The manuscript Berlin, SBB-PK, mgf 863 was written in about 1430 to 1435 and contains more than 600 short narrative texts in German prose (with some Latin insertions). Among them is the collection of the ›Alemannische Vitaspatrum‹ as well as an additional, extensive and multifarious exempla corpus, which mostly contains translations from well-known Latin collections such as – for example and most prominently – Caesarius' of Heisterbach ›Dialogus miraculorum‹. Because of the specific composition of the corpus and its large extent, mgf 863 builds an excellent basis for the investigation of exempla, a text type which has not received much attention in German studies. The manuscript was probably produced in Strasbourg where it belonged to the library of the nuns from the convent of St Mary Magdalen. It contains a large quantity of textual material with close links to Strasbourg in terms of content or history of transmission. My primary interest is in the texts in the manuscript, in their contents and interdependencies, as well as in their history and their contextualization in, for example, groups of manuscripts, exempla tradition and religious practice. The project aims at a contribution to exempla research as well as to literary and religious life in Strasbourg in the late Middle Ages. My approach comes primarily from literary studies, but also uses palaeographical, textualcritical, and historical methods. The thesis combines case studies of the transmission of individual exempla or groups of exempla with general research into the history of texts (›Textgeschichte‹) and the history of transmission (›Überlieferungsgeschichte‹) of German prose exempla. A repertory in the appendix provides an overview of the manuscript's content. It helps to orientate within the study; furthermore, with over 600 entries, it provides a tool for the identification of German exempla.

From its beginnings, Christianity has been fundamentally conditioned by the idea of repentance. However, while the institutional practice of repentance in the early Christian world has received much scholarly attention, relatively little exists which deals with the development and applications of the wider concept (of which its institutional aspect is only a part). The purpose of this dissertation is to provide both a re-assessment and a re-framing of this foundational concept of repentance in Christian late antiquity, with special reference to formative Greek monastic sources from the fifth to seventh centuries. Following a discussion of scholarship, terms, and methodology in chapter one, the question of defining repentance in the Greek patristic world is addressed in chapter two, looking first at the major sources for later approaches (the Septuagint, the New Testament, and Classical/Hellenistic texts). A significant re-appraisal of the dominant scholarly narrative of repentance in the early church will be offered in the following chapter, making way for a close study of the chosen monastic authors: Mark the Monk, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, and John Climacus in turn. A threefold framework whereby their respective approaches to repentance can be understood in their integrity and diversity will be suggested, involving 1) initial or 'cognisant' repentance, in which the sinner recognizes his or her fallen state and turns it heavenward; 2) 'existential' repentance, which involves the living out of repentance as a way of life, governing all the Christian's actions and intentions; 3) 'Christ-like' repentance, which serves as the summit and ultimate goal of the Christian's personal repentance, whereby the loving and sacrificial 'repentance' of Christ for others and the world at large is assimilated and worked out in the Christian's own life. It will be argued that this framework provides a new and significant hermeneutical lens through which not simply the early Christian concept of repentance in itself can be better understood, but also through which the development of early Christian self-identity and self-perception, particularly in an ascetic context, can be gauged.

This thesis studies, through a literary and theological analysis of her writings and an examination of her background, how a fifteenth century Spanish nun called Teresa de Cartagena dealt spiritually with disability. She was physically disabled, having become deaf as an adult but also having endured many illnesses. Her first book, Arboleda de los enfermos, was written to pass on to other sufferers the spiritual lessons she had learned from her own suffering; that suffering was good because it had saved her from sin and had brought her to God. Her second work, Admiraçión operum Dey, was written to answer those who had criticised her for the act of writing because of her gender, at that time a disability for any woman wishing to write or teach. She justified her writing as a special work of God, but did not claim mystical direct divine inspiration. Teresa was a member of a prominent family of Jewish Christians (conversos). At the time she was writing, the second half of the fifteenth century, anti-converso prejudice and violence were growing in Spain. This culminated in the introduction of the Inquisition in order to deal with the so-called 'judaising conversos'. In these circumstances her conversa status was a distinct social disability, but there is no express mention of this in her writings. However, there are traces in her writings of converso concerns, and of a specifically converso theology. Although there have been many studies of Teresa de Cartagena from the viewpoints of medieval Spanish literature, disability studies, feminist history and her use of rhetorical techniques, there has been no in depth study of her theology and spirituality. This thesis demonstrates that, although in general these were orthodox and unoriginal, they were unusual for a woman of her time and background.

Seneca’s contribution to the development of Western European theatre and conceptions of theatricality has been underestimated in comparison to that of Greek tragedy. This thesis argues for the continuous importance of Senecan drama in theatrical theory and practice from the sixteenth century until the present day. It examines significant instances of Seneca in performance, and shows how these draw on particular aspects of Seneca’s style and dramaturgical technique to coalesce into a sub-genre of tragedy termed here ‘hypertragedy’ or the ‘senecan aesthetic’. The underlying premise of this representational mode is that verbal (vocal) performance is a physical act and induces physical responses. This entails the consequential inference that Senecan theatre is not mimetic – that is, based on an isomorphic identification of character with performer – but rather affective; like oratory, it functions through direct, quasi-musical manipulation of the auditor’s senses. The goal of this theatrical form is to articulate extreme states of mind or experiences which cannot be conveyed via conventional mimetic means: pain, frenzy, dissolution of the self. In tracing the theories of tragedy which comprise a narrative contrapuntal to the reception of Seneca onstage, it is possible to identify the factors which have successively constructed, promoted, suppressed, reviled and finally reinstated the senecan aesthetic as philhellenism’s other.

La recherche menée dans cette thèse porte sur les restes archéobotaniques mis au jour dans le Cimetière I de Pachacamac par le Projet Ychsma ainsi que ceux découverts par Díaz et son équipe dans le cimetière 22 de Octubre d’Armatambo. Les contextes funéraires de ces deux sites correspondent à la culture Ychsma (10ème-15ème siècles). Cette recherche carpologique a pour but de répondre à trois questions de recherche: 1) Peut-on établir un modèle type de trousseau archéobotanique? Qu’en est-il des végétaux participant à la réalisation du paquet funéraire? 2) Quel(s) est (sont) le(s) critère(s) ayant pu avoir une influence sur les offrandes botaniques et les végétaux entrant dans la composition des paquets funéraires? A quel(s) niveau(x) se marque cette influence? 3) Qu’en est-il de la présence de taxons exogènes, particuliers ou présents dans un seul enterrement? Pour ce, j’ai analysé les restes archéobotaniques des deux sites de façon séparée et suivant les angles syn- et diachroniques. J’ai donc effectué des analyses en termes de présence/ absence et de fréquence des taxons dans les contextes funéraires en considérant les enterrements dans leur ensemble mais aussi en les séparant selon divers critères (âge, sexe et rang social relatif). Par la suite, j’ai comparé les résultats obtenus pour les deux sites. Je ne détaille pas ici les résultats de chaque analyse. Je me contente de mentionner les points principaux qui en sont ressortis, à savoir 1) qu’il ne semble pas y avoir eu une taxon-offrande type; 2) que des offrandes alimentaires apparaissent dans toutes les catégories établies; 3) d’autres facteurs (entre autres le rapport affectif aux défunts, la possible manipulation idéologique de ceux-ci par les vivants, le symbolisme des taxons, etc.) ont exercé une influence sur la présence des taxons; 4) que Gossypium barbadense était un élément type dans la réalisation des paquets funéraires. Cette recherche a eu pour conséquence l’apparition de nouvelles questions de recherche qui pourront être abordées ultérieurement sur base notamment d’un travail statistique et regroupant des échantillons de divers sites de la culture Ychsma. / The present investigation focuses on the archeobotanical remains discovered in Pachacamac’s Cemetery I by the Projet Ychsma, and Cemetery 22 de Octubre in Armatambo excavated by Díaz and her team. The funerary contexts of both sites pertain to the Ychsma culture (10th-15th centuries). The aim of this carpological investigation is to answer three questions: 1) Is it possible to establish a model of archaeobotanical grave goods? What about the plants that were used in the realisation of the bundles? 2) What is (are) the criterion (criteria) that could have influenced the archaeobotanical grave goods and the plants used in the making of the bundles? At what level(s) is this influence leaves its mark? 3) What about the presence of exogenous taxa or particular taxa or taxa which appear only in one tomb? In order to answer these questions, I analysed the archaeobotanical remains of each sites separately, using a syn- and diachronic perspective. I realised analyses in terms of presence/ absence, as well as frequency of taxa in the funerary contexts, by taking into account the burials as a whole, but also by separating them according to various criteria (age, sex, relative social ranking). Thereafter, I compared the results of both sites. I would not discuss the research results in detail here, but I will limit myself to mentioning the main conclusions: 1) it seems that there was no typical grave good taxon; 2) alimentary offering appear in all the categories; 3) other factor (among others the emotional connection to the deceased, the possible ideological manipulation of the dead by the living and the symbolism of the taxa) influenced the presence of taxa; 4) Gossypium barbadense was a typical taxon among the plants participating in the realisation of funerary bundles. This research has led to the appearance of new questions. By conducting statistical investigations and by gathering samples from various Ychsma sites, it will be possible to treat these new questions in the future. / Doctorat en Histoire, histoire de l'art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Ce mémoire traite des Saturnales de Macrobe, haut fonctionnaire du 5ième siècle après J.C. et encyclopédiste latin. Malgré l’opinion reçue, selon laquelle les Saturnales dépendraient presque exclusivement d’un nombre très restreint de sources, souvent copiées mot à mot, on a reconnu depuis longtemps que Macrobe remanie de son propre chef l’une de ces sources, les Propos de Table de Plutarque, dans son septième livre. Ce mémoire démontre que ce modèle, tout comme les sources mineures, latines et grecques, avec lesquelles Macrobe le complète, lui était assez familier pour servir à l’articulation d’une vision propre; les Saturnales ne peuvent donc être cités comme preuve de la décadence de leur époque. Ce mémoire fournit une traduction et un commentaire des chapitres 7.1-3 des Saturnales, avec une explication de leurs rapports avec les Propos de Table 1.1 et 2.1 de Plutarque ainsi que des éléments propre à Macrobe, afin de reconstruire sa méthode de composition et de déterminer ses attentes par rapport à son lecteur de l’empire tardif. Le commentaire est précédé d’une introduction de l’auteur, de l’œuvre, et du septième livre. / This thesis deals with the Saturnalia of Macrobius, the 5th century senior civil servant and Latin encyclopedist. Despite the scholarly consensus that the Saturnalia is virtually exclusively dependent on a small number of sources, usually copied verbatim, it has long been recognized that Macrobius independently alters at least one of these sources, the Quaestiones Convivales of Plutarch, in his seventh Book. This thesis demonstrates that Macrobius was familiar enough with the text of Plutarch, as with the texts of several other minor Latin and Greek sources with which he supplements him, in order to use him to articulate original concepts important to the Saturnalia as a whole; the work cannot, therefore be cited as evidence for the cultural decadence of the later Roman Empire. This thesis provides a translation and commentary of chapters 7.1-3 of the Saturnalia, explaining their relation to Quaest. conv. 1.1 and 2.1 of Plutarch and the original readings and structure of Macrobius, in order to determine his method of composition and his expectations of his Late Antique reader. The commentary is preceded by an introduction of the author, the work, and the seventh Book.

Dans le présent mémoire, je revisite l’oeuvre de Foucault à la lumière des analyses qu’il offre entre 1981 et 1984 dans ses derniers cours au Collège de France. À l’encontre de l’avis qui voit une rupture dans la pensée foucaldienne – opinion justifiée par la transition radicale qu’opère Foucault depuis l’étude de la relation entre pouvoir et savoir à l’analyse des techniques de subjectivation dans l’Antiquité – j’illustre qu’il y a continuité et complémentarité entre ses analyses des années 1970 et ses démonstrations des années 1980. Foucault trouve, au fondement de la pratique politique gréco-romaine, une éthique définie comme travail de soi sur soi. Aussi tente-t il, au travers de ses dernières analyses, de réactualiser l’askêsis comme fondement oublié de l’éthique, et l’êthos comme condition d’efficacité de la politique. Si, jusqu’en 1980, Foucault s’intéresse aux mécanismes et aux dispositifs permettant le gouvernement de la population, à partir de 1980, c’est la question du gouvernement de soi comme condition nécessaire du gouvernement des autres qui investit ses analyses. L’objectif de ce mémoire est d’illustrer, à partir de la redéfinition foucaldienne de l’éthique, la présence d’une nouvelle théorie de la résistance dans ses derniers cours au Collège de France. Par voie de conséquence, je propose implicitement des éclaircissements sur la fonction qu’occupent L’Usage des plaisirs et le Souci de soi, ultimes publications de l’auteur, au sein de son oeuvre. / In this dissertation, I revisit Foucault’s work through the various analyses he offered between 1981 and 1984 while teaching at the Collège de France. Against the opinion which sees a radical turn in Foucault’s thought – opinion which is seemingly justified by the author’s break with his past demonstrations on the relation between power and knowledge, and his shift towards the study of the various spiritual exercises in Antiquity – I illustrate that there is a continuity and a complementarity between his earlier studies and his later interests. Foucault uncovers, at the basis of Greco-roman political practice, an ethics defined as an exercise of the self. He then attempts, throughout his last years at the Collège de France, to reinstate askêsis as the long forgotten foundation of ethics, and the êthos as the condition of political efficiency. Until 1980, Foucault is mainly interested by the mechanisms and devices enabling the government of populations. From 1980 on, it is the question of the government of self as a necessary condition for the government of others which invests his analyses. My objective, throughout this dissertation, is to illustrate how Foucault’s redefinition of ethics allows him to advocate a new theory of resistance in his last years at the Collège de France. This dissertation therefore implicitly suggests further clarification pertaining to the function of Foucault’s last two publications (L’usage de plaisir and Le souci de soi) within his work understood as a whole.

À la lecture d’ouvrages philosophiques anciens, nous sommes souvent surpris par la virulence des critiques adressées à l’écriture, dans la mesure où ces critiques nous parviennent au moyen de textes écrits. N’est-il pas paradoxal de tout à la fois rejeter et utiliser une même technologie ? Ou est-ce que les pratiques de l’oralité et de l’écriture des philosophes grecs, telles que ceux-ci les décrivent dans leurs ouvrages, peuvent être cohérentes avec leurs critiques ? Notre thèse visait, d’une part, à répondre à ce questionnement en confrontant les pratiques des philosophes anciens aux critiques qu’ils adressent à l’écriture, par le biais d’une étude systématique des discours sur la lecture et l’écriture dans des textes anciens d’auteurs et d’époques variés, et notamment des textes qui n’ont pas l’écriture pour objet. D’autre part, comme les travaux déjà publiés sur ce thème tentaient le plus souvent de trouver le point de rupture entre la tradition orale et la tradition écrite (cf. Havelock 1963, Lentz 1989), nous avons voulu inscrire notre objet d’étude dans une plus longue durée, ce qui nous a permis de constater qu’une rupture radicale entre les philosophes de tradition orale et ceux appartenant à la tradition écrite n’avait pas eu lieu, et que l’on observait plutôt une continuité des critiques et des pratiques de l’oralité et de l’écriture depuis l’époque classique jusqu’à l’Antiquité tardive. Malgré le développement de nouveaux supports matériels pour l’écriture, l’émergence d’une religion du livre, et la mise à l’écrit des poèmes homériques, la tradition philosophique grecque témoigne d’un usage circonspect de l’écriture et du refus de rejeter définitivement l’oralité. / When we read ancient philosophical works, often we are surprised to find that the Greek philosophers strongly criticize literacy, as we are still confronted with a written text. Is it not paradoxical to reject a technology while still using it? Or is the philosophers’ practice of literacy, as described in their works, consistent with their criticism? Is the philosophers’ practice of literacy, as described in their works, consistent with their criticism of it? This thesis aims to answer these questions, firstly, by comparing the ancient philosophers’ criticism of literacy to their practice of it, through the study of what various authors from various periods say about reading and writing. On the other hand, since earlier works on this topic have proposed that the classical period witnessed a sudden and, to a certain extent, definitive turn to literacy, and have tried to locate this turn in time, I have examined the situation in a broader perspective, over a longer period of time. The results show that, if we consider how philosophers criticize literacy and how they describe themselves in their own discourses, literacy patterns tended to remain similar until late Antiquity; and that, in spite of Aristotle's new use of literacy, the criticism we find in Plato lingers on. As a result, what we usually call the transition from an oral tradition to a written tradition could be better viewed as a cultural continuity. In spite of the commitment to writing recording of the Homeric poems, of the emerging of a book-centered religion, and notwithstanding an evident use of literacy, the ancient philosophical tradition testifies to a refusal, both theoretical and practical, of throwing away orality.

This thesis focuses on the Celestine monks of France, a largely neglected and distinctive reformed Benedictine congregation, at their apex of growth (c.1350-1450). Based largely within the kingdom of France, but also including key houses in the contiguous territories of Lorraine and the Comtat, they expanded significantly in this period, from four monasteries to seventeen within a hundred years. They also gained independence from the mother congregation in Italy with the coming of the Great Western Schism (1376-1418). The study aims view the French Celestines against the backdrop of a vibrant culture of 'reform' within both the monastic estate (the Observants) and the Church as a whole, as well as the political instability and war in France. It will reveal a congregation alive with the passions of their times and relevant within them. Following an introductory section, chapter 1 will discuss the previously unstudied Vita of the leading French Celestine Jean Bassand (d.1445) in depth and introduce the key themes of the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 will examine their Constitutions, in the process providing perspective on their hyper-scrupulous understanding of sin and the relation of their statutes to the Christian idea of 'reform'. Chapter 3 will look to anecdotal evidence concerning the quality of their observance in practice, as well the spiritual and moral writings of Pierre Pocquet (d.1408), another important Celestine leader. Chapter 4 will begin to establish how and why the order grew, examining records of benefaction (contemporary martyrologies and charters) as well as taking view of the financial (and in the end, moral) difficulties brought by war through the documents concerning the reductions of founded masses at the Paris and Sens houses. Chapter 5 will look at monumental and anecdotal/literary evidence, as well as the works of Jean Gerson, a friend of the order, to further define the cultural impact of the monks.

Ce mémoire est une traduction et un commentaire historique du livre 11 des Variae de Cassiodore concernant la période où il occupait le poste de préfet du prétoire (533-537). Si les Variae sont de la première importance comme sources pour l’Italie ostrogothique, cela ne se reflète malheureusement pas encore dans l’accessibilité du texte, qui n’a pas encore fait l’objet d’une traduction française ou d’un commentaire historique complet, d’où la nécessité de ce mémoire. On possède en effet peu de sources aussi pertinentes pour le VIe siècle en Italie, et ce qu’on sait par ailleurs sur l’administration de l’époque provient de sources éloignées géographiquement ou chronologiquement. Un commentaire de ce livre nous permet donc de dresser un bon portrait du préfet du prétoire et de son office ainsi que de la situation en Italie entre les années 530 et 540. / This thesis is a translation and historical commentary of the book 11 of the Variae by Cassiodorus corresponding to the period he served as praetorian prefect (533-537) under Ostrogothic rule. The Variae are sources of primary importance for Ostrogothic Italy, and they are not yet translated or commented in French, which is what this thesis will attempt to do for the book 11. It is indeed a very important and relevant source to the 6th century in Italy because all others sources for this subject are distant, geographically or chronologically. A commentary on this book allows us to draw a better picture of the praetorian prefect and his office as well as the situation in Italy between 530 A.D. and 540 A.D.