurídico para a vida coletiva e do valor que lhe deve ser atribuído, enquanto ato fundamental da existência, acaba por conferir todo um novo sentido à relação teoria e prática.. (shrink)

Spanish Philosopher José Ortega y Gasset advanced a number of strong criticisms of American pragmatism, yet some pragmatist notions can also be detected in his own philosophy. Within Ortega’s pragmatist perspectivism one can locate the possibility of overcoming one of the principal perceived problems of pragmatism: namely, its tendency toward relativism. This paper focuses on the ways in which Ortega’s discussion of pragmatism pertains to history and historiography. Ortega’s position that history is written from a select number of perspectives is (...) congenial to pragmatist pluralism. What is recorded and continues to thrive in the annals of history is, within a pragmatist framework, whatever continues to be interesting, relevant, useful, and meaningful because it makes a difference – from and for these perspectives. The more of these perspectives we study, the closer we approach what, on Ortega’s view, constitutes the “eternal truth which every period has lived,” because materials initially gathered and framed for pragmatic reasons can later on provide important opportunities for the reflexive analysis of historical knowledge. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales by Jackie Elliott, and: The Annals of Quintus Ennius and the Italic Tradition by Jay Fisher, and: Shaggy Crowns: Ennius’ Annales and Virgil’s Aeneid by Nora GoldschmidtThomas BiggsJackie Elliott. Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. xiv + 590. Hardcover, $110.00.Jay Fisher. The Annals of Quintus Ennius and the Italic (...) Tradition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. x + 206. Hardcover, $69.95.Nora Goldschmidt. Shaggy Crowns: Ennius’ Annales and Virgil’s Aeneid. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. x + 258. Hardcover, $125.00.According to Aulus Gellius, Ennius claimed to have three hearts, each representing a part of his hybrid cultural identity (Gel. 17.71.1: Quintus Ennius tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret). Matching his hearts in number, the three books under review delve into the various Greek, Italic, and Latin influences on Ennius’ eighteen-book Annales, exploring the epic’s literary heritage and reception. One might rightly claim that in the wake of these important contributions (1088 pages for 623 fragments), we have firmly entered an aetas Enniana. The elephant in the room for all those interested in the poem is, of course, its highly fragmentary state of preservation. Instead of serving as an insurmountable obstacle, the scholarly process of interpreting fragmentary texts actually emerges as a shared feature of the methodologies on display in these otherwise quite different works. While Fisher and Goldschmidt push the limits of what an incomplete epic can communicate, Elliott more skeptically tackles the nature of transmission and its impact on our knowledge of the text.Ennius’ Oscan heart, representing his Italic heritage, takes center stage in Fisher’s study. Many readers will find most original and striking his arguments for the epic resonance and formulaic quality of “traditional” Latin phrases and their links with languages such as Umbrian and Oscan. Fisher relies throughout on the meaningful co-occurrence of communicative words, “traditional collocation” (3), and the use of language from various “traditional” cultural fields such as ritual, prayer, kinship, and the military (he adopts Lowell Edmunds’ concept of “system reference,” 5). According to Fisher, Ennius’ use of these culturally marked forms of language, shaped during the period of the central Italian koine\ (seventh to fourth centuries b.c.e.), allows his epic to include and enact an elevated tone appropriate to the inherited demands of his genre. While Ennius’ revolutionary turn to the hexameter may initially suggest a decision to abandon all that is old (or perhaps old-fashioned) about “native” literary culture, the pervasive presence of the Italic militates against severing Ennius from the lifeblood pumped through his Oscan heart. In fact, the dialogue between “foreign and familiar” aspects of culture is key to Fisher’s demonstration of how the Italic past emerges as a ghostly mediator and occasional replacement of superficially Greek and Homeric elements (10, 56, 85).With a presumed audience of Latinists, it is somewhat surprising that the introduction, “Ennius and the Italic Tradition,” devotes little time to outlining his rather unique methodology. But Fisher prefers to show rather than tell. On page 5 he jumps right into an analysis of Skutsch Ann. 232 (non semper vostra [End Page 713] evortit nunc Iuppiter hac stat), the language and context of Jupiter Stator in Cicero Cat. 1, and the Oscan Jupiter Versor: he convincingly connects Oscan Iovi Versori with Ennius’ evortit... Iuppiter (8). While the particulars of the argument take a winding course through various temples and texts, it is the act itself of probing seemingly commonplace language to reveal linguistic and cultural significance that highlights the best of what Fisher has to offer.Chapter 2, “The Annals and the Greek Tradition,” traces the Italic features of the epic through what one might call cross-lingual window-allusion. For example, Ann. 1 (Musae quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum) contains a well-known substitution of the Greek Musae for his predecessors’ Camenae, but Fisher draws our attention to the “native Latin tradition” of the Salian priests’ tripudium behind pedibus... pulsatis: “if the collocation pedem pulsare is a traditional expression for... (shrink)

Se trata de unareflexión interdisciplinar, a partir de W. Benjamin, sobre las relaciones entre experiencia, tiempo y memoriahistórica. La 1. parte analiza el empobrecimiento moderno de la Erfahrung que genera una“nueva barbarie”, a la vez que expenmentación innovadora, y que reclama un concepto más rico de experiencia, ligada ala totalidad concrete de la existencia. La 2. señala algunas paradojas de la memoria, muestra la inconsistencia del tiempo, cristalizado en el mito de Cronos, comoprincipio ordenador, y toma en consideración experiencias relevantes (...) que requieren concebir otro tiempo. En esa dirección, la 3. parte desarrolla la idea de Jetztze¡t, nucleo de la concepción crítica de la historia como tradición de los oprimidos, en cuyos bistantes de peligro relanipagea el angelus novus.Il s’agit d’une reflexion interdisciplinaire sur les liaisons entre expérience, temps et bistoire. La lére partie analyse l’appauvrissement moderne de l’Erfahrung, qui produit, selon W. Benjaniin, experimentation créatice et á la fois “une nouvelle barbarie”, et qui exige la construction d’un concept plus tiche d’expérience, liée á la totalité concréte de l’existence. La 2&me ¡nontre quelques paradoxes de la mémoire, sovligne ]‘inconsistance dv lemps comino principe d’ordre, et rappelle l’existence d’expériences qui demandent un autre concept du temps. La 3éme partie developpe ¡‘idee benjaininienne de Jetztzeit, noyau de sa conception critique de l’histoire conune tradition des opprimés, et analyse particuliérement la figure de l’angelus novus. (shrink)

This supplement is of both the edition of Aristotle's works by the Berlin Academy (1831-1870) and of the Commentaria in Aristotelem graeca (1882-1909, reprinted 1976?).

This article examines the 4th-century CE interpretation of the story of Rahab the Harlot by Severian of Gabala, in his homily, De paenitentia et compunctione (CPG 4186). In this article, a close and critical reading of Severian’s references to the story of Rahab in De paenitentia et compunctione (with some comparative reference to other works of Severian, and also of John Chrysostom and Pseudo-Chrysostom) is provided. It is asked, ‘how and why could a treacherous harlot, a prostitute, who was considered (...) to be the epitome of vice in early Christian moral deliberations, function as an exemplum for Severian?’ The article firstly asks how Severian deals with the problematic and paradoxical aspects of Rahab, namely, the fact that she was a prostitute and also a liar. Then, it illustrates how Severian transforms Rahab into a Christian heroine and how he deploys these qualities of the transformed Rahab in a potent anti-Judaistic rhetoric. This study is finally concluded with a somewhat broader delineation of the importance of Rahab in the development of a curious Christian cultural and moral trope, namely, the penitent prostitute. Such a study of Rahab is significant not only in that it expands our understanding of the history of women and gender dynamics in early Christianity, but it also elucidates the complex and strategic discursive moves employed by male Christian authors to deal with the seemingly ‘bad girls’ of scripture. Contribution: This article investigates the historical reception of the story of Rahab (Jos 2) in a little-known homily by Severian of Gabala. The focus is how Severian interprets the story and the paradoxical figure that is Rahab, with reference to its use as an anti-Judaistic trope, and its role in the shaping of the cultural phenomenon that is the penitent prostitute in early Christian thought. (shrink)

Summary Gessner's sources for the pictures in his Historia animalium were varied in kind and in quality. This should be understood within the larger context of the Historia animalium in which Gessner sought to collect everything ever written about animals, an enterprise that could not be completed by a single individual. Just as Gessner did not distil or reduce similar texts but retained these as well as contradictory or false textual descriptions as part of a repository of knowledge, so also (...) Gessner included several pictures of the same animal, false or badly drawn ones, and juxtaposed erroneous and ?true? images. The attribution of images to witnesses and correspondences also reflects Gessner's strategy to credit those who drew his attention to new information first. The sources of Gessner's images thus indicate how his visual world encompassed more than the strictly self-observable, and a pictorial practice that was intimately connected with textual traditions and intellectual networks. (shrink)

La justice est-elle une illusion? Si tel etait le cas, que penser de l'Etat de droit contemporain, lui qui resulte d'une longue et continuelle recherche de la justice par les penseurs occidentaux? Avec Platon, la philosophie occidentale a en effet debute sa longue quete d'un modele pour batir la cite. Le modele de Platon, la justice transcendante ou naturelle (to; fuvsei divkaion), fut accueilli a Rome par Ciceron. Cette phase inaugurale de l'histoire de la philosophie politique occidentale est etudiee dans (...) le premier volume de cette etude: Platonisme politique et theorie du droit naturel. Contributions a une archeologie de la culture politique europeenne. Le platonisme dans l'antiquite, Louvain-Paris, Ed. Peeters, 1995. Le present volume etudie la reception chretienne de la doctrine de Platon, du Veme au XVIIeme siecle. Le lecteur rencontrera d'abord Augustin d'Hippone: l'eveque accueille, puis rejette la theorie platonicienne. Durant le Moyen Age latin, les juristes et le theologien Thomas d'Aquin assoient solidement cette doctrine dans la pensee chretienne en s'opposant a l'augustinisme religieux. De la Renaissance au XVIIeme siecle, Marsile Ficin, Jean Bodin, Jean de Serres, Francisco Suarez, Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf et John Locke retravaillent encore la notion platonico-chretienne de justice: contre le volontarisme, la pensee theocratique, puis la doctrine de Thomas Hobbes au XVIIeme siecle, cette tradition philosophique met la justice naturelle au fondement de la republique. Au bout de cette histoire se profilent les premieres declarations des Droits de l'homme, que cet etude envisage dans le sillage du platonisme politique et de l'un de ses heritiers majeurs, John Locke. Cette etude retrace pour la premiere fois la reception de Platon considere comme un penseur politique. Elle ouvre de fait une nouvelle perspective dans l'histoire de la philosophie politique. Elle corrige enfin les histoires anterieures du jusnaturalisme chretien, dans la mesure ou celles-ci ignoraient l'impact de la pensee platonicienne. L'etude est accompagnee de traductions francaises inedites: un ensemble de textes qui temoignent de la presence du platonisme politique dans la pensee occidentale. (shrink)

Gallagher, S. 2003. Bodily self-awareness and object perception. _Theoria et Historia Scientiarum: International Journal for Interdisciplinary_ _Studies_, 7 (1) - in press.

Cet ouvrage ne présente pas un système complet et cohérent, méritant le nom d'une philosophie du droit international. Une telle entreprise serait à la fois trop vaste face à une société internationale de haute complexité et aussi un peu anachronique au regard de la perte de foi dans les systèmes trop parfaits et dès lors trop réductifs. C'est plutôt une série de réflexions personnelles sur les points de droit international qui m'ont paru importants au fil des années d'étude de cette (...) matière, que je veux ici présenter. Si ces points ne s'ordonnent pas en un système, ils ne sont néanmoins pas jetés sur le papier au hasard. Ces réflexions ont ceci en commun qu'elles tentent de serrer de plus près les aspects ordonnateurs et structurants du droit international, en un mot, ses chevilles ouvrières aux points charnière ou ses voûtes névralgiques. Ces réflexions s'ordonnent autour de trois axes. Dans une première partie, il s'agit de dégager quelques caractéristiques fondamentales du droit international, qui expliquent et imprègnent ses applications. Après une discussion des types possibles de droit international et de leur réalisation dans l'histoire, il est question des grandes phases d'évolution qu'a connues le droit international depuis le temps de Grotius. Ensuite, les caractéristiques propres des sources du droit international (les sources constituant une espèce de radiographie de tout ordre juridique) sont examinées. Parmi les autres caractéristiques de la règle internationale, ce sont notamment sa tendance à l'individualisation, à l'ouverture vers les circonstances particulières des espèces, ainsi que les incidences de cette tendance, qui font l'objet de considérations. Enfin, il est question de la règle " tout ce qui n'est pas interdit est permis ", renforcée en droit international par la souveraineté. De sa place et de ses rôles exacts dépend la nature et la force de l'ordre juridique en question. Dans une seconde partie, ce sont les relations multiples du droit et de la politique qui font l'objet d'analyses. Si la politique est un facteur essentiel de vie et de réalisation de tout droit (et aussi une menace pour lui), il en est à plus forte raison ainsi en droit international, où les deux branches, droit et politique, sont particulièrement proches. L'analyse ne se borne pas à des relations stéréotypées, mais tente de dégager en catégories d'espèces une multitude de pesées réciproques entre les deux branches, dans leurs vertus centripètes et centrifuges. Enfin, dans une troisième partie importante, c'est une série de notions juridiques cardinales qui forme l'objet des réflexions. Il s'agit du bien commun ; de la justice ; de la sécurité juridique ; de la réciprocité, de l'égalité et de la proportionnalité ; de la liberté ; de la morale et de la morale sociale ; de la volonté dans ses rapports avec la raison ; de la sanction. Il s'agit de voir quelle est la configuration que l'expérience juridique générale a donnée à ces notions et par la suite d'examiner comment elles peuvent s'insérer et agir au sein du droit international au regard des spécificités de la société internationale, avec quelles analogies mais aussi avec quelles altérations ou adaptations. C'est ainsi qu'on peut dégager ce degré d'orientation juridique inhérent au " droit international " dans ses forces et ses faiblesses. (shrink)