The aim of this thesis is to provide a thorough introduction to shorter satirical poetry in Middle English, and also to provide stimulus and material for further study in this somewhat neglected area of medieval English literature. The thesis presents 83 newly transcribed, edited and annotated shorter (approximately 200 ll. or less) poems, which have never before been collected. Strictly political poems, more properly the subject of a separate study, are not included, nor are the poems of Dunbar, Skelton, Henryson and Hoccleve, which are available in excellent editions. The poems are loosely grouped according to the subjects they satirize: clergy, women and marriage, money and venality, rogues and fools, specific people, and medical recipes. A lengthy introduction briefly discusses the problem of defining satire in the Middle English period before going on to discuss the background of medieval satire for each group. For each poem there are notes which clarify difficult points as well as give information on the manuscripts and editions in which the poem appears. Appendix A prints a not hitherto recognized parody of Lydgate's A Valentine to Our Lady with the text of Lydgate's poem facing, and discusses some of the difficulties of recognizing parody in Middle English in light of this particular example. Appendix B is an index which attempts to list all nonnarrative satirical verse in English which appeared between the thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A glossary of difficult words in the texts is included.

This dissertation offers a study of the fifteenth century French polemical treatises written by authors such as Jean de Montreuil, Jean Juvénal des Ursins, Noël de Fribois and Robert Blondel, together with an edition of perhaps the most important of these works, Pour ce que plusieurs (1464). This treatise may have been written by Guillaume Cousinot II, who had been personally involved in the events surrounding the attack upon Fougères in 1449, a subject addressed in highly partial terms by this text; moreover, Cousinot had visited the Lancastrians in exile in Scotland, which might explain how Sir John Fortescue was able to learn of Jean Juvénal's Tres crestien, tres hault, tres puissant roy (1446), and how Pource que plusieurs in turn drew upon the pamphlets of Fortescue. The polemical texts went beyond moral and chivalric discussion of the war, to address the complex legal and historical issues underpinning the conflict. In response to the English claim to the French throne, Jean de Montreuil adopted the Salic Law, a highly dubious and problematic authority, but one that achieved great fame particularly through the influence of Pour ce que plusieurs. Similarly, the polemical writers rejected English demands for Aquitaine and Normandy in full sovereignty by arguing that no French king could alienate the sovereign rights of the crown. In the sixteenth century, both of these principles were elevated to the status of Fundamental Laws. These texts were not intended to serve as propaganda, but were generally produced by royal officials to serve as manuals for their fellow administrators and diplomats, and perhaps also for the king and other members of the court involved in negotiations with the English. Only in exceptional circumstances were such works disseminated beyond the narrow circles of the government and court, though royal officials did draw upon them when speaking at public assemblies.

The regions of James II, III, and IV in the second half of the fifteenth century in Scotland saw a distinctive flowering of advice to princes literature. This is the first account of its kind to examine in detail the sources, arguments, and extent of political comment of each individual work. In particular it employs both literary and historical sources to reveal the largely unrecognized impact of continental, especially French, political thought, on a number of writers. The study opens with a consideration of the poem De Regimine Principum, a politically very forthright advice work, influential for a century or so after its composition. Chapter 2 deals with the writings of Sir Gilbert Hay, whose work shows clear influences from the continent, particularly in the Buik of King Alexander, which is also seen to have interesting links with De Regimine Principum. Chapter 3 discusses the romance Lancelot of the Laik, a poem less precise in its allusions, but clearly indicative of a number of recurrent preoccupations in Scottish advisory literature in the areas of justice and kingly minorities. The two following chapters examine The Talis of the Fyve Bestes, which gives a markedly nationalistic evocation of good kingship, and The Buke of the Chess, where Scottish advice to princes is seen at its least politically aware. In Chapter 6 advice appears in yet another genre, the devotional poem The Contemplacioun of Synnaris, where the wider associations of `kingship' with the nosce te ipsum tradition are apparent. Chapters 7 and 8 concern The Thre Prestis of Peblis and John Ireland's Meroure of Wyssdome, possibly produced around the same time, but presenting their advice in very different manners: the Thre Prestis adroitly worked and entertaining, the Meroure, highly theological and drawing strongly on continental writers, notably the sermons of Jean Gerson. In conclusion it is shown that through this context we can best appreciate the purpose and formidable execution of Robert Henryson's advice to princes fable lq The Lion and the Mouse.

The Ince Hall Virgin and child is a painting of the Virgin and Child in an interior that was attributed to Jan van Eyck by the leading historians of early Netherlandish art from 1854 to 1956. Between 1956 and 1959 the work was subject to a technical and art historical analysis in Europe, in the re-classification of the work as a copy by a follower of Van Eyck, and possibly a forgery. Subsequently, a number of art historians have suggested that not even the composition of the work is Eyckian, and that the work is a pastiche based on Van Eyck’s paintings. Nevertheless, some authors have doubted the arguments for these reattributions. Some authors maintain the attributions to Van Eyck, and others suggest that the work may be a copy. This thesis is the first comprehensive critical reappraisal of the scientific and art historical analysis to be conducted. In the first chapter it examines the provenance and bibliography of the work. / In the second chapter it examines published and unpublished documents relating to the technical analysis found in Melbourne, Brussels, London and Amsterdam, which have been brought together for the first time. It also contains an interpretation of the work’s infrared reflectography that was produced, for the first time, for this thesis. It is argued that, contrary to the 1950's analysis, there is no technical impediment to an attribution of the work to Van Eyck. Furthermore, technical analysis reveals numerous correspondences to Van Eyck’s works, in the pigments, paint layer structures, underdrawing style and pentimenti. In the third chapter the relationship of the execution, composition and iconography to Van Eyck’s paintings is discussed. It is argued that the execution, composition and iconography are closely related to Van Eyck’s works. In the fourth chapter the attribution of the work as an original painting of Van Eyck, a copy, a pastiche or a forgery is discussed. It is concluded that the balance of the available evidence suggests the attribution of the work to Van Eyck, or his studio, is justifiable. The possibility that the work is a free copy is not excluded, but is undermined by the numerous correspondences to Van Eyck’s materials and technique and its relationship to the versions of the composition by other artists.

The present thesis analyzes the special group of verbs occurring in the German liturgical text that was written down in the Dominican monastery in České Budějovice. The first part provides information on the Dominican monastery in České Budějovice and the manuscript itself. It is followed by the editorial process of the manuscript. The main part focuses on the analysis of these groups of verbs: Präteritopräsentien, Wurzelverben, kontrahierte Verben and a verb wollen and werden. Attention is also paid to the dialect features of the text since the manuscript was affected by the Bavarian dialect as demonstrated and proved by the analysis of the verb forms.

The study begins with the development of the nature and character of fifteenth century Italian humanism. It then proceeds to delineate the humanist methodological approach to three key areas; rhetoric, grammar, and historical criticism. Having thus laid this necessary foundation, the work examines selected portions of the debates of the council with regard to each of the three key areas, in order to ascertain whether or not a humanistic approach was utilized by the Latin participants in their argumentations. This investigation concludes that the Latin advocates of the council did indeed employ humanist methodology in both the preparation and presentation of their arguments in the debates. Therefore, such evidence strongly suggests that an appreciation and acceptance of the humanist approach to rhetoric, grammar, and textual criticism existed in the church in the early decades of the fifteenth century.

Five Seasons is a musical work for flute and percussion. The flutist alternately performs on the C flute with a B foot, alto flute, piccolo, and bass flute in each movement. The percussionist also plays different instruments in each movement: the vibraphone for Mid-Summer; the xylophone for Fall; the woodblock, temple block, and cowbells for Spring; the glockenspiel for Summer; and the marimba for Winter. The five movements of this work - Mid-Summer, Fall, Spring, Summer, and Winter - are based on a combination of Eastern performing practices with Western instruments. The musical characteristics are based on the techniques of fifteenth-century (e.g., isorhythmic technique) and twentieth-century Western music.

The improvvisatore tradition in Florence Italy during the second half of the quattrocento featured poet-musicians who sang poetry for music (poesia per musica) accompanied by the lira (da braccio). This thesis researches Florentine literati and threads of humanism in relation to poetry written for music. By doing so, philosophical and literary trends are analyzed in relation to the Florentine improvvisatore style: frottola versification forms and divinus furor. Marsilio Ficino’s (1433-1499) direction at the Platonic Academy (founded c. 1463) outside Florence in the hills of Carregi influenced some of the greatest artists and musicians of his time. This thesis focuses on lyric improvisation as a means of connecting mind and body with the universe. In doing so, Ficino’s music-spirit-theory and astrological program are looked at in light of the Platonic sources. The instrument of the improvvisatore, the lira, will be analyzed in relation to affect (ethos) and wellness for mind (soul) and body

No description available.

Educational provision in Scotland was revolutionised in the fifteenth century through the foundation of three universities, or studia generale, at St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen. These institutions can be viewed as part of the general expansion in higher education across Europe from the late-fourteenth century, which saw the establishment of many new centres of learning, often intended to serve local needs. Their impact on Scotland ought to have been profound; in theory, they removed the need for its scholars to continue to seek higher education at the universities of England or the continent. Scotland’s fifteenth-century universities were essentially episcopal foundations, formally instituted by bishops within the cathedral cities of their dioceses, designed to meet the educational needs and career aspirations of the clergy. They are not entirely neglected subjects; the previous generation of university historians – including A. Dunlop, J. Durkan and L. J. Macfarlane – did much to recover the institutional, organisational and curricular developments that shaped their character. Less well explored, are the over-arching political themes that influenced the evolution of university provision in fifteenth-century Scotland as a whole. Similarly under-researched, is the impact of these foundations on the scholarly community, and society more generally. This thesis explores these comparatively neglected themes in two parts. Part I presents a short narrative, offering a more politically sensitive interpretation of the introduction and expansion of higher educational provision in Scotland. Part II explores the impact of these foundations on Scottish scholars. The nature of extant sources inhibits reconstruction of the full extent of their influence on student numbers and patterns of university attendance. Instead, Part II presents a thorough quantitative and qualitative prosopographical study of the Scottish episcopate within the context of this embryonic era of university provision in Scotland. In so doing, this thesis offers new insights into a neglected aspect of contemporary clerical culture as well as the politics of fifteenth-century academic learning.