The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies is dedicated to transmitting the inheritance of the Middle Ages to new generations and to deepening understanding of the life and ideals of Western culture in the time of its first youth.
Many of the distinctive institutions and ideals of the modern West, such as parliaments, universities, individual rights, civic virtue, the dignity of labour, due process of law, the techniques of capitalism and the concept of insurance, trace their lineage to the medieval period. The glories of medieval art—the great cathedrals, Gregorian chant, calligraphy and book illumination, the liturgy—have left a lasting imprint on the artistic traditions of our culture.
Award-Winning Highlights
Bound and Free
Otherworld women feature in a number of medieval Irish tales. They are not always powerful figures, and their struggles often mirror those of mortal women; authors apparently found them useful for exploring social tensions and issues of contemporary concern. This volume analyzes female figures as literary characters, rather than as mythological beings, focusing on their expression of emotions and the repercussions for the societies depicted in the narratives. Drawing on gender analysis, speech act theory, narratology, disability theory, and trauma theory, and incorporating recent work on emotions in medieval literature, this study probes the representation of both mortal and Otherworld women as active and desiring subjects and the responses that their words and actions might have generated in their medieval audiences.
Salome and the Kin of Jesus
In the twelfth century, a widely circulated hypothesis about the descendants of St Anne, mother of the Virgin, included the idea that Salome, the mother of the disciples James and John, was in fact a man and St Anne’s third husband. Two scholars mounted a challenge: Maurice of Kirkham, prior of the Augustinian abbey of Kirkham in Yorkshire; and Herbert of Bosham, a former student of Peter Lombard and a companion of Thomas Becket. Both men employed scholastic methods of enquiry and knowledge of Hebrew; both decried the acceptance of a flawed hypothesis about the genealogy of the Virgin as symbolic of an uncritical acceptance of scholastic authorities with the potential to distort comprehension of the Gospels. This volume provides the first edition and translation of Maurice’s Contra Salomitas, in both its short and long versions. It also provides an edition and translation of Herbert’s letter to Henry, count of Champagne. A substantial introduction outlines the long evolution of the debate about the kin of Jesus, and situates Maurice and Herbert in the context of their twelfth-century scholastic milieu.
The Correspondence and Unpublished Papers of Robert Persons, SJ
This book is the second volume of a projected 3-volume edition which aims to contribute to our understanding of Robert Persons's significance as a controversial figure in early modern European history. It includes documents and letters by Persons, as well as letters to Persons, notably from the superior general of the Society of Jesus, Claudio Acquaviva. Letters in Latin, Italian and Spanish are presented both in the original language and spelling and with English translation, and letters in English in original spelling. All letters have been collated with the extant manuscript witnesses. The correspondence in this volume covers Persons's sojourn in Spain, the repercussions of the death of William Cardinal Allen, and Persons's return to Rome.
Notable Series
Durham Medieval and Renaissance Monographs and Essays
Publications of the Dictionary of Old English
Catholic and Recusant Texts
Mediaeval Law and Theology
Toronto Studies in Romance Philology
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