This first study of the late medieval Greek churches in Cyprus investigates over 300 buildings. It addresses the historical and artistic context of these churches, the first part containing more traditional methodological approaches such as the analysis of stylistic developments – the exchange between Western, Gothic and Eastern, Levantine architectural idioms and their formal impact on local Byzantine traditions. The second part discusses individual and collective identities and their negotiation through architectural works within the multicultural Cypriot society. The study contributes to the apprehension of dynamics of cultural exchange in late medieval eastern Mediterranean.

The work of Pierre d'Ailly (1350-1420) is a reflection of the intellectual questions of the late Middle Ages. His texts reveal a pronounced interest in the comprehensive order that connects man with the universe. This study reconstructs the intellectual approach of the philosopher and theologian from Cambrai, looking at two complementary axes: microcosm and macrocosm. The philosophical writings on the human soul are thus placed in relation to the late treatises on the world view.

Il volume contiene la prima edizione critica dello Scriptum super III-VIII libros Politicorum di Pietro d’Alvernia, ideato e realizzato come continuazione del commento alla Politica interrotto da Tommaso d’Aquino e divenuto, insieme a questo, il commento alla Politica, l’interpretazione imprescindibile per quanti, nei secoli successivi, avrebbero interpretato o fatto ricorso all’opera aristotelica. Già affetto da errori nella prima fase della sua trasmissione – la fase che vide l’allestimento dell’exemplar universitario a partire da un codice trascritto e meticolosamente revisionato da uno scriba assai prossimo all’autore, se non dall’autore stesso –, lo Scriptum era finora disponibile in una versione che, esito di una plurisecolare vicenda editoriale, lo aveva velato di una patina umanistica, alterandone il vocabolario, sopprimendone o modificandone i contenuti. Precede il testo del commento, seguendone le scansioni in capitoli, il testo latino della Politica nella traduzione di Gugliemo di Moerbeke, in un’edizione ‘pragmatica’.

The Middle High German treatise ›Forty Bundles of Myrrh of Christ's Passion‹ combines traditional exegesis of the Song of Songs with detailed instructions for the correct contemplation of the Passion of Christ by means of fictive dialogues. The treatise, which was probably written for beguines in the first half of the 15th century in the Hospitaller commandery zum Grünen Wörth in Strasbourg, is analyzed and edited for the first time, in three parts divided into two volumes. The first part traces the function of the biblical passage Ct 1,12 within the exegetical tradition and examines the form and content of the ›Forty Bundles of Myrrh of Christ's Passion‹. In the second part, the surviving textual witnesses (eleven manuscripts and two copies of an incunable edition) are catalogued as accurately as possible and located within the context of the manuscript transmission. Finally, the third part offers the first edition of this extensive Passion treatise in an easily readable form and makes the most important variants as well as the different textual levels accessible through a critical apparatus.

Esse est movere - to be is to move. Contrary to our static notions of medieval philosophy, Nicolaus Cusanus in the 15th century sketches a dynamic view of the world in which creatures are independent and self-acting beings. For the elaboration of this dynamic ontology, the study offers a concept-historical analysis of dynamics: the dynamis of the Aristotelian doctrine of movement leads via the Neoplatonic 'force' and the 'divine omnipotence' of the patristic period to the medieval potentia. The philosophical starting point is contemporary process philosophy, for which Cusanus' dynamic approach certainly represents an opportunity.

The publication presents the results of the interdisciplinary Freiburg Colloquium 2021 (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland) "Paradigms and Perspectives of Comparative Medieval Studies". The contributions explore the theoretical and methodological premises of historically orientated comparative research that focuses on the specific cultural conditions of the pre-modern period. The focus is on two central paradigms in current medievalist discourse: the materiality and mediality of medieval manuscript culture on the one hand and the central role of the Latin language as a supra-regional lingua franca and motor for exchange and innovation across linguistic and cultural borders on the other.

The Cistercian abbey Altzelle was, during the Late Middle Ages, one of the most important educational centers in the area of present-day Saxony. The libraries of Altzelle produced significant German-language manuscripts, which this work hopes to analyze with an orientation to the background of the former areas of learning within the convent. According to the analysis, these texts bear witness to an intensified effort at instruction, which, with respect to annunciation and catechesis strongly reflects on German as a vernacular language. In this way the study provides a window into the arrangement of vernacular instruction and education in the first decades of the 15th century.

The 'Letter Book' served as the basis for the formation of a community identity in the monastery Zum Grünen Wörth. What is unusual about this manuscript are the two conversion texts declared as autographs, the 'Four Years' of the founder Rulman Merswins and the 'Five Men's Book' of the (fictitious) friend of God in the Oberland, who acts as co-founder of the monastery. The new edition and first complete edition of the 'Letter Book' is introduced with studies on the palaeographic and codicological peculiarities of the manuscript and with a historical contextualisation. The picture cycle of the 'Master's Memorial' intended for the German Prior of St John is also analysed for the first time, of which the 'Letterbook' contains the accompanying title poems.