Reading kephalaia: The Composition of Evagrius Ponticus’ Ad monachos Reconsidered

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Henrik Rydell Johnsén
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Reading ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Monastic Life ◽  
Literary Composition ◽  
Evagrius Ponticus

Abstract How Evagrius Ponticus (d. 399) composed his highly influential treatises of short and succinct chapters (kepahalaia) is bewildering and has been discussed by many scholars. In this essay the literary composition of Evagrius’ To monks in monasteries and communities, or Ad monachos, a typical text of short chapters, is examined from a literary perspective by relating the text to literary conventions, common in late antique literature and in rhetorical handbooks and exercises (progymnasmata). It is demonstrated how the teaching develops gradually in accordance with a pattern for a so-called amplified argument (epicheireme) codified in Pseudo-Hermogenes Progymnasmata. By this arrangement of the teaching, the reader is offered, not just a random taste of various aspects of the monastic life, but a set of specific conclusions to implement or to be aware of practically in the life as monk; conclusions that are perceptible not at just a cursory glance, but at a careful and repeated reading.

The Archaeology of Monastic Households

2020 ◽  
pp. 184-203
Author(s):  
Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom
Keyword(s):  
Household Archaeology ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
Monastic Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complex Households

This chapter explores the buildings and artefacts of late antique monastic sites in Egypt and Palestine. It uses household archaeology to examine the daily behaviours of those who lived in monastic settlements. Household archaeology combines methodologies from archaeology, anthropology, geography, and history. Its application enables us to read the archaeology of monasticism with greater sophistication, so that the artefacts and the places of ordinary life can be interpreted alongside other sources, such as liturgy, images, and texts. Archaeological remains offer an additional lens for reading monastic settlements as complex households or homesteads, and they permit us to write a more nuanced history of monastic life.

Monastic tower-naves and tower-nave origins

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Michael G. Shapland
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
High Status ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Monastic Reform ◽  
Monastic Life ◽  
Secular Power

This chapter traces the origins of the tower-nave form in Anglo-Saxon monasteries, where they occur from at least the early eighth century onwards. It seeks the architectural meanings underlying the tower form, which were drawn from Carolingian and Late Antique practice and related to high-status secular power and burial. Thus, many monastic tower-naves in England were constructed as private, often royal, chapels and burying-places, as a result of the expression of these meanings by their builders. The evidence for monastic tower-naves increases significantly during the mid–late tenth century, a period which coincided with the Monastic Reform, whose leaders were personally responsible for this apparent spate of tower-nave construction. These tower-naves were built in seeming fulfilment of key tenets of the Reform movement: the patronage of the king in monastic life, the regularization of burial practices, and the increased emphasis on the integrity of monastic space.

Der kompetente Sünder. Zur auktorialen Selbstdarstellung Francesco Petrarcas in De otio religioso

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-183
Author(s):  
Bernhard Huss
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Southern France ◽  
Monastic Life ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Epistemic Competence

Abstract Francis Petrarch has developed many diverse strategies to present himself as an author. When constructing his own figura auctoris, he refers to a highly stylized version of his autobiographical ego to which he ascribes a particular epistemic competence. Indeed, such competence serves as the basis of both authority and authorship. In his De otio religioso, Petrarch addresses the community of the Carthusian monks of the Abbey of Montrieux in Southern France. Paradoxically, he introduces himself to them as being competent with regard to questions of monastic life, although in this respect his addressees should be much more competent than Petrarch can be. At the same time the author depicts himself as a great sinner. As such, he cannot dispose of considerable knowledge in religious matters. Instead, he points out his extraordinary cultural expertise as a philologist, humanist and owner of books, a knowledge that makes him, the sinner, become an author able to instruct the monks. Petrarch negotiates the claims to validity asserted by two different cultures (Christian vs. pagan, late antique/medieval vs. antique/early-modern) and seeks to position himself as an author with authority in both fields.

The Early Modern Invention of Late Antique Rome

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Denzey Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Late Antique
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