Thunderbolt: Shaping the image of Lucifer in the Cinquecento Veneto (original) (raw)
Related papers
Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Angels: A Comparison
Angels in Medieval Philosophical Inquiry. Their Function and Significance, 2008
I shall attempt to draw a comparison between medieval, Renaissance and Reformation theories of angels. Any comparison needs a tertium comparationis which in this particular case – due to the heterogeneity of the three discourses – is not easy to determine. Thus, when I choose to concentrate on the issue of angelic cognition of material particulars, this is not to suggest that the philosophers and theologians of the three periods concerned have all actually discussed it as such. It is rather the why and how they did or did not discuss this issue that will provide the basis for comparing the different views about the angels.
Lucifer of Cagliari and Literary Criticism in Kings
Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 2000
Due to his extensive quotations, Lucifer of Cagliari is among the most important Latin witnesses for the early text of the Books of Kings. His importance, however, is not limited to textual criticism but extends to the field of literary criticism as well. A critic who wishes to use Lucifer"s quotations as a witness needs to take into consideration several issues ranging from Lucifer"s quoting practices to the complexities of the textual history of the Septuagint. The aim of this article is to make Lucifer a more accessible source to scholars outside the field of textual criticism. To demonstrate the caveatsand possibilities -in using Lucifer"s quotations, an analysis of Lucifer"s noteworthy readings in the passage II Reg 21,1-9 is given.
The Thunderbolt as a Sign of God in Orosius’ “Seven Books of History against the Pagans”
Saeculum Christianum, 2017
In the preface to the “Seven Books of History against the Pagans” Orosius announces that he will present different disasters which affected mankind throughout history, and mentions among them thunderbolt strikes. The article aims at analysing the descriptions of this phenomenon from the point of view of their circumstances, time, results and meanings. The study shows that although the circumstances are different, it was always God who sent down the lightning strikes and spoke through them. Orosius dedicates a lot of attention to the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 AD, which ended also with a lightning strike. The analysis of this and of other descriptions shows Orosius’ vision of history and the temporal order based on the power of Rome and faith in the true God.
The paper concentrates on an obscure poem, the Versus maligni angeli (here as it appears in the so far oldest noted manuscript: Bourges 95 (105) from the end of 11th c., f. 95v). I suggest that these verses developed from an exorcist formula. Its original link to the devil – versus demonis meaning “verses against a demon” – was preserved but re-interpreted as “verses by a demon.” The verses survive in six unglossed and five glossed exemplars. In addition, four different anonymous commentaries to the poem are extant, each of them documented in at least one twelfth-century witness. Altogether, there are 36 surviving medieval manuscripts of the poem. The commentators much differ in the ways they explain the obscurities of the poem but agree in its general “correct” Christian meaning: it is about Christ fighting against a devil, or Catholic preachers fighting against heretics, or the internal fight of a Christian resisting sins and vice. This places the versus in trouble as far as the poem’s authorship is concerned: why would a demon, devil or a malign angel write a “good Christian” poem? The commentators struggle to explain this, each in his own curious way.
The American Journal of Biblical Theology, 2015
This paper will explore the evolution of the conceptions of Satan (the devil), and demons throughout the past 3,000 years, in light of an in-depth study of St. Anselm of Canterbury’s medieval text, The Fall of Satan (De Casu Diaboli). Anselm’s brilliant work, De Casu Diaboli, has inspired much reflection into not just the nature of angels and demons but also into our own. It is worth noting that, it is impossible to exhaustively cover a 3,000-year period on such a major topic, but a brief overview of the significant periods will be provided before focusing on De Casu Diaboli.
A Fate Worse than Death: Separation Anxiety in a Renaissance Work on Angels
Healthcare Research and Public Safety Journal, 2020
This paper is a 'what if' type thought-experiment connecting psychology, history, and religion. Angels were created but do not experience death, though transformation is not fully alien from their nature. Vincenzo Cicogna's c. 1587 Angelorum et daemonum nomina et attributa… (Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute MS 86-A866) analyses Lucifer's transformation at the Fall of the Rebel Angels, and interprets the fallen angel's separation from his Creator as a fate worse than death. In a Church historical context, the manuscript echoes concerns of the Church reformer Bishop Gian Matteo Giberti, who was the decisive force on the author's intellectual development. The way separation replaces death as the hardest possible punishment in the mind of the Catholic reformer author bears, at the same time, considerable reminiscences to the psychological condition identified as Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD).
Resumen Durante muchos años filósofos y teólogos se han cuestionado sobre la cuestión de la caída. Es innumerable la bibliografía sobre el tema como así también las propias dudas sobre la omnipresencia y sabiduría de un Dios que implícitamente o no permite la presencia del pecado por medio de su propia creación. Para algunos eruditos ello se constituye como la prueba excluyente acerca de la supuesta omnipotencia de Dios mientras para otros, una cuestión de orden causa-efecto pues para que exista el bien debe experimentarse el mal. En efecto, si partimos de la base que el dios judaico es una entidad omnipresente, todopoderosa y comprensiva, queda inconcluso la razón por la cual permite el nacimiento y la presencia del mal y/o la corrupción de uno de sus ángeles más amados y sabios. De hecho, Dios podría haber acabado con Lucifer pero no lo hace; lo pone en contraposición y lo destierra a las afueras de su jurisdicción. Con la excepción de Abraham, uno se pregunta ¿qué hombre mataría a su propio hijo?. El mito fundador de querubín Lucifer no sólo simboliza la relación entre el hombre y la traición sino también el amor filial entre el padre y su creación las cuales concilian la negación cultural de la muerte de la progenie o generaciones más jóvenes. Utilizando la teoría antropológica de los dones de M. Mauss, el presente trabajo teórico intentará explicar el origen mítico del mal dentro de la tradición judeo-cristiana como una de las elaboraciones más temidas, la muerte del hijo. Para ello nos servimos tanto del Antiguo testamento como de libros considerados apócrifos por la Iglesia Católica Romana. Palabras Claves: Mal, Muerte, Ángeles, Cristianismo, Rebelión, Lucifer
Demonic Dialogues: Cassirer, Aquinas and the Treatment of Demonology as Myth.
Mythology has always been a pivotal element in human society, often describing the tensions between humanity and the world around them. Although traditionally defined as stories, myth, according to the 20th century philosopher Ernst Cassirer, is in fact an interpretation filled with symbolism in order to navigate the problematic of the human condition. It becomes a dialogue between Man and his environment, in which Man attempts to explain the ambiguities that permeate his everyday existence. Aquinas, in his treatment of demons in his Summa Theologica, wove together an intricate mythology comprising of discourse and stories about demons. Although a non-narrative format, this treatise became the mythology of the educated elite of the Mediaeval world. By analysing Cassirer's treatment of myth in his An Essay of Man and applying the theory to Aquinas' understanding of demons in his Summa Theologica, this paper will look at how the ambiguities of the human condition was expressed, how symbols were used to construct a language and how Aquinas' demonology approaches and rationalises the nature of the Mediaeval world. What we will see is a development of a mythic thought that culminates in constructing a non-narrative mythology.
Religions 10(5), 326, 2019
In 1638 Caterina di Francesco, from the town of Siena (Tuscany), was accused by the Roman Inquisition of invoking the devil through a spell called "the white angel spell" or "the spell of the carafe" (incantesimo della caraffa). She was interrogated, tortured and kept in and out of prison for nine years. Despite the accusations of the witnesses being focused on her practice of love magic, specifically her ability to bind men to "other" women rather than their wives and to help the disgruntled wives to have their husbands back with the use of a baptised magnet, the Inquisition focused its attention on her practice of the white angel spell, a divination spell to find lost or stolen objects with the help of shadows seen inside the carafe. This was a well-known spell not only among all levels of Italian lay society but also well known to the Inquisition, so much so that the 17th-century Inquisition manual Prattica per Procedere nelle Cause del Sant'Officio lists this spell among the sortilegij qualificati: Those spells presenting serious heretical elements. Using archival sources, this article will examine the effects of borrowed concepts between the theological/elite and folk witchcraft traditions within a specific case-study.
The Role of Angels in Medieval Philosophical Inquiry
This volume addresses a twofold question. The first is of a more historical nature, the second of philosophical concern: what was the place occupied by angels in the medieval world-view and what was their function in medieval intellectual speculation? 1 What can medieval angelological reflection contribute to contemporary philosophical discussions? recent studies that have appeared in english on medieval angelology have mostly concentrated on the historical development of the perception of angels in medieval church and society, or have approached the subject exclusively from the perspective of religious spirituality and theology. 2 Although there are a couple of notable exceptions, 3 studies devoted to medieval angelology from a philosophical perspective in all its argumentative variety, which would pay 1 From a more artistic perspective, a very instructive study on medieval perceptions of angels is henry Mayr-harting, offers a comparison between ockham and Aquinas with regard to their models of angelic language. in tune with our purposes here, Panaccio highlights connections to contemporary issues in the philosophy of mind. in French the obvious reference is Tiziana suárez-nani's twofold study, Les anges et la philosophie: subjectivité et fonction cosmologique des substances séparées à la fin du XIIIe siécle (Paris: J. Vrin, 2002) and Connaissance et langage des anges selon Thomas d'Aquin et Gilles de Rome (Paris: J. Vrin, 2002).