Agostino è una fonte trascurata di Dante, in particolare per quanto riguarda la sua concezione dell’amore. Un›associazione come questa potrebbe sembrare strana e fuori luogo, considerando l’importanza di San Tommaso e Aristotele nelle opere di Dante: il sistema scolastico di Tommaso d’Aquino e l’approccio logico ai problemi dello Stagirita sono entrambi il contrario della affascinante forma di neoplatonismo cristiano del vescovo di Ippona. Tuttavia, uno spazio vuoto per Agostino è stato lasciato nel cuore di Dante: il poeta ha condiviso con (...) il santo l’idea che un amore ardente potrebbe trasformarsi in uno stato di disperazione, la cui definizione corretta è malattia dello spirito. Aegritudo animi. Questa... (shrink)

Three important medieval manuscripts of the "Consolatio Philosophiae" were copied from the same archetype: either a late-ancient archetype or a good copy of one. It existed in Reichenau in the first half of the IX century and was taken by Irish monks to Liegi in the second half of the IX century, where Sedulius Scotus lived and taught. The manuscript belonged to the bishops of Liegi, who closely associated with Sedulius. At the end of the IX century, they had a (...) copy made, which they inserted in the very recent commentary to the m. IX, b. III, written by Bovo of Corvey, together with another short anonymous commentary, a reply to Bovo. Quoting Macrobius, Bovo attacked Boethius and his Neoplatonic opinions, but the anonymous commentary defended him, showing with the help of Calcidius that such opinions are not Neoplatonic, but Platonic or Middle Platonic and not very far from the Catholic faith. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:While studying the history of the Liber figurarum by Joachim of Fiore, I have used the distinction among his followers between Joachimist and Joachites,1 that is between the pupils who respected Joachim’s ideas and the ones who re-created his message, combining his ideas with other apocalyptic themes borrowed from different authors or traditions. Both groups considered Joachim to be a starting point in the history of the Church, but (...) in a dissimilar way: this break sometimes encouraged conflicts and struggles. The meeting between Franciscanism and Joachimism was influenced by such quarrels and perhaps stimulated them. Both the Florensians and the Franciscans divided themselves roughly between Joachimists and Joachites.This fluctuation of opinions becomes clear if one follows the diffusion of the Liber figurarum and the transformations in the cycle of illustrations linked to Joachim’s ideas.The Liber figurarum represents the swan song of a civilization based on figurae, which expressed itself in many forms during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Joachim’s iconographic tradition is actually perfectly in tune with the early medieval tradition of Southern Italy, rooted in the iconography of late antiquity. The key word to describe its most profound essence is “kaleidoscopic.”2 This word, used by Reeves to define Joachim’s outlook, shows the method and the merit of Joachim’s images, grafted onto the trunk of an ancient plant that had deep roots in Southern Italy. Like a kaleidoscope, an image can easily change into a concept, and the concept can easily turn into an image that is at the same time astonishing and coherent. At the base of this unpredictable metamorphic process is the conviction, widespread in the ancient world, because of Plato, that there was an inseparable link between and idea in itself and its external, sensible manifestation. We have an important application of one such kaleidoscope in the art of memory theories.3This notion of idea and copy helped shape late antiquity and early medieval codices. An example is the conjuring effect of two uncovered facades opening the book; a technique we already find in copies of Cassiodorus’s Institutiones and in the Liber Figurarum. Another example is the fading of text into images as in calligrams; or the text moves around an image, changing the direction of perception in relation to the image. Kaleidoscopes also include figures breaking up into other figures, effects which happen when different geometrical figures cross and can be seen in different ways such as when “realistic” figures split or double before our eyes, like Joachim’s eagle-trees. To underline the amazing appearance of a text’s metamorphosis into an image and vice versa, we can have a figure larger than the written part of a page that goes beyond the layout of the manuscript’s leaves. But we can also have small figures in the white margin set on the same line, like visual notes to the text. Sometimes there are also figures that show where a gloss is, for example in the calligrams of the Cassiodorian codice, in some calligrams of the Liber Figurarum and in the psaltery representations in the margins of the Psalterium Decem Chordarum of ms. 322 of the Biblioteca Antoniana Padova. In this process, in which mnemonic inspiration is really, there is continuous interaction between text and margin, between words and images, which contributes to a better understanding of the meaning. In the same way, the methods we have already described allowed an active, watchful, lively use of the hand written single page. You can take visual possession of it or even take hold of it and move it around to read what is written in the opposite direction of the image. The codex will turn from a lector’s hand to the master’s hand and, from it, to the hand of.. (shrink)

Betrifft die Handschrift Cod. 179 der Burgerbibliothek Bern.