The iconography of Maria Regina in eighth-century Rome illustrates a deep connection between sacred painted images and architectural spaces in the basilicas of San Clemente, San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, and Santa Susanna. This essay focuses on the concept of zones of transition, i.e., liminal spaces, within sacred buildings. Distinct iconographic similarities among these sites suggest a common prototype drawn upon by artisans working at the same time. Altars situated in these transitional areas served both funerary and catechumenal purposes, emphasizing Mary’s role as intercessor and guide. This consistent depiction underscores her significance in rites of passage, providing spiritual support during transitions such as physical death and the figurative death of baptism, thereby highlighting her importance in these ritual contexts.

An essential element among medieval church furnishings was the tabernacle or sacrament house, where the consecrated Host was placed for storage toward the end of the Mass. While the most numerous and best studied of such tabernacles to survive are in and around Germany, this article offers a first comprehensive account of medieval tabernacles preserved in the Basque Country (País Vasco/Euskadi) of northern Spain; scholars have hitherto overlooked these tabernacles. The focus here is on tabernacles created between the councils of Lateran IV (1215) and Trent (1545–1563), when a lack of clear prescriptions resulted in considerable variety. All examples studied were produced in the late Gothic and early Renaissance styles, and these tabernacles’ forms fall into two types: wall niches and freestanding towers. Many tabernacles consist only of architectural frames, but some feature elaborate iconographic programs; while some are true works of art, many others are rather modest or based on fine models but executed in a provincial manner. A fascinating aspect is the Atlantic geographic connections that become manifest in the Basque tabernacles, particularly to northern France and the Low Countries, with which the Basques were closely linked through maritime commerce.

An icon known as Panagia Amirou is still used and venerated at the monastery of Panagia Amirou, near the Cypriot village of Apsiou. The icon consists of two panels inserted one into the other and thus belongs to the rare category of so-called “composite icons.” This essay analyses this unusual form giving special attention to the inset icon, which, the study concludes, should be dated to the second half of the fourteenth century and, hence, is much older than the embedding panel, which dates to the sixteenth century. By pointing to details that reveal the previous use of the inner panel and by referring to different notions of movability, the icon emerges as an active object that was meant to be touched, moved, opened, and otherwise interacted with.

Scholars have long acknowledged the cultural and political significance attached to the fashioning of Israelite identity in Ethiopia. Insufficiently appreciated, however, is the extent to which the claim of descent from Jacob’s seed turned on its head the supersessionist paradigm that had come to prevail everywhere else in the Christian ecumene. Ethiopia invented for itself a biological Israelite genealogy, assuming the mantle of chosen peoplehood literally to become carnal Israel. How to reconcile the prestige of Israelite ancestry according to the flesh with the Christian doctrine of spiritual inheritance according to the promise? How to channel Old Testament ritual into a national religious consciousness while at the same time repelling even the intimation of tainted kinship with the Jews? Visual evidence from late thirteenth-century wall paintings and fifteenth-century manuscripts demonstrates that the greater the investment in Solomonic succession, the translocation of Zion, and the embrace of Old Testament practices, the sharper the antithesis between becoming “Israel” and becoming “Jewish”.

The image of Ananeosis from a ruined church’s mosaic pavement embodies Cyrenaica’s renewal after rejoining the empire. In this analysis, Ananeosis is the key to all the subjects depicted in the original grid. It was a grid of fifty squares in the horizontal rows, with five squares in each row filled with diverse natural, allegorical, and architectural forms. Her image gives unusual prominence to depiction of basketweave, and introduces the theme of renewal in creation both human and divine. Drawing a rose-garland from a basket, she makes time an important qualifier, to be expressed in the squares around her, by changing symmetries and variations in paired images and by the prominence of two musical instruments. Renewal, both momentary and recurring, is expressed with hoped-for local or regional significance and bound to awareness of Empire-wide tastes and resources, both physical and cultural.

En la obra de Descartes se verifica que la razón construye la realidad por vía de negación, limitando lo indeterminado e infinito desde la finitud; reduciendo gra dualmente lo complicado y oscuro a lo simple. Al desplegar las consecuencias del prin cipio lógico de identidad que rige al entendimiento, el valor del infinito que desde la Antigüedad griega fue negativo pasa a ser positivo. El problema del infinito aflora ante la soledad del cogito, surgida en el itinerario que en uso de la libertad trazan las Medi taciones acerca de la filosofía primera. De este modo, tiene lugar una convergencia de la filosofía especulativa y la filosofía práctica, ya que para Descartes el error deja de ser un acto del entendimiento solo y pasa a involucrar a la libertad. El error lógico que constituye la autorreferencia, según lo explica Bertrand Russell, trata de ser evitado por Descartes con el recurso al dios infinito en un plano ontológico distinto del que ocupa el Ser en la tradición metafísica que viene de la Antigüedad.

Séminaires et Colloques du centre Thomas Hobbes (2022)(2023) Les études hobbesiennes ont connu plusieurs événements importants au cours des années 2022 et 2023.Le premier événement à souligner en ordre d'importance est le colloque de Barcelone, organisé par l'Association internationale des amis de Hobbes, présidée par Didier Mineur, en collaboration avec l'université de Barcelone, sous la responsabilité de Josep Monserrat-Molas et Roger Castellanos, les 5 et 6 septembre 2023.Ce colloque portait sur la question de « L'homme selon Hobbes ».Il a révélé un certain nombre de jeunes chercheurs venant de divers pays qui ont pris la relève d'autres plus anciens, lesquels étaient également présents dans ce colloque.Ainsi, Liang Pang, assistant professeur à l'Université de Pékin a abordé avec une remarquable perspicacité la question de la distinction entre le rêve et la réalité chez Hobbes.Cette question qui est

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Water mattered in medieval Pisa. As it was not a natural port, Pisa had to protect, manage, and maintain its maritime landings and riverine passages to neutralize its Mediterranean competitors and ensure its prosperity. This paper addresses the three bodies of water and waterways most important to the Pisa - the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Auser and Arno rivers - and how architecture interfaced with hydrotopography. Architectural structures defined a unique visual culture in Pisa in practical, topographical, and symbolic ways. The organization of the city, its key monuments, and their ornamentation all demonstrated the significance of the city’s complex relationship with water that was key to Pisa’s success in the Middle Ages. Abstract Voda měla pro středověkou Pisu velký význam. Jelikož město nebylo přirozeným středomořským přístavem, muselo své námořní přístavy a říční průjezdy chránit, spravovat a udržovat, aby si zajistilo prosperitu a neutralizovalo konkurenci. Autorka článku se zabývá třemi pro město nejdůležitějšími vodními plochami a cestami - Tyrhénským mořem a řekami Auser a Arno - a způsoby, jakými se architektura prolínala s hydrotopografií. Architekturu Pisy proto v tomto kontextu považuje nejen za demonstraci její jedinečné vizuální kultury, ale současně také za manifestaci zásadní role, kterou voda hrála v historii a identitě města. Autorka pak formuluje tři hlavní způsoby dialogu mezi vodou a architekturou: fyzický nebo praktický, tj. architektura poskytovala nezbytnou infrastrukturu pro efektivní mezinárodní přístav; topografický, tj. světské a církevní stavby označovaly klíčová místa v přístavu a ve městě ve vztahu k vodě; a symbolický nebo aluzivní, tj. architektonické formy a jejich výzdoba zdůrazňovaly spojení Pisy s řekami a mořem i politický vliv a hospodářskou prosperitu plynoucí z námořního obchodu. Stavby, jako byly například pisánské věže a obranná opevnění podél tyrhénského pobřeží, chránily město a jeho přístavní infrastrukturu, a zároveň vymezovaly pisánské územní vlastnictví. Církevní a občanské stavby v Pise také sloužily jako orientační body, umístěné na strategických místech podél vody a vstupů do města přes přístav a řeky Auser a Arno. Paláce a kostely se vyznačovaly osobitým stylem výzdoby tvořeným antickými spolii a soudobou středomořskou keramikou, která vizualizovala a oslavovala prestiž a bohatství, jež Pisa získala díky námořnímu obchodu. Autorka se tedy domnívá, že organizace města, jeho nejdůležitější památky a jejich výzdoba odrážejí význam komplexního vztahu města k vodě, který byl klíčem úspěchu Pisy ve středověku.