Seeing the Invisible in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Papers from 'Verbal and Pictorial Imaging: Representing and Accessing Experience of . 2003) (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy)

de Nie, Giselle

ISBN 10: 2503517595 / ISBN 13: 9782503517599

Published by Brepols Publishers, 2005

About this Item

Boards a little bumped at top edges, else like new. Limiting itself to the vital centuries when the late Roman West reshaped itself into a first Europe, the conference explored the dominant conception of human nature in that era: that human existence was both body (in the visible world of material things) and soul (in the invisible world of spirit). This was a legacy of pre-Christian elements handed down from Greek philosophy and Hebrew Scriptures. Assimilating it to indigenous cultures in the Roman West, many alien to the ancient Mediterranean world, precipitated sea-changes in the understanding of human psychology. Ensuing frictions sparked extraordinary expressions of creativity in words and visual images. It also created dangerously subversive disequilibriums in the collective mentality within elites and between them and majority cultures. The papers in this volume investigate numerous configurations of a new culture taking shape in that volatile environment. They contribute to continuing debates about the cognitive co-ordination of words and pictorial images, and to cross-disciplinary dialogues in such disparate fields as art history, religious literature, mysticism, and cultural anthropology.

Seller Inventory # 2033582

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Seeing the Invisible in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Papers from 'Verbal and Pictorial Imaging: Representing and Accessing Experience of . 2003) (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy)
• Publisher: Brepols Publishers
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 2503517595
• ISBN 13: 9782503517599
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Illustrated.
• Condition: VG
• Dust Jacket Condition: None

About this title

Synopsis

Limiting itself to the vital centuries when the late Roman West reshaped itself into a first "Europe," the conference explored the dominant conception of human nature in that era: that human existence was both body (in the visible world of material things) and soul (in the invisible world of spirit). This was a legacy of pre-Christian elements handed down from Greek philosophy and Hebrew Scriptures. Assimilating it to indigenous cultures in the Roman West, many alien to the ancient Mediterranean world, precipitated sea-changes in the understanding of human psychology. Ensuing frictions sparked extraordinary expressions of creativity in words and visual images. It also created dangerously subversive disequilibriums in the collective mentality within elites and between them and majority cultures. The papers in this volume investigate numerous configurations of a new culture taking shape in that volatile environment. They contribute to continuing debates about the cognitive co-ordination of words and pictorial images, and to cross-disciplinary dialogues in such disparate fields as art history, religious literature, mysticism, and cultural anthropology.

About the Author

Giselle de Nie is a research associate at the Centre for Patristic Research, the Netherlands.