The TSol is a Christian composition of late antiquity which narrates the story about how King Solomon built the Temple of God with the aid of demons he subjugated. Comparative analysis between the TSol and Jewish literature of late antiquity (between the closing centuries BCE and the Talmudic era), and the New Testament is primarily to establish any literary dependence and explore the nature of contact between the TSol and these materials; and also to isolate Jewish elements in the TSol. The Jewish materials discussed are the Hebrew Bible, the LXX, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon, Pseudo-Philo, certain Qumran documents (11 PsApa and the Copper scroll), Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Song of Songs, rabbinic literature, and certain Aramaic incantation texts. My research has shown that parallels do exist between the TSol, the Jewish literature discussed and the New Testament. The parallels between the TSol and the aforementioned literature are twofold: verbal and conceptual. Verbal parallels occur in the form of technical terminology; quotations, allusions and echoes. The second type of parallels appears in the form of motifs, themes, structural elements and ideas. These parallels seem to dominate in my analysis. There is no need to explain the parallels between the TSol and the literature discussed in terms of literary dependence. I have attempted to demonstrate that these parallels in most of the literature are indicative of indirect influence through shared use of the biblical tradition: motifs, stories and themes regarding King Solomon; a common fund of oral tradition(s) regarding Solomon's magical power over demonic world; shared literary language, milieu, and cultural conventions. Moreover, the author of the TSol seems to have recycled Jewish materials pertaining to Solomon and related motifs in his work. Apart from the New Testament, the best case for a direct influence of a Jewish work on the TSol is Tobit.

The dissertation identifies the beacons of canon development during the first five hundred years of Christianity. These beacons are processes, events and certain persons from general as well as dogmatic history, which played a formative role in canon development. The beacons are placed within the historical, geographical and theological milieu, in which it took place. It especially emphasises the role of human conduct and decisions in the process of canon development. It provides a background of the development of a complex Judaism as the origin of Christianity, and demonstrates the continuous impact of Judaism on Christian canon development. The differences presented between these two independent religions are also mentioned. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / M. Th. (Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics)

This dissertation examines the role and position of Jewish women in the Near East between 200 BCE - 200 CE. This was a very important period in Jewish legal and cultural history. The redaction of the Mishnah, the oldest extant body of Jewish law, was completed at approximately the end of the time under review, and was to have a lasting influence on the Jewish people. No society exists in a vacuum. During these years the Jews lived within the GraecoRoman Empire and this reflected on their attitudes towards women. To appreciate this it has been necessary to go back in time to the Hebrew Bible and to trace any attitudinal changes which occurred over the centuries. Although the Mishnah has been regarded as the terminus ad quem of this investigation, brief mention is also made of prevailing attitudes affecting women in present day Jewish society. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Judaica)

Ce travail de thèse est consacré aux images murales de la vie terrestre de la Vierge, une séquence iconographique composée de l’histoire de la jeunesse de Marie et des épisodes de la vie du Christ auxquels la Vierge est associée, jusqu’à la Pentecôte. La recherche s’inscrit dans un cadre chronologique étendu, depuis le premier art chrétien jusqu’au concile de Trente. Elle repose sur une abondante documentation iconographique qui comporte plus de 2300 images, peintures et mosaïques murales, conservées en France et en Italie. La première partie du mémoire est consacrée à l’analyse quantitative de la documentation iconographique, selon un triple point de vue. Une analyse thématique permet de déterminer trois séquences chronologiques dans le déroulement de la vie terrestre de la Vierge, tout en précisant l’importance quantitative de chacun des thèmes iconographiques étudiés. Une analyse de la répartition géographique des différents sites de conservation répertoriés révèle des caractéristiques spatiales propres à chacun des territoires étudiés, en lien avec l’histoire locale. Enfin, une analyse chronologique permet d’intégrer les images murales recensées aux grandes phases de l’histoire de l’art, tout en mettant en lumière les décors les plus emblématiques. La seconde partie du mémoire est dédiée à l’enquête iconographique à proprement parler. En forme de préambule, les différentes sources textuelles utilisées dans le cadre de cette recherche sont présentées. Elles ont été regroupées en trois catégories : les sources canoniques, les évangiles apocryphes et les textes médiévaux. L’analyse iconographique des différents thèmes qui composent la vie terrestre de la Vierge s’organise autour des trois séquences qui ont été déterminées : les épisodes qui précèdent la naissance du Christ (jeunesse de Marie et Incarnation), ceux de l’Enfance de Jésus (de la Nativité à Jésus parmi les Docteurs) et ceux de l’âge adulte du Christ dans lesquels Marie joue un rôle (des Noces de Cana à la Pentecôte). Cette analyse a pour objectif de déterminer les éléments constitutifs des différents thèmes iconographiques étudiés, de mettre en place une typologie propre à chacun, en soulignant les constantes et les points de rupture. La mise en exergue des liens qui existent entre les images et les sources textuelles constitue également un enjeu prioritaire de cette recherche. Des questions transversales, relatives au développement d’une iconographie proprement mariale, aux processus de diffusion des images, à la perception de la figure mariale comme un modèle édifiant et à l’étude du rapport entre les images et les textes ou leur emplacement dans l’espace ecclésial sont présentées sous la forme de réflexions conclusives. En parallèle, une sélection d’images murales de la vie terrestre de la Vierge, choisies pour leur exemplarité par rapport à l’argumentation de l’analyse, est présentée sous la forme de trois catalogues correspondant aux séquences narratives déjà évoquées. Ils s’accompagnent d’une bibliographie sélective concernant les différents sites de conservation présentés dans chacun des catalogues. D’autres outils bibliographiques sont mis à disposition dans un volume d’annexes. Un répertoire thématique, récapitulant toutes les images murales qui appartiennent à la documentation iconographique de l’étude, est également fournit en annexe. / This thesis is devoted to wall images of the Virgin’s earthly life, an iconographic sequence composed of the young Mary’s history and episodes from Christ’s life which are related to the Virgin, until Pentecost. This research comes within the extended framework from the early Christian art to the Council of Trent. It is based on an abundant iconographic documentation which includes more than 2300 pictures, wall paintings and mosaics, preserved in France and Italy. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the quantitative analysis of the iconographic documentation, according to a triple point of view. A thematic analysis identifies three phases in the chronological sequence of the Virgin’s earthly life, while specifying the quantitative importance of each of the studied iconographic themes. An analysis of the geographical distribution of different listed conservation sites reveals spatial characteristics which are specific to each territory studied, in connection with local history. Finally, a chronological analysis allows to integrate wall images from great phases of the art history, as well as to highlight the most emblematic decorations. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the iconographic investigation itself. As preamble, the various textual sources used in this research are presented. They are grouped into three categories : canonical sources, apocryphal gospels and medieval texts. The iconographic analysis of different themes about the Virgin’s earthly life are organized around three sequences : episodes preceding Christ’s birth (youth of Mary and Incarnation), those of Jesus’ Childhood (from the Nativity to Jesus among the Doctors) and those of adult Christ in which Mary plays a role (from Wedding at Cana to Pentecost). This analysis’ objective is to determine the different components of studied iconographic themes and to establish their specific typology, while stressing constants and breakpoints. The highlighting of the links between images and textual sources is also a priority of this research. Cross-cutting issues related to the development of Marian iconography itself, the process of images diffusion, the perception of the Marian figure as an edifying model and the study of the link between images and texts or their location in the ecclesial space are presented in the form of concluding reflections. In parallel, a selection of wall images of the Virgin’s earthly life, chosen according to the analysis arguments for their exemplary nature, is represented as three catalogues matching narrative sequences mentioned above. The selective bibliography on the various conservation sites is presented in each catalogue. Other bibliographic tools are provided in appendices volume. A thematic directory, listing all the wall images that belong to the iconographic documentation of the study, is also provided in appendix.

La Maríu saga est une saga hagiographique anonyme d’origine monastique faisant le récit de la vie de Marie, de sa conception à son Assomption, rédigée en langue vernaculaire et composée entre le dernier tiers du XIIIe siècle et la seconde moitié du XIVe siècle en Islande. Assortie d’une traduction inédite du texte, la présente étude se propose comme une nouvelle approche de la Maríu saga que nous inscrivons dans la longue tradition littéraire et théologique des Vies de la Vierge, des biographies homilétiques mariales tributaires des évangiles apocryphes composées par des moines et théologiens du VIIe au Xe siècle dans l’Empire Byzantin, et que nous situons dans le contexte littéraire et culturel européen médiéval afin de mettre en lumière les enjeux poétiques et doctrinaux que soulève l’acte d’écrire et de réécrire la vie de la Vierge en Islande au Moyen Âge. Pour ce faire, nous envisageons l’œuvre de différents points de vue, d’abord de l’histoire de la réception des textes bibliques et parabibliques, ensuite contextuel et philologique, puis littéraire et enfin théologique. Nous nous employons à montrer à travers son étude poétique et doctrinale que, à l’exemple des vies de Marie médiévales ecclésiastiques, la Maríu saga manifeste des spécificités propres au foyer culturel de son époque : medium entre la littérature et la théologie, l’œuvre est un texte hagiographique narratif qui présente le double intérêt d’être à la fois un témoin de la pratique de la réécriture hagiographique en langue vernaculaire et le reflet du développement dogmatique et de l’évolution de la réflexion théologique sur Marie, et de fait sur le Christ, en Islande médiévale. / Maríu saga is an anonymous hagiographic saga relating the story of Mary’s life, from her Conception to her Assumption, written in the vernacular and composed in the monastic milieu between the last third of the thirteenth century and the second half of the fourteenth century in Iceland. Coupled with an unprecedented translation of the text, this dissertation offers a new approach to Maríu saga that I situate within the long literary and theological tradition of the Lives of the Virgin – these Marian biographic homilies which draw on apocryphal gospels were composed by monks and theologians from the seventh to the tenth century in the Byzantine Empire –, and that I put into the European medieval literary and cultural context in order to examine the literary and doctrinal issues raised by the act of writing and rewriting the life of the Virgin in Iceland in the Middle Ages. I successively consider Maríu saga from different perspectives: in a first part, from the history of the reception of biblical and parabiblical texts; in a second part, from an historical and a philological aspect; in a third part, from a literary point of view; and in a fourth part, from a theological angle. My aim is to demonstrate through the study of its poetics and its doctrine that, like the medieval ecclesiastical lives of Mary, Maríu saga bears specific features of its cultural area of its time: medium between literature and theology, this work is a narrative hagiographic text that presents the double interest of being the witness both to the practice of hagiographic rewriting in the vernacular and to the doctrinal development and the evolution of the theological reflection on Mary, and in fact on Christ, in medieval Iceland.

The dissertation identifies the beacons of canon development during the first five hundred years of Christianity. These beacons are processes, events and certain persons from general as well as dogmatic history, which played a formative role in canon development. The beacons are placed within the historical, geographical and theological milieu, in which it took place. It especially emphasises the role of human conduct and decisions in the process of canon development. It provides a background of the development of a complex Judaism as the origin of Christianity, and demonstrates the continuous impact of Judaism on Christian canon development. The differences presented between these two independent religions are also mentioned. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics)

This dissertation examines the role and position of Jewish women in the Near East between 200 BCE - 200 CE. This was a very important period in Jewish legal and cultural history. The redaction of the Mishnah, the oldest extant body of Jewish law, was completed at approximately the end of the time under review, and was to have a lasting influence on the Jewish people. No society exists in a vacuum. During these years the Jews lived within the GraecoRoman Empire and this reflected on their attitudes towards women. To appreciate this it has been necessary to go back in time to the Hebrew Bible and to trace any attitudinal changes which occurred over the centuries. Although the Mishnah has been regarded as the terminus ad quem of this investigation, brief mention is also made of prevailing attitudes affecting women in present day Jewish society. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Judaica)

Vibraphone performance continues to be an expanding field of music. Earliest accounts of the presence of the vibraphone and vibraphone players can be found in American Vaudeville from the early 1900s; then found shortly thereafter in jazz bands as early as the 1930s, and on the classical concert stage beginning in 1949. Three Pieces for Vibraphone, Opus 27, composed by James Beale in 1959, is the first solo concert piece written exclusively for the instrument. Since 1959, there have been over 690 pieces written for solo concert vibraphone, which stands as evidence of the popularity of both the instrument and the genre of solo concert literature. Christopher Deane has contributed to solo vibraphone repertoire with works that are regarded as staples in the genre. Deane's compositions for vibraphone consistently expand the technical and musical potential of the instrument. Performance of Deane's vibraphone works requires a performer to utilize grips and specific performance techniques that are departures from standard performance practices. Many of the performance techniques needed to successfully execute these pieces are not routinely found in either percussion pedagogy courses or performance ensemble situations. As a result, most percussionists are not familiar with these techniques and will require additional assistance, instruction, or demonstrations. The impetus of this document is to present explanations and solutions for performance areas that require extended performance techniques, to offer recommendations on the creation, choosing, and manipulating of special implements, and to propose varied choices related to artistic interpretation of three of Deane's vibraphone pieces: Mourning Dove Sonnet (1983), The Apocryphal Still Life (1996), and Dis Qui Etude (2004).

This thesis addresses the gap in the scholarly record pertaining to the explicit relationship between gospel genre and implied audience. This thesis challenges the consensus that the canonical gospels were written to/for individual communities/churches and that these documents (gospels) address the specific historical/social circumstances of each community. It is argued in the thesis that the Evangelists chose the genre of biography because it was the genre that was best suited to present the words and deeds of Jesus to the largest possible audience. The central thesis is supported by four lines of evidence: two external and two internal (Chapters 3-6). Furthermore, the thesis is bolstered by a new typology for Greco-Roman biography that arranges the biographical examples within a relational matrix. Chapter 2 is integral to the main thesis of this dissertation in that it proposes nuanced language capable of being applied to specific kinds of biographies with the emphasis on the relationship to implied audience. Chapter 2 sets the boundaries of the discussion of genre as a vital factor in potentially determining audience as well as raising the important consideration that genres are representative of authorial choice and intent. Chapters 3 and 4 take up the discussion of the two lines of external evidence pertinent to placing the Gospels within the relational typology proposed in chapter 2. Chapter 3 supports the main argument of the thesis in that it demonstrates that the earliest Christian interpreters of the Gospels did not understand them to be sectarian documents written specifically to and/or for specific sectarian Christian communities. The second line of external evidence, taken up in chapter 4, deals with the wider context of Jesus literature in the second/third century. We argue that these texts, if any of them are indeed biographies, were part of the wider Christian practice of writing and disseminating literary presentations of Jesus and Jesus traditions. Chapters 5 and 6 address the lines of internal evidence and chapter 5 deals specifically with the difficulty in reconstructing the various gospel communities that might lie behind the gospel texts. It is argued that the genre of biography does not allow us to reconstruct these communities with any detail. Finally, chapter 6 is concerned with the ‘all nations’ motif present in all four of the canonical gospels. The ‘all nations’ and ‘sending’ motifs in the Gospels suggest an evangelistic tone for the Gospels and further suggest an ideal secondary audience beyond those who could be identified as Christian.

Qu’ils mettent en avant une figure historique ou un personnage fictif, les Mémoires de Courtilz de Sandras, publiés entre 1687 et 1758, marquent l’essor d’une forme romanesque fondée sur le simulacre de l’écriture mémorialiste. Ces romans empruntent l’aspect de mémoires dont les signataires fictifs sont des acteurs du règne de Louis XIII ou des contemporains parfois célèbres de Courtilz ; cependant, loin d’induire en erreur le lectorat, l’origine fictive de ces récits, qui justifie le qualificatif d’apocryphes, n’a pas empêché les critiques des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles de déceler derrière les auteurs supposés la présence d’un romancier anonyme. Entre illusion et vérité, ces pseudo-mémoires à la première personne, qui mêlent véracité biographique, exactitude historique et invention romanesque, invitent à redéfinir les notions d’authenticité et de fiction, à la lumière du pacte tacite qui s’établit entre l’auteur et le lecteur, unis dans une conscience commune du simulacre. L’examen des rapports complexes que ces textes entretiennent avec les mémoires et l’histoire permet de les situer dans l’évolution des formes romanesques à l’âge classique. Enfin, la fiction de l’écriture mémorialiste autorise un brouillage des voix dont l’analyse révèle la pluralité des discours mis en œuvre par Courtilz : à la voix du mémorialiste fictif se superpose et souvent s’oppose la voix du romancier, qui, à travers les faits du récit, formule en filigrane un discours satirique sur le monde, incompatible avec celui des personnages. Véritable instrument polémique, la rencontre de ces discours contradictoires participe d’un univers romanesque pessimiste où transparaît l’échec existentiel des héros. / Whether they highlight a historical figure or a fictional character, the Memoirs of Courtilz de Sandras, published between 1687 and 1758, mark the emergence of a type of fiction based upon the pretence of memorialist writing. These novelistic works assume the form of memoirs whose fictitious authors are individuals from the reign of Louis XIII or well-known contemporaries of Courtilz. Far from misleading the readers, the fictional origin of these narratives, which justifies their being called apocryphal, did not prevent the literary critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from detecting behind the purported authors an anonymous novelist. Between illusion and truth, these so-called memoirs written in the first person, mixing biographical veracity, historical accuracy and fictional invention, urge to redefine the notions of authenticity and fiction, in the light of the tacit pact between the writer and the reader, united in a common awareness of pretence. Studying the complex relationship that these novels share with authentic memoirs and history permits to situate them in the evolution of the works of fiction in the French classical age. The fiction of memorialist writing allows the mixing of the voices, which reveals the plurality of the discourses used by Courtilz: to the voice of the fictitious memorialist, the voice of the novelist is superimposed if not opposed. Through the narrative, the novelist implicitly expresses a satirical speech about the world, irrelevant with the one of the characters. A real instrument of controversy, the interweaving of the two discourses partakes of a pessimistic fictional world which emphasizes the existential failure of the heroes.