Secrets and Discovery in the Middle Ages
Proceedings of the 5th European Congress of the Federation Internationale des Instituts d'Etudes Medievales (Porto, 24 to 29 June 2013)
Edited by Jose Meirinhos Edited by Celia Lopez Edited by Joao Rebalde
Fascination with secrets traverses the Middle Ages. A secret is shared by few and coveted by many, requiring a lot of those who have to keep it, or those who want to disclose it. A secret is power, hence the eagerness to discover it. But as curiosity can lead to the abyss and punishment, discovering secrets also requires prudence and caution. The relationship between secret and discovery expresses itself in the Middle Ages, as in all times, through many other dynamic dualities: mystery and revelation, arcane and evidence, unknown and sought, ignorance and knowledge, esoteric and exoteric, private message and edict, hidden and manifest, conspiracy and complaint. The secret is in the nature, which does everything to hide itself, while he reveals itself in many ways, but only to those who know how to interpret it. So in the Middle Ages there are sciences for all secrets: of God, of elements and things, of the stars, of physiognomy, of women, of happiness, of the delights of paradise, of relics, of holiness, of the inner life, of sin, of power, of distant peoples and lost places, and of countless other things. The secret is itself a big secret. The secret is everywhere, in the narratives of search and discovery, in public or private action, in sciences, in books or encyclopedias. One of the most popular medieval texts, the Secretum secretorum, which collects the secrets of health, politics, nature, astrology, magic, alchemy, becomes a model for the many of the literary works composed to uncover secrets, that thus, paradoxically, cease to be. The secret holds dangerous and valuable knowledge ranging from counterfeiting, to the illusions of the imagination, or the triumph of reason and wisdom. The secret and its avatars were a silent yet strong driving force in almost all aspects of the Middle Ages. This volume includes the Proceedings of the 5th FIDEM’s Congress (Porto, 25th -29th June 2013) Secrets and Discovery in the Middle Ages, discussing their presence and importance in the imagination, culture, thinking, sciences, politics, religion, and life, from the beginning of the 6th to the end of the 15th century.
- Edited by Jose Meirinhos
- Edited by Celia Lopez
- Edited by Joao Rebalde
Other Titles in this Series
Form and content of instruction in Anglo-Saxon England in the light of contemporary manuscript evidence
Papers presented at the International Conference, Udine, 6-8 April 2006
Volume 39
Reading Sacred Scripture with Thomas Aquinas
Hermeneutical Tools, Theological Questions and New Perspectives
Volume 80
Les Auctoritates Aristotelis, leur utilisation et leur influence chez les auteurs medievaux
Etat de la question 40 ans apres la publication
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Scholastica colonialis – Reception and Development of Baroque Scholasticism in Latin America, 16th-18th Centuries
Volume 72
Metaphysics in the Twelfth Century
On the Relationship among Philosophy, Science and Theology
Volume 19
Rethinking and Recontextualizing Glosses
New Perspectives in the Study of Late Anglo-Saxon Glossography
Volume 54
Los oficios de los diplomas latinos de la Cataluna altomedieval
Estudio de las innovaciones lexicas: XI Premio Internacional de Tesis Doctorales Fundacion Ana Maria Aldama Roy de Estudios Latinos
Volume 106
Dictionarium Latinum Andrologiae, Gynecologiae et Embryologiae u Diccionario Latino de Andrologia, Ginecologia y Embriologia
Ab Antiquitate usque ad XVI saeculum u Desde la Antiguedad hasta el siglo XVI
Volume 74
Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109). Philosophical Theology and Ethics
Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Medieval Philosophy, held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre / Brazil (02-04 September 2009)
Volume 60
Individui universali. Il realismo di Gualtiero di Mortagne nel XII secolo
IV Premio Internacional de Tesis Doctorales, Fundacion Ana Maria Aldama Roy de Estudios Latinos
Volume 85
L’humain, le réel et le divin
Implications philosophiques et théologiques de l’eucharistie, 11e18e siècle
Volume 108
Il Calamo dell’esistenza
La corrispondenza epistolare tra Sadr al-din al-Qunawi e Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Volume 92
Classica et Beneventana
Essays Presented to Virginia Brown on the Occasion of her 65th Birthday
Volume 36
La letteratura di istruzione nel Medioevo germanico
Studi in onore di Fabrizio D. Raschella
Volume 87
Prosper d’Aquitaine contre Jean Cassien
Le Contra collatorem, l'appel a Rome du parti augustinien dans la querelle postpelagienne
Volume 91
New Essays on Metaphysics as Scientia Transcendens
Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Medieval Philosophy, held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre/Brazil, 15-18 August 2006
Volume 43
Continuities and Disruptions between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Proceedings of the colloquium held at the Warburg Institute, 15-16 June 2007, jointly organised by the Warburg Institute and the Gabinete de Filosofia Medieval
Volume 48
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