bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Newton's Interpolation Formulas. An unpublished Manuscript of Sir Isaac Newton
Authors: Fraser Duncan C.
Published: August 2016

The mortality of Europeans in West Africa has on several occasions been the subject of discussion in this Institute or of note in the pages of the Journal. In 1886 Dr. T. B. Sprague read a paper on the mortality of Europeans in the Congo, based on the statistics from Stanley's work on the Pounding of the Free State: In 1892 Dr. T. G. Lyon contributed a paper on mortality in various regions of the world from data gathered from Government Reports of the Colonial Office. In 1897 Dr. A. E. Sprague read a paper on the experience of 971 Belgian Government officials on the Congo and 178 employees of a Dutch Trading Company. In the same year Mr. J. E. Hart gave the experience of Colonial Office officials on the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone. Lastly, in 1911, Mr. Hart furnished a copy of the Report on Vital Statistics of European Government officials in the employ of the Colonial Office for the previous year.
On a New Method of Calculating Model Office Reserves
Authors: Trustam C. F.
Published: August 2016

The object of the present paper is to examine a formula deduced by Mr. Duncan C. Fraser in his “Notes on a Stationary Insurance Fund and on a Uniformly Progressive Insurance Fund” (J.I.A., vol. lvii, pp. 231, et seq.); and to investigate whether, and if so, to what extent, the formula can be put to practical use. In considering a uniformly progressive life assurance fund, where the numbers of new entrants in successive years are continually increasing at the rate of (1 + i'), Mr. Fraser derives the expression
Further notes on an Investigation into the Mortality experienced by Pensioners of the Staffs of Banks and Insurance Companies
Authors: Warren Cyril F.
Published: August 2016

In fulfilment of the promise made in January 1926, I now present the results of further investigation into the mortality experienced by pensioners from the staffs of banks and insurance companies. It was intended that this paper should have been submitted last session, but absence from England during the winter of 1926-1927 precluded any possibility of that event.
Notes upon Experiments with Actuarial Functions and Fourier's Series
Authors: Anderson T. F. , O'Brien H.
Published: August 2016

Our attention was called to Fourier's Series in a discussion on engineering subjects with Professor William E. Dalby, F.R.S., the Dean of the City and Guilds Central Technical College, London University. Judging by the use made of Fourier's Series in engineering problems, it seemed possible that it might apply equally well to actuarial and statistical science.

Sir George F. Hardy in his course of lectures on the Construction and Graduation of Tables of Mortality (p. 35) stated “A second test tha t has occasionally been applied when the graduation has been effected by means of a formula is that of making the sums of the squares of the deviations a minimum … This method, known as the method of Least Squares, is used very generally in connection with measurements in astronomy and other physical sciences …”
Valuation of Reversions and life Interests for the Purpose of Apportionment of Trust Funds
Authors: Benz N.
Published: August 2016

…the solutions given…are so various as to excite no little surprise and distrust in the minds of those unacquainted with the subject, under whose notice such solutions are brought.

…a great deal of judgment and discretion must always be required from the actuary, and…it is not possible to lay down any general rule which shall altogether obviate such requirement.

The quotations above are taken from a paper by Jellicoe (J.I.A.6, 61) which was discussed by this Institute in 1855. It is a salutary thought that there are no subsequent statements recorded in J.I.A. on the subject which seem to express so succinctly the two principal points which should always be borne in mind when the apportionment of a trust fund is under consideration. It must be stated immediately, however, that since 1855 problems of apportionment have been discussed only in 1871 (J.I.A.16, 269), 1873 (J.I.A.18, 77) and 1925 (J.I.A.56, 243); indeed, reversions and life interests have scarcely been mentioned in Institute discussions since 1935, when O. I'A. Thurston presented his paper on Death Duties (J.I.A.66, 369).
Some Changes in Actuarial Methods Arising from the Use of a Small Computer in a Medium-Sized Office
Authors: Barnard W. T. L.
Published: August 2016

Many assurance offices are in the early stages of changing to a computer for the mechanization of their business. Each office has its own problems which frequently arise from its historical record of amalgamations, changes in management policy, etc.

2. Probably the biggest problem for the office is the standardization of its data into a form which can be read by the computer. When this has been accomplished the small-size computer can readily take over practically all the work which has already been mechanized, usually giving a better product in a shorter time and with reduction in manual work. There is also a simplification of diverse mechanical systems into a single medium.
The Impact of State Pensions on Public Service Superannuation Schemes
Authors: Robb A. C.
Published: August 2016

In an earlier paper the author traced the development to 1949 of public service superannuation schemes (other than for the Armed Forces) which are provided wholly or partly out of Exchequer or rate funds, i.e. for the benefit of civil servants, teachers, national health and local government employees, police and firemen. It was shown that those schemes, other than for (principally) police and firemen, tended to follow a common pattern although not all had reached the same stage of development and there were numerous variations of detail.
Operational Research in Business
Authors: Moore P. G.
Published: August 2016

Lord Kelvin many years ago expounded his oft-quoted dictum, ‘When you can measure what you are speaking of, and express it in numbers, you know that on which you are discoursing. But when you cannot measure it or express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.’ Operational Research is primarily concerned with measurement in management.
On Paid-up Policies and Surrender Values Under the Industrial Assurance Acts
Authors: Tayler H. Hosking
Published: August 2016

In April 1931 a Departmental Committee was appointed by the Treasury “to examine and report on the law and practice relating to Industrial Assurance...”, and the statutory provisions relating to paid-up policies and surrender values under industrial assurance contracts have again come under consideration. The subject presents many difficulties but the technical considerations are of first importance and it is thought that, by discussion of those technical points with which the Institute is peculiarly qualified to deal, some guidance may be afforded to the larger public whose interests are neither those of the Government Departments nor those of the Corporations great and small which are engaged in the business of industrial assurance.
Reproductivity in Great Britain: A new Standard of Assessment
Authors: Cox P. R.
Published: August 2016

Since the formation of the Demographic Study Group by the Students' Society at the end of 1949, much attention has been devoted by a small but keenly interested body of members of the Institute to the analysis of fertility and reproductivity. One of the aims of their researches has been to arrive at an independent method of assessing the degree of sufficiency of the numbers of births in this country for the replacement of the population. The present paper, founded as it is upon the ideas expressed at the Group meetings, is in essence a joint production with members of the Group, and their share in it is gratefully acknowledged.
A Broad Analysis of the Problem of the Investment of Life Funds
Authors: Clarke H. G.
Published: August 2016

The general impression gained from a broad review of the earlier activities of the Institute is that the actuary of those days appears to have been less concerned with the question of the investment of funds than the actuary is to-day. There are several factors which lend support to this impression. First, in those earlier years the actuary, probably being preoccupied with the purely actuarial side of life assurance, friendly society and pension fund business, may have been content to leave the matter of investment to others and to accept their advice regarding the rates of interest to be assumed in his actuarial calculations. Secondly, both the field of investment and the volume of funds requiring investment being very much smaller, the problem may not have appeared to justify much greater attention than was paid to it. Perhaps the most likely reason, however, was that the practice of investment may have been regarded more as an art than a science and as a subject therefore which did not readily lend itself to an actuarial approach.
Using dust as probes to determine sheath extent and structure
Authors: Douglass Angela , Land V. , Qiao K. , Matthews L. , Hyde T.
Published: August 2016

Two in situ experimental methods are presented in which dust particles are used to determine the extent of the sheath and gain information about the time-averaged electric force profile within a radio frequency (RF) plasma sheath. These methods are advantageous because they are not only simple and quick to carry out, but they also can be performed using standard dusty plasma experimental equipment. In the first method, dust particles are tracked as they fall through the plasma towards the lower electrode. These trajectories are then used to determine the electric force on the particle as a function of height as well as the extent of the sheath. In the second method, dust particle levitation height is measured across a wide range of RF voltages. Similarities were observed between the two experiments, but in order to understand the underlying physics behind these observations, the same conditions were replicated using a self-consistent fluid model. Through comparison of the fluid model and experimental results, it is shown that the particles exhibiting a levitation height that is independent of RF voltage indicate the sheath edge – the boundary between the quasineutral bulk plasma and the sheath. Therefore, both of these simple and inexpensive, yet effective, methods can be applied across a wide range of experimental parameters in any ground-based RF plasma chamber to gain useful information regarding the sheath, which is needed for interpretation of dusty plasma experiments.
Relationships between environmental factors and biological parameters of Asian wedge clam,Donax scortum, morphometric analysis, length-weight relationship and condition index: a first report in Asia
Authors: Singh Yambem Tenjing
Published: August 2016

Wedge clam,Donax scortumoccurrence was studied from February 2009 to January 2010 in Padukere sandy beach, Karnataka (India). The following biological parameters were measured in 2367 individuals of the wedge clam,Donax scortum: length, breadth, width, total weight, shell weight, wet meat weight, dry meat weight and number of clams. The calculated linear equation of length-breadth and length-width relationships wereB= 3.5968 + 0.5421L andW= 0.8191 + 0.4345L respectively. The length-total weight, length-wet meat weight, length-dry meat weight and length-shell weight relationships were 0.0001414L3.0224,W= 0.0000037L3.5204,W= 0.0000011L3.4513and 0.0000852L2.9912respectively. The values of correlation coefficient for different shell dimensional relationships were very close to unity. It was clear from the study that the most ideal period for clam harvest was April, June and December, especially when condition index was maximum. Length showed a strong correlation with silt and clay. Dry meat weight was negatively correlated with air temperature. Shell weight showed positive correlation with length, breadth, width and dry meat weight, and abiotic parameters, silt and clay. Condition index was positively correlated with electrical conductivity, whereas it was negatively correlated with dissolved oxygen. It showed a strong positive correlation with salinity. Seasonal fluctuation of condition index inD. scortumwas probably related to reproductive activity. The harvesting of wedge clam could be carried out considering the maximum sustainable yield without over-exploitation
DO LEARNERS LIGHTEN UP?
Authors: Solon Megan
Published: August 2016

This study explores the second language (L2) acquisition of a segment that exists in learners’ first language (L1) and in their L2 but that differs in its phonetic realization and allophonic patterning in the two languages. Specifically, this research tracks development in one aspect of the production of the alveolar lateral /l/ in the L2 Spanish of 85 native English speakers from various levels of study and compares L2 productions to those of native Spanish speakers as well as to learners’ L1 English. Additionally, laterals produced in specific contexts are compared to examine learners’ acquisition of L2 allophonic patterning, as Spanish contains a subset of the lateral allophones that exist in English. Results suggest development toward nativelike norms in the phonetic details of Spanish /l/ and in allophonic patterning. These findings have implications for existing theoretical accounts of L2 speech learning, which cannot adequately account for the learning situation examined.
“Nos Nescientes de Hoc Velle Manere”—“We Wish to Remain Ignorant about This”: Timeless End, or: Approaches to Reconceptualizing Eschatology after A.D. 800 (A.M. 6000)
Authors: Heil Johannes
Published: August 2016

The more spectacular a prediction is, the more frustrating it becomes when the prescribed date passes and nothing happens. This essay will discuss not so much the predictions of yesterday but rather the awakening of the morning after. False predictions left a gap and created the need for explicit or implicit responses to the failed prediction, a need that could be filled by modifying the calculations or condemning fresh speculation. This essay shows how people managed to reconceptualize the order of the world aftera.d.800 =a.m.[annus mundi] 6000, the beginning of the supposed seventh, ultimate millennium. As we consider the intellectual progress of the ninth century, we also need to look at the link between the Carolingian reform and the release of apocalyptic tension or post-apocalyptic exhaustion. This investigation builds on recent contributions to the field of medieval eschatology, especially those of Wolfram Brandes, Richard K. Emmerson, Johannes Fried, Richard Landes, Bernard McGinn, and others. It focuses on selected sources, and particularly on exegetical texts, to show that overcoming the eschatological crisis caused more than a shift in the system of counting years, fromannus munditoab incarnatione Domini.Questions about dates led to general reflections about time, the past and the future. The significant shift, therefore, was from counting time to a philosophy of time.
The Arabic Background to Ramon Lull's Liber Chaos (ca. 1285)
Authors: Lohr Charles
Published: August 2016

One of the earliest works of the Majorcan Ramon Lull (1230/35–1315/16) was a Compendium logicae Algazelis (1271/72), a work based on the first section of the Maqâsid al-falâsifa (that is, “Opinions of the Philosophers”) of the great Muslim theologian, Abû Ḥâmid al-Ghazâlî (d. 1111). Algazel was Persian and his Maqâṣid an Arabic form of a Persian work by the celebrated philosopher Ibn Sînâ (d. 1037), known to the Latins as Avicenna. Algazel summarized the philosophy of Avicenna with the intention of refuting it in his Tahâfut al-falâsifa (that is, “Destruction of the Philosophers”). As is generally known, the Cordovan philosopher and jurist, Averroes (Ibn Rushd, d. 1198), sought to refute this latter work in his Tahâfut al-tahâfut or “Destructio destructionis.”
Zum Karolinus des Aegidius von Paris
Authors: Gärtner Thomas
Published: August 2016

Der Karolinus des Aegidius von Paris (12./13. Jahrhundert), der das Leben Karls des Großen darstellt in einer füstenspiegelähnlichen Form zur Unterweisung des künftigen französischen Königs Ludwigs VIII., wurde 1973 erstmals vollständig ediert von M. L. Colker (Traditio 29 [1973], 199–325). Die Ausgabe enthält einen breiten Testimonienapparat, der neben den historischen Quellen des Autors besonders klassische lateinische Dichter, Vulgatastellen und die Alexandreis des Walter von Châtillon berücksichtigt. Allerdings illustrieren die hier angeführten Dichterstellen oftmals nur gängige Hexameterjunkturen und gemeinplätzige dichterische Motive. Andererseits gehen manche dem Dichter in seinen Formulierungen eindeutig vorschwebende Vorbilder gelegentlich verloren, besonders wenn ihre Auffindung erschwert wird durch variierende Textüberlieferung der Vorlage, syntaktisch unrichtige Auffassung durch den imitierenden Dichter oder in einen völlig verschiedenen Zusammenhang versetzende sprachliche Abwandlung.
Susanna and English Communities
Authors: Staley Lynn
Published: August 2016

The story of Susanna and the Elders, found in the apocryphal thirteenth chapter of Daniel, part of the Greek version of the Book of Daniel, is richly suggestive of its likely appeal to poets and artists. It is set during the Babylonian Captivity and recounts events concerning the Jewish community within Babylon. Susanna is the beautiful and chaste wife of a wealthy man, Joachim, whose home serves as a seat of justice for his fellow Jews. While bathing in their garden, Susanna is spied upon and accosted by two judges of Israel who frequent her husband's house. They invite her to satisfy both of them or suffer the penalty for a charge of adultery, which they will bring against her. She refuses, saying that she would rather fall into their hands than sin in the sight of God. She is tried unveiled before the people. Led off to execution, Susanna calls out to God, who stirs up the spirit of the young Daniel. Daniel's skill in separating the elders before asking for details of their evidence against Susanna reveals their perjury, and they are put to death by the crowd. The tale is certainly courtroom drama, but it is also a narrative of transgressions — of female chastity and modesty, of the household and property, of justice itself.
La risa en la fisiognomía antigua y medieval
Authors: Ángel Miguel , Manjarrés González
Published: August 2016

A lo largo de los siglos la risa ha sido objeto de estudio muy variado, abordada por filósofos, teólogos, historiadores, psicólogos, sociólogos, antropólogos, genetistas, médicos, lingüistas o críticos literarios. En cada época ha recibido atención diferente y cada rama del saber la ha interpretado con perspectivas distintas. Aun cuando a menudo se haya destacado su dificultad, su condición inasible y hasta arbitraria, la risa es una cuestión física y material que, según las neurociencias, se produciría en el sistema límbico del cerebro, una parte poco evolucionada que el hombre comparte con otros animales. La risa, por tanto, debe entenderse como un acto puramente mecánico, cuya activación cerebral provoca una liberación de neurotransmisores que incrementan la actividad cerebral, disminuyen la hormona del estrés y activan el sistema inmune. De ahí que la risa se considere una herramienta evolutiva que se instaló en el cerebro para ayudar a sobrevivir y, en última instancia, a vivir mejor.
“Pipinus Rex”: Pippin's Plot of 792 and Bavaria
Authors: Hammer Carl I.
Published: August 2016

Two serious internal challenges to Carolingian royal authority disturbed the middle years of Charlemagne's reign. Neither is mentioned in the officially approved recensions of the Frankish Royal Annals, but Einhard tells us about both of them in the twentieth chapter of that ruler's “Life,” and various information was included in other annalistic traditions (Exhibit 1). In 785/86 a group of magnates in Eastern Francia and Thuringia opposed royal policies and denied or renounced their loyalty to the king; their opposition was aggravated, no doubt, by the demands of Charlemagne's campaigns against the Saxons, which placed heavy burdens on their adjacent territories.” The second, in 792, was centered around the royal palace at Regensburg on the Danube where Charlemagne had been since the spring of 791 in order to direct operations against the Avars and to suppress any lingering opposition in Bavaria, which he had annexed barely three years earlier in 788. The most noteworthy aspect of this second domestic insurrection was participation by a senior member of the Carolingian family itself: Charlemagne's oldest son, Pippin, who was born in the mid-to-Iate 760s and, thus, certainly of major age and a responsible adult capable of independent rule.
Petrus Helias's Summa on Cicero's De inventione
Authors: Fredborg Karin Margareta
Published: August 2016

Petrus Helias is well known as a grammarian since his commentary, or rather summa, of Priscian's Institutiones Grammaticae enjoyed a lasting popularity in the Middle Ages. However, his rhetorical summa, too, should be taken into consideration, since it was widely read in the Middle Ages, and was as popular as the earlier, rhetorical commentaries by William (of Champeaux?) and Thierry of Chartres (from the turn of the century and the 1130s). We do not know much about Peter's life, but according to William of Tyre he came from Poitiers and was a pupil of Thierry of Chartres; in both cases, the information is substantiated by other sources. Doctrinally he was influenced by Thierry in both grammar and rhetoric, as well as by the twelfth-century humanist, philosopher, and grammarian, William of Conches. Peter's school was sought by such ambitious students as John of Salisbury, William of Tyre, and many others. He is mentioned by the author of the Metamorphosis Goliae (ca. 1140) among the famous Parisian masters.
Der von Amplonius Rattinck dem Oresme zugeschriebeneTractatus de terminis confundentibusund dessen verschollene Handschrift (Hs. Pommersfelden,Graf von Schönborn Schloßbibliothek236 [2858])
Authors: Di Liscia Von Daniel A.
Published: August 2016

In seinem ca. 1412 verfaßten Katalog verzeichnete Amplonius Rattinck von Beck eine Handschrift, die — seinen Angaben nach — wichtige Texte des 13. und insbesondere des 14. Jahrhunderts enthielt:

De loqca,7: Item [1] quedam porcio 4. libri sententiarum [2] cum certis erroribus Parisius condempnatis; deinde sequitur [3] loyca Alberti valde bona, quasi toti loyce correspondens; [4] bonum principium et solempne circa libros legum; [5] subtilia sophismata Clymitonis; [6] commenta Alberti Magni super libro sex principiorum bona valde; [7] liber Bracwerdin de proportionibus valde subtilis; [8] sophismata Clenconis optima; [9] egregius et latus tractatus Nycolay Orem de proportione proportionum subtilis; [10] tractatus eiusdem Orem de latitudinibus formarum, [11] tractatus eiusdem Orem de terminis confundentibus.
Dos fragmentos inéditos de la antigua traducción latina del De plantis duodecim signis et septem planetis subiectis atribuido a Tésalo de Tralles
Authors: Rodríguez Arsenio Ferraces
Published: August 2016

En abierto contraste con el respeto que, en el proceso de transmisión, los copistas mostraban hacia los textos literarios, una característica constante en los textos médicos es su condición de textos vivos. En este último caso, modificatión, reutilización y fragmentatión eran elementos consustanciales del acto de copia, hasta el punto de que no es infrecuente la existencia de varias redacciones de una misma obra, que, por tratarse de modificaciones deliberadas del modelo, adquieren la categoría de textos autónomos con entidad para ser editados de modo independiente. Otra consecuencia de ese especial carácter de los libros de medicina es que no pocas veces éstos se conservan sólo de modo fragmentario o reducidos a la condición de membra disiecta, cada uno de los cuales, a su vez, ha podido sufrir reelaboraciones en distinto grado. En este sentido, el esforzado empeño de rastreo en los manuscritos, en unos casos, o una feliz casualidad, en otros, ha permitido en los últimos años colmar importantes lagunas de varios textos, anónimos o de autor reconocido. Una de las mayores dificultades en este terreno es la carencia de catálogos específicos, pues, salvo las excepcionales contribuciones de A. Beccaria y de E. Wickersheimer, y del importante, pero no exhaustivo, incipitario de L. Thorndike y P. Kibre, es preciso rastrear en catálogos de numerosas bibliotecas, que arrastran descripciones de los textos muchas veces incompletas, cuando no manifiestamente erróneas, o en trabajos dispersos y no siempre de fácil acceso. Particular atención merecen los manuscritos de la Baja Edad Media, e incluso los de época humanística, que con frecuencia reservan la grata sorpresa de algún texto antiguo sólo conocido por ediciones renacentistas o transmitido de modo incompleto en códices altomedievales.
Judaism: From Heresy to Pharisee in Early Medieval Christian Literature
Authors: Elukin Jonathan
Published: August 2016

During the Middle Ages, Christians largely accommodated themselves to the small number of Jews who lived amongst them. Augustine (354–430) explained that God had punished the Jews after their rejection of Jesus by destroying the Temple and sending them into exile. Their survival was divinely guaranteed, however, because the presence of the Jews, Augustine believed, testified to the authenticity of Scripture and the fulfillment of the prophecies upon which Christianity built its faith. The Jews themselves, of course, argued that God had never truly rejected his chosen people. By claiming the Jews as their witnesses, Christians inadvertently accepted the Jews' identity as the descendants of the biblical children of Israel.
Macarius Magnes, Aπoϰϱιτιϰòς πϱòς Eλληνας Ein Bislang Unbeachtetes Exzerpt
Authors: Von Carlos J. Larrain
Published: August 2016

Der Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der Bibliotheca Laurentiana macht auf die Blätter 75r–82v (Quaternionis initium in f. 79r) des Cod. Pl. 71, 3 folgendermaßen aufmerksam:

Hanc έξήγησιν  excipiunt alia Excerpta, nullo auctoris nomine apposito, in quibus varia partim physica, partim logica enarrantur; turn de anima, eiusque partibus; ac de virtutum divisione in quattuor cardinales differitur iuxta Aristotelem, Plotinum, Iamblichum, etc. Horum omnium initium est: Ίστέον οτι ούδέποτε κτλ. finis: έκαστης Αριστοτελικής πραγματείας.
1277 and all That — Students and Disputations
Authors: De Mowbray Malcolm
Published: August 2016

On 7 March 1277, étienne Tempier, bishop of Paris, issued a decree condemning 219 ”errors“ that were henceforth not to be taught in the university under threat of excommunication. So much has been written about this episode, from the thirteenth century onwards, that it scarcely needs introducing. Indeed, a leading scholar in the field has implied that nothing remains to be said about the events themselves since the standard problems either have been solved or are insoluble owing to the absence of documents. Yet the continuing speculation is a clear sign that the episode is poorly understood. Major studies of the last twenty-five years have offered markedly different interpretations of the intentions of those involved and the effects of their actions. Much effort has gone into condemning or excusing Tempier, but we still have little idea of where, and in what context, the condemned articles originated, rendering such judgments at best premature. The present study will attempt to address this problem by reexamining the text of the condemnation and other related sources to argue that they contain important evidence that has so far been overlooked.
Charlemagne and Alcuin: Diplomatic Studies in Carolingian Epistolography
Authors: Wallach Luitpold
Published: August 2016

Legislative documents from the rulers of Germanic states established in former Roman territories are frequently the work of men of Roman descent. Thus Leo of Narbonne was probably the main helper of the Visigothic King Euric, and the Gallo-Roman Syagrius, of the Burgundian Gundobad. The Ostrogoths had Roman jurists in their service; one of these wrote the Edictum Theoderici. Cassiodorus is the author not only of the Variae, a selection of documents composed by him as chancellor of Theoderic the Great, but also of the Edictum Athalarici. The Merovingians Chlodewig and Childebert I employed Gallo-Roman administrators; the patrician Parthenius was an official of the Austrasian King Theudebert I. The need for Roman officials in Germanic governments disappeared largely with the growth of genuine Germanic political and legal institutions. Charlemagne's leading helpers were therefore no longer descendants of the old senatorial nobility which survived in Gaul and Italy, but mostly men of Germanic origin. On the other hand, of all the brilliant scholars of Saxon, Lombard, Spanish-Gothic, and Italic origin in Charlemagne's cosmopolitan entourage, one man alone achieved great political prominence: Alcuin, the Saxon nobleman from the British kingdom of Northumbria. A little-known phase of his activities in the empire of Charlemagne will be investigated here.
‘De historia gigantum’: Theological Anthropology before Rabelais
Authors: Stephens Walter E.
Published: August 2016

Nowadays we define Giants as persons suffering from scientifically defined physiological disorders. Since Western culture has a short memory for obsolete scientific discourse, however, the simplicity of our contemporary understanding of gigantism makes it difficult for us to understand previous attitudes toward Giants, especially as expressed in literature. As Donald Frame has remarked, ‘When most Western readers think of giants in literature, they think of Rabelais and Swift; when they think of Rabelais and Swift, they think of giants.’ However, the actual importance of Rabelais and Swift would be seriously misrepresented were we to imagine them as exponents of the traditional Western attitude toward Giants and gigantism. What is more, Rabelais, who is the source of most early modern speculation about Giants, is a particularly problematic case. His combination of agile parodic wit and extreme philosophical and theological literacy is only beginning to be satisfactorily understood. Thus his treatment of gigantological themes has until now been almost completely misrepresented because of an insufficient understanding of the cultural significance of gigantism before his time. In fact, he is at least two removes from a coherent tradition of gigantological discourse running from the Old Testament through Judaic and patristic commentary and historiography, straight into the era of humanism. While the scope of this article will not permit an intensive analysis of Rabelais' own gigantology, an analysis of the two traditions upon which he depended will implicitly demonstrate the inadequacy of the conventional wisdom which sees Pantagruel and Gargantua as a direct outgrowth of medieval French folklore, the Grandes chronicques, and the literary romances of Pulci and Folengo.
‘Carmina Runensia’: Twelfth-century Verses from the Cistercian Monastery of Rein
Authors: Yates Donald N.
Published: August 2016

The six anonymous poems published here for the first time belong to a tradition of Latin satire usually described as ‘Goliardic’ and best known through the moralistic pieces in the Carmina Burana. Preserved in a unique manuscript in the Cistercian monastery of Rein in Styria, they are among the oldest Austrian examples of this genre. Despite their early date and literary interest, until now they have been known by title and first line only to the readers of Anton Weis's catalogue of the Rein manuscripts from 1891 and to the combers of Walther's alphabetical register of medieval Latin verse incipits. In my introductory remarks to an edition of the Carmina Runensia, as the verses may be called (abbreviated CR), I should like to discuss the following subjects: 1) contents and appearance of the manuscript (Rein, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 20), 2) date of writing, 3) style and themes of the poems, 4) sources and analogues, and 5) authorship. Though perhaps not of the caliber of the works of the contemporaneous Hildebert of Lavardin, whose best epigrams long passed as products of antiquity in the eyes of editors, or equal in satiric force to the barbs
‘Tractatus Magistri Petri Abaielardi De sacramento altaris’
Authors: Barrow Julia
Published: August 2016

Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale MS E. v. 9 (749), contains sermons for Lent by Jacobo da Voragine (fols. 1-168v old foliation, 1-167v new foliation), and, at the end of the codex, on fols. 169-75 (168-74, new foliation), a work which is headed 4 Incipit tractatus magistri Petri Abaielardi de sacramento altaris quod sit essentialiter ipsa Veritas carnis Christi et sanguinis et contra.’ The Tractatus, hereafter referred to as S, was identified by the late Nikolaus Haring as being question 117 of Abelard's Sic et Non, but was not known to Blanche Boyer and Richard McKeon when they were working on their definitive edition of the Sic et Non. S belongs to the versio prima of the Sic et Non, the ZTCEB group of manuscripts; within this group, Z is the very earliest surviving version, while TCEB, and with them S, form in effect a separate recension from Z. Before examining S's relation with TCEB it would be best to look at it on its own.
Die Antike Purpurfärberei nach dem Bericht Plinius‘ des ÄLteren in seiner ‘Naturalis historia’
Authors: Steigerwald Gerhard
Published: August 2016

Im Jahre 1959 hat K. Schneider inPaulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaffdie Ergebnisse der Erforschung des antiken Purpurs zusammenfassend dargestellt. Ein Überblick über die Forschungsgeschichte zur antiken Purpurfärberei zeigt, daβ die grundlegenden Erkenntnisse bereits 1842 von W. A. Schmidt erarbeitet wurden. Die Darstellungen von J. Marquardt—A. Mau, K. Faymonville, M. Besnier, H. Blümner, L. Brühl, W. Born und R. J. Forbes bieten Zusammenfassungen der Thesen Schmidts, fügen ihnen aber kaum wesentlich Neues hinzu. Von ein paar eigenen Akzentuierungen abgesehen, gilt das auch von den Arbeiten A. Dedekinds. Sie sind sowieso gröβtenteils lexikologischer Natur. Kein Urteil kann ich mir über die griechisch geschriebene Untersuchung von P. G. Moatsou erlauben; trotz intensiver Bemühungen war sie nicht zu bekommen. Soweit ich sehe, hat sie auf die Forschung praktisch keinen Einfluβ ausgeübt. Auch K. Schneider erwähnt sie nicht.
Thomas of Hales, O.F.M.: His Life and Works
Authors: Horrall Sarah M.
Published: August 2016

Thomas of Hales has long been recognized as the author of a fine Middle English lyric, the ‘Luue Ron.’ He is also known to have written a sermon (or meditation) in Anglo-Norman, and a few manuscripts of a Latin life of the Virgin, Vita Sancte Marie, have also been attributed to him. Modern accounts of his life depend almost entirely on an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Petrus Ioannis Olivi, ‘Quaestiones logicales’: Critical Text
Authors: Brown Stephen F.
Published: August 2016

When Morton Bloomfield reviewed David Burr's The Persecution of Peter Olivi, he noted that Olivi's reputation, no matter how interpreted, has been too much estimated in terms of his association with the spiritualism of Joachim of Flora. To get a more balanced view, he contended, we need more study dealing with other aspects of Olivi's career. It is as a step in the fulfillment of this need that we present an edition of Olivi's Quaestiones logicales.
Lady Meed and God's Meed: the Grammar of ‘Piers Plowman’ B 3 and C 4
Authors: Carlson Paula J.
Published: August 2016

When William Langland revised his poem Piers Plowman for the second time, he added a long, intricate analogy to the third passus. In all three versions of Piers, the dreamer, Will, finds himself in this early passus at a king's court and witnesses a debate between two figures, Lady Meed and Conscience, about the appropriateness of their possible marriage. The B text, the one scholars most often discuss, presents the would-be bride, Lady Meed, arguing that regardless of their nature the gifts she dispenses at court are integral to the smooth operation of society. These gifts, then, are honorable, and Lady Meed's nature need not prevent her marriage to Conscience. The reluctant Conscience, however, distinguishes between two kinds of meed, one holy and one corrupt. He holds that Lady Meed represents only the corrupt meed and so is intrinsically immoral. Her ‘gifts’ and ‘payments,’ he says, are not proportionate to desert, as she claims, but are instead bribes and payoffs. Rather than easing the functioning of society, they subvert it. On these grounds, Conscience refuses to marry Lady Meed. The king before whom Lady Meed and Conscience argue is initially torn about the nature of Lady Meed, as indeed readers of the poem have remained. In what appears to be an effort to clarify Conscience's argument, Langland adds almost a hundred lines to the debate in the C text.
The Anonymous Peterhouse Master and the Natural Philosophy of Plants
Authors: Long R. James
Published: August 2016

Early in the thirteenth century, probably within the first decade, a treatise on plants was translated from the Arabic by Alfred of Sareshel (or Alveredus Anglicus), which was to become the foundation of the science of botany for the Latin-speaking world. This treatise was until the sixteenth century universally ascribed to Aristotle and awarded all the authority accorded the Philosopher in the other sciences. Within a generation of the appearance of the Latin version the De plantis had become a set text in university curricula and by 1254 was prescribed by statute at the University of Paris as an examination subject. Roger Bacon was lecturing on the text at Paris already in the 1240s and a decade later Albert the Great was composing his monumental and never-to-be-surpassed commentary on the same text.
Studies in Bracton
Authors: Richardson H. G.
Published: August 2016

I have elsewhere drawn attention to a manuscript containing three works on canon law that Bracton laid under contribution, namely Tancred's Ordo judiciarius, Raymond of Peñafort's Summa de matrimonio and William of Drogheda's Summa aurea. This manuscript has been ascribed to the late thirteenth century by Dr. M. R. James; but dating a manuscript by the character of the handwriting can rarely be exact, and there seemed a possibility that the book might prove to be one that Bracton himself had used or that was related in some way to such a one. Through the kindness of the Council of Gonville and Caius College I have been able to examine the manuscript at leisure and, while it tells us less than might have been hoped, yet it does seem to throw a little fresh light upon Bracton's treatise and one of Bracton's sources.
Patristic Psychology in the Old English ‘Vainglory’
Authors: Regan Catharine A.
Published: August 2016

Since the Old English poem Vainglory is generally considered mediocre, and since no source has been found, critics usually dismiss it with terms such as ‘homiletic,’ ‘didactic,’ and ‘reflective.’ Because the poem is an admonition against pride and related sins, these terms are all applicable, but they do little to explain the nature of the tradition in which the poet writes. In both its content and form Vainglory bears a striking resemblance to specific teachings of the Church Fathers. Though an analysis of Vainglory in the light of these patristic writings will not transform the poem into an artistic work, it will illustrate the degree to which the poet depends on the teachings of the Church Fathers; moreover, I believe that this analysis may suggest an approach to the understanding of other Old English poems. When I cite passages from the Fathers I am not suggesting that they are the poet's conscious source, but rather that they are representative of the teachings which he knew and by which he was influenced.
Magister Gratian and the Problem of ‘Regnum’ and ‘Sacerdotium’
Authors: Chodorow Stanley A.
Published: August 2016

Shortly after its completion and circulation, the Decretum Gratiani became the foundation for a new canonical jurisprudence. Ironically, study of the work's history has suffered rather than benefited from its prominence in the history of law. Scholars have tried to reconstruct the text of the Decretum as it originally left the workroom of the Magister, but they have almost never tried to discover why — apart from scholarly motives — he undertook the enterprise. Instead, they have concentrated attention on his doctrine, or on the doctrine of the canons he cited, because their primary concern is to find the sources of later canonical theories. When they have searched for the sources of Gratian's own ideas, they have looked to earlier collections of the canons on which he relied. Gratian scholarship has thus been part of the history of ideas; concern for the Magister's place in the history of jurisprudence has kept historians from considering his place in the history of his times.
Bericht Über das Seminar ‘Das Decretum Burchards von Worms’
Authors: Landau Peter
Published: August 2016

Das Seminar wurde im Wintersemester 1969/70 von den Professoren Raymund Kottje, Peter Landau, Kurt Reindel an der Universität Regensburg veranstaltet. Es wurde von etwa zwanzig Teilnehmern besucht, die in der Mehrzahl Historiker waren, unter denen sich jedoch auch einige Theologen und Juristen befanden. Als Text wurde die Ausgabe des Dekrets in der Patrologia Latina Bd. 140 zugrunde gelegt.
Usury in Greek, Roman And Rabbinic Thought
Authors: Maloney Robert P.
Published: August 2016

The Christian teaching on usury did not develop in a vacuum. Christianity was born in a semitic milieu and spread rapidly through the Graeco-Roman world. Naturally, its ancestry and its environment influenced its moral thinking. The Fathers of the Church were well acquainted with the thought of others about usury. Besides many references to the clear Old Testament usury prohibition, the writings of the Fathers reflect and interact with attitudes toward interest-taking in Greece and Rome and in early rabbinical literature. It will thus be helpful to examine those strains of thought that existed side by side with the early patristic teaching and influenced it.
The Cortes and Royal Taxation during the Reign of Alfonso X of Castile
Authors: O'Callaghan Joseph F.
Published: August 2016

Consent to taxation traditionally has been regarded as one of the essential functions of representative assemblies. The distinguished historian of medieval Spanish institutions, Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, has indeed argued that representatives of the towns originally were summoned to the cortes of León-Castile to give their consent to extraordinary taxes. As yet, however, students of the medieval cortes have not carried out detailed investigations of the problem. Evidence to illustrate the taxing role of the cortes during the formative years from 1188 to 1252 is scanty, but it is considerably fuller during the reign of Alfonso X (1252-1284). Inasmuch as he incurred exceptional expenses and frequently summoned the cortes, an inquiry into the role of the cortes in assisting him through taxation should broaden our understanding of the functioning of government in the second half of the thirteenth century. The purpose of this paper then will be to determine when, to what extent, and for what purposes the cortes authorized the king to levy extraordinary taxes.
An Echo of the Servius Commentary in a Christmas Song around 1400
Authors: Szövérffy Joseph
Published: August 2016

While searching for traces of Virgilian echoes in medieval Latin poetry, I came upon the following unusual Christmas song from Bohemia, recorded between ca. 1410 and 1420 in a manuscript of the Abbey of Hohenfurth:

1. En aetas iam aurea incipit vigere Regnaque saturnea revolvuntur vere,

2. Parvulus dum nascitur ex intemerata Virgine, quae pariens mansit illibata.

3. Sibyllinis versibus hic fuit praedictus, Quod Maro commemorat, nec est sermo fictus.

4. Utrique ergo psallite, Matri, nato canite pie resonantes.

5. Tibi Deus pater grates, Qui in figura per vates filium spopondisti;

6. Atque tibi sacrum flamen, Qui nobis consolamen obumbrando contulisti.

7. R° Narrando poetice, Intelligendo mystice, is est Saloninus, Vera sapientia, filius divinus.
Studies in the Use of Myth in Sophocles' ‘Philoctetes’ and the ‘Orestes’ of Euripides
Authors: Fuqua Charles
Published: August 2016

The following study is an examination of selected aspects of the mythical paradigms presented in Sophocles' Philoctetes and Euripides' Orestes in an attempt to define the concerns that are shared by these two very different dramas. The first part deals with the characterization of Neoptolemus in the Philoctetes and discusses how the dramatist departed from the customary view of this character and appears to have been influenced by the figure of Telemachus in the Odyssey. The following section advances the thesis that in a number of significant regards Euripides' Orestes can be construed as a response to the paradigms of conduct presented in the Philoctetes the year before. Since the approach I will employ, while not new, differs from ‘standard’ procedure, in these prefatory remarks I would like to comment on why I have done so. Most current studies of individual dramas or the genre as a whole are relatively conservative in their approach; interpretation is, for the most part, restricted to the direct evidence of the text, analogies with other texts, and studies of particular techniques such as examinations of plot types and different forms of dramatic action. While this restraint has placed our understanding of the genre on a secure footing, I believe that there are certain important aspects of the medium for which it is not totally suited. The most important of these in my opinion concerns the evocation of mythical paradigms which, while they may lie beyond the immediate context of the drama, nevertheless shaped the author's conception and the audience's response to the characters on stage.
Royal Tax Revenues in Later Fourteenth Century France
Authors: Radding Charles M.
Published: August 2016

The development of tax revenues into an important source of royal income was an important event in fourteenth century French history. The military successes of Charles V were based on large standing forces paid for by tax revenues. Under Charles VI, who as a minor and later as a lunatic was incapable of ruling for most of his reign, the struggle of the Valois princes for control of royal tax revenues brought the kingdom to civil war and, ultimately, to the brink of foreign conquest. Little is known, however, about the tax revenues of the period, and few records survive to guide historians who try to estimate the income from taxation of Charles V and Charles VI. The full impact of the establishment of taxation on French politics has, therefore, been difficult to assess.
Rules and Regulations for Drinking Wine in Francesc Eiximenis' ‘Terç del Crestià’ (1384)
Authors: Gracia Jorge J. E.
Published: August 2016

Francesc Eiximenis' (1340?-1409?) discussion of wine and wine-drinking is part of a moral treatise on the sin of gluttony found within the Terç del Crestià (1384). This work is the third book of an extensive encyclopedia entitled Lo Crestià (The Christian) which Eiximenis never completed. Of its thirteen projected books, to be written in honor of Christ and the Apostles, only four, the Primer, Segon, Terç, and Dotzè, materialized. The size and scope of this proposed work were to be comprehensive, covering all areas pertinent to the improvement of the moral character of the Christian. Within Lo Crestià the Terç, in itself a work of vast proportions, occupies a prominent place owing to its style and content. As F. Martí correctly pointed out, ‘… the Terç is the most important and extensive of the four books of Lo Crestià completed by Eiximenis, as well as the most interesting and remarkable of all.’