Alastair Hamilton | School of Advanced Study, University of London (original) (raw)

Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage. Essays in Honour of Nasser David Khalili, 2023

An account of the mahmal seen by European visitors in Egypt

Hiob Ludolf and Johann Michael Wansleben. Oriental Studies, Politics, and History between Gotha and Africa, 1650-1700, 2023

An account of Johann Michael Wansleben's archaeological discoveries in Egypt and Turkey

Church History and Religious Culture, 2022

The title of this collection of sixteen papers delivered at a conference held in Montepulciano on... more The title of this collection of sixteen papers delivered at a conference held in Montepulciano on 16 and 17 September 2021 suggests that they are centred on a single subject-Cardinal (and now Saint) Roberto Bellarmino and the Jesuits in Montepulciano. In fact only a very few of the contributions touch on the place of Bellarmino's birth. The majority cover a broad variety of other subjects, mainly connected with the Jesuits, but not always even with Bellarmino. Robert Danieluk, for example, has contributed an article on the far later Jesuit scholar Contuccio Contucci, and Francesca Allegri has studied the interesting case of the English Catholic Mary Ward who tried, but failed, between 1621 and 1631, to obtain papal approval of her female congregation known as the 'Jesuitesses' and modelled on the Jesuits. Where Montepulciano itself is concerned, the material is thin. Bellarmino was indeed born there in 1542, and was educated at the new Jesuit school established in 1557. But he left the town when he was sixteen to study in Padua and then in Rome, where he joined the Society of Jesus, and hardly ever seems to have returned. Not even when he was in charge of the diocese of Montepulciano, between 1608 and 1611, does he appear to have visited his birthplace. Nor can the Jesuits claim to have had a particularly glorious past in Montepulciano. The school Bellarmine attended was closed between 1571 and 1605 as a result of various scandals involving the rector and the priests. Although the school was revived and the Jesuits completed the building of a church at the end of the seventeenth century, the surviving library, as Natale Vacalebre points out, was poor. The diocesan archives, studied by Azelio Mariani, contain 26 letters written by Bellarmino from Rome and mainly concerned with the reform of the capitular constitutions (which are further examined by Giovanni Mignoni). Otherwise, apart from Bellarmino's baptismal certificate, there is little of any relevance. A number of the more interesting articles in Bellarmino e i Gesuiti a Montepulciano are about Bellarmino's attitude to contemporary plans and problems. Robert Godding deals with his approach to the study of the lives of the saints, a matter which was coming to the fore thanks to the Dutch Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde whose original proposal to produce a series of biographical studies bore fruit in the association of the 'Bollandists' (named after the slightly younger Jesuit Jean Bolland). Rosweyde submitted his idea to Bellarmino in the shape of an opuscule which had appeared in 1607. He hoped to publish eighteen volumes which would include the original material he possessed on

Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 2024

A review of a book on Turkish studies

Church History and Religious Culture, 2024

Church History and Religious Culture

Review of a book on Anabaptists in Venice

International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 2024

In March 1929, the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, already one of the most successful authors of th... more In March 1929, the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, already one of the most successful authors of the day, gave a talk in Belgium entitled 'Die europäische Idee in der Literatur'. Over two years later, on 5 May 1932, he delivered a lecture at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence on his idea of European unity. He repeated it at the Convegno internazionale in Milan, and, in November 1932, he was invited by the Italian Academy to give a talk on the same theme in Rome. He refused to attend the meeting on account of his opposition to Fascism, but his paper was published by the Freie Presse with the title 'Der geistige Aufbau Europas'. A little later, in the mid-1930s, he prepared a lecture he was going to give, but never gave, in Paris, 'Die Einigung Europas'. He left Austria for good in 1934, going first to England, then, briefly, to the United States, and settled in Brazil in August 1940. He there committed suicide in February 1942. On 27 August 1936, on a previous visit to Brazil, he had delivered a lecture entitled 'L'unité spirituelle de l'Europe', and on 29 October 1940, he gave a further talk in Buenos Aires, 'La unidad espiritual del mundo', repeated in a number of other Argentinian cities with the title 'América en el futuro del mundo'. These six lectures are the subject of Marian Nebelin's Europas imaginierte Einheit. Kulturgeschichte und Antikerezeption bei Stefan Zweig. Although they were given over a period of ten years, and despite their different titles, they are very similar, with only slight variations due to the changing circumstances. They are all the expression of a dream, first of a united Europe and Zweig's version of its history, and finally, in Latin America, of a united world. The dream was supported by a highly simplified cyclical view of world history. Zweig's favourite symbol was the Tower of Babel. He saw the tower, on the one hand, as representing the solidity of human endeavour and united efforts to achieve a common goal. On the other, he interpreted the development of different languages as the destructive tendency to split into rival nations.

Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2023

Church History and Religious Culture, 2023

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2023

Church History and Religious Culture, 2021

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2022

descendants, as a large minority, successful economically, professionally and socially, but at th... more descendants, as a large minority, successful economically, professionally and socially, but at the same time resented and vulnerable, victims of investigations by the Inquisition and of the racial discrimination of the estatutos de limpieza de sangre, the 'statutes of purity of blood', which closed to them the doors of many religious and military orders and could impede a career in the Church, army and government administration. On the face of it this assessment still holds good, but the number and the ubiquity of the Conversos, as we see from some of the papers in the fourth volume of The Conversos and Moriscos in late medieval Spain and beyond, meant that matters were often far more complex. One of the reasons for the complexity was the attitude of the authorities. Certainly, they were divided. Many of them wished to enforce the statutes. But many others hoped, above all, for a total assimilation of the Conversos and an end to any problem this may once have posed. In his superb article on the Council of Basle, with which this book opens, Carlos Gilly discusses the decree passed by the council in September , 'De neophytis', concerning the rights of the New Christians and their descendants. However harsh the measures prescribed against practising Jews may have been, the decree stipulated that the Conversos 'should enjoy all the privileges and immunities and exemptions of the cities and places where they received holy baptism which the other Christians enjoy and should enjoy for reason of their birth'. And it went still further, strongly recommending mixed marriages, urging 'the ordinary people of every place to ensure that … these Conversos join in marriage with old or original Christians'. Over the centuries the decree, almost certainly produced in the Converso circle of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes and Juan de Segovia, met with a mixed reception. It was attacked by Diego de Anaya Maldonado, archbishop of Seville, who promptly excluded Conversos from his own foundation, the Colegio de San Bartolomeo in Salamanca, and many other prelates followed suit. But it was also staunchly defended, and one of its most ardent champions was Ignacio de Loyola, the Old Christian founder of the Society of Jesus. He wanted the new order to include Conversos and persuaded the pope, Paul III, to reproduce the Basle decree in his bull 'Cupientes Iudaeos' of . The other enlightening article on the assimilation of the Conversos is by Enrique Soria Mesa. Its subject is the so-called linajudos, a sordid category of men who blackmailed the Conversos endeavouring to circumvent the estatutos de limpieza. The estatutos, as Soria Mesa has established over years of research, gave rise to innumerable forgeries, a phenomenon with which the Iberian peninsula was fully familiar at a time when ever more attempts were being made to provide histories of Spanish towns proving their Christian origins. The linajudos, frequently accomplished genealogists, would study the records of the Inquisition, purchasing the services of the secretaries, and examine the san benitos or penitential habits suspended in the churches, to find proof not only of Jewish ancestry but also of ancestors condemned by the Holy Office. For some time their trade flourished, but in the

Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 2022

Church History and Religious Culture, 2022

Ludivine Voisin, Les monastères grecs sous la domination latine (xiiie-xvie siècles). Comme un lo... more Ludivine Voisin, Les monastères grecs sous la domination latine (xiiie-xvie siècles). Comme un loup poursuivant un mouton [Mediterranean Nexus 1100-1700. Conflict, Influence and Inspiration in the Mediterranean Area 9]. Brepols, Turnhout 2021, 452 pp. isbn 9782503591315. €95. "The Sack of Constantinople," wrote Steven Runciman in his History of the Crusades, "is unparalleled in history … Neither monasteries nor churches nor libraries were spared." The "barbarity" of the perpetrators, he went on, "left a memory that would never be forgiven them." He was referring to the Fourth Crusade in April 1204 when warriors who were supposed to have been fighting Muslims turned on their fellow Christians. Historiography has been coloured by the event ever since, and it has been seen as part of a consistent Roman policy to suppress the religious identity of the Greek Church and obtain union by force. In Les monastères grecs sous la domination latine Ludivine Voisin, as a number of recent scholars have done, questions this view. The atrocities of the sack of the Byzantine capital cannot be denied, but what happened, she asks, outside Constantinople, in Greece and its islands and in the south of Italy, areas progressively dominated by 'Latins' as the Byzantine empire crumbled? Byzantine territory started to fall to the Latins after the Norman invasion of Italy in the eleventh century. Cyprus was occupied at the time of the Third Crusade. It was followed by Euboea. In the course of the thirteenth century, when the Normans were succeeded by the Angiovins in Southern Italy, the Crusaders entered into possession of substantial parts of mainland Greece and numerous territorial concessions, which included the island of Crete, the Ionian archipelago, and islands in the Cyclades, were made to Venice, which would subsequently also occupy much of the Dodecanese. From 1311 on Catalonia, Navarre, Aragon, Florence, Pisa, and Genoa gained a foothold in what was once Byzantium. Such a massive Western presence might seem to have given the Roman papacy a free hand, particularly as Byzantine monasteries were made over to Latin prelates and presented as rewards to Crusaders and Knights of St John of Jerusalem. In fact, Ludivine Voisin argues, the Western authorities proceeded with moderation. The Normans, faced with different religions in the south of Italy-Latins, Greeks, Jews, and Muslims-had left a legacy of toleration. This could appear to have been in conflict with the papal claim to universal supremacy repeated throughout the thirteenth century, but the popes imposed it with a light hand. The ecclesiastical authorities were influenced by the reality of the situation in areas largely populated by members of the Church of Constantinople. Peaceful coexistence was the only acceptable choice. Although the situation changed from one place to another, the result was mixed marriages,

Church History and Religious Culture, 2022

, but, as Annibal Caro reminded the authorities, he was also the translator of Melanchthon's Loci... more , but, as Annibal Caro reminded the authorities, he was also the translator of Melanchthon's Loci communes and held notoriously heterodox views. He was consequently arrested by the Inquisition in 1560, declared a heretic and had his property confiscated. Nevertheless he managed to escape from the inquisitors and, despite his plan to justify himself at the Council of Trent, spent the rest of his life in exile, first in Chiavenna, then in Geneva, Lyons, and Vienna (where he dedicated his translation of Aristotle's Poetics to the emperor, Maximilian ii). Leaving Vienna on account of the plague, he returned to Chiavenna, where he died in 1571. Much of Castelvetro's literary output has been lost since the removal of his possessions in Modena. We are thus less informed than we might be about his religious views. There has been considerable speculation as to what he actually produced and never published. Some 25 years ago, however, Andrea Barbieri discovered an autograph list of the books which Castelvetro lent out. In 1546 he lent his bookseller in Modena, Antonio Gadaldino, a manuscript of the Gospels "per me volgarizzati." This vernacular translation seemed to have disappeared for good, but also to have indicated Castelvetro's involvement in a translation of the New Testament into Italian. A few years later, in 1551, there appeared, printed in Lyons by Jean Frellon and published by Pietro Perna, Il Nuovo ed eterno Testamento di Giesù Christo nuovamente da l' original fonte greca con ogni diligenza in toscano tradotto per Massimo Teofilo fiorentino. Perna, who had received the manuscript in Venice, had first tried to have it printed in Zürich. Failing to do so, he turned to Lyons. Although the only name of a translator actually given on the title-page was that of the Tuscan Benedictine from the monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, Massimo Teofilo (whose original name was Leonardo Masi), a number of Italian 'evangelicals' had a hand in the translation-Cornelio Donzellini, Zuane de Honestis, and possibly Lucio Paolo Roselli. Castelvetro's name was not mentioned. His only link with the project appeared to have been a letter from the doctor Agostino Gadaldino (the son of the bookseller Antonio), whom Andrea Barbieri describes as the link between the Venetian evangelicals and the like-minded group in Modena.

Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2021

Church History and Religious Culture, 2022

The definition of the term 'Royal Site' covers a wide spectrum. It refers, writes José Eloy Horta... more The definition of the term 'Royal Site' covers a wide spectrum. It refers, writes José Eloy Hortal Muñoz in his introductory paper to Politics and Piety at the Royal Sites of the Spanish Monarchy in the Seventeenth Century, "to properties that belonged to the ruling dynasty where the ruler and other members of the dynasty lived, had lived or where there was an expectation of them being able to stay there for longer or shorter periods of time." But it also covers "forests, gardens, agricultural spaces, factories and urban centres" associated with the palaces, as well as "the royal monasteries and convents, to which royal apartments or pantheons were attached or where certain members of the ruler's family-usually female members-could profess religious vows." The fourteen papers in this book are mainly concerned with those sites which had an essentially religious significance, churches, convents, monasteries and, above all, especially in the first part, the royal chapels, the capillas reales. The royal chapels were one of the main channels through which the ruler could express his power in confessional matters. They involved a complex hierarchy and an even more complex jurisdiction which frequently led to conflict with the local ecclesiastical authorities. The system is described generally by José Eloy Hortal Muñoz, and is analysed in detail in the cases of Madrid (by José Martínez Millán), Palermo (by Fabrizio D' Avenia), Barcelona (by Fernández Terricabras), Valencia (by Emilio Callado Estela), and Lima (by Guillermo Nieva Ocampo and Ana Mónica González Fasani). The capillas reales, however, are a single aspect of a far broader historical situation which emerges clearly from José Martínez Millán's excellent article and from the second part of this book. The context is the rivalry between the Spanish monarchy and the papacy. It went back to the regency of Ferdinand of Aragon (1507-1516) and to the early years of the reign of his grandson Charles v when the Spanish monarchy adopted the idea of Monarchia Universalis. This took true political shape after the Sack of Rome in 1527. With the imprisonment of the pope the Catholic Church found itself without a leader. The emperor, Charles v, assumed the responsibility of reforming and defending it. This state of affairs continued under Charles's son, Philip ii, who succeeded him as king of Spain, but what had once been a united empire was now divided between two branches of the Habsburg dynasty, the Spanish branch of Philip and the Austrian branch of Charles's brother Ferdinand, who followed after him as Holy Roman Emperor.