Intellectual and cultural history

The present work aims at offering an overview of the main educational and didactic institutions where most part of the Sicilian élite was educated in the time frame ranging from the second half of the XVIIIth century, immediately after the expulsion of the Company of Jesus from the island in November 1767, to the Italian Unification in 1861. In greater detail, the institutions here examined had been founded in Sicily either by the Bourbonic government, by religious congregations, by public corporations or by private citizens thanks to donations or charitable bequests. The research was carried out through the analysis of miscellaneous documents, both published and unpublished, kept in various Sicilian district archives as well as in the State Archive of Naples, such as: the instructions forwarded by “major” and “minor” royal institutes, by colleges or by private boarding Schools; the pertaining school curricula; the textbooks adopted throughout the years; the public end of the school’s pamphlets; a rich correspondence mainly including the applications sent by the aspiring students' fathers to school committees in the hope of having their heirs admitted. By means of examining the above-mentioned sources, this study intends to evaluate the didactic and educational pathways available in Sicily and to paint a picture of the different educational institutions operating on the Sicilian island, thus producing an “identikit” of the Sicilian ruling class between the XVIIIth and the XIXth century. A special focus has been put on the analysis of the schools specifically “designed” for the education of the élite in the three main Sicilian cities, namely Palermo, Catania and Messina, all hosting royal institutes, renowned academies and universities.

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology.

Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy:

“[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.”
—Ralph W. Hood, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, past president of the Psychology of Religion division of the American Psychological Association, co-founder of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and co-author of The Psychology of Religion

“A necessary and bracing critique of the assumptions and limitations of contemporary Western psychology, this generous volume is also a passionate call and learned guide towards a truer perspective that embraces man's spiritual nature.”
—Gabor Maté, M.D., and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today’s world. To comprehend the nature of mind one needs to turn to the domain of religion and spirituality. Yet the truth of the mind and its complexity cannot explicitly be defined in words. Inner or transcendent wisdom sees the mind’s own nature without the duality of the seer. Suchness (tathatā) of mind is only experiential and not expressible. The words used to describe thought are themselves a product of thought, which is conditioned and limited. Thus, differences and contradictions are unavoidable. Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is an outstanding effort in this direction.”
—Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today’s World

“The rise of psychology has impacted the study and practice of spirituality, the experiences and attitudes relevant to ultimate human values that transcend ordinary behavior. Each chapter of this remarkable book demonstrates this interaction in a unique and provocative way. But rather than using psychology to reduce and ‘psychologize’ spiritual topics, its authors demonstrate how directives from the spiritual traditions can enhance and even illuminate the enduring importance of psychology in the 21st century.”
—Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, co-author of Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

“The work at hand is a thinking and debating man’s delight. If you have any interest at all in attempting to include an educated and enlightened view of man’s higher functions in your purview of the world, you will learn from and enjoy this collection of essays. If you already have some knowledge in this area, brace yourself: you may see some of your favorites sharply criticized. A thought-provoking work.”
—Bruce W. Scotton, University of California, San Francisco, co-editor of Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology

“This book, superbly edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, is a masterful critique of the field of psychology and its loss of the sacred ground in which it once was rooted. It offers depth psychologists an opportunity to contemplate timeless truths echoed through the centuries by perennial philosophers who have always claimed psyche is subordinate to Spirit. Although ignored in depth psychology’s early years due to prejudice and lack of understanding, this is a message today’s psychotherapists must take seriously. Human beings need a deeper and wider transpersonal vision of who and what we are, which the saints and sages of the world’s spiritual traditions have always pointed to. In psychotherapy with a therapist committed to such a vision, patients penetrate into their unconscious depths and not infrequently awaken to the Ground of all Being. Their suffering itself occurred because they had turned away from Spirit. Above all, this volume passionately calls upon depth psychology to remember its origin in the perennial wisdom at the core of the great religions. There is something of a polemic in these pages. It deserves to be considered by depth psychologists of all persuasions.”
—Bryan Wittine, Transpersonal psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst

“This anthology from Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is a must reference for anyone who is interested in psychology and its relationship to spirituality, and in developing an inclusive dialogue between disciplines that favor an integral outlook on the person and his or her potential. Selections in this anthology will inspire us to reexamine the metaphysical underpinnings of psychology, and remind us how important it is to rise above science’s attempt to reduce the human being to an epistemic object.”
—Sangeetha Menon, National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore, India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in Bhagavad Gita

“This anthology has some of the most discerning essays and reviews on spirituality and psychology, which provide much-needed care and caution to all those engaged in bringing them together or who wish to do so in future. Therefore, it is a must-read for all those who teach, research, consult, or study in such frontier areas as transpersonal psychology, states of consciousness, mind-body relation, holistic health, Indian psychology, and so on. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses in these and other related areas. I congratulate the editor of the book.”
—Kiran Kumar K. Salagame, University of Mysore (India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Psychology of Meditation: A Contextual Approach

“One of the finest collections of essays on the Perennial Philosophy—a must-read for all psychologists who are engaged with spirituality and transpersonal psychology. The essays which critique modern psychology (including transpersonal psychology, and the framework of Carl Jung), in the light of the Perennial Philosophy are a revelation and make compelling reading. The book serves as a corrective to the excesses of modern psychology, and to this end Sotillos has done a commendable job. I for one will include the book in some of the graduate courses that I teach.”
—Suneet Varma, University of Delhi, co-editor of Foundations of Indian Psychology

“To its credit modern science by-and-large is becoming more cognizant of the essential connection between spirituality and psychological health and well-being and most of all its positive implications within the field of psychology. While there is ample data to document this in a plethora of academic journals and books, this new book Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy adds a novel contribution to the dialogue between psychology and spirituality, which captures many nuances that for the most part go unnoticed within these discussions, and last but not least, it provides a keen eye of discernment to understand this intricate relationship on a deeper level that is crucially needed. This work will be a valuable asset to students and long term mental health practitioners and professors alike who seek to better understand the relationship between psychology and spirituality.”
—Harold G. Koenig, Duke University, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, co-author of The Handbook of Religion and Health

The First of the Modern Ottomans blends biography with intellectual history. On the one hand, it is the story of an Ottoman life – the life of the scribe, ambassador, and prolific historian Ahmed Vâsıf (ca. 1735-1806), a man who improbably rose from obscurity in Baghdad to travel the empire, fight its wars, advise its sultans, and, in time, write its history. As a full-scale biography, the book is a rarity for the field of Ottoman history and reconstructs Vâsıf’s life, career, and opinions through meticulous research in both Ottoman and European sources. On the other hand, The First of the Modern Ottomans is also one of the first detailed intellectual studies of the early modern Ottoman Empire. Weaving together Vâsıf’s life and thought with the larger intellectual currents of the day – especially at the court of Sultan Selim III in Istanbul – it explores central debates among the Ottoman ruling elite over Europe, political reform, war and peace, justice, and the empire’s renewal. Vâsıf’s life reveals a vital response to the empire’s challenges at the turn of the nineteenth century – one that was novel and deeply enmeshed in Islamic philosophy, ethics, and statecraft.

Au tournant des années 1970, on assiste à l’émergence d’un renouveau féministe au Québec, marquée par la création du Front de libération des femmes du Québec en 1969. Une part du mouvement féministe envisage alors les activités domestiques non plus comme faisant partie d’une « nature féminine », mais comme un véritable travail. Cette démarche s’inscrit dans la recherche d’une oppression commune à toutes les femmes et dans l’idée d’une « communauté de situation ». Le travail ménager non rémunéré apparaît alors comme le « plus petit dénominateur commun » de la condition de toutes les femmes, et ce peu importe leur statut civil, leur classe sociale ou leur occupation. Durant les années 1970 et et 1980, plusieurs débats ont lieu quant à la reconnaissance de ce travail. Si certaines féministes défendent la revendication d’un salaire au travail ménager, plusieurs d’entre elles revendiquent plutôt une socialisation de ce travail par la mise en place de services collectifs (garderies populaires, cantines, etc.). D’autres féministes, enfin, demandent la mise en place de certaines réformes gouvernementales afin de réduire la précarité financière des mères et des ménagères. Dans la présente étude, nous proposons une analyse des discours sur le travail ménager, ainsi qu’un examen des différentes avenues de reconnaissance envisagées par les féministes québécoises. En analysant les publications de collectifs féministes, de groupes de femmes et d’organismes liés à la condition féminine, nous pouvons dès lors affirmer que le travail ménager a été un thème marquant pour le cheminement théorique et militant du mouvement des femmes. Bien qu’omniprésent dans les discours féministes des années 1970 et 1980, des collectifs plus radicaux aux associations féminines réformistes, il a été bien rapidement oublié dans les bilans et dans l’historiographie. Nous tenterons alors de mettre de l’avant les discours féministes sur la reconnaissance du travail ménager comme élément de continuité au sein du mouvement féministe.

My starting point for this thesis (conferred in 2009) was the absence of an early history of Australian wine growing conducted by an academic historian rather than researchers in other disciplines or the wine media. I have used existing work on wine history in New South Wales (Australia) from 1788 to 1901 alongside a significant body of new research to create an historical argument suitable for incorporation into more broadly-themed narratives of Australian history and to inform studies of wine growing in other academic fields.  My principal argument is that although wine growing proved of little economic value in colonial primary production compared with nation-building commodities - such as pastoralism, wheat growing and gold - advocates of the cultivation of wine grapes believed wine growing embodied beneficial, even transformative, cultural value so they persisted in attempting to create a ‘civilizing’ industry.  Several times, from 1788 to 1901, advocates invoked wine and wine growing as capable of creating order in a wild or ‘savage’ landscape and within a settler society shaped culturally by shifting adaptations to both imported and ‘native’ influences in agriculture as well as alcohol production, consumption and distribution.  While the methodological framework employed here falls mainly within economic, social and environmental history, sociological theories have contributed to findings on causation. The result is a comprehensive, expert narrative of colonial wine growing in New South Wales enriched by links to key developments in Australian colonial history and with reference to wine growing in other British colonies or former territories.

This thesis incorporates material from my earlier publications and has in turn been revised into a 'crossover' book titled First Vintage: Wine in Colonial New South Wales (UNSW Press, 2012).

Analysis of some sections of Remigio Nannini's anthologies of historiographical speeches (Venice, Giolito 1557; 1560; 1561), with special reference to the orations taken from Cassius Dio’s ‘Roman History’, in order to show the tendency of the Dominican Compiler to revitalize their meaning and to interpret their content in the light of the political context of late Cinquecento Florence.

The report covers the attitude to the problem of cultural identity of G.-K. Kaltenbrunner, the "enlightened conservatism" theorist and researcher of the European spiritual history. Conservatism as a "territory comradeship" protects and keeps up the "unique song of landscape" as one of the major human existence constants. 
In an essay on one European spirit representative, which Kaltenbrunner has regarded Alexander Blok as a member, he emphasizes that the great poet introduces images of the "Finnish part of Russia", the realm of interminable forests and quietness, calm before the storm, St. Petersburg, surrounded by a marshy lake landscape, and the mythologized Scythian Euro-Asiatic steppe space. In an essay on the philosopher Ludwig Klages,  the description of  Schwabing, the "outskirts of the world" plays a large part. "At the beginning of the nineteenth century, in the time of the romanticists, mainly "non–Bavarians" turned Munich into "Athens on the Isar". At the beginning of the twentieth century, those notable "newcomers" settled in Schwabing,  which was a neighborhood of artists and bohemians. They established a multicolored counter culture over there and turned Munich into a flourishing spiritual life center again".The essay on Adam Heinrich Muller, whom Kaltenbrunner calls "the conservative between Prussia and Austria", traces the path of a philosopher, rhetorician and renegade to Catholicism towards Austria. Kaltenbrunner assesses his decision to leave Prussia as "the return home... of a Lutheran", to the "Patriarchal polity", "finding shelter".
Formation of the personality and Europe-oriented pattern of thoughts of the native of Vein, resident of Germany G.-K. Kaltenbrunner were undoubtedly influenced by the "Austrianness", the Austrian culture, the attempt to realize the "Christian society ideal for all world races and languages" in Austria.
Österreichertum is a term introduced into the political philosophy of Austria by Dr. Alfred Missong (1902-1965), the founder and  former of the first Christian social program ÖVP. He was a friend of Ernst Karl Winter and August Maria Knoll, whose works are constantly quoted by the editor of the Initiative in works devoted to the theoretical justification of conservatism. The article "Österreichertum – einmal zu Ende gedacht" states: "in view of the death of Germany (1945), we need to think consistently by hitting upon the ide what is "Österreichertum", Austrian patriotism.
At the same time, A.Missong agrees with Christopher Dawson (1889-1970), the historian of culture and researcher of the history of Catholicism,  who believes that Austria represents a supranational idea of the state and a European-oriented way of thinking, determined by the values represented by Christianity.
While reflecting on the contribution of Austria (the Austro-Hungarian Empire) to the history of mankind,  Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy believed that Austria-Hungary "was the Christian world itself, was a Western civilization in its totality", ... "the integrity of Austria was the integrity "by reference". The quintessence of its existence was to agglomerate the results of all phases of historical evolution." Austria "learned to speak universally among the Babylonian confusion of tongues", "strengthened its weak political foundations by developing a new type of an individual", having returned to the eternal features of human character, overcoming national unilateralism, universalism, "...soul and body belong to the individual, and consciousness and spirit are not properties of the individual. Intelligence allows the individual's soul to participate in global spiritualization."
Kaltenbrunner, 1995: 135: "one of the most striking and disconcerting consequences of Germany's progressive breakaway from Christianity is the total suppression, malicious eradication, and outlawing of vast areas of the European spirit, especially the Catholic spirit." It is symptomatic that similar words about the "almost sinister" suppression of Kaltenbrunner's name in modern Germany were written by Martin John Grannenfeld, a converter (former Protestant, now Catholic), musician and writer, "amateur theologist," in his no longer existing Internet project called Geistbraus".  One may agree with P. Mayer that Kaltenbrunner was more of a Christian rather than a representative of any nation. This was especially evident during the last fifteen years of his life, as evidenced by his recent books, his seclusion, and his return to mysticism.
The report concludes that Kaltenbrunner was a Catholic European thinker, Austrian philosopher who lived and worked in Germany. During his active social and political activity, he influenced significantly the German political philosophy, trying to ground the theory of conservatism by means of arguments that would weighty not only for believers, but also for agnostics and atheists. The main task of the last years of his life was restoration and preservation of the over individual spiritual guidelines by means of reference to the European spiritual history sources. In researching the European spiritual history, he gives much attention to how the national, regional, and landscape features enrich infinitely the European culture.

Although the first world, as seen through the lens of academia, seems to be prospering, and the third world has found its own place in the postcolonial intellectual order, the post-cold war world of semi-peripheries in East and Central Europe (ECE) has largely disappeared from the discourse of Comparative Literature. It sometimes appears as a convenient intellectual counterpoint or is included in postmodernist or postcolonial narratives; in both cases, however, it doesn’t convey regional specificity or allow local voices to speak. Both strategies – core and postcolonial – expropriate the semi-peripheral realm of second-world non-places.

This is the first of several discourses for all intellectuals about dogma, mental expansion and the liberation of intellect.  “For intellectuals, spiritual progress is always delayed, and the reason is this – that their intellectual body goes on increasing,” according to P. R. Sarkar, “but for want of the apexed mentality, the goal remains far away. But when the intellectual body is highly enlarged, it is sure to become one with the Macrocosm. And when this enlarged ectoplasmic structure becomes one with the Cosmic ectoplasmic structure, certainly a person will feel his oneness with the Supreme.” P. R. Sarkar, (1921-1990), was a spiritual teacher (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna, who founded Renaissance Universal to promote a new global renaissance, and who founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, May 6, 2021.

On October 1, 1920, the city of Santiago, Chile, came to a halt as tens of thousands stopped work and their daily activities to join the funeral procession of José Domingo Gómez Rojas, a 24 year old university student and acclaimed poet. Nicknamed "the firecracker poet" for his incendiary poems, such as "The Cry of the Renegade" Gómez Rojas was a member of the University of Chile's student federation (the FECh) which had come under repeated attack for its critiques of Chile's political system and ruling parties. Government officials accused the FECh's leaders of being advocates for the destruction of the social order, subversives who had the temerity to question national policy making, and insolent youths who did not know their place. Arrested for alleged sedition as part of a five-month-long "prosecution of subversives," Gómez Rojas joined other students and workers in Santiago's prison system. He never left. After two months in police custody, he died in Santiago's asylum, quickly to be reborn as a political martyr for students and workers alike.

This microhistory recovers the context within which Gómez Rojas's arrest, imprisonment, and death unfolded and the experiences of men he counted as friends, comrades, colleagues, mentors, and pupils. Fifty years before the much-heralded student movements of 1968, Raymond Craib shows, university students and workers were active political collaborators and radicalized political subjects. In interwar Chile, members of Chile's sizeable working class marched side-by-side with students from the FECh. At the same time, increasingly radicalized university students, as well as former students, workers, and worker-intellectuals, gathered together to talk, read, and find common cause. Members of what Craib calls a "capacious Left" they shared a wide-ranging interest in works of sociology and political theory, a penchant for poetry, and an eclectic embrace of anarchist, socialist, and communist principles and practices. They also shared the experience of repression, an experience that ultimately cost Gómez Rojas his life and marked an entire generation of political organizers and agitators, including future president Salvador Allende and poet Pablo Neruda.

This article entitled 'The British in Java, 1811-1816; A Javanese Account' was published in Jurrien van Goor (ed.), Trading Companies in Asia, 1600-1830 (Utrecht: HES Uitgevers, 1986), pp.127-92. It is largely based on my text edition and translation of British Library MS 12330 (Babad Bedhah ing Ngayogyakarta - The Chronicle of the Fall of Yogyakarta) which was written by a senior Yogyakarta prince (great-uncle of Prince Diponegoro), Pangeran Ario Panular (circa1760-1825), describing the period from the British attack on the Yogyakarta court on 20 June 1812 to the marriage of the fourth sultan (HB IV, reigned 1814-1822) to the daughter of the murdered Yogya prime minister, Danurejo II (1799-1811), in May 1816. This whole Javanese text was later published under the same title by Oxford University Press in 1992 and it has recently been translated into Indonesian (Bahasa) and will be published by Penerbit Buku Kompas (PBK) on 24 May 2017 in the British Embassy, Jakarta, to mark the 200th anniversary of he publication of Raffles's History of Java in May 1817. For those interested in more detail on the specifically Javanese view of the events of the British occupation of Java in 1811-1816, these last publications may prove more useful for English and Indonesian speakers.

In the thought of Plotinus, the imagination is responsible for the apprehension of the activity of Intellect. If creativity in the arts involves an exercise of the imagination, the image-making power that links sense perception to noetic thought and the nous poietikos, the poetic or creative intellect, then the arts exercise the apprehension of intellectual activity. According to John Dillon in “Plotinus and the Transcendental Imagination,” Plotinus’ conception of the imagination led to the formulation of the imagination as a basis of artistic creativity. In Plotinus, imagination operates on several different levels: it produces images in sense perception, it synthesizes images in dianoetic thought, and it produces images in correspondence with the articulation through logos of noetic thought. The imagination is what connects the intelligible in intellect and the form in sense perception. Plotinus imagines an art which is a product of noetic thought as made possible by the imagination. The primary principle of beauty is Intellect, from which all images should be taken, as facilitated by imagination. Forms of art, like the forms of nature, are the product of Intellect. The production of a work of art is an intellectual or spiritual exercise of the imagination that allows apprehension of Intellect and noesis in nous poietikos. All art is metaphysical, and is an expression of intelligible form in imagination, an expression of an intellectual idea that can be differentiated from sensible form in intellectual apprehension. There are many ways in which the tenets of the thought of Plotinus become currents of art and aesthetic theory as it develops to the present day.

How did early twentieth-century university scholars and museum curators perceive the buildings of peasant society? How did they rebuild them into museum cottages according to contemporary scholarly and museum ideas? In 1913, the philosopher, museum curator and elementary-school inspector Theodor Hellman established the open-air museum Murberget in Härnösand. Prior to his involvement in the open-air museum, he had been very active in the Swedish adult-education movement. For instance, he founded ‘Norrländska studenters folkbildningsförening’ (The Adult Education Society of North Swedish Students) in Uppsala in 1905. He also organised the country’s first local-heritage course for elementary-school teachers in Härnösand in 1907. The same year, 1907, he defended his licentiate dissertation in philosophy at the Uppsala University: ‘Platons kunskapslära’ (Plato’s Theory of Knowledge). ‘Föreningen för norrländsk hembygdsforskning’ (The Society for North Swedish Local Heritage Research), which he founded in 1909, was a development and institutionalisation of the courses in local-heritage education (hembygdsundervisning) and local-heritage research (hembygdsforskning). As to his curatorial work, Hellman divided the open-air museum Murberget into eight culture units, which, according to him, mirrored the people’s character and expressed the North Swedish culture: the Village (Byn), the Chalet (Fäbodvallen), the Fishing Village (Fiskeläget), the Church Site (Kyrkplatsen), the Parsonage (Prästgården), the Iron Works (Järnbruket), the Cityscape (Stadsbilden), and the Lapp Village (Lappbyn). In the present study, I investigate two of the culture units from a history-of-museum point of view: the Chalet and the Church Site. The Chalet was laid out and built with historical houses in 1915–1917, and supplemented in 1930. It represents a typological collection of six types of cooking houses (kokhus) as well as some cattle sheds, all from the province of Ångermanland. The development of the Church Site began in 1913. It comprises the Murberget Church, the Ullånger Bell Tower, two copied medieval lychgates, and a small church town with wooden houses. Built in-situ between 1925 and 1929 as a ‘Protestant medieval’ church for the 1930s North Sweden, the Murberget Church was planned and erected in accordance with contemporary museum ideals, namely the division into study collections (the church attic) and display collections (the nave and chancel).

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE RENAISSANCE MONSTER STUDIES: HYBRID BEINGS AND OTHER CREATURES
Abstract: The views on essence and causes of hybrid, human-animal, monsters’ birth prevailing in academic circles of the West in the 16th – first half of 17th Cс. are explored on a vast material of primary works in medicine, natural philosophy and natural history. Understanding the
monstrous as the other in relation to the human the author considers these spheres as cultural constructs. Thus an analysis of the Renaissance conceptions in the field of Monster Studies sheds light on shady sides of the contemporaneous anthropology. It gets clear,
in particular, that a) there was a realm of constant species of hybrid beings stretching between the human and the animal domains; b) essential causes of hybrid individuals’ birth were based on acceptance of such possibilities as conception via copulating with animals and production of physical effects on a fetus by power of mother’s imagination; c) evidence of natural and significance of divine causes of individual monsters’ appearance usually were thought to be
inversely proportional while these causes themselves – as mutually complementary. Eliminating of those and related notions completed in the Enlightenment caused decline of Renaissance “monstrology” as well as a revision of fundamental presumptions on which the prior anthropology had rested.

На материале первостепенных медицинских, натурфилософских и природоведческих трактатов в статье исследуются воззрения на сущность и причины появления гибридных, «человеко-животных», монстров, доминировавшие в учёных кругах Западной Европы XVI – первой половины XVII вв. Понимая монструозное как иное по отношению к человеческому, автор рассматривает эти сферы в качестве взаимосвязанных культурных конструктов. Таким образом, анализ монстроведческих концепций проливает свет на теневые стороны ренессансной антропологии. В частности, выясняется, что а) в основе последней лежало представление о том, что между человеческой и животной областями пролегает сфера существ переходных видов; б) основные причины рождения гибридных индивидов связывались с признанием таких возможностей, как зачатие при скотоложстве и действие на плод пластической силы воображения матери; в) очевидность естественных причин и значимость божественной причины
возникновения индивидуальных монстров обычно считались обратно пропорциональными, тогда как сами эти причины – скорее дополняющими друг друга. Устранение этих и связанных с ними воззрений, завершившееся в эпоху Просвещения, произвело
разрушение ренессансного монстроведения и вызвало ревизию фундаментальных презумпций, на которых покоилась прежняя антропология.

This article examines how Ladakhi songs represent cultural self-images through associated musical, textual, and visual tropes. Many songs of the past, both from the old royal house and the rural Buddhist populations, reflect the socio-political structure of Ladakhi society. Although some songs, past and present, reflect a pan-Tibetan identity, a distinct Ladakhi identity is nevertheless consistently asserted. Situated on the caravan routes between India, Tibet, China, and Central Asia, Ladakhi culture developed distinctive hybrid characteristics, including in its musical styles. The article discusses this tradition of hybridity from the 17th Century to the present day. Ladakhi music has moved into modern media space, portrayed through scholarly works, concerts, mass media, and the internet. The article examines various contemporary representations of “tradition” and ethnic identity in both traditional and popular music. Looking at Ladakhi popular music, we see further hybridity base...

Cet article montre comment le Sahara a été utilisé par les acteurs du débat sur le détermi-nisme géographique, qui s'est tenu en France, au début du XXe siècle. De quelle manière ce débat a produit des réflexions contradictoires sur la définition d'une spatialité propre-ment désertique, et comment, en retour, la référence saharienne a contribué à radicaliser la polémique. Mon propos se focalisera sur le temps fort de cette histoire, à savoir la publication des premiers travaux sahariens du géographe Jean Brunhes (1902-1910), et leur lecture critique par l'historien Lucien Febvre (1922), qui proposa un modèle alternatif au mo-dèle de spatialité saharienne de Brunhes.
Abstract: This paper shows how the reference to Sahara was used by the debaters concerning geographical determinism at the beginning of the 20 th century in France. This debate produced conflicting ideas about the definition of desert spatiality; in return, the reference to Sahara radicalized the controversy. My study focuses on the climax of this episode, that is to say the publication of geographer Jean Bruhnes' first works on Sahara (1902-1910), and the critical reading of Lucien Febvre (1922), who suggested an alternative model to Brunhes' model of Saharan spatiality. 1. Le course aux colonies africaines des puissances européennes à la fin du XIXe siècle a re

2017-ben egy huszonhárom tanulmányt magában foglaló kötet látta meg a napvilágot az Osiris Kiadó gondozásában. A tematikus fejezetekbe rendezett írásokat elsődlegesen a szer-ző személye köti össze: Erdész Ádámé, a Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Békés Megyei Levéltára igazgatójáé, a kiadvány az ő 1989 és 2015 között megjelent munkáiból áll össze. Ahogy az elrendezés is sejtetni engedi, bár a tanulmányok jórészt egy-egy külön témát járnak körül, azok között erős kohézió van. A kötet elsősorban azokhoz szól, akik a neves gyomai nyomdász dinasztia, a Kner csa-lád múltja iránt érdeklődnek. Fontos jelezni ugyanakkor, hogy számos más téma is terítékre kerül, nem szólva arról, hogy a-könyvben kétségkívül főszerepet játszó-Kner-históriát olvasva sokrétű megközelítéssel találkozik az olvasó: a helytörténettől a művelődéstörténetig számos aspektus bontakozik ki a háttérben.

A conversation between Leila Beanni, Patricius ShOOOmaker, and Sylvia Wang. (instigated by Hakan Topal).

The meeting took place at the London Serpentine Galleries’ bathrooms in the summer of 2016. During the three-hour-long gathering, a curator, an artist, and an architect locked themselves in the bathroom very early in the morning. It was an appropriation of a Brutally Early Morning™ meeting to discuss some of the most pressing cultural and political issues of our times. This candid conversation was later edited to fit into the format of this article.

À l'époque antique, on considérait que les divinités protégeaient les hommes du danger. On disait alors que l'on se trouvait à l'ombre des dieux, c'est-à-dire sous leur protection. Réfléchir aux « penseurs du Colloque des intellectuels juifs de langue française à l'ombre de la Shoah » implique une condition dérangeante dans son énoncé même. Car pourquoi placer une expérience si riche sous cet éclairage si sombre ? Ou, en d'autres termes, comment Auschwitz aurait-il pu permettre l'émergence de cette institution du judaïsme français contemporain ? La Shoah s'est avérée un référent historique majeur pour les intellectuels juifs de langue française dans l'après-guerre. D'Auschwitz, meurtrissure de l'histoire, se développa véritablement cette figure illustrée dans l'École de pensée juive de Paris au sein de deux expériences prégnantes — le Colloque des intellectuels juifs de langue française (1957-2007) et l'École Gilbert-Bloch d'Orsay (1946-1970) —, pourtant apparue au moment de l'affaire Dreyfus. Paradoxalement, cette expérience ne fut pensable et audible qu'en raison du bouleversement occasionné par la tentative de destruction des Juifs d'Europe et d'Afrique du Nord. Indéniablement, la création du Colloque des intellectuels juifs de langue française 2 en 1957 suscita de nombreuses espérances peu après la Seconde Guerre mondiale qui fut incontestablement une réponse à la Shoah pour des Juifs réconciliés avec leur conscience juive. Le paradoxe est que si le contexte historique a permis la rencontre, la Shoah ne fut (presque) jamais abordée thématiquement dans cette institution. Certes, le thème transversal de « Face à l'histoire : le pardon » proposé en octobre 1963, inspiré des préoccupations philosophiques de Vladimir Jankélévitch, s'en approcha et fut même dédié « à tous ceux qui sont morts ; mais notre pitié s'étend jusqu'à ce fond obscur qui, au coeur de l'Homme, engendre le bourreau. Ceux qui ont tué sont morts deux fois. Mieux vaut, dit le traité Baba Kamma du Talmud, être le persécuté que le persécuteur 3 ». Mais il faudra attendre la rencontre

This article deals with Pierre Rosanvallon's intelletctual profile. One of the most important French historians, Rosanvallon has recently entered the Collège de France where he holds the chair of "History of politics". The article charts the main steps of his intellectual production dating back to 1969 when he started working at the Cfdt trade union as head of the economic analysis bureau. His union activism, his theories about self-management and the necessity of redesigning the welfare state are the building blocks of his subsequent historical production and of his monumental history of French democracy. The essay seeks to point out the continuity between his "political" experience and the "academic" one, emphasizing that "it is a nonsense to distinguish between vita activa and vita contemplativa"

Several scholarly works on Japan explain the specific phenomena of the 19th century Japanese modernization in terms of Japanese tradition and culture. Against this, another trend (based on mainly postmodern theory) denies the validity of these explanations, citing the theory of “invented tradition”. This paper tries to add some thoughts to this debate, examining the concept of tradition in Japanese modernization. The second part of the article tries to demonstrate the utilization (“reconstruction” – by Eisenstadt) of tradition with a specific moment of the Japanese modernization: the founding of the modern state in 1868.

Der Text stellt liturgische Geräte in ihrem historischen Kontext vor. Dabei werden Gebrauchs- Symbol und Materialaspekte berücksichtigt. Der Text dient so als EInführung in die kirchlich materielle Kultur des Mittelalters und ihrer Veränderungen.

RESUMEN:
En este artículo se realizan observaciones sobre la Historia de la lectura en algunos países de América Latina: México, Brasil, Argentina y Chile. Se identifican las matrices de la historia de la lectura en las historiografías europeas a partir de tres campos de investigación: la historia del libro y la edición en Francia, la bibliografía material en Inglaterra, la historia de la escritura en Italia y España. En los países de América Latina esas matrices han sido diferentes otorgando un papel esencial a la historia de la alfabetización y la educación, la historia de la construcción del estado-nación o de la opinión pública, y la Historia de la literatura, sin olvidar la vinculación entre la historia de la lectura y la Historia de la edición en América Latina y el comercio transatlántico de libros. Se finaliza con algunas consideraciones sobre la importancia asignada a los trabajos sobre el siglo XX y la atención prestada por investigadores locales a la Historia de la lectura en Europa. // 

ABSTRACT:
In this article observations are realized on History of reading in some countries of Latin America: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. The author identifies three fields of investigation in the History of Reading in the European historiographies: The History of the Book and the Edition in France, the material bibliography in England, the History of the Writing in Italy and Spain. In Latin America these fields have been different and have given an essential position to the History of the Literacy and of Education, the History of the construction of the Nation-State or of the Public Opinion, the History of Literature, without leaving aside the links between the History of Reading and the History of Edition in Latin America and the transatlantic trade of books. It concludes with some considerations on the importance assigned to the twentieth century and the attention given by local investigators to the History of Reading in Europe.

Although European travelers to the Ottoman Empire often noted the inhabitants’ “fatalism,” historians have never seriously examined this intellectual phenomenon. Whether or not we can credit such sources, the testimony of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Turkish and Arabic sources points to a robust debate over fate, free will, and predestination. What were the reasons behind these discussions? What issues were at stake? This article outlines the context and content of the debate. It then offers some observations about the wider significance of free will and predestination in the Ottoman intellectual universe – particularly their relation to early modern bureaucratic and military reform.

Esta investigación analiza las reformas de los planes de estudio del Colegio de San Carlos de Lima en el contexto de la renovación de estudios superiores del periodo borbónico. El análisis de los programas curriculares de Teología, Filosofía y Derecho evidencia manuales recomendados, autores preferidos y escuelas enfrentadas o contrapuestas, en el marco de los complejos cambios doctrinales de la etapa colonial tardía en el Perú.

A nemzeti jelleg problémája a múlt század közepe óta szinte megszakítás nélkül jelen van a magyar építészetben. A "nemzeti" jelző az egyes korszakokban eltérő fogalmakat fed, sőt a párhuzamosan tevékenykedő csoportok, generációk is mást értenek alatta. Vannak építészeink, akik egymaguk képviselnek egy-egy sajátos irányzatot, egyénileg kialakított programot a nemzeti törekvéseken belül. A különböző értelmezések a kortársak számára elsősorban stlluskérdést jelentettek, de a mai szemlélő, és különösen a történész nem hagyhatja figyelmen kívül a nemzeti törekvések társadalomtörténeti és eszme-történeti hátterét. Ezek az irányzatok csak politikai-ideológiai vonatkozásaikkal együtt érthetők meg. Hogyan is kaphatnánk különben választ olyan fontos kérdésekre, hogy miért csak bizonyos időszakokban lángol fel a nemzeti érzés, miért utasítja el a hivatalos politika a nacionalista célokra jól felhasználható magyaros építészetet, vagy hogyan kerülhet egymással szembe építészetünkben a korszerűségre és a nemzeti jellegre való törekvés? Kutatómunkám"'" távlati célja ezen összefüggések feltárása. Célom a szakma szellemi állapotát tükröző építészeti ideológiák beillesztése a kor politikai-szellemi kontextusába. Az itt következő munkatanulmány ennél kevesebbre vállalkozik: a két világháború közötti nemzeti jellegű építészeti irányzatokat tekinti át a polgári sajtó tükrében. A korabeli könyv-, folyóirat-és publicisztikai anyag meglepően gazdag forrás. A tucatnyi szaklap mellett az irodalmi-művészeti és társadalomtudományi folyóiratokban, sót a napilapokban is bőségesen találhatók építészeti témájú megnyilatkozások, cikkek, polémiák. Bár az építészet nem írásbeli műfaj, s az építészek írott hitvallása és megépült munkáik nem mindig fedik teljesen egymást, mégis fontosnak érzem e források közreadását, mégpedig minél kevesebb-csak a megértéshez feltétlenül szükséges-kommentárral. Az "Eszmei irányzatok, ideológiák a két világháború közötti magyar építészetben" tárgyú kutatómunkám végzését az MTA-Soros Alapítvány kétéves ösztöndíja teszi lehetővé.

В современном мире существуют три суперцивилизации – это египетско-месопотамская
разделяющая суперцивилизация, индийская суперцивилизация множества и китайская объединяющая суперцивилизация. В данной статье описаны символы, а также материальные и  духовные характеристики этих суперцивилизаций.

In his work ʿUmdat al-ʿārifīn, Šayḫ al-Ašrafānī, a Druze scholar living in Syria in the 11th/17th century, composed a Druze history of origins for the entire community. This universal history portrays Druzism as an inherent part of human history, like the other monotheistic doctrines. The author thus offers a theological account of the birth of Druzism by tracing a linear discourse of world history from Adam to the Druze daʿwa (preaching) in the 5th/11th century. Al-Ašrafānī also attributes an Islamic character to Druzism by drawing on the Druze sacred text as well as exegetical literature from the late 9th/15th century, while highlighting the Islamic nature of Druzism and its pre-eminence. This rewriting of history in the 11th/17th century contributed to the popularization of Druzism, as attested in other texts from the same period. While al-Ašrafānī did not greatly influence his contemporaries, his work was of considerable importance in the Druze communities of Bilād al-Šām afterwards. Indeed, ʿUmdat al-ʿārifīn had such a substantial impact on Druze historiography that it became a historical source for writing and rewriting the Druze history of origins. Despite being quoted extensively by modern Druze historians, it remains unpublished, being kept secret in the community.

If the greatness of a philosophical work can be measured by the volume and vehemence of the public response, there is little question that Rousseau's Social Contract stands out as a masterpiece. Within a week of its publication in 1762 it was banished from France. Soon thereafter, Rousseau fled to Geneva, where he saw the book burned in public. At the same time, many of his contemporaries, such as Kant, considered Rousseau to be “the Newton of the moral world,” as he was the first philosopher to draw attention to the basic dignity of human nature. The Social Contract has never ceased to be read in the 250 years since it was written. Rousseau's “Social Contract”: An Introduction offers a thorough and systematic tour of this notoriously paradoxical and challenging text. David Lay Williams offers readers a chapter-by-chapter reading of the Social Contract, squarely confronting these interpretive obstacles, leaving no stones unturned. The conclusion connects Rousseau's text both to his important influences and those who took inspiration and sometimes exception to his arguments. The book also features a special extended appendix dedicated to outlining his famous conception of the general will, which has been the object of controversy since the Social Contract's publication.

MILKA GRÜNWALD-GUTSCHY (1868-1950)

Between the two world wars in Zagreb, the cultural society, which counted, tried to enter the chosen society that gathered around two ladies called Milka. One of them was the world-famous, great and never surpassed soprano Milka Ternina (Vezišće, Dec. 19, 1863 - Zagreb, May 18, 1941), and the other one was Milka Grünwald born. Löbl (Rasinja, 1868 - Zagreb, Feb. 3, 1950) only known and esteemed in Zagreb. These two great ladies, educated above the average, knew each other well and respected each other, and shared almost all friends and society. Many writers, poets, playwrights, actresses and actors, directors and singers regularly met at their places. Milka Ternina usually invited people to tea parties, sometimes for the young people to meet. There the athmosphere must have been more exalted, but at Milka Grünwald’s home in Bregovita (today Tomić) Street no. 1 one was expected to enter a wonderful conversation in her pleasant drawing room. Normally the hostess kept the guests for lunch or dinner. Both Milkas were very wealthy and discreetly selflessly and greatly supported the arts and artists. As Ladislav Šaban writes in his history of the Croatian Music Institute (Hrvatski glazbeni zavod): "Let's mention immediately that the last testator in the history of the HGZ was its member Milka Gutschy (1949), who then left 1000 dinars, with which she closed a circle of loyal friends of music and the Music Institute of the old Zagreb."
These ladies were joined by Countess Jelisava Drašković, also a great theater fan, who kept inviting theatre people to her home in Remete street - once the entire Moscow Art Theatre in 1920. The fourth in the row of these music lovers and great friends of the Croatian National Theater, and the guest of many performances was Anka de Gvozdanović from High Street, who used to sit in a certain box wearing precious jewelery of big diamonds, especially earrings, previously owned by Klotilda Vranyczany-Buratti, the owner of the mansion on St. Catherine’s Square.
The cuisine of Milka Grünwald was known and unusual, surpassing the usual Zagreb good and high standards. She always had a cook and servants, but she had to give the ultimate touch to each dish before it was brought to the table. If it happened that someone arrived unannounced before noon, she told the person concerned "Today you are at my guest for lunch, but you have to excuse me for half an hour." And then she went to the kitchen and pantry and gave the cook the instructions what to do. In the family, but also wider, the legends of the pantry packed with wonderful semi-products, such as large jars with preserved beef soup, whole roasted geese preserved in fat, were told. Risotto was always served in two versions: one "dry", and the other before being served on the table was added a glass of sour cream mixed with two yolks.
Ladies always asked Milka Grünwald for recipes, which she did not like to do, and if so, she always omitted some small but important detail. Her sister-in-law Gizela Grünwald born. Alexander (Zagreb, May 2, 1873 - Samobor, Aug. 27, 1952) and daughter of the respective, Vera Tomić born. Grünwald (Varaždin, Jan. 15, 1894 - Zagreb, July 29, 1952) once lured Milka's cook to their apartment in Gundulić Street, and, having bribed her, found out all the most important secrets of Milka’s recipes. Many years later, Bojana Gnječ, born Tomić (Zagreb, March 29, 1924 - Basel, March 29, 2015), Gizela's granddaughter, and Vera's daughter, wrote down all of these family recipes into a cookbook.
Born in Rasinja in 1868, Milka Löbl was educated for a primary school teacher. First married to the wealthy Varaždin-born Albert Grünwald (Varaždin, 1848 - Zagreb, Jan. 1, 1915), before they arrived in Zagreb they lived in Marija Bistrica. After his death, she married Dr. Franjo Gutschy (Sisak, June 4, 1869 - Lipik, April 13, 1946), physician specialized for internal illnesses. Dr. Gutschy was also a great music fan and excellent partner to his wife.
Anyway, Milka Grünwald's house was open to the Zagreb's cultural elite for decades. A small insight into her society was given in 1979 by Nikola Škrgić (Dec. 7, 1908 - Zagreb, Aug. 14, 1987), academic painter, publicist and journalist. He described four of the famous gentlemen called Ivo from her society, three noblemen and one later Nobel Prize winner: the writer Ivo Conte Vojnović (Dubrovnik, Oct. 9, 1857 - Belgrade, Aug. 30, 1929), Ivo Raić de Lonja (Zagreb, Aug. 23, 1881 – June 16, 1931), actor and theatre director, Ivan de Dominis - Mirjev (Rab, 1894 - Heidelberg, 1967), theatre actor and director and Ivo Andrić (Dolac / Travnik, Oct. 9, 1892 - Belgrade, March 13, 1975). In this article N. Škrgić mentioned financial difficulties, in which Ivo Vojnović often found himself and Milka Grünwald always helped him - similar letters with a request for financial assistance Vojnović also wrote to the general manager (on two occasions) of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Vladimir Treščec de Branjska (Topusko, May 23, 1870 - Dubrovnik, July 2, 1932). These letters to Treščec were given by his grandson Ivo Pitarević of Dubrovnik to the Institute for the History of the Croatian Theatre of the Croatian Academy of Sciences in Zagreb. The letters by Ivo Vojnović to Milka Grünwald and Franjo Gutschy were published by Tihomil Maštrović.
Among the many friends who frequented Milka Grünwald was the couple Rudolf and Ljubica Kunc with their children Božidar and Zinka, known as Zinka Milanov, a student and worthy successor to the legendary Milka Ternina. Dr. Božidar Grünwald (Varaždin, May 21, 1899 - Zagreb, October 14, 1985), Milka's nephew, used to describe how he listened to singing of the fifteen-year-old Zinka with a fully-developed wonderful soprano.
As a young girl Milka Grünwald must have had theatrical ambitions - this is witnessed by a photograph taken in the studio of Rudolf Mosinger and Leopold / Lavoslav (Poldi) Breyer, otherwise a painter, in Zagreb, and according to Nada Grčević this company operated between November 1894 and December 1898, with Milka's dedication from 1901. This picture was for more than a hundred years kept with reverence by her relatives, the Lapter family. There is a young and attractive, beautiful Milka dressed in a Hungarian folk costume. As an older lady - preserved on the drawing by Nikola Škrgić – she was described as a beautiful, small appearance, with short curly gray hair, always refined and elegant, with large diamond earrings and a one string of large diamonds around her throat. The latter was once split and divided among her favorite nieces. Allegedly she smoked cigarettes on a long cigarette holder.
All these wonderful and sophisticated gatherings, music and banquets abruptly came to an end in 1941. Ternina died shortly after the overthrow, and Milka Grünwald-Gutschy until 1945 lived from day to day in fear of what would happen to her. Yet good people she had always helped, managed to protect her. They did not, surprisingly, forget her many good deeds. And from May 8, 1945, quite different times arrived with the confiscation and nationalisation of property, apartments and houses, numerous evictions - this was already a rule for the many proscribed after April 10, 1941 - with the forced moving in of co-tenants, who then remained for decades, there was no more talk of salons and feasts. From a racial enemy Milka Grünwald-Gutschy suddenly became a class enemy of the people, and her house was overcrowded by numerous occupants, but also by relatives (such as Nada Kraus or Božidar Grünwald), who rescued some of the rooms with their presence.
And here, on the occasion of the re-publication of Škrgić's article on Milka Grünwald-Gutschy, we have tried in short lines to say at least something about that glittering star of the long past Zagreb cultural life.