Immaculate Conception

El artículo presenta una pieza musical compuesta para la Inmaculada Virgen María, bajo la advocación "Virgen de los Lirios" que se venera en la Font Roja de Alcoi. Se trata de la "sabatina" con letra de Juan Mª Abad Carbonell (Alcoi, 1871 – 1936) y música de Jorge Mira Carbonell (Alcoi, 1864 – 1921).

Agradecimiento: A Rafael Rufino, Mn. Vicent Balaguer, Javier Abad, Alfonso Marco, Asun Sotillos de l'Arzobisbado de València y al personal del Archivo Municipal de Alcoi.

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The article presents a musical piece composed for the Immaculate Virgin Mary, that venerates in the Font Roja of Alcoy (Alicante - Spain) under the title "Virgen de los Lirios" ("Our Lady of the Lilies"). This musical work is about the "saturday office" of the Blessed Virgin Mary with lyrics by F. Juan Maria Abad Carbonell (Alcoi, 1871-1936) and music by Jorge Mira Carbonell (Alcoy, 1864 - 1921).

Taken from my recent book “The De-Judaization of the Image of Jesus of Nazareth (the Virgin Mary) at the Time of the Holocaust: Ensoulment and the Human Ovum” (Thomas Blüger, Xlibris 2021). This paper follows the image of the Virgin Mary in relationship to the Jewish people from the early beginnings of Christianity till just before the papal encyclical on Mary Ineffabilis Deus in 1854.

A semi-popular look at the often talked about, but less often directly considered importance of key Anselmian insights and structures employed by Scotus in the latter's articulation and defense of the greater fittingness of Mary's Immaculate Conception.

In The Theologian of Auschwitz, Peter Damian Fehlner establishes the historical and theological context of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe’s stupendous insights into the theology of the Church in its deepest Pneumatological and Marian dimensions. Fehlner draws out the implications of Kolbe’s thought and spirituality, showing Kolbe’s dependence upon and development of the broader Catholic and Franciscan tradition, especially St. Francis, St. Bonaventure, and Bl. John Duns Scotus. At the heart of Fehlner’s argument is Kolbe’s outline for a never-completed text on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. Based upon his comprehensive knowledge of Kolbe’s writings as well as his deep knowledge of Francis, Bonaventure, and Scotus, Fehlner presents Kolbe as a genuine theologian with insights and riches to offer the Franciscan Order as well as the entire Church and the world. For Fehlner, the absolute priority of Jesus Christ essentially conjoined with his Immaculate Mother, so much emphasized by Kolbe, must not only be believed but actually lived in the context of both the Church’s inner dimension as well as in its evangelical mission to the nations. Only through fully incorporating the mode of life of Christ the King and the Immaculate Queenship of Mary will the New Evangelization and ecclesial renewal, so desired and emphasized by the Second Vatican Council and each of the popes following the council, be realized.

This article presents the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the cognitive error made by Helena P. Blavatsky concerning this dogma. Blavatsky ascribed the term “Immaculate Conception” to the content of one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith, which is the Incarnation of the Lord. An additional mistake in connection with this error was the observation that it was only in the middle of the 19th century that the Church elevated this truth to the rank of dogma. The confusion of the conception of the Mother with the Incarnation of the Son, and the association of the latter with the term “Immaculate Conception” gave rise to further difficulties, when the new verse of the Litany of Loretto pointed to Mary as “immaculately conceived.” The doubled cognitive problem that H. P. Blavatsky had to face because of this led her to announce further fantastic theories about the Immaculate Conception, which were not challenged by anyone for the next 150 years. Her grave cognitive error is now widespread and responsible for the functioning in contemporary Western culture of popular expressions such as the “Immaculate Conception of Christ,” where the “immaculateness” of the conception means the absence of sexual intercourse leading to the conception of a child. As a result of the widespread use of expressions of this type the authentic content of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary remains unknown to many people. In the article, this issue is presented based on the sources, which testify to the agency of H. P. Blavatsky as regards the spread of this cognitive error in the Western culture.

The essay analyzes the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception by stressing its peculiar character, which is based on a strong emotional experience and perception of the Marian cult rather than on a rational interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. After presenting an overview of the iconography of the Immaculate Conception from the 15th- to the 18th- century, the essay discusses the possible relationship existing between the most famous modern apparitions of the Virgin Mary (Paris 1830, Lourdes 1858) and the design of the European flag, which was conceived in the 1950s.

This work offers a theoretically informed analysis of the characterization of maternity in religion using a spatial lens. The maternal body as a space is used as an analytical framework to discuss how Mary’s pregnancy is located and spatialized in Christianity. Through examining selected medieval Marian iconography, this work discusses what kind of space Mary’s body represents in the Christian doctrine. Analysis shows three central themes on the characterization of the maternal body as a space: (1) as a transitional space, (2) as a landmark, and (3) as a liminal space. The images of Marian pregnancy show that the maternal body is beyond its biological purpose in the Bible, but serves as a space that enables various interactions and spiritual events. The examination of Mary’s maternal body as a space offers an alternative perspective to discuss Mary’s character as a point of interface for Christian doctrines, biblical periods, and the Scriptures. In many ways, understanding Mary’s ma...

In this paper we link Carl Jung's study of Marian devotion throughout the centuries to Marian devotion at the time of Shoah. Here I investigate an unfortunate, and centuries-old-what can best be described as form of-spiritual myopia, not only on the part of Carl Jung, but also on the part of the Catholic faithful, and indeed the entirety of Western civilization. By focusing on Jung show that the natural propensity for venerating aspects of the "famine" through Catholic devotion was a powerful form of active imagination but also had its dark side. He we illustrate that throughout Christian history, devotion to the Virgin Mary inadvertently led to the de-Judaization of her image in people's religious imaginations. By the time of the Shoah-and against the backdrop of Nazi racial ideology-we witness a well-established and age-old psychic "split" in the European religious imagination-between Mary the Jew, and Mary the sinless virgin. Although the Catholic Church has always maintained that Mary was a Jew; what happened at the time of the Shoah tells a different story. By utilizing Jung's research, we conclude that Marian devotion is not something to be rejected, but rather recalibrated. Although Marian devotion has always been viewed as bringing a healthy feminine balance to a war-torn, male-dominated and animus driven world, on another, we see that at the time of the Shoah Marian imagery was utilized in a problematic fashion to protect the Catholic Church against Nazi racial attacks on the Hebrew Scriptures-a matter of survival. It is unfortunate that Jung became ensnared through a similar myopic understanding of separating the sinless Virgin Mary (an anima figure) from her Jewish identity.1

This inquiry exhausts the Mariological description of St. Gregory Nazianzen, who designates Mary as “prokathartheisa (prepurified).” Gregory likely attempted to solve the riddle of the Purification of Jesus and Mary in the Temple.

Nazianzen's theology is traced to the Palamite Mariological movement. Surprisingly, the Palamite Mariologists gradually applied the term "prepurified" to each image of Mary as she was celebrated in the liturgical calendar. Each celebration from Conception until her First Witness of the Resurrection and Pentecost was a moment of "grace and glory" or prepurification.

I track this title from the 6th Ecumenical Council, Liturgy (e.g. Synodikon of Orthodoxy), and Fathers (e.g., St. Sophronius and St. John Damascene).

Next, Palamas' theological notions of  Marian (pre)purification are uncovered as the solid basis of Mary's privileged status in Palamite theology (e.g., Theophanes, Bryennius, Cabasilas, Mark of Ephesus). Palamism's patristic exegesis manifests an uninterrupted and consistent theological tradition and a steady metaphysical foundation for Mary's absolutely immaculate existence in every single patristic and Palamite author known to use the term. This is due to Mary's ineffable place in divine thought. After providing indications of Nicholas Cabasilas' arguments against Thomistic rejection of the Byzantine doctrine of the prokathartheisa, Byzantine Mariology culminates in the “Pillar of Orthodoxy,” (St.) Mark Eugenicus (1392-1444/5), the last great representative of this unique Byzantine Mariology before the fall of Constantinople.

Mark´s theological constitutes the climactic synthesis of Mary's privileges as προκαθαρθεῖσα (praepurgata) in his apologetic treatise: On the Distinction between Essence and Energy: First Antirrhetic against Manuel Kalekas (c. 1437).

Mark was the unique Father of the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1439) in a position to meet alleged patristic objections to the Immaculate Conception of Latin “maculist” theologians prior to Mark’s arrival in Italy. These Latin debates spilled over into the Byzantine camp during the Council. Byzantines were generally aloof to physico-theological theories of Mary's conception, yet agreed on her unique predestination from the first moment of her divine-mental and natural existence, stemming from her  exalted place among the contingent thoughts within of divine mind. Relying on Palamas, Palamites explicitly linked "prepurification" with the Byzantine liturgical calendar with respect to feasts of the Theotokos, prior to the Incarnation.

Conversely, Latin Scholastics universally erred in their 12-15th century interpretation of Damascene’s designation of Mary as “(pre)purified” at the Annunciation and their "low" Mariologies followed due course. Palamites universally reverenced the prepurified, ergo absolutely immaculate Mary.

I conclude by synthesizing the web of complementarity amid the “prepurified” Virgin, the Ephesine’s Mariology, Franciscan Mariological 14th-15th century parallels, and avenues of development for immaculist theologians who adopt the metaphysical implications of the Theotokos. Scotistic and Palamite metaphysics too verge at a common point of departure with respect to St. Maximus Confessor (in divine psychology and the theology of the Incarnation) to explain the Marian parallel."

This paper is primarily an investigation into the unknown history of tension caused by Greek and Latin N. African doctrines of the sexual transmission of original sin in utero. This tension was felt first by Augustine in the 4th century in respect to Mary. The culmination of irreconcilable doctrines of sexually based original sin and Mary's all-holiness required explicit theological reflection and response by the invention of the feast of the Conception of St. Ann.

This paper attempts a tour de force of Greek harmarteology of original sin in play with Mary's all-holiness in the tradition of Gregory Nazianzen. I meticulously catalogue the use of prepurification and by Augustine of Hippo, Leo the Great, John Cassian, Ephraim the Syrian, Sophronius of Jerusalem, Maximus Confessor,  Theodore of Canterbury, Venerable Bede, Paschasius Radbertus and Ildephonse of Toledo.

The narrative tells the story of the tension between N. African concepts of original sin and Mary's all-holiness. the drama intensifies at Maximus' Lateran 649 and its dispersal into Latindom. At the onset of the feast of the conception of Mary in Anna's womb, both Greeks (Damascene) and Latins (Paschasius Radbertus) were forced to apply some kind of theory to justify Mary's all-holiness (prepurification) in the face of N. African theology´s sexually transmitted original sin.

A decisive contribution to the theological dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, this book employs philosophy (especially contemporary continental philosophy and in particularly phenomenology) in revisiting some age-old issues of contention between East and West such as the immaculate conception of Mary, the procession of the Holy Spirit (filioque), and Petrine primacy. This last issue is appended with a discussion of primacy within the Orthodox Church and a reading of the key ecumenical document of the Second Vatican Council (Unitatis Redintegratio).

The essay summarizes the most important results of the last sixty years of research on the iconography of the Immaculate Conception, arguing that two crucial aspects have become progressively clearer, namely the issues of " invention " and " caution. " As for " invention " , the two liturgical offices which Pope Sixtus IV assigned to the feast of December 8 th have been identified as the main source of inspiration for most representations of the Immaculate Conception in Italian Renaissance art. " Caution " , on the other hand, refers to the need for prudent propaganda felt by the supporters of the Immaculate Conception, especially by those living in major centers, where ecclesiastical authorities might easily have reported any form of excessive immaculist propaganda to the Inquisition. The essay argues that the altarpieces painted by Bernardo Zenale for two Francis-can churches, one in Cantù (1502), the other in Milan (1510), well represent the issues of " invention " and " caution. First, both paintings visualize concepts and figures that the liturgical office by Bernardino de' Bustis, a Milanese Franciscan, had made quite popular, particularly in Lombardy and Milan. Second, most of the concepts and figures here visualized do not refer to Mary's exemption from Original Sin in an obvious way: on the contrary, they require some decoding. This is especially true for Zenale's altarpiece for San Francesco Grande in Milan, which is highly cryptic, confirming that the need for cautious propaganda must have been stronger in Milan than in peripheral Cantù.

This article outlines the implications of the Thomistic understanding of predestination for Mariology, providing for a robust understanding of her grace and the great intimacy between Mary and Christ. It is, I think, a speculative treatment with spiritual implications. The work argues along lines espoused by St. Thomas and St. Augustine (and developed by the Thomistic commentators, especially Garrigou-Lagrange who plays prominently herein) that it is Mary’s divine maternity which is the source and cause of her plentitude of grace. Her free cooperation with God’s grace effects a most fitting mother, not just of Christ’s human nature, but a mother of the unified Person of Jesus Christ.

"About the archbishop Rinaldo Graziani OFM and the iconography of the Immaculate Conception in Romagna. A patron for the two Zaganelli, between disputes and reforms of his time".

The contribute delineates the figure of the franciscan theologian Rinaldo Graziani (Archbishop of Ragusa, now Dubrovnik) as the promoter of heated debate regarding Immaculate Conception in Romagna, widespread through many altarpieces. Infact the most ancient altarpiece, painted by Francesco and Bernardino Zaganelli, shows the high mystical content within the pages of the first books printed dear to the order. Graziani was elected general minister under Pope Julius II, a spiritual reformer close to the well-known Cardinal Grimani. This can justify the preference of Order for Cotignola' s artists as well as certain  nordic peculiarities of theirs.

Il contributo delinea la figura del teologo francescano Rinaldo Graziani (Arcivescovo di Ragusa, l'attuale Dubrovnik) quale promotore dell'acceso dibattito immacolista in Romagna, diffuso attraverso le pale d'altare. Ne emerge che la più antica pala, di Francesco e Bernardino Zaganelli, trova spiegazione dell'alto contenuto mistico fra le pagine dei primi libri a stampa cari all'Ordine. Il Graziani, eletto ministro generale sotto il pontificato di Giulio II, riformista spiritualmente vicino al noto cardinale veneziano Domenico Grimani, può giustificare anche la preferenza dell'Ordine per i pittori di Cotignola e certe loro peculiarità di matrice nordica.

This section: “Ensoulment throughout the Ages,”  examines some of the theological realities, which lay behind the dogma on Mary’s Immaculate Conception as it was related to the concept of “ensoulment” as well as the “how” and “why” this new Marian dogma came to be proclaimed at this particular time in history. To further explain I begin by recounting how in 1876, shortly after the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 a noted biologist by the name of St. George Mivart published his book The Genesis of Species showing there to be no apparent contradiction between Darwin’s writings and Catholic teaching. Catholic scholars complained to Rome. Surprisingly, Pius IX awarded Mivart a doctoral hat in philosophy.7
chapter 18–22 outlines how the concept of ensoulment developed throughout the centuries starting with Aristotle (384–322 BCE) and his hypothesis of delayed animation as advanced in his theory of three types of souls. Aristotle discerned that human embryonic development came through a secession of souls. First, the vegetative soul followed by the animal soul and finally the rational soul. The third or rational soul was believed to come into existence roughly forty days for a male and eighty to ninety days for a female, after the time of conception. For Aristotle, ensoulment did not happen until the third or rational soul manifested—hence, his theory of delayed (or mediate) animation. From here, we follow Aristotle’s concept of delayed animation into Christianity by way of the Greek Septuagint Bible and later legislations beginning in 380 CE—the time when Christianity became the state religion. Chapter 19 follows Augustine and others, showing how the church wrestled with the concept of ensoulment and how it came to be linked with original sin and the ensoulment of the Blessed Virgin Mary—central to this presentation.
Chapter 20 brings us to a shipwreck in the eleventh century when a fellow by the name of Constantinus Africanus salvaged and later translated medical texts from Arabic into Latin. Through Africanus’s translations, the concept of delayed animation was appropriated anew for Western civilization. From here, we follow Aristotle’s concept of delayed animation through the writings of Saint Albertus, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, the Council of Basel (1493), the Council of Trent (1545–1563 CE), up until the time of Benedict XIV.
Chapter 21 introduces and reviews various discoveries in the field of the embryological sciences beginning with William C. Harvey and his publication of De generationer animalism in 1651, at which time he postulated the reality of a mammalian ovule. One hundred and seventy-six years later, in 1827, Karl Ernst von Baer actually discovers what Harvey predicted—the human ovule. With von Baer’s discovery came a profound paradigm shift in Western civilization. Twenty-seven years later, in 1854, the document Ineffabilis Deus is promulgated by Pius IX. With von Baer’s discovery—after more than fourteen hundred years of theological speculation—church authorities feel sufficiently confident in their new scientifically based knowledge to abandon (or, better put, to update) Aristotle’s theory of delayed animation. Chapter 22 illustrates the effects of von Baer’s discovery on Catholic theology. Here we convey to you the reader that delayed animation, as it had always been speculatively applied to the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (not Jesus), was, for the first time in human history, rejected in the document Ineffabilis Deus. Mary’s ensoulment is defined as happening at the “first instance”—of her conception—immediate animation. Part 3, chapter 23 considers our third trajectory as outlined in the document Apostolical Sedis written in 1869—dealing with specific laws and censures.
Chapter 24 addresses the effects of von Baer’s discovery on Catholic thinking. The Dominican priest Cletus Wessels recounts that with the discovery of the human ovum in 1827, all the old understandings about human fertility based upon the physiology of the ancients was displaced.8 This marked a shift in consciousness not only in Catholic teaching but for Western civilization as well. Women were suddenly and newly perceived as equal contributors in the genetic and biological makeup of their children. No more were they to be understood as simply “supplying the nurturing force” or as living “receptacles” for their offspring. They are now seen as full and equal partners in contributing to the biological makeup of their offspring. The whole worldview of male-female relations was forever changed. The pernicious animus-driven ideology of a war-torn Europe must now reconfigure itself to accommodate the fact that women should have equal partnership in the realities that affected their lives. This did not happen. Why? The male-centered European culture could not integrate the significance of von Baer’s discovery. These matters remained repressed.
Shortly after von Baer’s discovery in 1854 came the papal encyclical Ineffabilis Deus—on Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Millions of Catholics throughout the world intensify their devotion to Mary while, on a psychological level, they collectively elevate the feminine principle.  Although Catholics had always offered devotion through the intercession of Mary, Marian devotion intensified and increased exponentially for the next hundred years, and beyond. It would seem that intuitively, Roman Catholics “grasped” the importance of the document Ineffabilis Deus on levels other than intellectual.
Looking at how Ineffabilis Deus supported the science behind von Baer’s discovery, we come to a deeper understanding of Pius IX’s actions, when in 1847 he reinstated the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which had its roots in the Academy of the Lynxes (Accademia die Lance), founded in Rome in 1603, now named the “Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes.”9 Also was Pius’s excommunication of the priest Jakob Frodsham in 1857, who wrote On the Generation of Human Souls, published in 1854, which contradicted Ineffabilis Deus—covered below.10

This proof will soon be published with the following arguments:
Brand-new discoveries on the Immaculate Conception:
(1.) The systematic defense thereof in Augustinian metaphor by Palamas and the Byzantine notion of prepurification.
(2.) The wholesale adoption of of Augustine's ideas of original sin in Palamism, from in utero "liability" for Adam's Sin to original sin as an infection perpetuated by reproduction.
(3.) Suggestions that Augustine is opposite in mentality to the current readings in academic literature:
    (a.) Augustine never used/implied fetal guilt, though he looked at the fetus as meriting a certain "legal" and civil disadvantage parallel to a "reatus" who is under trial to be declared guilty under Roman Law.
    (b.) Augustine was received in the patristic tradition as if he carried on Ambrose's implications of "fetal guilt" (= Roman law's legal sentence of personal responsibility under the law).
    (c.) Only the Greek translation of Augustine by Planudes in the 1200s introduced "guilt" into Augustine's language. This imitated the "guilty" reception of Augustine in the West (Leo I) -perhaps not as legally savvy as the doctor gratiae?
(4.) Nicholas Cabasilas is caught citing in Greek the maculist S.Th. III.27.3. He explicitly turned the arguments on their head and argued opposite conclusion via Aquinas' same premises stemming from prepurification (Damascene, De fid. Orthod., III.2) and Ps.-Dionysian (bk. VI) purification of angels by knowledge.
(5.) If Scholarius  outlined his approach to arguments in a scotistic modality, he only used the (Greek) language and metaphors of Augustine and Aquinas (graecus & graecus) to propose a prepurified-thomistic solution to the immaculate conception and against her infection with "fetal guilt" by synthesizing Damascene, Palamas, Cabasilas, Symeon of Thessalonica, & Macarius Makres with their own sources of Augustine and (in some cases) Aquinas

Durante il XVI secolo, le chiese di Santa Lucia e della Purissima, nella città di Cagliari – legate a due nuove comunità claustrali femminili francescane - furono oggetto di riformulazione architettonica. Ebbero ruolo nelle iniziative due importanti famiglie di origine aragonese: i Ram e i Ruecas. Si propone l’ipotesi che proprio attraverso l’elemento aragonese si sia diffusa in Sardegna la tipologia di volte tardogotiche a cinque chiavi, adottata per la prima volta a Santa Lucia; veicolando nel contempo – attraverso l’impulso datone dalle suore della Purissima e le unioni matrimoniali fra famiglie dell’oligarchia cittadina - la devozione per l’Immacolata Concezione.

During the 16th century, the churches of St. Lucia and of the Purissima, in the city of Cagliari - linked to two new communities of franciscan female monasteries - were object to architectonic reformulation. Two important families, originally from the Aragon, had role in the initiatives: the Ram and the Ruecas. Hypothetically, through the aragonese people, it is diffused in Sardinia the type of tardogotiche vaults with five keystones, adopted for the first time in St. Lucia; promoting, at the same time – through the devotion from the nuns of the Purissima and the marriages between families, which were part of the oligarchy of the city – the cult of the Immaculate Conception.

This elaboration has been describing the development of Mariology since the Catholic Catechism Of Trident until the Catechism Of The Catholic Church, in the aspect of the Eve-Mary antithesis. The time between the two Catechisms – since 1566 until 1992 –characterizes the direct development of Mariology.
In CCT, we read repeatedly about the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God`s Son. She was named the most holy, virgin, full of the grace, advocate, also the Second Eve. We do not find however, in this source, the individual mariology treaty. CCT has given the passage about the Eve-Mary antithesis. The personage of the faithful Blessed Virgin was opposed to the unfaithful Eve. The Blessed Virgin was called the Mother of Jesus the Redeemer of people. Hence, she was contrasted with the first mother who made motherhood with relation to sinners. Above these points, the Blessed Virgin was demonstrated on the basis of the comparison with Eve.
Indirect sources between CCT and CCC have indicated the development of the mariology problems, until the rising of the separate treaty of the dogmatic theology, has been called Mariology. In this range, the history of Marian dogmas, has noted the development of the Eve-Mary antithesis . The Church`s teaching has been remembering the Early Christian sources and commenting on the Protoevangelium. This permitted us to deepen the understanding of the meaning of the Blessed Virgin as the New Eve.
A novelty of the intercatechismal theology is a showing of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin announced in Genesis 3:15. The development of the Eve-Mary antithesis has also embraced the dimension of the spiritual motherhood of God`s Mother and the accompaniment to Jesus, during His Messianic activity. The Blessed Virgin, the New Eve, was depicted in each theological source, since CCT until CCC, as a holder of all moral and religious virtues, and beneficiary of the greatest glory which can approach the creation.
CCC has clearly called the Blessed Virgin the New Eve and the Comrade of the Saviour. She was the Mother of all the redeemed. She approached the glories of heaven as the first among the saved. In CCC has appeared a new typology. The Church`s teaching has connected the whole Church with the person of the Blessed Virgin, for the reason of no defect and no wrinkle, but the whole saint (cf. the Ephah 5:27, CCC 773). In this meaning, the Blessed Virgin is not only the New Eve, but also the New Woman and the New Creation which wholly and voluntarily entrusts to God.

L’iconografia dell’Assunzione della Madonna con il sepolcro vuoto, attorniato dagli apostoli increduli, conosce un grande favore fra la fine del Quattrocento e l’inizio del Cinquecento, nell’ambito della controversia sull’Immacolata Concezione, e del rinnovato fervore di studi su Giovanni Damasceno. Nei suoi Sermones in dormitionem Mariae più volte il Damasceno si sofferma sulla sacralità della tomba della Madonna, ripiena di fiorite grazie che le sacre spoglie vi hanno lasciato, e che saranno dispensate a chiunque vi si accosterà con fede. È lo stesso sarcofago, interrogato sulla sparizione del corpo, a rispondere che la Vergine Maria è stata assunta in cielo, rendendo santo come un tempio l’avello che l’aveva contenuta. Lo stesso Giovanni Damasceno aveva legato indissolubilmente l’Assunzione della Vergine con la sua immacolatezza dal peccato originale: Assumpta quia Immacolata. Nel momento della vittoria immacolista,  ci si accorse anche delle grandi potenzialità del sepolcro vuoto chiamato a collegare insieme la raffigurazione dell’Assunta con quella dell’Immacolata. A partire dalla Pala Oddi, questo tema sarà uno dei favoriti di Raffaello e della sua scuola, soprattutto Giulio Romano.

This book deals with aspects of Marian iconography related to the topic of virginity. In discussing familiar subjects like the Annunciation, the Marriage (or Betrothal) of the Virgin, the Birth of Christ, the Immaculate Conception, the Madonna del Parto and Maria Lactans, the book pays particular attention to the aspects that not only help recount the stories of the Gospels but also emphasise specific points of view regarding Mary’s perpetual virginity. Medieval man often sought concrete explanations to mysteries of faith like the Virgin Birth. For example, some people thought that Mary could maintain her intactness by conceiving and become pregnant through her ear. When ecclesiastical authorities declared that Mary, like Jesus, was born without sin, there was widespread conjecture, including among painters, about how this had occurred.

The book discusses works of European art from the Paleochristian period to the Counter-Reformation, with particular emphasis on the period between the mid-12th century and the end of the 14th century. The book focuses on how ideas about Mary’s virginity were expressed through the representation of scenes from the Gospels or, indirectly, through allegories like the Hortus conclusus or the Porta caeli. The book seeks to delineate the processes of cultural change behind the imagery, with special focus on periods of rapid cultural change, like that of the 12th century. During this time, metaphors associated with Mary’s sexual and marital status became laden with new connotations that altered their original meaning, shifting the attention away from the virtue of abstinence toward ‘intactness’ and virginity as values in themselves.

This essay will examine the decorations of the Niccolini chapel in the church of Santa Croce in Florence in its iconographic complexity, that had already been examined by critics in relation to the historical and formal aspects of the sculptures of Pietro Francavilla and the paintings by Alessandro Allori and Volterrano.

Francis Mayronis (d.1328) was the first theologian of the schools to employ systematically Roman law to exegete the Old and New Testaments (re, De verbo incarnato) by recourse to the Corpus iuris civilis and other sources. His exegesis, guided by patristic use of Roman law (e..g, Origen [through Bonaventure], Augustine) is surprisingly valid even vis-à-vis contemporary exegesis for uncovering Roman institutions absorbed into Paul of Tarsus's texts and in other parts of the New Testament. While Jerome's "legalization" of certain biblical passages led to an exaggeration of Roman-ness of certain Old and New Testament passages, this does not negate the intrinsic value of both contextualizing and interpreting Paul through Roman juristic science. Mayronis used this insight to sometimes -if not always- provide the best available readings of Paul even in comparison with contemporary attempts to understand the Pauline corpus.

Il saggio analizza -- per la prima volta in modo sistematico -- l'iconografia mariana nell'opera di Piero di Cosimo. Questo artista, già celebre per le sue originalissime invenzioni rispetto ai temi profani, risulta essersi distinto anche nel modo di interpretare la figura della Vergine Maria, per la quale Piero scelse, con notevole coerenza in tutta la sua carriera, fisionomie e tipi di abbigliamento eccezionalmente modesti rispetto alle raffigurazioni contemporanee (Botticelli, Filippino ecc.). Nel saggio si propone di leggere queste scelte alla luce della personalità di Piero, così come essa emerge dalla biografia vasariana: un uomo senza dubbio solitario e poco convenzionale, eppure profondamente devoto. Nel saggio si sostiene che tale devozione seppe anche tradursi per l'artista in una profonda comprensione delle immagini sacre che gli venivano commissionate. Una comprensione che permise a Piero di Cosimo di inventare soggetti nuovi in quanto sorprendentemente al passo col dibattito teologico contemporaneo: è questo il caso dell'originalissima pala, oggi nota come '"Incarnazione e Santi" (Firenze, Uffizi), eseguita da Piero per la Santissima Annunziata di Firenze verso il 1500.

In this article, we propose an Iconographical analysis of two collections: the Chapel of Our Lady of Conception, in the Saint Francis´ Convent Church of Oporto (1718) and the Series of the Alabado in the Purification´s Convent Church of Santa Fe de Bogotá (1673). Through this study, we intend to demonstrate that the devotion to Mary in general and to the Immaculate Conception in particular which the Franciscan Order professes in its writings and interventions has its equivalent in the works that, within the dynamics of the Counter-Reformation, the Order promotes for its convents and churches. Therefore, these works have a clear didactic aim related to religious instruction and, furthermore, their content is applicable to all the territories dependent on the Roman Catholic Church. The demonstration of this premise justifies the choice of the two collections: a chapel that belongs to the Portuguese World and with an on purpose programme, and a pictorial series from the Spanish World based on five engravings -that now we release- taken from a book printed in Antwerp

ABSTRACT
Sigillography as the science of seals, is one of the auxiliary sciences of history, refers to the study of seals which is the focal point of this study. Due to concrete information written on seals, it provides precious and undeniable contributions not only archaeologists and historians, but also sociologists and anthropologists, as in numismatic matters. Furthermore, despite the fact that a coin has been extensively minted so many times and in numismatic science, seals are much more rare and therefore valuable, due to; in the personal case they are single and unique and in institutional terms they are very limited carved due to time.
This fifteenth minutes long lecture was delivered by M. İskender Targaç, on July 7th 2018, in the ‘’Fourth Symposium on Health History and Museology’’ which has been arranged by the ‘’Health History and Museology Association’’ as a part of the nine days long ‘’19th Merkezefendi Traditional Medicine Festival’’ of Zeytinburnu Municipality.
The presentation’s content has four parts. The part one is covering the details of Erzurum Mareşal Çakmak Military Hospital, before being transferred to the Ministry of Health, it was the largest regional military hospital in eastern Anatolia and was established in Erzurum's Yenişehir district, starting to operate in Yoncalı Kışla (Barracks) in 1875. Part two contains the concrete information on the İstanbul American Hospital which was founded by American Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol on August 20th, 1920. Part three, is covering the İstanbul Italian Hospital which was inaugurated on May 12th, 1876 by the Immaculate Conception nuns of the Ivrea, who were sent by the Italian Government to Istanbul during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz. In part four; Hamidiye (Şişli) Etfal Hospital is taking place as the first children hospital of Turkey, which is known to be established based on the February 16th, 1898 dated decree of Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II (1842 – 1918), as a response to the death of Sultan’s small daughter Hatice Sultan who suffered from diphtheria.
In this humble work, I would like to particularly emphasized and gave the information on what those unpublished seals’ lights reflected to us which also resulted to correct some historical mistakes.

Sigilografi  – Tıp İlişkisinin Bazı Önemli Örnekleri - 2: Erzurum Mareşal Çakmak Asker Hastanesi, İstanbul Amerikan Hastanesi, İstanbul İtalyan Hastanesi ve Hamidiye (Şişli) Etfal Hastanesi

ÖZET
Çalışmamın odak noktasını oluşturan Sigilografi, mühür bilimi olarak aynen nümismatik konularda olduğu gibi, üzerlerinde yazan somut bilgiler nedeni ile arkeolog ve tarihçilere olduğu kadar, sosyolog ve antropologlara da son derece kıymetli ve yadsınamaz katkılar sağlar. Buna ilaveten, numismatik biliminde bir sikkenin son derece fazla darb edilmesine karşın, mühürler kişisel bazda tek ve ünik, kurumsal bazda ise zamana bağlı olarak çok sınırlı sayıda olmaları nedeni ile, çok daha nadir olup dolayısıyla da o denli de değerlidirler.
Bu onbeş dakikalık konferans, 07 Temmuz 2018'de M. İskender Targaç tarafından Zeytinburnu Belediyesi'nin gerçekleştirdiği dokuz gün süreli ''19. Merkezefendi Geleneksel Tıp Festivali''nin bir bölümünü oluşturmak üzere, Sağlık Tarihi ve Müzeciliği Derneği’nce düzenlenen ''Dördüncü Sağlık Tarihi ve Müzeciliği Sempozyumu'' kapsamında yer aldı.
Sunum içeriğinin dört bölümünden birinci bölüm, Sağlık Bakanlığı’na bağlanmadan önce Doğu Anadolu'nun en büyük bölge asker hastanesi olarak 1875'te Erzurum'un Yenişehir bölgesinde, Yoncalı Kışla'da faaliyete başlayan Erzurum Mareşal Çakmak Askeri Hastanesi'nin detaylarını ele alıyor. İkinci bölüm, 20 Ağustos 1920'de Amerikalı Amiral Mark Lambert Bristol tarafından kurulan İstanbul Amerikan Hastanesi'ne ilişkin somut bilgileri içermektedir. Üçüncü bölüm, İtalyan Hükümeti'nin Sultan Abdülaziz döneminde İstanbul'a gönderdiği Ivrea'lı Immaculate Conception rahibeleri tarafından 12 Mayıs 1876'da açılmış olan İstanbul İtalyan Hastanesi'ni kapsamaktadır. Dördüncü bölümde, Sultan'ın küçük kızı Hatice Sultan'ın tutulduğu difteriden ölümüne bir tepki olarak, Sultan II. Abdülhamid'in (1842-1918) 16 Şubat 1898 tarihli fermanına dayanılarak kurulmuş olan ve Türkiye'nin ilk çocuk hastanesi olan Hamidiye (Şişli) Etfal Hastanesi yer almaktadır.
Bu mütevazi çalışmada, özellikle yayınlanmamış o mühürlerin yansıtmış olduğu ışıklardan elde edebildiğim ve aynı zamanda bazı tarihi hataların düzeltilmesiyle de sonuçlanan bilgiler üzerinde durmak istedim.

A translation of a story from the Yosiphun (Josippon). There are other versions in Josephus and Pseudo-Hegesippus, but this one is somewhat unique, bearing parallels to the Toldot Yeshu literature, the Gospel of Luke, and the Alexander Romances.

This essay contends that Donatello's High Altar at the Santo in Padua represents the Immaculate Virgin, reflecting a controversial doctrine of burgeoning interest in fifteenth-century Italy that she was exempted from original sin prior to the first moment of her conception. It ties the altar and scenes on the surrounding choir screen to a sermon promoting the Virgin's immaculacy by Francesco della Rovere (later Sixtus IV), spoken in Padua in 1448 while the altar was being erected. It further connects the liturgical ensemble with bulls by Sixtus IV and liturgical offices sponsored by him after he was elected pope.