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Research on medieval Iceland--focusing on the period of the Commonwealth, from the establishment of the National parliament of 36 chiefdoms in 930 to submission to the Norwegian King in 1264--generally assumes a perennial subsistence economy, neglects the significance of trade, and lacks focus on changes in farming systems and tributary relations. This dissertation deals with the formation of chiefdoms, communities, ecclesiastical institutions and state, and with production for market, subsistence and tribute in early Iceland in the context of climatic change and ecological succession. Based on the integrative use of narrative, legal and economic documents, and archaeological and ethnographically derived data, it is argued that foreign markets and domestic credit exchanges were key to productive relations and land tenure and farming systems prior to 1200. This dissertation describes (1) chiefdom formation in terms of the economic rule of merchant-farmers, (2) the integration of a broad-based subsistence economy supporting specialized sheep production and yielding surplus wool for export, (3) freeholder production intensification in the context of mercantile activity, (4) disintensification and a change to a farming system emphasizing sheep reared for efficient milk and meat production, (5) the rise of rent tenure, communal property rights, and tributary systems in contexts of developing ecclesiastic institutions and colonial relations with Norway. The sagas are examined to show how trade enterprises were facilitated through class, transmission of property, a cognatic ego-centered kinship system, marriage, fostering, and household networks. An extensive analysis of Bjarnar saga Hitdaelakappa reveals changes in the modes and means of production and shows the saga employing symbolism relating to marriage and kinship that reflects successive formation of different institutions and professional careers, as well as historically transforming links between Iceland and Norway, secular and ecclesiastical authority, and wealth accumulation and succession. A new model is proposed for looking at the 'secondary exploitation' of livestock and for characterizing levels and means of intensification and specialization in Northern farming. This model is applied to evidence from England pertaining to the period from Iron Age to the 15th century.

This manuscript is housed at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and its catalogue designation is TCD 592 (T). It was published face a face with the other medieval manuscript of the same title (Rawlinson B 490) by the EETS with marginal glosses in 1898. This is the first time it is presented with full critical apparatus, however. / It is likely that T is a late fifteenth century copy of an early fifteenth century translation which was probably done by James Yonge, a Dublin notary working for James Butler, the fourth earl of Ormond. This conclusion was reached mainly because the two surviving medieval manuscripts of this work are both paired by their respective scribes with Yonge's established version of Secreta Secretorum. / Besides an apparatus criticus and textual linguistic and explanatory notes, there is an introduction describing the date, origin, authorship, and historical background of the piece with a chapter discussing Giraldus Cambrensis, author of Expugnatio Hibernica upon which T is based, and his interest in the prophetic material of Merlin Silvester. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: A, page: 0927. / Major Professor: Eugene J. Crook. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Some of the greatest names in medieval literature, Chretien de Troyes, Jean de Meun, Brunetto Latini, and Chaucer, to name a few, proudly include their vernacular adaptations of popular Latin sources within the corpus of their literary work. Yet, as Peter Dembowski points out, critics have paid little attention to the actual mechanics involved in the vernacularization practices. While the common medieval literary processes of auctoritas, translatio, and conjointure linked by Karl D. Uitti to the development of courtly vernacular literature are known to function in the transference of source texts to the vernacular, the role of rhetoric, an aspect of the conjointure process, has as yet remained unexplored. / Taking as its study the popular Latin tale collection, the Disciplina clericalis which appeared as a common source in almost all the vernacular literatures of Western Europe and which enjoyed a tremendous popularity throughout the Middle Ages, this study analyzes how one French vernacularized tale collection, the anonymous thirteenth-century Chastoiement d'un pere a son fils and the Decameron recast through rhetorical manipulation three of the tales found in the Disciplina. / The two prologues of the vernacularizations reveal the outline of a specific rhetorical scheme employed by the vernacularizer in the "adaptation" of the individual tales. Each of the clerks chooses the rhetorical method of argumentation best suited to his purpose. The tales present themselves as the elaborations of one part of the particular rhetorical scheme chosen by the clerk. Thus, rhetorical training not only aides the medieval clerk in the embellishment of the material but also serves him in the "translation" of the material to the new audience. Just as the development of courtly literature depended on the scholastic practices of the interdependent literary processes of auctoritas, translatio, and conjointure, so too the establishment of "bourgeois" literature relied on these same procedures as exercised by the clerks of the courtly tradition. Through these processes and rhetorical techniques, the clerks produced works in the vernacular that took their place next to the source texts. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-08, Section: A, page: 3022. / Major Professor: Lori Walters. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The study attempts to show how the presence and writings of Antonio Beccadelli helped to transform the image of Alfonso IV of Aragon into the most admired and exalted sovereign and Patron of the Arts, Alfonso V the Magnanimous, King of Naples. The first chapter treats the historical, political, and religious conditions of Italy prior to Alfonso's conquest of Naples in 1442, especially from the Anjou period to the court of Robert The Wise, who started a tradition of literary and artistic Patronage in Naples. Chapter two examines the Neapolitan years of Alfonso, his judicial and administrative reforms as well as the King's relation with his subjects. Alfonso's humanistic court, the creation of his library, his passion for manuscripts and the works written in the King's honor represent the contents of the third chapter. Beccadelli's major work De dictis et factis Alphonsi Regis Aragonum is analyzed in Chapter Four with the purpose of showing the idealization of Alfonso's figure and the rapport between the author and his friend and royal protector. Additional elements, such as the Triumphal Arch, medals and coins showing Alfonso as a symbol of imperial glory are included in the fifth chapter to further validate the thesis's premise of Alfonso's transformation. Literary sources from the centuries following Alfonso's era illustrate the fame acquired in Spain and in Italy by the Aragonese sovereign, especially through the ever-increasing popularity of Beccadelli's Dictis et factis. In fact, the work was translated into several languages and excerpts of it were even incorporated in other collections of similar genre, for the transformation of Alfonso's image and his renown through the centuries that followed his death is indeed due exclusively to Antonio Beccadelli's book. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-02, Section: A, page: 0501. / Major Professor: David H. Darst. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

This thirteenth-century epic comes from the manuscript 2.0.1. of the Peterhouse College at the University of Cambridge. It has been written in an Old French dialect and contains 9608 verses which constitute 246 rimed laisses (two other manuscripts can be found; one at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, XIII$\sp{\rm th}$ century and the other at the Bibliotheque de la Faculte de Medecine of Montpellier, XIV$\sp{\rm th}$ century). This epic narrates the life of Maugis, knight, enchanter and soothsayer, who not only fights the Sarrasins before Toledo, Milan or Palermo, but also leads ruthless feudal battles against the emperor Charlemagne. The hero, instructed by an old magician Baudri, soon becomes a fearful conjurer due to his brilliant sense for artfulness. Throughout his numerous audacious feats of skill, the magician is helped by the "fairy-horse" Bayard as well as the famous sword Froberge. / The introduction of this bilingual translation analyzes the main characters, Maugis, Charlemagne, Espiet and the emir Vivien, through a variety of different themes such as the feudal relations between vassals and king, crusades against the pagans, conversions of muslims to christianity and of course, love between knights and sarrasin princesses. The "merveilleux" or supernatural, is the predominant characteristic of this work, and the growing influence of the "matiere de Bretagne" is here, subtilely combined with the traditional rhetoric of the epic. / In conclusion, this epic will be reinserted into the cycle to which it belongs, the rebel cycle, in order to understand better the frequent allusions to other epic heroes such as Girart de Roussillon, Renaut de Montauban ou les quatre fils Aymon. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1347. / Major Professor: Joseph Allaire. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The Morality Vice character, in various manifestations, can be traced from an origin in the medieval drama through the drama of the Restoration. His or her defining characteristics are the use of disguise, the ability to manipulate, the tendency to address the audience directly, the desire to serve the devil by corrupting others, and the participation in a drama that is socially critical and/or morally didactic. / Originally an allegorical character participating in an externalized psychomachia, like Titivillus in the anonymous Mankind, the Vice metamorphosed during the late medieval and Renaissance periods into a unified representative of one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins, like Pride or Wrath in The Castle of Perseverance, appearing both in the comedies and the tragedies. On the Jacobean stage the Vice-figure took on more clearly human characteristics; significant examples of the early 17th century Vices are Shakespeare's Iago, Jonson's Volpone and Mosca, and Tourneur's Vindice. Beginning at this time, the Vice often functions as an instrument of the playwright's social criticism. During the Restoration, the Vice-figure, male or female, takes the form either of the bawd or the manipulator. Representative of the Restoration Vices are Dryden's Lyndaraxa and Zulema in the tragedy The Conquest of Granada, as well as Congreve's Fainall and Marwood in the comedy The Way of the World. / The peculiar quality of the Vice-figure is a charisma which conceals malevolence. Thus this character embodies form and function in the drama by leading the audience empathetically through the psychomachia, the mirror of the moral quandary at the heart of man. The Vice-figure's tenacity can be explained by the fact that the Vice role elucidates human moral behavior. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-09, Section: A, page: 3066. / Major Professor: Bertram H. Davis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This dissertation analyzes local and regional histories written during the 10th to 13th centuries in areas that were historically a part of the Persian Empire. These texts are written in Persian or Arabic or both. Some sources were originally in Arabic and later translated into Persian. The main Persian language local histories that I will address in this dissertation include the Tarikh-i Sistan, Tarikh-i Tabaristan, Tarikh-i Bukhara, Tarikh-i Bayhaq, and Tarikh-i Qum. This project attempts to answer how and why Persian local and regional histories assert a privileged connection with the Prophet Muhammad. I examine the ways in which Persian local and regional histories assert legitimacy, authority, and privileged access to Muhammad, the prophetic experience, and a blessed role in the Islamic umma.

This dissertation explores the central place of semiotic interpretation in the instruction of several medieval genres--Latin and vernacular religious drama, French fabliaux, and Spanish exempla--encompassing both the lesson that is taught and the method for teaching it. It is my contention that teaching the proper way to interpret signs is the didactic focus in these genres and that their authors were also deeply concerned with scrutinizing their own use of signs in conveying this instruction. As medieval sign theory finds its origin in Augustinian semiotics, Chapter 1 of my dissertation raises key considerations in Augustine's discussions of signa that would continue to inform later treatments of interpretation. I establish the intrinsic connection between teaching and the interpretation of signs in his writings as well as his frequent ambivalence on the subject. For the Bishop of Hippo, the proper understanding of sacred signs is the paramount lesson of Christian instruction, with misreading Jews as the primary emblem of faulty interpretation. Signs are also a concern for the pedagogical process (doctrina in its second sense) because the success of any lesson is dependent on the effectiveness of its signs to communicate. Yet, Augustine also places the burden of understanding squarely on the learner who must labor with interpretation and attain personal enlightenment. Augustine clearly admires the pagan classics and acknowledges the dominant role of words in instruction, but, for him, the falsified verbal signs of fiction have no value for teaching. Moreover, non-verbal communication--through inner inspiration and visually apprehended signs or res significandi--is vastly superior to fallen language in transmitting meaning as well as creating memory of what is learned. Yet, Augustine also evinces a suspicion of sensory data. These ideas, including doubts about vision and the value of learning through fictive works, would continue to inform the instruction present in later medieval texts. Chapter 2 examines the persistence of Augustinian concepts in medieval religious plays from early church drama through the Middle English cycles. These texts are mainly concerned with teaching the proper interpretation of sacred signa, following Augustine, particularly through the characterization of Jews who fail to read signs correctly. Medieval religious drama also endorses the value of non-verbal communication--through a reliance on individual faith as a precursor to comprehension and through dramatic res such as setting, gesture, and costume--both in conveying semiotic instruction and rendering it memorable. Jewish characters are further portrayed as working against these ideas, representatives of a failure to learn by seeing and believing, who seek instead to force interpretation through violence. Chapter 3 examines a genre in which the presence of doctrinal instruction is debatable, the French fabliaux, and identifies a consistent emphasis on the risks of interpretation across the vast corpus. All signs, verbal and visual, are potentially insufficient in constructing meaning and open to manipulation, emblematized primarily by the actions of deceptive women. Fabliaux evince a self-consciousness about their ability to present these hazards both because they do so through the medium of poetry and because they must rely on signs to make their point. However, the genre ultimately flaunts the insufficiency of its own signs as part of its message, using laughter and mnemonic imagery to promote understanding. Chapter 4 extends the findings on fabliaux to the Spanish Sendebar or Libro de los engaños, a text of questionable didacticism that also emphasizes the role of women in manipulating signs. The practical wisdom derived from the collection--its interest in good counsel and prudence--can likewise be simplified to the need for careful interpretation of signs in a post-lapsarian world. However, through the didactic insufficiency of its tale-telling enterprise, it ultimately affirms the limits of teaching using signs. My dissertation concludes by examining the persistence of many of these ideas in twenty-first-century pedagogy. Recent emphasis on equipping contemporary students with the tools for interpreting signs in an increasingly image-based culture and on promoting the expanded use of visuals in the classroom reiterate longstanding concerns of doctrina. Assessing the instructional role of signs first raised by Augustine and its reconsideration in medieval texts thus sheds new light on didactic content and purpose that continue to inform our endeavors as teachers today.