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Some Recent Publications on the Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and on Byzantium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Gerhart B. Ladner*
Affiliation:
Fordham University

Extract

Professor Hanfmann's publication of the season sarcophagus of Dumbarton Oaks is also a monograph on season sarcophagi in general and on the symbolism of the Horae and seasons in literature and art. The appearance of two important reviews by Professor Doro Levi and by Miss Marion Lawrence affords this writer an opportunity of re-evaluating his first impression of the book in the light of criticism by others.

Type
Bibliographical Surveys
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

page 578 note 1 Hanfmann, George M. A., The Season Sarcophagus in Dumbarton Oaks (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 2; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1951) 2 vols., 280 and 238 pp., 150 figs.Google Scholar

page 578 note 2 Art Bulletin 35 (1953) 233ff.Google Scholar

page 578 note 3 Speculum 28 (1953) 162ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 579 note 4 But cf. Levi, loc. cit. 235.Google Scholar

page 579 note 5 See P. L’Orange, H., Studies on the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship in the Ancient World (Oslo 1953) 90ff.Google Scholar

page 579 note 6 See, lor instance, the recent studies ol Alf, A.öldi, A Conflict of Ideas in the Late Roman Empire: The Clash between the Senate and Valentinian I (Oxford 1952), and Die Kontorniaten (Budapest 1942-1943); also Straub, J., Vom Herrscherideal in der Spätantike (Stuttgart 1939), Malunovicz, L., De ara Victoriae in curia Romana quomodo certatum sit (Wilno 1937).Google Scholar

page 580 note 7 Loc. cit. 233.Google Scholar

page 580 note 8 Beside the older studies of Strzygowski, J., C. Webster, J., Levi, D., and others, see now iStern, Henr, Le calendrier de 354 (Institut Français d’Archéologie de Beyrouth: Bibliotheque archéologique et historique 55; Paris 1953) 234ff., 292ff.Google Scholar

page 581 note 1 Seznec, Jean, The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in Renaissance Humanism and Art , translated from the French by Barbara Sessions, F. (Bollingen Series 38: New York: Pantheon Books Inc. 1953) 376 pp., 108 figs. (Originally published as La survivance des dieux antiques, Studies of the Warburg Institute 11; London 1940: the present edition has been revised by the author.) Quite recently an extensive and interesting review by Heckscher, W. S. appeared in The Art Bulletin 36 (1954) 306ff.Google Scholar

page 582 note 2 Panofsky, E. and Saxl, F., ‘Classical Mythology in Mediaeval Art,’ Metropolitan Museum Studies 4 (1932-1933) 228 ff.; see also Panofsky, , ‘Renaissance and Renascences,’ Kenyon Review 6 (1944) 201ff.Google Scholar

page 582 note 3 Liebeschütz, H., Fulgentius Metaforalis (Studien der Bibliothek Warburg 4; Leipzig-Berlin 1926).Google Scholar

page 582 note 4 The Image Decree of Trent itself deals only with sacred ecclesiastical art, rejecting both iconoclasm and lascivious representations in churches; for documents and theological works illustrating this aspect of sixteenth-century art theory, see Jedin, H., ‘Entstehung und Tragweite des Trienter Dekrets über die Bilderverehrung’, Theologische Quartalschrift 116 (1938) 143ff., 404ff.Google Scholar

page 582 note 5 For the genesis and sequel of Poussin's classicism, see Panofsky, E., ‘« Et in Arcadia ego »,’ in Philosophy and History: Essays Presented to Ernst Cassirer (Oxford 1936) 223.Google Scholar

page 582 note 6 Cf., for instance, J. Daniélou, S.J., Sacramentum Futuri: Études sur les origines de la théologie biblique (Paris 1950); Auerbach, E., ‘Figura,’ Archivum Romanicum 22 (1938) 436ff.Google Scholar

page 583 note 7 The original meaning of the tropological-moral sense does not yet seem to be fully clarified. Some remarks on the relations between the concepts of typus, figura, allegoria and tropus are found in H. de Lubac, S.J., ‘«Typologie» et « allégorisme», Recherches de science religieuse 34 (1947) 180ff. Both the typus (allegoria, figura) and the tropus in the moral sense emerge as species of the tropus in the general grammatical-rhetorical sense. See also Lubac, de, Histoire et esprit: L'intelligence de l'écriture d'après Origène (Paris 1950), chapters 3 and 4. For the origin of the terms τϱόπος τϱοπιϰός, τϱοπολογία in Greek rhetoric, cf. Η. Bate, N., ‘Some Technical Terms of Greek Exegesis,’ Journal of Theological Studies 24 (1923) 59ff. The roots of the equation of morals and tropology seem to lie in Philo, and they are not altogether rhetorical, for Philo uses the word τρόποι in combination with ήθη for attitudes of the soul which he sees symbolized (διὰ συμβόλων) by the ‘allegories’ of the Old Testament; see De spec. leg. 4.8 (114), cf. also Caplan, H., ‘The Four Senses of Scriptural Interpretation and the Mediaeval Theory of Preaching,’ Speculum 4 (1929) 282ff. For the relation between τόποι (loci communes) and certain τϱόποι (e. g. metaphors), see R. Curtius, E., Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (Bern 1948) 87ff., 136ff; see also his chapter on γνῶμαι (sententiae) and παϱαδε ‘γματα (exempla). Google Scholar

page 583 note 8 Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages 3: Manuscripts in English Libraries 1. By Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier. Edited by Harry Bober (London: The Warburg Institute, University of London 1953).Google Scholar

page 584 note 9 See Panofsky's, studies quoted above, and also his Studies in Iconology (New York 1939) 24. For the Norman Sicilian proto-Renaissance of the second half of the twelfth century, see now the exceptionally important study of Deer, J., ‘Die Basler Löwenkamee und der süditalienische Gemmenschnitt des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts,’ Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte, 14 (1953) 129 ff.Google Scholar

page 584 note 10 O. Kristeller, P., ‘Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance, * Byzantion 17 (1944/1945) 346ff.Google Scholar

page 584 note 11 See also the recent study by Wieruzowski, Helene, ‘Arezzo as a Center of Learning and Letters in the Thirteenth Century, Traditio 9 (1953) 321ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 584 note 12 Such views do not mean to exclude the role of Sicily and of Frederick II; nor do they overlook the obvious fact that in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries northern, and generally ‘medieval,’ influence upon Italian culture was not in every respect conducive to the Renaissance: beside Dante and Giotto there was, for instance, the truly Gothic architecture of Naples and Northern Italy. Even in Tuscany there was in the latter part of the fourteenth century a temporary reaction, Byzantine-Gothic in character, against the proto-humanistic and proto-Renaissance tendencies of late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century Italy; see the brilliant and convincing book by Meiss, M., Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (Princeton 1951), where the relevant developments in art and literature are related to fourteenth-century Italian religious thought and mysticism.Google Scholar

page 584 note 13 See the very significant praise of sensual human beauty in Lorenzo Valla's De voluptate et vero bono 1.21f.Google Scholar

page 585 note 1 Dumbarton Oaks Papers 6 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1951) 251 pp., 15 plates. — Dumbarton Oaks Papers (henceforth DOP) 7 (ibid. 1953) 141 pp.Google Scholar

page 585 note 2 Dvornik, Francis, ‘Emperors, Popes, and General Councils,’ DOP 6.1-23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 585 note 3 Byzantinische Zeitschrift 44 (1951: Festschrift für F. Dölger) 111 ff.Google Scholar

page 585 note 4 ‘Der Kampf um das politische oder petrinische Prinzip der Kirchenführung’ in Das Konzil von Chalkedon, edd. Grillmeier, A. and Bacht, H., 2 (Würzburg 1953) 491ff., especially ‘Exkurs: Zur Zwei-Gewalten-Lehre des Papstes Gelasius I.’ (pp. 557ff.).Google Scholar

page 585 note 5 Op. cit. 547.Google Scholar

page 585 note 6 Mitteilungen des Instituts für Oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung 62 (1954) 165ff,CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 586 note 7 André Grabar, ‘Un médaillon en or provenant de Mersine en Cilicie,’ DOP 6.25-49, 6 plates with 12 figs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 586 note 8 Kitzinger, Ernst, ‘Studies on Late Antique and Early Byzantine Floor Mosaics, I: Mosaics at Nikopolis,’ DOP 6.81-122, 8 plates, with 36 figs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 587 note 9 Downey, Glanville, ‘The Builder of the Original Church of the Apostles at Constantinople: A Contribution to the Criticism of the Vita Constantini Attributed to Eusebius,’ DOP 6.51-80, one plate (facsimile of a page from an Athos manuscript of Constantine of Rhodes).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 587 note 10 But see also the defense of the authenticity of the Vita by so great and experienced a scholar as Pio Franchi de’ Cavalieri, Constantiniana (Studi e Testi 171; Città del Vaticano 1953) 51ff.Google Scholar

page 587 note 11 Cf. the criticism of Professor Downey's paper in the article by Vogt, J., ‘Der Erbauer der Apostelkirche in Konstantinopel, Hermes 81 (1953) 111ff. Professor Vogt bases his adherence to the common opinion that it was Constantine who built the Apostles’ church largely on his interpretation of a crucial passage in Vita Constantini 4.71, in which he differs from Professor Downey. While the latter points out that it would be strange if Eusebius himself, who died soon after Constantine, had said that Constantine's tomb or remains (τῆς τϱισμαϰαϱίας ψυχῆς σϰῆνος) could still be seen, Professor Vogt asserts that the expression ‘still’ does not apply to Constantine's body or tomb, but to the prayers and honor rendered to him together with the apostles. Only an exact study of the syntax of the Vita Constantini would allow to decide with certainty whether the participle (rather than infinitive) construction of the passage in question favors Professo Downey's or Professor Vogt's translation. — Domes, H., ‘Das Selbstzeugnis Kaiser Konstantins,’ Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, Dritte Folge, Nr. 34 (1954) Appendix: Konstantins Bestattung, p. 421, n. 1, in a brief remark doubts Professor Downey's thesis concerning the builder of the Apostles’ church, and translates Vita Constantini 4.71 in the same way as Professor Vogt. Regardless of this question, Professor Dörries’ study is extremely valuable: among other things, it seems to me to prove convincingly against Weinreich et al. that Constantine did not see himself as a thirteenth apostle and that the later epithet ἰσαπóστoλoς need not be taken too literally.Google Scholar

page 588 note 12 Anastos, Milton V., ‘The Immutability of Christ and Justinian's Condemnation of Theodore of Mopsuestia,’ DOP 6.123-160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 588 note 13 Devreesse, R., Essai sur Théodore de Mopsueste (Studi e Testi 141; Città del Vaticano 1948).Google Scholar

page 588 note 14 Moeller, C., ‘Le chalcédonisme et le néo-chalcédonisme en Orient de 451 à la fin du VIe siècle,’ in Das Konzil von Chalkedon I (Würzburg 1951) 637ff.; Grillmeier, A., S.J., ‘Vorbereitung des Mittelalters: Studie über das Verhältnis von Chalkedonismus und Neu-Chalkedonismus in der lateinischen Theologie von Boethius bis zu Gregor d. Gr.,’ ibid. II (1953) 791 ff.Google Scholar

page 588 note 15 A. Vasiliev, A., ‘The Second Russian Attack on Constantinople,’ DOP 6.161-225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 588 note 16 The Russian Attack on Constantinople in 860 (Cambridge, Mass. 1946).Google Scholar

page 589 note 17 ‘Hugh Capet of France and Byzantium,’ DOP 6.227-251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 589 note 18 John Geanakoplos, Deno, ‘Greco-Latin Relations on the Eve of the Byzantine Restoration: The Battle of Pelagonia — 1259,’ DOP 7.99-141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 590 note 19 B. Ladner, Gerhari, ‘The Concept of the Image in the Greek Fathers and the Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy,’ DOP 7.1-34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 590 note 20 J. Alexander, Paul, ‘The Iconoclastic Council of St. Sophia (815) and Its Definition (Horos),’ DOP 7.35-66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 590 note 21 This fragment, mistakenly attributed by the council to St. Basil, is taken from the first of the two famous homilies In verba: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram; the old but disputed attribution of these homilies to St. Gregory of Nyssa is now supported not only by E. von Ivanka, as noted by Professor Alexander, but also by Leys, R., S.J., L'image de Dieu chez saint Grégoire de Nysse (Bruxelles-Paris 1951).Google Scholar

page 591 note 22 Dvornik, Francis,’ The Patriarch Photius and Iconoclasm,’ DOP 7.67-97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 591 note 23 The Photian Schism, History and Legend (London 1949).Google Scholar

page 591 note 1 Rupert Martin, John, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus (Studies in Manuscript Illumination 5; Princeton: Princeton University Press 1954) 198 pp., 112 plates with 302 figs. — See also the author's studies ‘An Early Illustration of The Sayings of the Fathers,’ Art Bulletin 32 (1950) 291ff., and ‘The Death of Ephraim in Byzantine and Early Italian Painting,’ ibid. 33 (1951) 217ff.Google Scholar

page 591 note 2 For the pagan and Christian origins of this idea, see now the illuminating book by Jaeger, Werner, Two Rediscovered Works of Ancient Christian Literature: Gregory of Nyssa and Macarius (Leiden 1954).Google Scholar

page 591 note 3 Beside the literature on medieval virtue and vice ideology utilized by Professor Martin, the important book by W. Bloomfield, Morton, The Seven Deadly Sins (Michigan State College 1952), may also be consulted. [For further material concerning the mystical ladder in medieval western thought see also Mrs. Greenhill's study, ‘The Child in the Tree,’ in the present volume, esp. pp. 337, 343-9, 365-9 supra. — ED.]Google Scholar

page 593 note 4 See, for instance, Dom Anselm Stolz, The Doctrine of Spiritual Perfection (St. Louis, London 1938).Google Scholar

page 593 note 5 Similarly, ἀπάθɛɩα is rendered as tranquillità mistica by Trevisan, P., in his Italian version (with the standard Greek text), which may be added to the editions and translations mentioned by Professor Martin: Giovanni Climaco, S., Scala Paradisi I (Corona Patrum Salesiana, Series Graeca 8; Torino 1941).Google Scholar

page 594 note 6 It seems, however, not absolutely certain that the title Πεϱὶ ἀποταγῆς βίου really signifies ‘On Renunciation of Life’ and not rather ‘On a Life of Renunciation.’ See Jaeger, W., op. cit. 75ff., for the ascetic use of the terms ὁ ϰατ’ ἀϱετὴν βίος, ὁ ϰατὰ φιλοσοφίαν βίος. Further philological investigation of this point seems desirable.Google Scholar