Veronika Wieser

https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503588490-1
eds. Walter Pohl, Veronika Wieser, Francesco Borri
Brepols, CELAMA vol. 31

In many countries in Northern and Eastern Europe, the period after 1000 saw the emergence of new Christian kingdoms. This process was soon reflected in works of historiography that traced the foundation and development of the new polities. Many of these texts had a lasting impact on the formation of political, ethnic, and religious identities of these states and peoples.

This volume deals with some of these earliest histories narrating the past of the new polities that had emerged after 1000 in Northern, East Central, and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Adriatic regions. They have often been understood as ‘national histories’, but a closer look brings out the differences in their aims and construction. One question addressed here is to what extent these historians built on models of identification developed in earlier historiography. The volume provides an overview of several fundamental texts in which identities in the new Christian kingdoms were negotiated, and of recent research on these texts.

This book compares the ways in which new powers arose in the shadows of the Roman Empire and its Byzantine and Carolingian successors, of Iran, the Caliphate and China in the first millennium CE. These new powers were often established by external military elites who had served the empire. They remained in an uneasy balance with the remaining empire, could eventually replace it, or be drawn into the imperial sphere again. Some relied on dynastic legitimacy, others on ethnic identification, while most of them sought imperial legitimation. Across Eurasia, their dynamic was similar in many respects; why were the outcomes so different?
https://brill.com/display/title/62312?language=en
Contributors are Alexander Beihammer, Maaike van Berkel, Francesco Borri, Andrew Chittick, Michael R. Drompp, Stefan Esders, Ildar Garipzanov, Jürgen Paul, Walter Pohl, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Helmut Reimitz, Jonathan Shepard, Q. Edward Wang, Veronika Wieser, and Ian N. Wood.

Die Autorinnen und Autoren untersuchen in ihren Beiträgen europäische Endzeit- und Untergangsvorstellungen von der Spätantike bis hinein ins 21. Jahrhundert, welche lange Zeit über in Anlehnung an die biblischen Apokalypsen und allen voran an die neutestamentliche Johannes-Offenbarung entstanden. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf den dahinter auszumachenden sozialen Dynamiken und diskursiven und medialen Faktoren, die gerade auch in End-Setzungen grundlegende identitätsstiftende, einheits- und gemeinschaftsbildende Funktionen erkennen lassen. Der kulturwissenschaftlich ausgerichtete und unter diesem Blickwinkel ausführlich eingeleitete Band unterteilt sich in drei die Moderne und drei die Frühe Neuzeit und das Mittelalter behandelnde Abschnitte mit den Schwerpunkten: Allmachtsformen, Medienregulative, Denken der Kontingenz, typologische Schemata, Differenz und Gemeinsinn und Zeithorizonte.

Rutger Kramer, Graeme Ward and Emilie Kurdziel (eds.), Categorising the Church. Monastic Communities, Canonical Clergy and Episcopal Authority in the Carolingian World (780-840)
https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503579351-1

This article examines the different approaches towards pastoral leadership and apostolic ideals as discussed in patristic sources over the course of the early Middle Ages and as brought together in the Institutio Canonicorum at the court of Aachen. Entering into a dialogue with past religious authorities, church fathers, bishops and their communities, the compilers of the IC deduced a timeless manual, which is characterized by both its differentiated use of its sources and their contexts as well as by its pragmatic approach towards possible problems and their solutions. The compilers created a normative text geared towards presenting a unified but flexible model for the way of living of the Carolingian clergy and succeeded in demonstrating the complexity and inherent tensions of questions central to clerical life such as poverty and property, public standing and propriety, apostolic ideals and the demands of an office. This article provides a summary of the IC’s structure and its intentions while taking a fresh look at the compilers’ conceptual approaches and choices in order to highlight their awareness of their topics’ multiplicity.

(with Klass Huijbregts) This article examines descriptions of emotional distress and social alienation from two interdisciplinary perspectives: modern clinical psychology and late antique hagiography. The first case study examines the current method of classification in psychiatry: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5). Offering a broad perspective on how the DSM-5 came to be, we look at the strengths but also the pitfalls of this classification system. We argue that societal context is important when identifying a disorder, but it, ironically, only plays a small part when applying the DSM-5 in everyday psychiatric practice. Furthermore, it will be argued that historical contexts may usefully inform modern clinical practice (for instance, because they show how the interpretation of ‘abnormal’ behaviour is in flux). The second section will examine descriptions of emotions and distress in hagiographic sources from Late Antiquity. It analyses a hagiographic collection, the Historia Lausiaca as a taxonomy that both describes and regulates Christian pious life. In Late Antiquity, social developments, such as the growth of and enthusiasm for the ascetic movement, led to the introduction of new concepts for how to deal with and integrate expressions of emotional distress. Ultimately, by occupying the intersection of religion and medicine, this article aims to further psychologists’ understanding of how past societies used religious ideas to shape individual behaviour and its interpretation. Additionally, it will inform historians about modern classification methods in psychiatry and how these have influenced the interpretation of behavioural traits.

For biographical collections to form a coherent whole, literary choices had to be made and writing strategies applied to the individual segments (lives) of what was conceived as an overarching narrative or a textual ensemble. In this chapter we analyse the genres, models and traditions upon which authors, compilers and editors relied to assert the authority of the text and create a product meeting the expectations, tastes and textual practices of the community within which and for whom the biographical collection was written. We furthermore explore authoriality to establish the ways in which an author’s opinions, social entanglement and participation in scholarly networks contributed to shaping not only the content but also the style of his or her work. The comparative analysis of the written texts studied in this volume shows that authors also made consistent use of strategies of persuasion. These constituted powerful tools to build and convey a sense of trustworthiness encompassing both texts and authors: modesty (topos humilitatis) and self-confidence were, for example, put on show to strengthen the authority of a text, while prophecy provided a means to boost the legitimacy of the institution, the dynasty or the community celebrated by the biographical collection. Tropes and rhetorical devices can be identified in texts written in distant cultural regions – from Carolingian Brittany to the 14th-century Tibetan Plateau – as they allowed authors and compilers to showcase their learning and make sure to arouse and keep their audience’s attention. Focusing on writing strategies thus, surprisingly, reveals an unexpected degree of literary proximity between texts composed across Medieval Eurasia.

https://medievalworlds.net/9277-0inhalt?frames=yes

Catalogues of the names and writings of religious authors and authorities were one of the most enduring forms of biographical collection in the Middle Ages, with rich and varied traditions surviving in both Christian and Islamic contexts. In the Christian world, Jerome’s De viris illustribus (On Illustrious Men) was foundational. Written in 392/393, Jerome’s catalogue of authorities was frequently read and used as a source of information for over a millennium; furthermore, its list of authors was variously expanded and continued. In this chapter, we focus on two moments in the long history of Jerome’s De viris illustribus: the Late Roman Empire and the Carolingian world respectively. More specifically, we examine two particular instances of this reception: Gennadius of Marseille’s late 5th-century continuation of Jerome’s original list of ›illustrious men‹ provides the first case study; the Carolingian historian Frechulf of Lisieux, who was critical reader of Jerome’s catalogue, is the subject of the second case study. In each of these case studies, we analyse – individually and then comparatively – the reworkings and reinterpretations of Jerome’s bio-bibliographic compendium in order to gain to a better understanding of the thematic structure, the authorial choices and the genre-related methodological problems presented in the texts of Gennadius and Frechulf. We examine the tensions that are inherent to such continuations and reworkings, between the thematic foci and agenda introduced by different author-continuators and between groups represented within the texts and the specific authors and audiences writing and reading them.

https://www.video.uni-erlangen.de/clip/id/9916

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/imafo/das-institut/detail/article/on-the-role-of-the-end-times/

Paper presented at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities. Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication. Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

This article will reexamine the different layers of the Chronicle of Hydatius and the apocalyptic thinking of the author visible in them. Building on the seminal works of Richard Burgess and Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann, this article will pay attention to the chronicle’s specific political and ecclesiastical context and connect it to late antique traditions of historical writing and apocalyptic discourse. Although Hydatius’ approach to the end of history seems to be quite straightforward, given that is was primarily founded on the calculation of the end and the nightmarish visions that would accompany it, the added value of the Chronicle’s lies in the intertextual approach the author takes to his work. His apocalyptic rhetoric was not solely connected to the interpretation of specific, outstanding political events, but formed a commentary to the historical account – in the process creating a dialogue between bible and historiography. Hydatius explains the fundamental political changes of his time in the light of prophecies from the Old Testament, interpreting the destruction of all worldly powers, Roman Empire and barbarian kingdoms alike, as a process of transformation. In doing so, he also incorporates the idea of renewal and renovation into his chronicle: in the end, these kingdoms would give way to God’s promised eternal empire, old structures would perish and new ones arise (Rev 21). Hydatius’ chronicle thus allows us to gain a deeper understanding into the way one observer in the middle of the fifth century thought the end of the Roman Empire and the arrival of God’s kingdom would unfold.

In: Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, edited by Matthew Gabriele, James T. Palmer
https://www.routledge.com/Apocalypse-and-Reform-from-Late-Antiquity-to-the-Middle-Ages/Gabriele-Palmer/p/book/9781138684041

In the fourth and fifth centuries, the Roman empire underwent a series of changes that profoundly affected its political, economic, social and cultural organization. The long fourth century saw the growth of Christianity from a minor persecuted movement into the Roman state religion. In the wake of this process and with the generous support of Constantine the Great and his successors, Christian communities flourished throughout the empire. This paper will explore some of the many ways in which women were involved in ascetic Christian life in the late Roman West. It aims to sketch the range of new opportunities that may have followed the conversion to asceticism while also reflecting on the more conventional models of womanhood that were still present. Building on the seminal works on female ascetic renunciation by Elizabeth Clark, Kate Cooper, Susanna Elm, Lynda Coon, this paper will present four small case studies of women who were partly or loosely associated with each other and who participated in the ascetic networks of the late Roman elite: the prominent example of Melania the Elder and the three lesser known case studies of Therasia, Amanda and Bassula.

This article compares the deaths of two abbots as told by contemporary observers, and shows how the relationship between these saints and their ascetic communities on the one hand and secular imperial authorities on the other hand would be consolidated in the way people were shown to react to their demise. First, the life and death Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316-397) are analysed through the Vita Martini and the letters by Sulpicius Severus. Against the backdrop of a strenuous relation between Roman imperial interests and a burgeoning Christendom, the author uses Martin’s post-mortem reputation to appropriate the authority of his erstwhile rival, the emperor Maximus. In doing so, an attempt is made to resolve the conundrum of how to be Christian under Roman authority. Then, two different descriptions of the death of Benedict of Aniane (c. 750-821) are presented, one by his hagiographer Ardo, the other a supposed eye-witness account by the monks of Inda. By contrasting these two accounts, it will be shown how different observers dealt with the tensions between personal salvation, imperial reform efforts and monastic idealism that emerged when secular and religious authority converged in the Carolingian era. The juxtaposition of the fifth-century situation with the ninth-century accounts, finally, will highlight how understanding of authority has evolved in the wake of the spread of Christianity - both in the eyes of those in power, and according to those dealing with them in word and deed.

Miközben a tudós aquitaniai aszkéta, Sulpicius Severus 403–404-ben a Toulouse melletti Primuliacum nevű birtokán Krónikáját írta, a latin Nyugatot hatalmas politikai és vallási átalakulás rázta meg. A 4. század utolsó negyedében rómaiak, gótok, hunok és vandálok súlyos katonai harcokat vívtak, melyek nemcsak a Római Birodalom földrajzi
határait, hanem társadalmi és politikai szerkezetét is tartósan megváltoztatták.
VILÁGTÖRTÉNET (2016) 1:87–118

Übersetzung von/Translation of Wieser, Veronika: Die Weltchronik des Sulpicius Severus: Fragmente einer Sprache der Endzeit im ausgehenden 4. Jahrhundert. In: Abendländische Apokalyptik: Kompendium zur Genealogie der Endzeit. Hrsg. v. Wieser, Veronika–Zolles, Christian–Feik, Catherine–Zolles, Martin–Schlöndorff , Leopold. Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2013. 661–693. (Kulturgeschichte der Apokalypse, 1.)

Christian Zolles, Martin Zolles, Veronika Wieser, Einleitung, in: Abendländische Apokalyptik. Kompendium zur Genealogie der Endzeit, ed. Veronika Wieser, Christian Zolles, Catherine Feik, Martin Zolles, Leopold Schlöndorff (Akademie Verlag/De Gruyter 2013)

"My article „Die Weltchronik des Sulpicius Severus. Fragmente einer Sprache der Endzeit im ausgehenden 4. Jahrhundert“ discusses the importance of eschatological ideas within the historiographical concepts in the Late Roman Empire. It reflects how Christian scholars could use the prophecies in the Bible and their exegesis (for instance the apocalyptic peoples Gog and Magog or the concept of the Four World Empires in the Book of Daniel) as a possibility to experiment with their ideas about temporal concepts and to express social change, crises or decline. Military conflicts between Romans and so-called Barbarians, the diversity and disunity of the Christian community accompanied by portentous signs represent the framework in which Christian intellectuals as Augustine or Jerome tried to explain their current situation in historical terms.
To follow these questions my article proposes a context-orientated analysis of a rather unknown world chronicle written by the Aquitanian scholar and ascetic Sulpicius Severus. The author is best known for his biography of Saint Martin of Tours. His breviarium of ecclesiastical history, which was composed between the years 400 to 403, has not been object of much scrutiny and was overshadowed by the works of Jerome and Tyrannius Rufinus. However, in his chronicle Sulpicius Severus announces the approaching end of the world but presents at the same time a vision of the Roman-Christian society that transcends the simple enumeration of apocalyptic destruction and terror. Most of all he attempts to establish a certain degree of historical continuity between the past, the present and the future of the Christian community which is at the same time inextricably connected to his own very local and specific religious context in Aquitaine.

The article is published in: Veronika Wieser, Christian Zolles, Catherine Feik, Martin Zolles, Leopold Schlöndorff (ed.), “Abendländische Apokalyptik. Kompendium einer Genealogie der Endzeit” (Berlin 2013) 661–693
"

„Staat“ im Frühmittelalter ist ein kontroverses Thema. Noch immer gibt es deutliche Unterschiede zwischen Methoden und Forschungsinteressen der verschiedenen europäischen Forschungstraditionen. Ziel dieses Bandes ist es, die nationalen Forschungstraditionen ...