No description available.

This dissertation research project focuses on maritime exploration during the Age of Discovery and the vessels that were the technological impetus for this dynamic era that ultimately led Christopher Columbus to the New World and Vasco da Gama to India. Little is known about the caravel and the nau, two ships which defined this era of global expansion; archival documents provide scant information regarding these vessels and to date there are only a few known archaeological examples. The caravel and the nau became lasting symbols of the bourgeoning Portuguese and Spanish maritime empires and are featured prominently in contemporaneous iconography. This dissertation bridges the gap between the humanities and sciences through the statistical analysis of the caravel, galleon, and nau in the iconographic record. As one of the first intensive uses of iconography in nautical archaeology, the study analyzed over 500 images using descriptive statistics and representational trends analysis in order to explore the two research questions posed, Are the ships represented in the iconography accurate? and Can iconography provide information on constructional characteristics of these vessels that will determine typology, evolution, and design changes? Gauging the accuracy of the ship representations was fundamental to establishing this study’s validity. The artists creating these images were not shipwrights or mariners and thus this research was not limited to the technological and constructional aspects alone. The dissertation addressed technology as a cultural symbol in order to understand how and why cultures attach such powerful and important symbolism to technology and adopt it as an identifying feature. On a broader level, this dissertation proved that iconography is a viable data source within nautical archaeology. The representational trends and general construction proportions analyzed in the iconographic record did provide an ample amount of information about the different ship types to greatly assist in the reconstruction of a caravel, galleon, or nau. The vast quantities of new data generated using these methodologies have the potential to significantly advance the study of these three ship types when paired with current and future archaeological evidence.

Not available / text

Not available / text

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis attempts to analyse the status of the 16th-century narrative---history, novel, epic---in its historical (instead of 'literary') context. The standard 'poetical' categories have been overlooked in favour of an axiology of 'truth' and 'falsehood' that overshadows all discourse from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century. Abandoning the traditional avenues of poetics (appraisal, classification, definition), this thesis studies writing and human invention in their relation to the presence or evocation of a transcendental divinity. / Christianity establishes a permanent break with both idolatrous paganism and iconoclastic Judaism so as to impose a new 'iconophile' relation to art: icons and poetical figures will be valued insofar as they constitute an evocation of the divine otherness and transcendence. Christianity encourages, within parameters rigourously established (by Tertullian, Augustine and Alain de Lille, among others) the writing of new texts dedicated to the enlightenment of faithfuls and of new Christians, as well as to the defense of faith against heresy and to the formation of clergymen. This thesis argues that medieval and many Renaissance narratives were written in this Christian perspective. / In the beginning of the 16th century, the monarchy increasingly favoured the emancipation of a learned institution that would rival the ecclesiastical university, a learned institution that would also seek to redefine the foundations of Christian faith and, in so doing, provide the king with powerful ideological weapons. The narrative---be it historical or fabulous---was initially linked to the Christian tradition, which makes of all writing an evocation of divinity. But, progressively, the narrative started to take position against the temporal dominion of the Church in favour of a power at once monarchistic and Christian (such is for instance the perspective of Dante Alighieri). / The scope of this thesis is thus twofold. On one hand, it argues that the 16th-century narrative cannot be apprehended within the parameters of our modern literary institution. That is, a text is never conceived as an imitation of reality possessing an independent status and constituting an end in itself, as will be established by the analysis of French narratives and paratextual commentaries from the 16th century (including the Illustrations de Gaule et singularites de Troyes by Jean Lemaire de Belges, the narratives of Rabelais, Helisenne de Crenne and Herberay des Essarts, and the epic poems of Ronsard and d'Aubigne). On the other hand, it studies the 'other,' historically predominant, cultural institution. In other words, it studies the absence of a 'literary' outlook as such (and therefore the absence of labelled genres such as 'the Novel', 'the Epic'), and the predominance of Christian thought in the establishment of a new secular (that is non ecclesiastical) cultural institution.

This thesis attempts to outline Calvin's practice of evangelisation in the period 1555-64 and to identify the theological basis for this activity as it is expressed in his works. It is argued that during the last ten years of his life Calvin was preoccupied with the propagation of the Gospel in France and western Europe and that echoes of this preoccupation may be discerned in his publications dating from this period. There are three parts to the thesis. Part I is chiefly historical and has two aims. The first is to convey, by a detailed study of the primary sources (including unpublished ecclesiastical correspondence), the full extent of the evangelistic enterprise which arose in Geneva after 1555 and of Calvin's role in it. The second is to show that a series of Lectures on the Old Testament Prophets which Calvin gave in 'the school' at Geneva was addressed to people caught up in this missionary endeavour and is to be read in this light. Part I concludes by identifying two themes which permeate these and other related theological expositions: 'the progress of the Kingdom of Christ 1 and 'the restoration (or reformation) of the Church'. The missionary content of these themes is established in Parts II and III of the thesis, which are consequently more theological. The sustained parallel between Part II of the thesis (which is devoted to the ecclesiological aspects of these themes) and Part III (which is devoted to their soteriological aspects) bears witness to the close connection between ecclesiology and soteriology which is characteristic of Calvin's thought about evangelisation. The identification and elucidation of this parallel is perhaps the single most important contribution made by this thesis.