History of Wonder

Recent studies have shown how cycles of illumination provide a "reading" or interpretation of the text; the present piece sets forth the hypothesis that the planner of Ars. 5218 (probably Pieratt dou Tielt) "read" the Queste del saint Graal in the context of church history and in the light of topics of current ecclesiastical debate.

In this paper, I explore how the emotions related to collecting was expressed and reacted to within the scholarly network surrounding Danish collector and academic Ole Worm (1588-1654). Scholarship has focused extensively on the intellectual rationale of collecting in the renaissance. But research has shown that especially two emotions, wonder and curiosity, were central sociocultural component of 17th century collecting practices across Europe, being a cultural denominator that connected individuals in the learned republic. As such we may expect that curiosity and wonder were subject to social regulations, influenced in particular by humanist conceptualizations of decorum which were deeply influential in the learned republic. Examining the emotional vocabulary of Worm and his network in relation to collecting, I will provide an insight into which emotions were expressed, conceptualized, challenged or indeed ignored/silenced within the 17th century community of learned collectors in Europe.

Este libro analiza los viajes comerciales de Marco Polo y las representaciones culturales e imaginarias que se construyen sobre Oriente durante la Edad Media. De forma particular, se estudian los objetos materiales, especias y maravillas, como también las representaciones e imágenes que forja la sociedad occidental, las que impulsan la expansión comercial y desarrollan una visión exótica y maravillosa de las tierras, objetos y recursos de Oriente.

Gyges’ Myth as the Origin of European Identity
Starting from a consideration on European identity and on Europe as a cultural and spiritual entity that requires a constant decisional renewal of the man that identifies himself as European, the present essay is an attempt to rediscover its genesis in the Greek history and culture. Greek ethos, fully established since the birth of philosophy and the crisis of the Persian wars, has its roots in the even more ancient history and myths. Through an analysis of Gyges’ myth, as told by Herodotus and Plato, it is possible to trace back the constitutive elements of Greek experience and its typical vision of the world, which is what rendered it unique and distinguished it from any other culture. In such distinguishment of Greek culture is to be found the true origin of European ethos, which has its own roots in the Greek outlook on reality mostly constituted by a strong sense of wonder. This is clearly shown by the hermeneutics of Gyges’ myth, which can help us regaining consciousness of our identity and to face the problems of the present Europe in order to decide, again and always, in its favour.

Keywords: - Europe  - Gyges  - Herodotus  - Plato  - Wonder


Partendo da una riflessione sull'identità europea e sull'Europa quale entità culturale e spirituale che richiede il costante rinnovarsi della decisione dell'uomo che si riconosce europeo, il presente saggio tenta di riscoprirne la genesi nella storia e nella cultura greca. Affermatosi pienamente a partire dalla nascita della filosofia e dalla crisi rappresentata dalle guerre persiane, l'ethos greco affonda, però, le proprie radici nella storia precedente e nel mito. Analizzando il mito di Gige, per come ci viene narrato da Erodoto e da Platone, si possono rintracciare in esso gli elementi costitutivi dell'esperienza greca e della sua visione del mondo e delle cose che ne hanno fatto un unicum e l'hanno contraddistinta rispetto a quella delle altre civiltà circostanti. Da questa distinzione comincia a generarsi l'ethos europeo di cui possiamo rintracciare l'origine proprio nello sguardo greco sulla realtà carico di meraviglia mostratoci dall'ermeneutica di questo mito che può aiutarci a riprendere coscienza della nostra identità di fronte ai problemi dell'Europa presente e decidere, di nuovo e sempre, in suo favore.

Keywords: - Europa  - Gige  - Erodoto  - Platone  - Meraviglia

El presente estudio analiza la percepción de la naturaleza en el mundo medieval, examinando las perspectivas teológicas, cosmológicas y maravillosas entre los siglos V al XIII. En primer lugar, se realiza un estado de la cuestión acerca del concepto de la natura, abordando las principales definiciones existentes por la historiografía. Posteriormente, se ahonda en los elementos que configuran la percepción de lo natural, ya sea en términos espirituales, cosmológicos y extraordinarios, los cuales se tornan la base de la naturaleza en este período.

The divine status of Moula Abi Abdillah Al Imam al-Husain (as) is beyond imagination due to our limitations of Ma’arif and strength of understanding. The Imam of Ahl al-Bayt (as) is an embodiment of “Al Mawjud al-Awwal” (the First Existent). Likewise, the blessings attached with the Imam also have a divine nature. Turbah – Khak’i Shifa is the gift of Moula al-Husain (as) to his Shias hence they consume it for Shifa from all diseases and even use it for Hifazat from the Afaat (tribulations) and fears of the Duniya and A’akhirah. It is Wajib upon all Mumineen to learn the Ad’ab (manners) to use this sacred gift. The following study opens new vistas of Ma’arif (sacred wisdom) to the seekers of Sacred Literature.

Oggetto del saggio è l’indagine della relazione tra la rappresentazione di creature mostruose nell’Inferno dantesco alla luce del concetto di meraviglia codificato nella ricezione tomista della filosofia aristotelica, in rapporto al peculiare legame che esso intrattiene con la passio del timore. L’obiettivo è quello di dimostrare, attraverso la definizione di un percorso costituito dagli incontri di Dante personaggio con i monstra infernali (Gerione e Lucifero) o mirabilia (la distorsione della figura umana nella pena degli indovini), l’essenziale funzione svolta dall’intreccio di meraviglia e timore all’interno dell’iter penitenziale dantesco.

The main theme of the article is the investigation of the connection between the representation of monstra in Dante’s Inferno in light of the concept of wonder codified in Thomas Aquinas’ reception of the Aristotelian philosophy, in relation to its bond with the passio of fear. The goal is to demonstrate, through the definition of a path made of the meetings of Dante as a character with infernal monstra (Geryon and Satan) or mirabilia (the deformation of soothsayers’ figures), the essential function of the twist of wonder and fear into Dante’s penance itinerary.

A través del presente estudio se explora en los monstruos, rarezas y maravillas del Nuevo Mundo, revisando la visión europea sobre los indígenas patagónicos y fueguinos mediante la cartografía de los siglos XVI y XVII. En primer lugar, se estudian las representaciones e imágenes del mundo americano, analizando el valor de las fuentes visuales como herramientas de trabajo para el estudio histórico. Por otra parte, se revisa la cartografía antigua y medieval y su proyección en el Nuevo Mundo, examinando la construcción imaginaria que se establece acerca del Gigantum Regio y las representaciones e imágenes que se crean del indígena de la Patagonia y Tierra del Fuego, las cuales se asocian a lo extraño, salvaje, mágico y exótico.

in: Nous, Polis, Nomos... (Berlin, Academia Verlag, 2016). I examine the reading given by commentators and critics of the XVIth c. to a few lines of Aristotle’s Poetics (whose princeps is dated 1508), in which the text requires that epic plot should be more marvellous and wonderful than the tragic (1460a11-18). My intention is, first of all, (a) to look at the ecdotic problems in this passage, which was literally (re)invented by the editors and commentators of Aristotle’s Poetics; (b) to analyse the change of the reading analogon into alogon in 1570, and (c) to clarify, on the basis of this reading, the intellectual genealogy of wonder as one of the founding ideas of modern literary theory.

El presente estudio efectúa una revisión al fenómeno de los viajes, analizando su concepto y simbolismo a fines de la Edad Media. La investigación analiza al viajero y los otros, comprendiendo la ambigüedad conceptual que se forja en torno a las otras culturas. Asimismo, se estudia los viajes y lo maravilloso, dando cuenta del carácter sobrenatural que adquiere la realidad y sus criaturas. Por otro lado, se revisa la concepción del espacio, analizando los lugares reales, simbólicos e imaginados en la ruta a Oriente. El estudio considera como fuentes los relatos de viajes de Marco Polo y John Mandeville, como también, algunos bestiarios medievales de los siglos XIII y XIV. Finalmente, se comprende el viaje como una multiplicidad de desplazamientos, creando una nueva actitud e imagen en torno a lo otro y desconocido, dando cuenta de las maravillas del nuevo mundo y, generando a su vez una relación ambigua entre el viajero, el nuevo espacio y sus gentes.

Este artículo analiza el relato de viajes de John Mandeville y su carácter enciclopédico, es decir, de qué manera su narración de viaje se torna un medio de transmisión de conocimiento. En primer lugar, se estudia el concepto de enciclopedia en la Edad Media y las categorías que componen este compendio del saber. Posteriormente, se revisa los principales recursos del relato enciclopédico en la obra de John Mandeville, analizando el catálogo de monstruos y maravillas de Oriente

En el presente estudio abordamos la tradición de las maravillas en las Andanças e viajes de Pero Tafur, un escrito de viajes español redactado durante el siglo XV. En primer lugar, examinamos el concepto de lo maravilloso en la tradición de los relatos de viajes medievales de los siglos XIII al XV, analizando la tipología de las maravillas extraordinarias, mágicas, milagrosas, extrañas y monstruosas. Posteriormente, revisamos la narración de las maravillas en el libro de viajes de Pero Tafur, quien conserva la tradición de los viajeros medievales, las cuales incentivan la curiosidad y el anhelo de conocer nuevas cosas, donde las maravillas asombran por su naturaleza fabulosa, extraordinaria y prodigiosa.

El presente estudio analiza la problemática de la narración en la obra de Guido de Colonne, es decir, el hecho de realizar una crónica de forma verosímil e imparcial sobre los sucesos del pasado, criticando la narración homérica y el conflicto que se genera a partir de los elementos míticos y maravillosos que se introducen en su relato. Asimismo, se examinan las fuentes del tema troyano que componen la Historia Destructionis Troiae, lo que permite a Guido establecer su crítica a Homero y la racionalización de los elementos sobrenaturales. Finalmente, se revisa la aparición de elementos mágicos y maravillosos en la obra, así como su reflejo en la construcción de un nuevo relato basado en la cultura y mentalidad de su época.

This volume unfolds Tacitus’ wonders, paradox, the marvellous and the admirable to scrutiny. Tacitus’ withering reference to those who marvel at matters worthy only of the daily gazette expresses a scepticism that can be regarded as typically Tacitean; nevertheless wonder has an important role to play in his writing, and his narratives are filled with wondrous phenomena. This collection asks whether new approaches to reading Tacitus can accept wonders as an integral part of the narrative, rather than aberrations.

While recent scholarship has advanced the study of wonders in ancient Greek and Roman literatures with special attention to paradoxographers and poets, this volume tackles the problem of how marvels, paradox and wonder challenge readerly credulity in historiography and the adjacent genres in which Tacitus worked. Individual chapters draw on a range of interpretive approaches that mirror the wealth of authorial and reader-specific responses in play. As a result, historical judgement and literary artistry come to be seen as working in concert. 

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/tacitus-wonders-9781350241725/

El presente estudio aborda el concepto de lo milagroso en los libros de viajes a fines de la Edad Media, revisando de manera concreta el caso de las Andanças e viajes de Pero Tafur, un escrito de viajes español redactado durante el siglo XV. Si bien la historiografía reciente sostiene que en la obra de Tafur los eventos sobrenaturales y maravillosos son escasamente utilizados por el viajero, nuestra investigación examina cómo el cuadro de lo milagroso se inserta dentro de la tradición de las maravillas en los relatos de viajes medievales. Los milagros significan lo sobrenatural propiamente cristiano: son eventos inusuales y complejos producidos por el poder divino. En este sentido, Tafur aplica este concepto de lo milagroso en sus andanzas, conservando el recurso de los mirabilia de la tradición narrativa de los viajeros medievales. Es así como la maravilla interviene mediante la presencia divina en el mundo de los hombres, expresando una fuerza sagrada a través de eventos prodigiosos, como también en lugares santos y reliquias virtuosas con las cuales se transmite el poder de Dios.

The questions what an emotion is and how it is generated
can be answered in multiple ways. Usually, the answer
depends on the disciplinary perspective. As was recently
noted by several dominant historians who deal with the history
of emotions, although the biological and psychological
elements of a certain feeling should not be ignored, within
historical research, a focus on social and cultural aspects
of emotion generation seems to be more convincing. In this
article, I address this issue in the context of Ottoman studies
from the perspective of Barbara H. Rosenwein's notion
of “emotional communities.” I consider early modern Ottoman
elite society of Istanbul to be such a community and
demonstrate how several powerful individuals from this
large social group relied on a medieval Islamic theory about
cosmographic “wonder” and encouraged its members to
embrace this emotion into their social and cultural milieus.

El presente estudio aborda el concepto de lo monstruoso en los libros de viajes a fines de la Edad Media, revisando de manera concreta el caso de las Andanças e viajes de Pero Tafur, un escrito de viajes español redactado durante el siglo XV. Si bien la historiografía reciente sostiene que en la obra de Tafur los eventos sobrenaturales y maravillosos son escasamente utilizados por el viajero, nuestra investigación examina cómo el cuadro de lo monstruoso se inserta dentro de la tradición de las maravillas en los relatos de viajes medievales. El concepto de lo monstruoso refleja un desorden dentro de la naturaleza, dando cuenta de una anormalidad corporal o física, o en las actitudes barbáricas y bestiales de las criaturas. Lo monstruoso representa lo bajo y lo perverso, una anomalía que escapa de las formas tradicionales de la naturaleza y que conlleva a lo excesivo y lo grotesco. En este sentido, Tafur aplica este concepto de lo monstruoso en sus andanzas, conservando el recurso de los mirabilia de la tradición narrativa de los viajeros medievales. Es así como el monstruo se manifiesta a través de seres prodigiosos y bestias salvajes, los cuales dan cuenta del carácter extraordinario y sobrenatural. En otras palabras, el monstruo denota elementos explícitos que marcan una diferencia; pero al mismo tiempo, ese otro, constituye aquello que genera sorpresa, estupefacción, terror y maravilla.

In recent years numerous studies have furthered our knowledge of the growth of a consumer market for wondrous spectacles and pseudo-scientific cures in Western Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. This market prospered as a result of the
sustained growth of the public sphere and formed part of a new urban culture, which was fascinated by spectacles of (apparent) modernity. The proliferation of newspapers allowed wondermongers—prestidigitators, conjurors, quacks and magicians etc.—to advertise easily and cheaply and to further pique the curiosity of readers in an age in which the boundaries between science and pseudo-science were still extremely
porous. This article draws on a wealth of advertisements and “curious reports” placed in the Moskovskie vedomosti and Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti newspapers, as well as other primary source material, in order to examine the impact and influence of European wondermongers in Russia in the second half of the eighteenth century. In undertaking such a study we learn about a host of colourful wondermongers who plied
their trade in Russia. Moreover, we are able to examine how the Russian metropolitan elite became consumers of pseudo-scientific cures and spectacles, which, while a less reputable aspect of Enlightenment culture, were extremely popular across Europe.

This book situates Ralph Waldo Emerson in the tradition of philosophy as “spiritual exercise”, arguing that the defining feature of his literary philosophy is the conviction that there is an inherent link between moral persuasion and literary excellence. Hosseini persuasively argues that the Emersonian project can be viewed as an extension of Socrates’ call for a return to the beginning of philosophy, to search for a way of revolutionizing our ways of seeing from within. Examining Emerson’s provocative style of writing, Hosseini contends that his prose is shaped by a desire to bring about psychagogia, or influencing the soul through the power of words.

This book furthermore examines the evolving nature of Emerson’s thoughts on “scholarly action” and its implications, his religious temperament as an aesthetic experience of the world through wonder, and the reasons for a resounding acknowledgment of despair in his essay “Experience.”  In the concluding chapter, Hosseini explores the depth of Emerson’s engagement with the classical Persian poets and argues that what we may call his “literary humanism” is informed by Persian Adab, exemplified in the writings of Rumi, Hafiz, and Saadi. Weaving together themes from Persian philosophy and Emersonian transcendentalism, Hosseini establishes Emerson’s way of seeing as refreshingly relevant, showing that the questions he tackled in his writings are as pressing today as they were in his time.

Wonder's affective neutrality and perceptive firstness have led to its connotation with innocence and naïveté. This paper challenges the perception that wonder is a value-free stimulus. Instead, it explores wonder's potential to unveil, expose and denude-thus playing on the difference between norm and exception. Wonder's history is loaded with othering's cruelty, the spectacularization of difference, and the libidinous entanglement of voyeurism, leading to the question, to what extent wonder is comprised of guilt? Subsequently , this paper supplements the notion of guilt with a differentiated account of indebtedness , following the hypothesis that wonder can also be conceptualized as a politically mobilizing affect if taken seriously.

How are the allure of truth, and the problem of attaining knowledge, dealt with in Emily Dickinson's verse?  Continually at issue for her are the limits and possibilities of knowing the nature of the surrounding world, including the minds of others.  Many of her poems give voice to such epistemic emotions as wonder, frustration, the feeling of illumination, and skeptical hesitancy regarding knowledge claims.  I focus here on moments in her poetry that move the speaker, perhaps Dickinson herself, toward either a resolution or an intensification of doubt.

A lo largo de la historia, la cartografía medieval ha llamado la atención de sus espectadores, por la particularidad que muestran dichos mapas al representar nuestro mundo. Esta investigación busca analizar los mappaemundi de Hereford, Westminster y Ebstorf, los cuales serán entendidos como una representación artística de la época y no como una expresión de las rutas que debían seguir los viajeros medievales. Dichas representaciones tuvieron como objetivo, expresar la cosmovisión cristiana de la sociedad, a partir de los elementos, colores y símbolos artísticos utilizados en ellos, permitiéndonos acercarnos a la visión de vida cristiana de la Alta Edad Media.

Ich staune darüber, dass Benjamin schon vor achtzig Jahren das Staunen kritisierte, welches Menschen dem Faschismus entgegenbrachten und das sich heute wiederholt: Ich staune über das Ansteigen der Zahl antisemitisch und rassistisch motivierter Übergriffe. Das Staunen, das sich auf den Faschismus richtet, entblößt nach Benjamin nicht den Faschismus, sondern eine »Vorstellung von Geschichte« (Benjamin 1980: 697), die ›Fortschritt‹ als normal und Faschismus als zu bestaunende Regression setzt: Es legt die Vorannahmen der staunenden Person über die Welt offen, auf Grundlage derer zwischen Normalzustand und Aus-nahme unterschieden wird. Die Entblößung, die ich angesichts Benjamins Gedanken zum Staunen spüre, richtet sich auf mein eigenes Staunen, aber auch auf den Begriff des Staunens selbst. Diese Erfahrung ist Ausgangspunkt dieses Textes, der sich dem Staunen dort widmet, wo es sich mit dem Potential überschneidet, offenzulegen, bloßzustellen, zu enthüllen – und somit Elemente von Gewalt und Verletzlichkeit umschließt.