|
De Vetula
''De vetula'' ("On the Old Woman") is a long 13th-century elegiac comedy written in Latin. It is pseudepigraphy, pseudepigraphically signed "Ovidius", and in its time was attributed to the classical Latin poet Ovid. It consists of three books of hexameters, and was quoted by Roger Bacon. In its slight plot, the aging Ovid is duped by a go-between, and renounces love affairs. Its interest to modern readers lies in the discursive padding of the story. Attribution Its actual author, "Pseudo-Ovidius" to scholars, has been thought to be Richard de Fournival, but this is not universally accepted. The attribution to Ovid was reinforced by an implausible claim that the poem had been found in his tomb. The poem presents him as a Christian convert. The authorship of Ovid was questioned by the fifteenth-century humanist Angelo Decembrio; in fact Petrarch had already denied that Ovid could be the poet.J. W. Binns, ''Ovid'' (1973), p. 203. There was a translation or paraphrase of the 1370s int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elegiac Comedy
Elegiac comedy was a genre of medieval Latin literature—or drama—which survives as a collection of about twenty texts written in the 12th and 13th centuries in the liberal arts schools of west central France (roughly the Loire Valley). Though commonly identified in manuscripts as ''comoedia'', modern scholars often reject their status as comedy. Unlike Classical comedy, they were written in elegiac couplets. Denying their true comedic nature, Edmond Faral called them Latin ''fabliaux'', after the later Old French ''fabliaux'', and Ian Thomson labelled them Latin comic tales. Other scholars have invented terms like verse tales, rhymed monologues, epic comedies, and Horatian comedies to describe them.Roy (1974), 258 n. 2 The Latin "comedies", the dramatic nature of which varies greatly, may have been the direct ancestors of the ''fabliaux'' but more likely merely share similarities. Other interpretations have concluded that they are primitive romances, student juvenilia, didacti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rithmomachia
Rithmomachia (also known as Rithmomachy, Arithmomachia, Rythmomachy, Rhythmomachy, The Philosophers' Game, and other variants) is an early European mathematical board game. Its earliest known description dates from the eleventh century. The name comes loosely from Greek and means "The Battle of the Numbers." The game is somewhat like chess except that most methods of capture depend on the numbers inscribed on each piece. The game was used as an educational tool that teachers could introduce while teaching arithmetic as part of the ''quadrivium'' to those in Western Europe who received a classical education during the medieval period. David Sepkoski wrote that between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, "rithmomachia served as a practical exemplar for teaching the contemplative values of Boethian mathematical philosophy, which emphasized the natural harmony and perfection of number and proportion, that it was used both as a mnemonic drill for the study of Boethian number theory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poems
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, a prosaic ostensible meaning. A poem is a literary composition, written by a poet, using this principle. Poetry has a long and varied history, evolving differentially across the globe. It dates back at least to prehistoric times with hunting poetry in Africa and to panegyric and elegiac court poetry of the empires of the Nile, Niger, and Volta River valleys. Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa occurs among the Pyramid Texts written during the 25th century BCE. The earliest surviving Western Asian epic poetry, the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', was written in Sumerian. Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese ''Shijing'', as well as religious hymns (the Sanskrit '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libro De Buen Amor
''The Book of Good Love'' (''El libro de buen amor''), considered to be one of the masterpieces of Spanish poetry, is a pseudo-biographical account of romantic adventures by Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, the earliest version of which dates from 1330; the author completed it with revisions and expansions in 1343. The work is considered as the best piece in the medieval genre known as mester de clerecía. ''The Book'' begins with prayers and a guide as to how to read the work, followed by stories each containing a moral and often comical tale. The book contains a heterogeneous collection of various materials united around an alleged autobiographical narrative of the love affairs of the author, who is represented by the episodic character of Don Melón de la Huerta in part of the book. In the book, all layers of late medieval Spanish society are represented through their lovers. Fables and apologues are interspersed throughout the course of the main argument that constit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juan Ruiz
Juan Ruiz (), known as the Archpriest of Hita (''Arcipreste de Hita''), was a medieval Castilian poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, ''Libro de buen amor'' ('' The Book of Good Love''). Biography Origins He was born in Alcalá de Henares. Little is known about him today, save that he was a cleric and probably studied in Toledo. Though his birth name is known to be Juan Ruiz, he is widely referred to by his title of "archpriest of Hita." Imprisonment According to his own book, he was imprisoned for years, thought to be between 1337 and 1350, as punishment for some of his deeds (if the poem is any guide, they were quite inconsistent with his position as priest). However, the poem has long been considered as pseudo-autobiography and the verses that mention his imprisonment appear at the end of the book and are generally thought to have been added after the fact. One of his poems states that he was imprisoned on the order of Gil Albornoz, the Archbishop of Tol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard De Bury
Richard de Bury (24 January 1287 – 14 April 1345), also known as Richard Aungerville or Aungervyle, was an English priest, teacher, bishop, writer, and bibliophile. He was a patron of learning and one of the first English collectors of books. He is chiefly remembered for his '' Philobiblon'', written to inculcate in the clergy the pursuit of learning and the love of books. The ''Philobiblon'' is considered one of the earliest books to discuss librarianship in-depth. Early life Richard de Bury was born near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, the son of Sir Richard Aungervyle, who was descended from a knight who fought for William the Conqueror's men. Aungervyle settled in Leicestershire, and the family came into possession of the manor of Willoughby. Sir Richard Aungervyle died when de Bury was a young boy. He was educated by his maternal uncle John de Willoughby, and after leaving the grammar school was sent to the University of Oxford, where he studied philosophy and theology. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Bradwardine
Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1300 – 26 August 1349) was an English cleric, scholar, mathematician, physicist, courtier and, very briefly, Archbishop of Canterbury. As a celebrated scholastic philosopher and doctor of theology, he is often called ''Doctor Profundus'' ( medieval epithet, meaning "the Profound Doctor"). He acquired several degrees from Oxford, it is presumed he acquired them: B.A. by August 1321, an M.A. by 1323, a B.Th by 1333, and a D.Th by 1348. Life Bradwardine was born in Sussex either at Hartfield or at Chichester, where his family was settled, members of the smaller gentry or burghers. Sources vary about Thomas Bradwardines early life before receiving his degree in 1321, his exact date of birth is unknown but sources point to a date between 1290 and 1300. His place of birth is also unknown but some sources point to it being near Chichester, Sussex, or Harfield. The first concrete sources of his do not appear until he receives his degree in 1321 from Ball ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abu Ma'shar Al-Balkhi
Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, Latinized as Albumasar (also ''Albusar'', ''Albuxar''; full name ''Abū Maʿshar Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Balkhī'' ; , AH 171–272), was an early Persian Muslim astrologer, thought to be the greatest astrologer of the Abbasid court in Baghdad. While he was not a major innovator, his practical manuals for training astrologers profoundly influenced Muslim intellectual history and, through translations, that of western Europe and Byzantium. Life Abu Ma'shar was a native of Balkh in Khurasan, one of the main bases of support of the Abbasid revolt in the early 8th century. Its population, as was generally the case in the frontier areas of the Arab conquest of Persia, remained culturally dedicated to its Sassanian and Hellenistic heritage. He probably came to Baghdad in the early years of the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn (r. 813–833). According to An-Nadim's '' Al-Fihrist'' (10th century), he lived on the West Side of Baghdad, near ''Bab K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy within the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum and the wider Aristotelianism, Aristotelian tradition. His writings cover many subjects including Physics (Aristotle), physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, Poetics (Aristotle), poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, meteorology, History of geology, geology, and government. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. It was above all from his teachings that Western culture, the West inherited its intellectual lexicon, as well as problems and methods of inquiry. As a result, his philosophy has exerted a unique influence on almost every form of knowledge in the West a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing games, and games of chance. A traditional die is a cube with each of its six faces marked with a different number of dots ( pips) from one to six. When thrown or rolled, the die comes to rest showing a random integer from one to six on its upper surface, with each value being equally likely. Dice may also have polyhedral or irregular shapes, may have faces marked with numerals or symbols instead of pips and may have their numbers carved out from the material of the dice instead of marked on it. Loaded dice are designed to favor some results over others for cheating or entertainment. History Dice have been used since before recorded history, and it is uncertain where they originated. It is theorized that dice developed from the practice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques include hand-gathering, spearing, netting, angling, shooting and trapping, as well as more destructive and often illegal techniques such as electrocution, blasting and poisoning. The term fishing broadly includes catching aquatic animals other than fish, such as crustaceans (shrimp/lobsters/ crabs), shellfish, cephalopods (octopus/squid) and echinoderms (starfish/sea urchins). The term is not normally applied to harvesting fish raised in controlled cultivations ( fish farming). Nor is it normally applied to hunting aquatic mammals, where terms like whaling and sealing are used instead. Fishing has been an important part of human culture since hunter-gatherer times, and is one of the few food production activities that ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Persia. The earliest record of backgammon itself dates to 17th-century England, being descended from the 16th-century game of Irish.Forgeng, Johnson and Cram (2003), p. 269. Backgammon is a two-player game of contrary movement in which each player has fifteen pieces, known traditionally as 'men' (short for 'tablemen') but increasingly known as 'checkers' in the US in recent decades. These pieces move along twenty-four 'points' according to the roll of two dice. The objective of the game is to move the fifteen pieces around the board and be first to '' bear off'', i.e., remove them from the board. The achievement of this while the opponent is still a long way behind results in a triple win known as a ''backgammon'', hence the name of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Poems")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Dice")
