1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Anno Domini
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The terms anno Domini and before Christ are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term anno Domini is Medieval Latin and means in the year of the Lord, There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor, the Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. Traditionally, English followed Latin usage by placing the AD abbreviation before the year number, however, BC is placed after the year number, which also preserves syntactic order. The abbreviation is widely used after the number of a century or millennium. Because BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes concluded that AD means After Death. However, this would mean that the approximate 33 years commonly associated with the life of Jesus would not be included in either of the BC, astronomical year numbering and ISO8601 avoid words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years. The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. The last year of the old table, Diocletian 247, was followed by the first year of his table. Thus Dionysius implied that Jesus Incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the year during which his birth or conception occurred. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC,1 BC, There were inaccuracies in the list of consuls There were confused summations of emperors regnal years It is not known how Dionysius established the year of Jesuss birth. It is convenient to initiate a calendar not from the day of an event. For example, the Islamic calendar begins not from the date of the Hegira, at the time, it was believed by some that the Resurrection and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus. The old Anno Mundi calendar theoretically commenced with the creation of the based on information in the Old Testament. It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Anno Mundi 6000 was thus equated with the resurrection and the end of the world but this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius. The Anglo-Saxon historian the Venerable Bede, who was familiar with the work of Dionysius Exiguus, used Anno Domini dating in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. e. On the continent of Europe, Anno Domini was introduced as the era of choice of the Carolingian Renaissance by the English cleric and scholar Alcuin in the late eighth century
3.
Romuald
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Romuald was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century Renaissance of eremitical asceticism. According to the vita by Peter Damian, written fifteen years after Romualds death, Romuald was born in Ravenna, in northeastern Italy. His father was Sergius degli Onesti and his mother was Traversara Traversari, as a youth, according to early accounts, Romuald indulged in the pleasures and sins of the world common to a tenth-century nobleman. At the age of twenty he served as second to his father, Romuald was devastated, and went to the Basilica of SantApollinare in Classe to do 40 days of penance. After some indecision, Romuald became a monk there, san Apollinare had recently been reformed by St. Maieul of Cluny Abbey, but still was not strict enough in its observance to satisfy Romuald. About 978, Pietro Orseolo I, Doge of Venice, who had obtained his office by acquiescence in the murder of his predecessor, Romuald lived there for about ten years, taking advantage of the library of Cuxa to refine his ideas regarding monasticism. After that he spent the next 30 years going about Italy, the monks, however, resisted his reforms, and after a year, Romuald resigned, hurling his abbots staff at Ottos feet in total frustration. He then again withdrew to the eremetical life, in 1012 he arrived at the Diocese of Arezzo. Here, according to the legend, a certain Maldolus, who had seen a vision of monks in white garments ascending into Heaven, gave him land, afterwards known as the Campus Maldoli. St. Romuald built on this land five cells for hermits, Romualds daunting charisma awed Rainier of Tuscany, who was neither able to face Romuald nor to send him away. Romuald founded several monasteries, including the monastery of Val di Castro. Romualds feast day was not included in the Tridentine Calendar, in his youth Romuald became acquainted with three major schools of western monastic tradition. SantApollinare in Classe was a traditional Benedictine monastery under the influence of the Cluniac reforms, marinus followed a much harsher, ascetic and solitary lifestyle, which was originally of Irish eremitic origins. The abbot of Sant Miguel de Cuxa, Guarinus, had also begun reforms but mainly built upon a third Christian tradition, Romuald was able to integrate these different traditions and establish his own monastic order. Sit in your cell as in paradise, put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish, the path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it. And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up, hurry back, Romuald gives as the essential core of his Rule. Romualds reforms provided a context to accommodate both the eremitic and cenobitic aspects of monastic life
4.
Catholic religious order
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Catholic religious orders are, historically, a category of Catholic religious institutes. Subcategories are canons regular, monastics, mendicants, and clerks regular, original Catholic religious orders of the Middle Ages include the Order of Saint Benedict, the Carmelites, the Order of Friars Minor, the Dominican Order, and the Order of Saint Augustine. As such, also the Teutonic Order may qualify, today mainly monastic, in the past, what distinguished religious orders from other institutes was the classification of the vows that the members took in religious profession as solemn vows. According to this criterion, the last religious order founded was that of the Bethlehem Brothers in 1673. Nevertheless, in the course of the 20th century some religious institutes outside the category of orders obtained permission to make solemn vows, at least of poverty, solemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. As noted below, dispensations began to be granted in later times, the members of a religious order for men were called regulars, those belonging to a religious congregation were simply religious, a term that applied also to regulars. However, it abolished the distinction according to which solemn vows, thus members of orders were barred absolutely from marriage, and any marriage they attempted was invalid. Those who made simple vows were obliged not to marry, but if they did break their vow, after publication of the 1917 Code, many institutes with simple vows appealed to the Holy See for permission to make solemn vows. The Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi of 21 November 1950 made access to that permission easier for nuns, many of these latter institutes of women then petitioned for the solemn vow of poverty alone. It has accordingly dropped the language of the 1917 code and uses the term religious institute to designate all such institutes of consecrated life alike. Thus the Church no longer draws the distinction between religious orders and congregations. It applies to all such institutes the single name religious institute, a religious order is characterized by an authority structure where a superior general has jurisdiction over the orders dependent communities. An exception is the Order of St Benedict which is not an order in this technical sense, because it has a system of independent houses. However, the Constitutions governing the global independent houses and its distinct congregations were approved by the pope. The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine are in a similar to that of the Benedictines. They are organized in eight congregations, each headed by an abbot general, and the Cistercians are in thirteen congregations, each headed by an abbot general or an abbot president, but do not use the title of abbot primate. The Annuario Pontificio lists for both men and women the institutes of consecrated life and the like that are of pontifical right, for the men, it gives what it now calls the Historical-Juridical List of Precedence. The arrangement in this list dates back many decades and it is found, for instance, in the 1964 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, pp. 807–870, where the heading is States of Perfection
5.
Monk
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A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of other monks. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions, in the Greek language the term can apply to women, but in modern English it is mainly in use for men. The word nun is typically used for female monastics, although the term monachos is of Christian origin, in the English language monk tends to be used loosely also for both male and female ascetics from other religious or philosophical backgrounds. However, being generic, it is not interchangeable terms that denote particular kinds of monk, such as cenobite, hermit, anchorite, hesychast. In Eastern Orthodoxy monasticism holds a special and important place. Orthodox monastics separate themselves from the world in order to pray unceasingly for the world and they do not, in general, have as their primary purpose the running of social services, but instead are concerned with attaining theosis, or union with God. However, care for the poor and needy has always been an obligation of monasticism, the level of contact though will vary from community to community. Hermits, on the hand, have little or no contact with the outside world. Orthodox monasticism does not have religious orders as are found in the West, basil the Great and the Philokalia, which was compiled by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. Hesychasm is of importance in the ascetical theology of the Orthodox Church. Meals are usually taken in common in a dining hall known as a trapeza. Food is usually simple and is eaten in silence while one of the brethren reads aloud from the writings of the Holy Fathers. The monastic lifestyle takes a deal of serious commitment. Within the cenobitic community, all monks conform to a way of living based on the traditions of that particular monastery. In struggling to attain this conformity, the comes to realize his own shortcomings and is guided by his spiritual father in how to deal honestly with them. For this same reason, bishops are almost always chosen from the ranks of monks, Eastern monasticism is found in three distinct forms, anchoritic, cenobitic, and the middle way between the two, known as the skete. One normally enters a community first, and only after testing and spiritual growth would one go on to the skete or, for the most advanced. However, one is not necessarily expected to join a skete or become a solitary, in general, Orthodox monastics have little or no contact with the outside world, including their own families
6.
Nun
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A nun is a member of a religious community of women, typically one living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The term nun is applicable to Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Jains, Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity, lives an active vocation of both prayer and service, often to the needy, ill, poor, and uneducated. All Buddhist traditions have nuns, although their status is different among Buddhist countries, fully ordained Buddhist nuns have more Patimokkha rules than the monks. The important vows are the same, however, as with monks, there is quite a lot of variation in nuns dress and social conventions between Buddhist cultures in Asia. Chinese nuns possess the full ordination, Tibetan nuns do not. In Thailand, a country never had a tradition of fully ordained nuns. However, some of them have played an important role in dhamma-practitioners community. There are in Thai Forest Tradition foremost nuns such as Mae Ji Kaew Sianglam, the founder of the Nunnery of Baan Huai Saai, who is believed by some to be enlightened as well as Upāsikā Kee Nanayon. At the beginning of the 21st century, some Buddhist women in Thailand have started to introduce the bhikkhuni sangha in their country as well, dhammananda Bhikkhuni, formerly the successful academic scholar Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, established a controversial monastery for the training of Buddhist nuns in Thailand. The relatively active roles of Taiwanese nuns were noted by some studies, researcher Charles Brewer Jones estimates that from 1952 to 1999, when the Buddhist Association of the ROC organized public ordination, female applicants have outnumbered males by about three to one. He adds, All my informants in the areas of Taipei and Sanhsia considered nuns at least as respectable as monks, in contrast, however, Shiu-kuen Tsung found in Taipei county that female clergy were viewed with some suspicion by society. She reports that while outsiders did not necessarily regard their vocation as unworthy of respect, wei-yi Cheng studied Luminary order in southern Taiwan. Based on studies of Luminary order, Cheng concluded that the order in Taiwan was still young and gave nuns more rooms of development. Gelongma ordination requires the presence of ten fully ordained people keeping exactly the same vows, because ten nuns are required to ordain a new one, the effort to establish the Dharmaguptaka bhikkhu tradition has taken a long time. It is permissible for a Tibetan nun to receive ordination from another living tradition. Based on this, Western nuns ordained in Tibetan tradition, like Thubten Chodron, the ordination of monks and nuns in Tibetan Buddhism distinguishes three stages, rabjung-ma, getshül-ma and gelong-ma. The clothes of the nuns in Tibet are basically the same as those of monks, hokke-ji in 747 was established by the consort of the Emperor. It took charge of provincial convents, performed ceremonies for the protection of the state, aristocratic Japanese women often became Buddhist nuns in the premodern period
7.
Monasticism
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Monasticism or monkhood is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic, similar forms of religious life also exist in other faiths, most notably in Buddhism, but also in Hinduism and Jainism, although the expressions differ considerably. By contrast, in other religions monasticism is criticized and not practiced, as in Islam and Zoroastrianism, or plays a marginal role, males pursuing a monastic life are generally called monks while female monastics are called nuns. Many monks and nuns live in monasteries to stay away from the secular world, the way of addressing monastics differs between the Christian traditions. As a general rule, in Roman Catholicism, monks and nuns are called brother or sister, while in Eastern Orthodoxy, the Sangha or community of ordained Buddhist bhikkhus and original bhikkhunis was founded by Gautama Buddha during his lifetime over 2500 years ago. This communal monastic lifestyle grew out of the lifestyle of earlier sects of wandering ascetics and it was initially fairly eremitic or reclusive in nature. Bhikkhus and bhikkunis were expected to live with a minimum of possessions, lay followers also provided the daily food that bhikkhus required, and provided shelter for bhikkhus when they needed it. After the Parinibbana of the Buddha, the Buddhist monastic order developed into a primarily cenobitic or communal movement. The practice of living communally during the rainy season, prescribed by the Buddha. The number of rules observed varies with the order, Theravada bhikkhus follow around 227 rules, there are a larger number of rules specified for bhikkhunis. The Buddhist monastic order consists of the male bhikkhu assembly and the female bhikkhuni assembly, initially consisting only of males, it grew to include females after the Buddhas stepmother, Mahaprajapati, asked for and received permission to live as an ordained practitioner. Bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are expected to fulfill a variety of roles in the Buddhist community, first and foremost, they are expected to preserve the doctrine and discipline now known as Buddhism. A bhikkhu or Bhikshu, first ordains as a Samanera, novices often ordain at a young age, but generally no younger than eight. Samaneras live according to the Ten Precepts, but are not responsible for living by the set of monastic rules. Higher ordination, conferring the status of a full Bhikkhu, is only to men who are aged 20 or older. Bhikkhunis follow a progression, but are required to live as Samaneras for longer periods of time- typically five years. The disciplinary regulations for bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are intended to create a life that is simple and focused, however, celibacy is a fundamental part of this form of monastic discipline. Monasticism in Christianity, which provides the origins of the monk and monastery
8.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
9.
Camaldoli
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Camaldoli is a frazione of the comune of Poppi, in Tuscany, Italy. It is mostly known as the seat of the Camaldolese monastic order, originated in the eponymous hermitage. The Holy Hermitage and Monastery of Camaldoli is situated in an ancient forest in the Tuscan Apennines and it was founded about 1012 by Saint Romuald, a Benedictine monk, with the permission of Tedald, Bishop of Arezzo. In the monastery of Camaldoli there is a room, a great hall. The pharmacy was originally a laboratory where monks studied and worked with medicinal herbs and these medicines would be used in the old hospital which can still be visited today. The precious walnut decor dates back to 1543, the church, meanwhile, was constructed in the Baroque style and contains works by Giorgio Vasari. It was established to deal with the number of pilgrims - drawn by good reports of the monks. A few kilometers farther up the mountain is the Sacred Hermitage and it was personally established by St. Romuald and has served as the heart of both the community and the order, which bears the locations name
10.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
11.
Arezzo
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Arezzo is a city and comune in Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 kilometres southeast of Florence, at an elevation of 296 metres above sea level, in 2013 the population was about 99,000. Described by Livy as one of the Capitae Etruriae, Arezzo is believed to have one of the twelve most important Etruscan cities—the so-called Dodecapolis. Etruscan remains establish that the acropolis of San Cornelio, a hill next to that of San Donatus, was occupied and fortified in the Etruscan period. Increasing trade connections with Greece also brought some elite goods to the Etruscan nobles of Arezzo, conquered by the Romans in 311 BC, Arretium became a military station on the via Cassia, the road to expansion by republican Rome into the basin of the Po. Arretium sided with Marius in the Roman Civil War, and the victorious Sulla planted a colony of his veterans in the half-demolished city, as Arretium Fidens. The old Etruscan aristocracy was not extinguished, Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, around 26-261 AD the town council of Arezzo dedicated an inscription to its patron L. Petronius Taurus Volusianus. See that article for discussion of the possible significance of Volusianuss association with the city. The commune of Arezzo threw off the control of its bishop in 1098 and was an independent city-state until 1384, generally Ghibelline in tendency, it opposed Guelph Florence. In 1252 the city founded its university, the Studium, during this period Piero della Francesca worked in the church of San Francesco di Arezzo producing the splendid frescoes, recently restored, which are Arezzos most famous works. Afterwards the city began an economical and cultural decay, which ensured that its medieval centre was preserved. In the 18th century the neighbouring marshes of the Val di Chiana, south of Arezzo, were drained, in 1860 Arezzo became part of the Kingdom of Italy. The Commonwealth War Graves Commissions Arezzo War Cemetery, where 1,266 men are buried, is located to the North West of the city, Pope Benedict XVI visited Arezzo and two other Italian municipalities on Sunday, May 13,2012. Arezzo is set on a hill rising from the floodplain of the River Arno. In the upper part of the town are the cathedral, the town hall, the upper part of the town maintains its medieval appearance despite the addition of later structures. Notable earthquakes are still a rare phenomenon in the province. Under the Köppen climate classification Arezzo is either a humid climate or an oceanic climate. It has uncharacteristically hot summer days for a climate, with the lows moderating the average temps
12.
Italians
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Italians are a nation and ethnic group native to Italy who share a common culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a native tongue. The majority of Italian nationals are speakers of Standard Italian. Italians have greatly influenced and contributed to the arts and music, science, technology, cuisine, sports, fashion, jurisprudence, banking, Italian people are generally known for their localism and their attention to clothing and family values. The term Italian is at least 3,000 years old and has a history that goes back to pre-Roman Italy. According to one of the common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The Etruscan civilization reached its peak about the 7th century BC, but by 509 BC, when the Romans overthrew their Etruscan monarchs, its control in Italy was on the wane. By 350 BC, after a series of wars between Greeks and Etruscans, the Latins, with Rome as their capital, gained the ascendancy by 272 BC, and they managed to unite the entire Italian peninsula. This period of unification was followed by one of conquest in the Mediterranean, in the course of the century-long struggle against Carthage, the Romans conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Finally, in 146 BC, at the conclusion of the Third Punic War, with Carthage completely destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, octavian, the final victor, was accorded the title of Augustus by the Senate and thereby became the first Roman emperor. After two centuries of rule, in the 3rd century AD, Rome was threatened by internal discord and menaced by Germanic and Asian invaders. Emperor Diocletians administrative division of the empire into two parts in 285 provided only temporary relief, it became permanent in 395, in 313, Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity, and churches thereafter rose throughout the empire. However, he moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople. The last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 by a Germanic foederati general in Italy and his defeat marked the end of the western part of the Roman Empire. During most of the period from the fall of Rome until the Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861, Odoacer ruled well for 13 years after gaining control of Italy in 476. Then he was attacked and defeated by Theodoric, the king of another Germanic tribe, Theodoric and Odoacer ruled jointly until 493, when Theodoric murdered Odoacer. Theodoric continued to rule Italy with an army of Ostrogoths and a government that was mostly Italian, after the death of Theodoric in 526, the kingdom began to grow weak
13.
Saint
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A saint, also historically known as a hallow, is a term used for a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness to God. Depending on the context and denomination, the term also retains its original Christian meaning, as any believer who is in Christ and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on Earth. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official ecclesiastical declaration, the English word saint comes from the Latin sanctus. The word translated the Greek ἅγιος, which derives from the verb ἁγιάζω, the word ἅγιος appears 229 times in the Greek New Testament, and its English translation 60 times in the corresponding text of the King James Version of the Bible. In the New Testament, saint did not denote the deceased who had recognized as especially holy or emulable. Many religions also use similar concepts to venerate persons worthy of some honor, the anthropologist Lawrence Babb in an article about Sathya Sai Baba asks the question Who is a saint. These saintly figures, he asserts, are the points of spiritual force-fields. They exert powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the lives of others in transforming ways as well. In the Bible, only one person is called a saint, They envied Moses also in the camp. The apostle Paul declared himself to be less than the least of all saints in Ephesians 3,8, in the Catholic Church, a saint is anyone in Heaven, whether recognized on Earth or not. There are many persons that the Church believes to be in Heaven who have not been formally canonized, sometimes the word saint also denotes living Christians. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ, the Catholic Church teaches that it does not make or create saints, but rather recognizes them. Proofs of heroicity required in the process of beatification will serve to illustrate in detail the general principles exposed above upon proof of their holiness or likeness to God. On 3 January 993, Pope John XV became the first pope to proclaim a person a saint, on the petition of the German ruler, before that time, the popular cults, or venerations, of saints had been local and spontaneous. Pope John XVIII subsequently permitted a cult of five Polish martyrs, walter of Pontoise was the last person in Western Europe to be canonized by an authority other than the Pope, Hugh de Boves, the Archbishop of Rouen, canonized him in 1153. Thenceforth a decree of Pope Alexander III in 1170 reserved the prerogative of canonization to the Pope, one source claims that there are over 10,000 named saints and beatified people from history, the Roman Martyrology and Orthodox sources, but no definitive head count. Alban Butler published Lives of the Saints in 1756, including a total of 1,486 saints, the latest revision of this book, edited by Rev. Herbert Thurston, SJ and British author Donald Attwater, contains the lives of 2,565 saints. Monsignor Robert Sarno, an official of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See, expressed that it is impossible to give an exact number of saints
14.
Hermit
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A hermit is a person who lives in seclusion from society. In Christianity, the term was applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction. In the Christian tradition the eremitic life is a form of monastic living that preceded the monastic life in the cenobium. The Rule of St Benedict lists hermits among four kinds of monks, other religions, for example, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Taoism, also have hermits in the sense of individuals living an ascetic form of life. In modern colloquial usage, hermit denotes anyone living apart from the rest of society, or simply participating in social events. In the common Christian tradition the first known Christian hermit in Egypt was Paul of Thebes, an antecedent for Egyptian eremiticism may have been the Syrian solitary or son of the covenant who undertook special disciplines as a Christian. In the Middle Ages some Carmelite hermits claimed to trace their origin to Jewish hermits organized by Elijah, Christian hermits in the past have often lived in isolated cells or hermitages, whether a natural cave or a constructed dwelling, situated in the desert or the forest. They tended to be out for spiritual advice and counsel. Some eventually acquired so many disciples that they had no physical solitude at all, the early Christian Desert Fathers wove baskets to exchange for bread. In medieval times hermits were also found within or near cities where they earn a living as a gate keeper or ferryman. From the Middle Ages and down to modern times eremitical monasticism has also practiced within the context of religious institutes in the Christian West. This applies to both their monks and their nuns, there have also been many hermits who chose that vocation as an alternative to other forms of monastic life. In the 11th century, the life of the hermit gained recognition as a legitimate independent pathway to salvation, many hermits in that century and the next came to be regarded as saints. The term anchorite is often used as a synonym for hermit, not only in the earliest written sources, yet the anchoritic life, while similar to the eremitic life, can also be distinct from it. Anchorites and anchoresses lived the life in the solitude of an anchorhold, usually a small hut or cell. The door of an anchorage tended to be bricked up in a ceremony conducted by the local bishop after the anchorite had moved in. Another window looked out into the street or cemetery, enabling charitable neighbors to deliver food, clients seeking the anchorites advice might also use this window to consult him or her. There are also lay people who follow an eremitic lifestyle
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Cenobitic monasticism
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Cenobitic monasticism is a monastic tradition that stresses community life. Often in the West, the community belongs to an order and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by a religious rule. The older style of monasticism, to live as a hermit, is called eremitic, a third form of monasticism, found primarily in the East, is the skete. The English words cenobite and cenobitic are derived, via Latin, from the Greek words koinos, common, the adjective can also be cenobiac. A group of living in community is often referred to as a cenobium. Cenobitic monasticism exists in various religions, although Buddhist and Christian cenobitic monasticism are the most prominent. The word Cenobites was initially applied to the followers of Pythagoras in Crotona, Italy, who founded a commune not just for philosophical study but also for the amicable sharing of worldly goods. In the 1st century CE, Philo of Alexandria describes a Jewish ascetic community of men and women on the shores of Lake Mareotis in the vicinity of Alexandria, members of the community composed books of midrash, an allegorical method for interpreting scripture. Every seventh sabbath was accorded a festival of learning and singing, the organized version of Christian cenobitic monasticism is commonly thought to have started in Egypt in the 4th century AD. Christian monks of previous centuries were usually hermits, especially in the Middle East and this form of solitary living, however, did not suit everyone. Some monks found the style to be too lonely and difficult, and if one was not spiritually prepared. For this reason, organized monastic communities were established so that monks could have support in their spiritual struggle. While eremitic monks did have an element of socializing, since they would meet once a week to pray together, the cenobitic monks also practised more socializing because the monasteries where they lived were often located in or near inhabited villages. Cenobitic monks were also different from their predecessors and counterparts in their actual living arrangements. Whereas the eremitic monks lived alone in a monastery consisting of merely a hut or cave, in the latter case, each dwelling would house about twenty monks, and within the house there were separate rooms or cells that would be inhabited by two or three monks. This structure of living for the cenobitic monks has been attributed to the man that is usually hailed as the father of cenobitic monasticism. Pachomius is thought to have got the idea for living quarters like these from the time he spent in the Roman army, as the style is very reminiscent of army barracks. The account of how Pachomius was given the idea to start a monastery is found in Palladius of Galatias The Lausiac History
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Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe
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The Basilica of Sant Apollinare in Classe is an important monument of Byzantine art near Ravenna, Italy. The imposing brick structure was erected at the beginning of 6th century by order of Bishop Ursicinus and it was certainly located next to a Christian cemetery, and quite possibly on top of a pre-existing pagan one, as some of the ancient tombstones were re-used in its construction. SantApollinare in Classe was consecrated on May 9,549 by Bishop Maximian and dedicated to Saint Apollinaris, first bishop of Ravenna, the Basilica is thus contemporary with the Basilica of San Vitale of Ravenna. In 856, the relics of Saint Apollinaris were transferred from the Basilica of SantApollinare in Classe to the Basilica of Sant Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, the exterior has a large façade with two simple uprights and one mullioned window with three openings. The narthex and building to the right of the entry are later additions, the church is on a nave and two aisles. An ancient altar in the mid of the covers the place of the saints martyrdom. The church ends with an apse, sided by two chapels with apses. The nave contains 24 columns of Greek marble, the carved capitals of the columns depict acanthus leaves, but unlike most such carvings the leaves appear twisted as if being buffeted by the wind. The faded frescos depict some of the archbishops of Ravenna, the lateral walls are bare, but were certainly once covered with gorgeous mosaics. These were likely demolished by the Venetians in 1449, although left the mosaic decoration in the apse and on the triumphal arch. The upper section of the triumphal arch depicts, inside a medallion, at the sides, within a sea of clouds, are the winged symbols of the four Evangelists, the Eagle, the Winged Man, the Lion, the Calf. The lower section has, at its two edges, the walls showing precious gems from which twelve lambs exit. The sides of the show two palms which, in the Bibles symbolism, represent justice, under them are the archangels Michael and Gabriel, with the bust of St. Matthew. The decoration of the date to the 6th century, and can be divided into two parts, in the upper one, a large disc encloses a starry sky in which is a cross with gems. Over the cross is a hand protruding from the clouds, the theme of the Hand of God, at the side of the disc are the figures of Elijah and Moses. In the middle is the figure of Saint Apollinaris, portrayed in the act of praying God to give grace to his faithful, symbolized by twelve white lambs. In the spaces between the windows are the four bishops who founded the main basilicas in Ravenna, Ursicinus, Ursus, Severus and Ecclesius, in the right panel are Abraham, Abel and Melchisedek around an altar, on which they offer a sacrifice to God. The choice of the subject is closely linked to the fight against Arianism, the Basilicas walls are lined by numerous sarcophagi from different centuries
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Order of Saint Benedict
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Each community within the order maintains its own autonomy, while the order itself represents their mutual interests. Internationally, the order is governed by the Benedictine Confederation, a body, established in 1883 by Pope Leo XIIIs Brief Summum semper, individuals whose communities are members of the order generally add the initials OSB after their names. The monastery at Subiaco in Italy, established by Saint Benedict of Nursia circa 529, was the first of the monasteries he founded. He later founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino, there is no evidence, however, that he intended to found an order and the Rule of Saint Benedict presupposes the autonomy of each community. It was from the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome that Augustine, the prior, at various stopping places during the journey, the monks left behind them traditions concerning their rule and form of life, and probably also some copies of the Rule. Lérins Abbey, for instance, founded by Honoratus in 375, probably received its first knowledge of the Benedictine Rule from the visit of St. Augustine, in Gaul and Switzerland, it supplemented the much stricter Irish or Celtic Rule introduced by Columbanus and others. In many monasteries it eventually displaced the earlier codes. Largely through the work of Benedict of Aniane, it became the rule of choice for monasteries throughout the Carolingian empire, Monastic scriptoria flourished from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Sacred Scripture was always at the heart of every monastic scriptorium, as a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole active work. In the Middle Ages monasteries were founded by the nobility. Cluny Abbey was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910, the abbey was noted for its strict adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict. The abbot of Cluny was the superior of all the daughter houses, one of the earliest reforms of Benedictine practice was that initiated in 980 by Romuald, who founded the Camaldolese community. The English Benedictine Congregation is the oldest of the nineteen Benedictine congregations, Augustine of Canterbury and his monks established the first English Benedictine monastery at Canterbury soon after their arrival in 597. Many of the sees of England were founded and governed by the Benedictines. Monasteries served as hospitals and places of refuge for the weak, the monks studied the healing properties of plants and minerals to alleviate the sufferings of the sick. Germany was evangelized by English Benedictines, willibrord and Boniface preached there in the seventh and eighth centuries and founded several abbeys. In the English Reformation, all monasteries were dissolved and their lands confiscated by the Crown, during the 19th century they were able to return to England, including to Selby Abbey in Yorkshire, one of the few great monastic churches to survive the Dissolution. St. Mildreds Priory, on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, was built in 1027 on the site of an abbey founded in 670 by the daughter of the first Christian King of Kent, currently the priory is home to a community of Benedictine nuns
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Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa
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The abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientales département, in southwestern France. It was an important cultural centre in the regency of Abbot Oliba, parts of it now makes up the Cloisters museum in New York City. The origins of Cuixà abbey lie at Sant Andreu d’Eixalada, an abbey founded by the Benedictines in about 840, in the autumn of 878, the river broke its banks, flooding and destroying the monastery forcing the monks to seek refuge in the surrounding countryside. The community then transferred to Cuixà, a minor cenobitic community dedicated to Saint Germanus, the abbey continued under the protection of the count of Cerdanya and Conflent. The territory then came under the domain of the family of Wilfred I, in about 940, under the initiative of Sunifred II of Cerdanya, a new church dedicated to Saint Michael was built. In 956 the building was refurbished and made more sumptuous, the altar was consecrated on 30 September 974 by Garí. Although he probably never came there, Cesare Borgia was named by his father as abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in 1494, among other titles earning him revenues. The Abbey was nationalised along with other properties throughout France in the French Revolution. In 1790 the last monks were evicted and the Abbey was sold, subsequently, the buildings fell into disrepair. Some sculpture from the Abbey found its way into a collection of George Grey Barnard, a prominent American sculptor, in 1914, Barnard opened his Cloisters exhibit on Fort Washington Avenue, New York, along with sculpture from a number of medieval sites. The Cloisters was rebuilt and expanded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938 at Fort Tryon Park, the famous cellist, Pablo Casals, was filmed in the abbey in 1954 as he performed Bachs Suite No.1 in G Major. The Abbey was transferred back to the Benedictines proper in 1965, the Cloisters Media related to Abbaye Saint-Michel de Cuxa at Wikimedia Commons Official website - French. Sant Andreu dEixalada Catalan Wikipedia page, Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa - Visiting information - Dead link 2015
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Pope Alexander II
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Pope Alexander II, born Anselm of Baggio, was bishop of Lucca and then pope from 30 September 1061 to his death in 1073. Anselm was born in Milan of a noble family, as bishop of Lucca, he was an energetic coadjutor with Hildebrand of Sovana in endeavouring to suppress simony and enforce clerical celibacy. In the papal election of 1061 following the death of Pope Nicholas II and he marched to Rome and for a long time threatened his rivals position. At length, however, Honorius was forsaken by the German court and deposed by a council held at Mantua and that same year, he admonished Landulf VI of Benevento that the conversion of Jews is not to be obtained by force. Also in the year, Alexander called for the Crusade of Barbastro against the Moors in Spain. For the situation of the Jews is greatly different from that of the Saracens, one may justly fight against those who persecute Christians and drive them from their towns and their own homes. In 1066, he entertained an embassy from William, duke of Normandy, the embassy had been sent to obtain his blessing for Williams prospective invasion of Anglo-Saxon England. Alexander gave it, along with a ring, the Standard of St. George. These favors were instrumental in the submission of the English church following the Battle of Hastings, in 1072 Alexander commanded the reluctant Polish priest Stanislaus of Szczepanów to accept appointment as Bishop of Kraków - becoming one of the earliest native Polish bishops. Alexander II oversaw the suppression of the Alleluia during the Latin Churchs celebration of Lent and this is followed to this day, and in the Tridentine rite Alleluia is also omitted during the Advent season. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. The Apostolic See and the Jews, Documents, 492–1404 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Alexander. Liturgical Prayer, Its History and Spirit
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Monastery
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A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
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Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
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Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence
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Santa Maria degli Angeli is the former church of a now-defunct monastery of that name in Florence, Italy. It belonged to the Camaldolese congregation, which was a branch of the Benedictines. The congregation is based on the hermitage which was founded in 1012 by the hermit St. Romuald at Camaldoli, near Arezzo, very little of the medieval building exists today. The monastery was a center of studies in the early Renaissance. Many of the illustrations from its work are found in collections around the world. The late High Gothic painter, Lorenzo Monaco, was a monk here for a time, while he tested his vocation, nevertheless, he executed a series of artworks for this monastery and other Camaldolese institutions, both during his time in the Order and afterwards. The so-called Rotonda degli Scolari, partially built by Filippo Brunelleschi, is part of the complex, the church once housed a series of artworks now located elsewhere, such as the Coronation of the Virgin by Lorenzo Monaco. In 1434, Filippo Brunelleschi was commissioned by the Medici family to design an oratory for the monastery and it was located at the corner of the property, along the outer wall. Though construction was rapid, it was halted due to funding problems in 1437, in 1503, the shell was given a simple wooden roof, but the structure deteriorated rapidly. The building, which was used for various purposes, was patched up and it was given to the university and thus its more modern name Rotonda degli Scolari. Copies of original plans and descriptions give us an indication of Brunelleschi’s intentions. The building was to have an octagonal, domed space at its core, though the outside - as it was restored - has little similarity with what Brunelleschi intended, on the inside one can see how some of the original spaces were arranged
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Scriptorium
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Scriptorium, literally a place for writing, is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts by monastic scribes. References in modern scholarly writings to scriptoria more usually refer to the collective output of a monastery. A scriptorium was an adjunct to a library, wherever there was a library it can ordinarily be assumed that there was a scriptorium. By the time movable type printing presses were invented in the 15th century, at this church whose patron was Galla Placidia, paired rectangular chambers flanking the apse, accessible only from each aisle, have been interpreted as paired libraries and perhaps scriptoria. Their copious illumination, niches.5 meter deep, provisions for hypocausts beneath the floors to keep the dry, have prototypes in the architecture of Roman libraries. When monastic libraries and scriptoria arose in the early 6th century, they defined European literary culture, monks copied Jeromes Latin Vulgate Bible and the commentaries and letters of early Church Fathers for missionary purposes as well as for use within the monastery. The products of the scriptorium provided a medium of exchange. Sometimes a single monk would engage in all of these stages to prepare a manuscript, by the start of the 13th century, monastic manuscript production declined because secular copyshops had developed to write for the laity. The illuminators of manuscripts worked in collaboration with scribes in intricate variety of interaction that preclude any simple pattern of monastic manuscript production, records show that one such monastic community was that of Mount Athos, which released all manner of illumination. Cassiodorus description of his contained a purpose-built scriptorium, with self-feeding oil lamps, a sundial. The scriptorium would also have contained desks where the monks could sit and copy texts, as well as the necessary ink wells, penknives, and quills. As its unofficial librarian, Cassiodorus collected as many manuscripts as he could, in the end, however, the library at the Vivarium was dispersed and lost, though it was still active around 630. Cassiodorus contemporary, Benedict of Nursia, also allowed his monks to read the works of the pagans in the monastery he founded at Monte Cassino in 529. In the earliest Benedictine monasteries, the room was actually a corridor open to the central quadrangle of the cloister. The space could accommodate about twelve monks, who were protected from the only by the wall behind them. Monasteries built later in the Middle Ages placed the scriptorium inside, the warmth of the later scriptoria served as an incentive for unwilling monks to work on the transcription of texts. Although the purpose of the plan is unknown, it shows the desirability of scriptoria within a wider body of monastic structures at the beginning of the 9th century. The scriptoria of the Cistercian order seem to have similar to those of the Benedictines
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Parchment
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Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of kids, lambs and it may be called animal membrane by libraries and museums that wish to avoid distinguishing between parchment and the more restricted term vellum. Today the term parchment is often used in non-technical contexts to refer to any animal skin, particularly goat, sheep or cow, that has been scraped or dried under tension. Vellum in theory refers exclusively to calfskin, and is used to denote a quality of material. The term parchment originally referred only to the skin of sheep and, occasionally, the word parchment evolved from the name of the city of Pergamon which was a thriving center of parchment production during the Hellenistic period. This account, originated in the writings of Pliny the Elder, is dubious because parchment had been in use in Anatolia, in the 2nd century BC a great library was set up in Pergamon that rivaled the famous Library of Alexandria. Writing on prepared animal skins had a history, however. H. Ibscher, and preserved in the Cairo Museum, a roll of the Twelfth Dynasty now in Berlin, the text now in the British Museum. Though the Assyrians and the Babylonians impressed their cuneiform on clay tablets, early Islamic texts are also found on parchment. In the later Middle Ages, especially the 15th century, parchment was largely replaced by paper for most uses except luxury manuscripts, new techniques in paper milling allowed it to be much cheaper than parchment, it was still made of textile rags and of very high quality. With the advent of printing in the fifteenth century, the demands of printers far exceeded the supply of animal skins for parchment. Although most copies of the Gutenberg Bible are on paper, some were printed on parchment,12 of the 48 surviving copies, in 1490, Johannes Trithemius preferred the older methods, because handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last, which is dependent on paper and it lasts for two hundred years that is a long time. In fact high quality paper from this period has survived 500 years or more very well, the heyday of parchment use was during the medieval period, but there has been a growing revival of its use among artists since the late 20th century. Although parchment never stopped being used it had ceased to be a choice for artists supports by the end of 15th century Renaissance. This was partly due to its expense and partly due to its working properties. When the water in paint media touches parchments surface, the collagen melts slightly, forming a bed for the paint
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Lorenzo Monaco
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Lorenzo Monaco was an Italian painter of the late Gothic-early Renaissance age. He was born Piero di Giovanni in Siena, little is known about his youth, apart from the fact that he was apprenticed in Florence. He was influenced by Giotto and his followers Spinello Aretino and Agnolo Gaddi, in 1390 he joined the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli. He was thenceforth known as Lorenzo Monaco. In the 1390s he executed three panels of the Biblioteca Laurenziana for his convent, starting from around 1404 his works show the influence of the International Gothic, of Lorenzo Ghibertis earliest works and of Gherardo Starnina. From this period is the Pietà in the Gallerie dellAccademia in Florence and his works, often over a gilded background, showed in general a spiritual value, and usually did not feature profane elements. In 1414 he painted the Coronation of the Virgin, characterized by a number of saints. In the late part of his life, Lorenzo did not accept the early Renaissance innovations introduced by such as Masaccio. This is visible in the Adoration of the Magi of 1420–1422, giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Lorenzo Monaco in his Lives. According to the Florentine historian, he died from an unidentified infection, madonna of Humility, Treasure Museum of the Basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi Sienese School Pope-Hennessy, John & Kanter, Laurence B. The Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings, new York, Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Biography and works Italian Paintings, Florentine School, a collection catalog containing information about Monaco and his works
26.
Giustiniani
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In the Venetian line the following are most worthy of mention, Lorenzo Giustiniani, the Laurentius Justinianus of the Roman calendar. Leonardo Giustiniani, brother of the preceding, was for years a senator of Venice. Some of the songs set to music by him became known as giustiniani. Bernardo Giustiniani, son of Leonardo, was a pupil of Guarino and George of Trebizond and he served on several important diplomatic missions both to France and Rome, and about 1485 became one of the Council of Ten. It is to be found in vol.1 of the Thesaurus of Graevius, orsatto Giustiniani, Venetian senator, translator of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles and author of a collection of Rime in imitation of Petrarch. Pietro Giustiniani, also a senator, lived in the 16th century and he was also the author of chronicles De gestis Petri Mocenigi and De bello Venetorum cum Carolo VIII. The latter has been reprinted in the Scriptores rerum Italicarum, vol. xxi, marcantonio Giustinian, 107th Doge of Venice, from January 26,1684 until his death. The Venetian branches of the Giustiniani family are extinct, gravely wounded in the hand and chest during the fall of the city, he died shortly afterwards. Paolo Giustiniani, from Moneglia, a member of the order of Dominicans, was, from a early age. He was the author of a number of Biblical commentaries, which are said to have been characterized by great erudition, paolo Giustiniani was trained as a lawyer then chose to become a monk in the Camaldolese order. He felt called to a primitive and eremetical way of life. He formed communities which followed the way of life as established by its founder. Finally, in 1523, the full order voted to recognize the followers of Guistiniani as a congregation within the tradition of the order. They took the title of Monte Corona, which was established as their own motherhouse, orazio Giustiniani, a member of the Giustintiani line that settled on the Island of Chios under the Republic of Genoa. Was elevated to Cardinal by Pope Innocent X and he also defended Crete against the Turks, and subsequently was killed in a reconnaissance in Friuli. He left in Italian a personal narrative of the war in Flanders, giovanni Giustiniani, born in Candia, translator of Terences Andria and Eunuchus, of Ciceros In Verrem, and of Virgils Aeneid, viii. Vincenzo Giustiniani, who in the beginning of the 17th century built the Roman Palazzo Giustiniani, the collection was removed in 1807 to Paris, where it was to some extent broken up. In 1815 all that remained of it, about 170 pictures, was purchased by the king of Prussia and removed to Berlin, marco Giustiniani, Multiple people This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Giustiniani
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Pope John Paul II
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Pope Saint John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, was Pope from 1978 to 2005. He is called by some Catholics Saint John Paul the Great and he was elected by the second Papal conclave of 1978, which was called after Pope John Paul I, who had been elected in August after the death of Pope Paul VI, died after thirty-three days. Cardinal Wojtyła was elected on the day of the conclave. John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland, John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Churchs relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He upheld the Churchs teachings on such matters as artificial contraception and the ordination of women and he was one of the most travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. By the time of his death, he had named most of the College of Cardinals, consecrated or co-consecrated a large number of the worlds bishops, a key goal of his papacy was to transform and reposition the Catholic Church. His wish was to place his Church at the heart of a new alliance that would bring together Jews, Muslims. He was the second longest-serving pope in history after Pope Pius IX. Born in Poland, John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI, John Paul IIs cause for canonisation commenced in 2005 one month after his death with the traditional five-year waiting period waived. A second miracle attributed to John Paul IIs intercession was approved on 2 July 2013, John Paul II was canonised on 27 April 2014, together with Pope John XXIII. On 11 September 2014, Pope Francis added John Paul IIs optional memorial feast day to the worldwide General Roman Calendar of saints, in response to worldwide requests. It is traditional to celebrate saints feast days on the anniversary of their deaths, Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in the Polish town of Wadowice. He was the youngest of three born to Karol Wojtyła, an ethnic Pole, and Emilia Kaczorowska, whose mothers maiden surname was Scholz. Emilia, who was a schoolteacher, died in childbirth in 1929 when Wojtyła was eight years old and his elder sister Olga had died before his birth, but he was close to his brother Edmund, nicknamed Mundek, who was 13 years his senior. Edmunds work as a physician led to his death from scarlet fever. As a boy, Wojtyła was athletic, often playing football as goalkeeper, during his childhood, Wojtyła had contact with Wadowices large Jewish community. School football games were organised between teams of Jews and Catholics, and Wojtyła often played on the Jewish side. I remember that at least a third of my classmates at school in Wadowice were Jews
28.
Pope Clement IX
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Pope Clement IX, born Giulio Rospigliosi, was Pope from 20 June 1667 to his death in 1669. Giulio Rospigliosi was born in 1600 to the Rospigliosi family, a family of Pistoia in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to Giacomo. He studied at the Seminario Romano and later at the University of Pisa as a pupil of the Jesuits and he would receive doctorates in theology, philosophy and both canon and civil law in 1623. After receiving his doctorates, he taught there as a professor from 1623 to 1625. Later Rospigliosi worked closely with Pope Urban VIII where he worked in the corps as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura. He was appointed as the Titular Archbishop of Tarsus in 1644, Rospigliosi also served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain from 1644 until 1653 when he decided to retire from that post. He lived in retirement throughout the pontificate of Pope Innocent X who disliked and distanced himself from those associated with his predecessor and he was also made vicar of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Rospigliosi was a man of letters who wrote poetry, dramas and libretti, as well as what may be the first comic opera, namely his 1637 libretto Chi soffre. He was also a patron of Nicolas Poussin, commissioning A Dance to the Music of Time from him and dictating its iconography. Pope Alexander VII appointed him to the cardinalate in 1657 as the Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and was appointed as the Cardinal Secretary of State in 1655 which he held until 1667. Pope Alexander VII died in 1667 and a conclave to choose his successor was called, on 20 June 1667 he was elected as pontiff and took the pontifical name of Clement IX. The new pope was crowned on 26 June 1667 by the protodeacon and he later took possession of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran on 3 July 1667. He was mediator during the 1668 peace of Aachen, in the wars of succession between France, Spain, England and the Netherlands. He was popular with the people of Rome, not so much for his erudition and application to business, as for his charity and his affability towards great. Two days each week he occupied a confessional in St. Peters church and he frequently visited the hospitals, and was lavish in his alms to the poor. In an age of nepotism, he did little or nothing to advance or enrich his family, in his aversion to notoriety, he refused to permit his name to be placed on the buildings erected during his reign. Clement IX confirmed the cultus of Margaret of Savoy on 9 October 1669 and he also beatified Rose of Lima on 15 April 1668. On 28 April 1668, he canonized Magdalena de Pazzi and Peter of Alcantara and he elevated 12 new cardinals in three consistories
29.
Papal bull
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A Papal bull is a specific kind of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by a pope of the Roman Catholic Church. It is named after the seal that was traditionally appended to the end in order to authenticate it. Papal bulls have been in use at least since the 6th century, but the phrase was not used until around the end of the 13th century, and then only internally for unofficial administrative purposes. However, it had become official by the 15th century, when one of the offices of the Apostolic Chancery was named the register of bulls, by the accession of Pope Leo IX in 1048, a clear distinction developed between two classes of bulls of greater and less solemnity. The majority of the bulls now in existence are in the nature of confirmations of property or charters of protection accorded to monasteries. In an epoch when there was much fabrication of such documents, a Papal confirmation, under certain conditions, could be pleaded as itself constituting sufficient evidence of title in cases where the original deed had been lost or destroyed. Since the 12th century, Papal bulls have carried a seal with the heads of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul on one side. Papal bulls were issued by the Pope for many kinds of communication of a public nature. Papyrus seems to have used almost uniformly as the material for these documents until the early years of the eleventh century. Popularly, the name is used for any Papal document that contains a metal seal, today, the bull is the only written communication in which the Pope will refer to himself as Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei. For example, when Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree in bull form, while Papal bulls always used to bear a metal seal, they now do so only on the most solemn occasions. A Papal bull is today the most formal type of public decree or letters patent issued by the Vatican Chancery in the name of the Pope, the body of the text had no specific conventions for its formatting, it was often very simple in layout. For the most solemn bulls, the Pope signed the document himself, following the signature in this case would be an elaborate monogram, the signatures of any witnesses, and then the seal. Nowadays, a member of the Roman Curia signs the document on behalf of the Pope, usually the Cardinal Secretary of State, and thus the monogram is omitted. The most distinctive characteristic of a bull was the seal, which was usually made of lead. On the obverse it depicted, originally somewhat crudely, the early Fathers of the Church of Rome, the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, identified by the letters Sanctus PAulus and Sanctus PEtrus. Each head was surrounded by a circle of globetti, and the rim of the seal was surrounded by a ring of such beads. On the reverse was the name of the issuing Pope in the nominative Latin form, with the letters PP, for Pastor Pastorum
30.
Fra Mauro
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Cam. was an Italian cartographer who lived in the Republic of Venice. He created the most detailed and accurate map of the world up until that time, Mauro was a monk of the Camaldolese Monastery of St. Michael, located on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon. It was there that he maintained a cartography workshop and he also was employed by some very powerful men like Prince Henry the Navigator. Fra Mauro was born before or around the year 1400, in his youth, Mauro had traveled extensively as a merchant and a soldier. He was familiar with the Middle East and he is recorded in the records of the Monastery of St. Michael from 1409. As a lay member of the monastery, Mauro was employed as mapmaker, in the records of the monastery his main job was recorded as collecting the monasterys rents, but from the 1450s he is also mentioned as the creator of a series of world maps. Although he was no longer free to travel, due to his religious status, by 1450 he composed a great mappa mundi - a world map - with surprising accuracy, including extensive written comments reflecting the geographic knowledge of his time. The map is today as the Fra Mauro map. The Fra Mauro world map, or mappa mundi, was a major work that compiled much of the geographical knowledge of the time. The map covers over five square meters, the map is extremely detailed and contains many thousands of texts and illustrations. The world map took several years to complete and was the most detailed, Fra Mauro created the map under a commission by King Afonso V of Portugal. Andrea Bianco, a sailor-cartographer, is recorded as having collaborated with Fra Mauro in creating the map, the map was completed on 24 April 1459, and sent to Portugal, but that copy didnt survive. Along with the map was a letter from the Doge of Venice and it was intended for Prince Henry the Navigator, Afonso Vs uncle. It encouraged the prince to continue funding exploratory journeys, Fra Mauro died the following year, while he was making a copy of the map for the Signoria of Venice. The copy was completed by Andrea Bianco, a commemorative medal of the period struck in honor of his cartographic work describes Fra Mauro as chosmographus incomparabilis. Two copies of maps by Fra Mauro are known to survive, one is a portolan chart in the Vatican Library, published by Roberto Almagià in 1944. The crater Fra Mauro and associated Fra Mauro formation of the Moon are named after him. The Apollo 13 lunar mission was intended to explore the Fra Mauro formation, the formation was instead explored by astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell of the Apollo 14 mission in February 1971
31.
Turin
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Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region and was the first capital city of Italy. The city is located mainly on the bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley and surrounded by the western Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 892,649 while the population of the area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million, in 1997 a part of the historical center of Torino was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, many of Turins public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy was moved to Turin from Chambery as part of the urban expansion, the city used to be a major European political center. Turin was Italys first capital city in 1861 and home to the House of Savoy, from 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy and finally the first capital of the unified Italy. Turin is sometimes called the cradle of Italian liberty for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour. The city currently hosts some of Italys best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, in addition, the city is home to museums such as the Museo Egizio and the Mole Antonelliana. Turins attractions make it one of the worlds top 250 tourist destinations, Turin is ranked third in Italy, after Milan and Rome, for economic strength. With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power, as of 2010, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is also home to much of the Italian automotive industry, the Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibals forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established in 27 BC under the name of Castra Taurinorum, both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurinis country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times. In the 1st century BC, the Romans created a military camp, the typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city, especially in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the path of the Roman citys decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani. The Porta Palatina, on the side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral
32.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
33.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
34.
Abbot
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Abbot, meaning father, is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as a title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The word is derived from the Aramaic av meaning father or abba, in the Septuagint, it was written as abbas. At first it was employed as a title for any monk. The title abbot came into general use in western monastic orders whose members include priests. An abbot is the head and chief governor of a community of monks, the English version for a female monastic head is abbess. In Egypt, the first home of monasticism, the jurisdiction of the abbot, or archimandrite, was, sometimes he ruled over only one community, sometimes over several, each of which had its own abbot as well. Saint John Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks under him, by the Rule of St Benedict, which, until the Cluniac reforms, was the norm in the West, the abbot has jurisdiction over only one community. Monks, as a rule, were laymen, nor at the outset was the abbot any exception, for the reception of the sacraments, and for other religious offices, the abbot and his monks were commanded to attend the nearest church. This rule proved inconvenient when a monastery was situated in a desert or at a distance from a city, the change spread more slowly in the West, where the office of abbot was commonly filled by laymen till the end of the 7th century. The ecclesiastical leadership exercised by abbots despite their frequent lay status is proved by their attendance, thus at the first Council of Constantinople, AD448,23 archimandrites or abbots sign, with 30 bishops. The second Council of Nicaea, AD787, recognized the right of abbots to ordain their monks to the inferior orders below the diaconate, abbots used to be subject to episcopal jurisdiction, and continued generally so, in fact, in the West till the 11th century. The Code of Justinian expressly subordinates the abbot to episcopal oversight, in the 12th century, the abbots of Fulda claimed precedence of the archbishop of Cologne. It has been maintained that the right to wear mitres was sometimes granted by the popes to abbots before the 11th century, but the documents on which this claim is based are not genuine. The first undoubted instance is the bull by which Alexander II in 1063 granted the use of the mitre to Egelsinus, abbot of the monastery of St Augustine at Canterbury. Of these the precedence was yielded to the abbot of Glastonbury, until in AD1154 Adrian IV granted it to the abbot of St Albans, next after the abbot of St Albans ranked the abbot of Westminster and then Ramsey. Of course, they always and everywhere had the power of admitting their own monks, the power of the abbot was paternal but absolute, limited, however, by the canon law. One of the goals of monasticism was the purgation of self and selfishness
35.
Holy See
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The Holy See, also referred to as the See of Rome, is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, the episcopal see of the Pope, and an independent sovereign entity. It serves as the point of reference for the Catholic Church everywhere. Today, it is responsible for the governance of all Catholics, organised in their Particular Churches, Patriarchates, as an independent sovereign entity, holding the Vatican City enclave in Rome as sovereign territory, it maintains diplomatic relations with other states. Diplomatically, the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole church and it is also recognised by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. The creation of the Vatican City state was meant to ensure the diplomatic, in Greek, the adjective holy or sacred is constantly applied to all such sees as a matter of course. The word see comes from the Latin word sedes, meaning seat, while Saint Peters basilica in Vatican City is perhaps the church most associated with the Papacy, the actual cathedral of the Holy See is the church of Saint John Lateran within the city of Rome. The Pope governs the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia, the Secretariat of State, under the Cardinal Secretary of State, directs and coordinates the Curia. The incumbent, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, is the Sees equivalent of a prime minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State, acts as the Holy Sees minister of foreign affairs. Parolin was named in his role by Pope Francis On 31 August 2013, mamberti was named in his role by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2006. The Secretariat of State is the body of the Curia that is situated within Vatican City. The others are in buildings in different parts of Rome that have rights similar to those of embassies. The Roman Rota handles normal judicial appeals, the most numerous being those that concern alleged nullity of marriage and it also oversees the work of other ecclesiastical tribunals at all levels. The most important of these is the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the Prefecture of the Papal Household is responsible for the organization of the papal household, audiences, and ceremonies. The Holy See does not dissolve upon a Popes death or resignation and it instead operates under a different set of laws sede vacante. The government of the See, and therefore of the Catholic Church, canon law prohibits the College and the Camerlengo from introducing any innovations or novelties in the government of the Church during this period. In 2001, the Holy See had a revenue of 422.098 billion Italian lire, the Guardian newspaper described Mennini and his role in the following manner. Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the popes merchant banker, Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the patrimony of the Holy See. The Holy See has been recognized, both in practice and in the writing of modern legal scholars, as a subject of public international law, with rights
36.
Jansenism
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Jansenism was a Catholic heretical theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen. It was first popularized by Jansens friend Abbot Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, of Saint-Cyran-en-Brenne Abbey, through the 17th and into the 18th centuries, Jansenism was a distinct movement within the Catholic Church. The theological centre of the movement was the convent of Port-Royal Abbey, Paris, which was a haven for writers including Duvergier, Arnauld, Pierre Nicole, Blaise Pascal, Jansenism was opposed by many in the Catholic hierarchy, especially the Jesuits. Although the Jansenists identified themselves only as rigorous followers of Augustine of Hippos teachings, Jansenist leaders endeavored to accommodate the popes pronouncements while retaining their uniqueness, and enjoyed a measure of peace in the late 17th century under Pope Clement IX. However, further controversy led to the apostolic constitution Unigenitus Dei Filius, promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713, the origins of Jansenism lie in the friendship of Jansen and Duvergier, who met in the early 17th century when both were studying theology at the University of Leuven. Duvergier was Jansens patron for a number of years, getting Jansen a job as a tutor in Paris in 1606, two years later, he got Jansen a position teaching at the bishops college in Duvergiers hometown of Bayonne. The duo studied the Church Fathers together, with a focus on the thought of Augustine of Hippo. Duvergier became abbot of Saint Cyran Abbey in Brenne and was known as the Abbé de Saint-Cyran for the rest of his life, Jansen returned to the University of Leuven, where he completed his doctorate in 1619 and was named professor of exegesis. Jansen and Duvergier continued to correspond about Augustine, especially Augustines teachings on grace, upon the recommendation of King Philip IV of Spain, Jansen was consecrated as bishop of Ypres in 1636. Jansen died in a 1638 epidemic and this manuscript, published in 1640 as Augustinus, expounded Augustines system and formed the basis for the subsequent Jansenist Controversy. Jansen emphasized a particular reading of Augustines idea of efficacious grace which stressed that only a portion of humanity were predestined to be saved. Jansen insisted that the love of God was fundamental, and that only perfect contrition, Duvergier was not released until after Richelieus death in 1642, and he died shortly thereafter, in 1643. Jansen also insisted on justification by faith, although he did not contest the necessity of revering saints, of confession, Jansens opponents condemned his teachings for their alleged similarities to Calvinism. Pascal himself claimed that Molinists were correct concerning the state of humanity before the Fall, the heresy of Jansenism, as stated by subsequent Roman Catholic doctrine, lay in denying the role of free will in the acceptance and use of grace. Jansenism asserts that Gods role in the infusion of grace cannot be resisted, Catholic doctrine, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that Gods free initiative demands mans free response—that is, humans freely assent or refuse Gods gift of grace. However, on August 1,1642, the Holy Office issued a decree condemning Augustinus, in 1602, Marie Angélique Arnauld become abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs, a Cistercian convent in Magny-les-Hameaux. There, she reformed discipline after an experience in 1608
37.
Pope Gregory XVI
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Pope Gregory XVI, born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari EC, reigned as Pope from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon entering the order of the Camaldolese. Strongly conservative and traditionalist, he opposed democratic and modernising reforms in the Papal States and throughout Europe, against these trends Gregory XVI sought to strengthen the religious and political authority of the papacy. In the encyclical Mirari vos, he pronounced it “false and absurd, or rather mad, however, his harsh repression, financial extravagance and neglectfulness left him deeply unpopular domestically. He is the most recent pope to take the pontifical name Gregory, Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari was born at Belluno in the Republic of Venice, on 18 September 1765, to an Italian lower noble family. His parents were from a village named Pesariis, in Friuli. At the age of eighteen Bartolomeo Cappellari joined the order of the Camaldolese and entered the Monastery of San Michele in Murano and he was ordained a priest in 1787. As a Camaldolese monk, Cappellari rapidly gained distinction for his theological and linguistic skills, was assigned to teach philosophy, Michele in 1787, at the age of twenty-two. In 1790, at the age of twenty-five, he was appointed censor librorum for his Order, in 1800 he became a member of the Academy of the Catholic Religion, founded by Pope Pius VII, to which he contributed memoirs on theological and philosophical questions. In 1805, at the age of forty, he was appointed abbot of the Monastery of San Gregorio on Romes Caelian Hill, from there he and a group of monks moved their little college to Padua in 1814. Twice he was offered a bishopric and twice he refused and he also negotiated a peace on behalf of Armenian Catholics with the Ottoman Empire. Gregory had never travelled outside Italy and was most familiar with Venice and he spoke Italian and Latin fluently, but no other European languages, and did not understand European politics. On 2 February 1831, after a fifty-day conclave, Cappellari was unexpectedly chosen to succeed Pope Pius VIII and his election was influenced by the fact that the cardinal considered the most papabile, Giacomo Giustiniani, was vetoed by King Ferdinand VII of Spain. There then arose a deadlock between the two major candidates, Emmanuele De Gregorio and Bartolomeo Pacca. What finally drove them to make a decision was a message from the Duke of Parma notifying them that revolt was about to break out in the northern Papal States. To resolve the impasse, the cardinals turned to Cappellari, at the time of election, Cardinal Cappellari was not yet a bishop, he is the most recent man to be elected pope prior to his episcopal consecration. The Monastery of S. Gregorio was the abbey from which Pope Gregory I had dispatched missionaries to England in 596. The Revolution of 1830, which overthrew the House of Bourbon, had just inflicted a blow on the Catholic royalist party in France
38.
Cartography
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Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively, the fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to, Set the maps agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. This is the concern of map editing, traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as toponyms or political boundaries. Represent the terrain of the object on flat media. This is the concern of map projections, eliminate characteristics of the mapped object that are not relevant to the maps purpose. This is the concern of generalization, reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization, orchestrate the elements of the map to best convey its message to its audience. This is the concern of map design, modern cartography constitutes many theoretical and practical foundations of geographic information systems. The earliest known map is a matter of debate, both because the term map isnt well-defined and because some artifacts that might be maps might actually be something else. A wall painting that might depict the ancient Anatolian city of Çatalhöyük has been dated to the late 7th millennium BCE, the oldest surviving world maps are from 9th century BCE Babylonia. One shows Babylon on the Euphrates, surrounded by Assyria, Urartu and several cities, all, in turn, another depicts Babylon as being north of the world center. The ancient Greeks and Romans created maps since Anaximander in the 6th century BCE, in the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy wrote his treatise on cartography, Geographia. This contained Ptolemys world map – the world known to Western society. As early as the 8th century, Arab scholars were translating the works of the Greek geographers into Arabic, in ancient China, geographical literature dates to the 5th century BCE. The oldest extant Chinese maps come from the State of Qin, dated back to the 4th century BCE, in the book of the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, published in 1092 by the Chinese scientist Su Song, a star map on the equidistant cylindrical projection. Early forms of cartography of India included depictions of the pole star and these charts may have been used for navigation. Mappa mundi are the Medieval European maps of the world, approximately 1,100 mappae mundi are known to have survived from the Middle Ages. Of these, some 900 are found illustrating manuscripts and the remainder exist as stand-alone documents, the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi produced his medieval atlas Tabula Rogeriana in 1154
39.
Murano
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Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about 1.5 kilometres north of Venice and measures about 1.5 km across with a population of just over 5,000 and it is famous for its glass making. It was once an independent comune, but is now a frazione of the comune of Venice, Murano is composed of seven islands, linked by bridges, separated by eight channels. Murano was initially settled by the Romans and from the century by people from Altinum. At first, the island prospered as a port and through its production of salt. It was also a centre for trade through the port it controlled on SantErasmo, from the eleventh century, it began to decline as islanders moved to Dorsoduro. It had a Grand Council, like that of Venice, but from the thirteenth century, unlike the other islands in the Lagoon, Murano minted its own coins. Early in the second millennium hermits of the Camaldolese Order occupied one of the islands, there they founded the Monastery of St. Michael. This monastery became a center of learning and printing. The famous cartographer, Fra Mauro, whose maps were crucial to the European exploration of the world, was a monk of this community. The monastery was suppressed in 1810 by French forces under Napoleon, in the course of their conquest of the Italian peninsula, the grounds then became Venices major cemetery. In 1291, all the glassmakers in Venice were forced to move to Murano due to the risk of fires, in the following century, exports began, and the island became famous, initially for glass beads and mirrors. Aventurine glass was invented on the island, and for a while Murano was the producer of glass in Europe. The island later known for chandeliers. Although decline set in during the century, glassmaking is still the islands main industry. In the fifteenth century, the island became popular as a resort for Venetians, and palaces were built, the countryside of the island was known for its orchards and vegetable gardens until the nineteenth century, when more housing was built. Glass-related attractions include the many glassworks, some Mediaeval and most open to the public, Murano glass is still associated with Venetian glass. Muranos glassmakers were soon numbered among the island’s most prominent citizens, by the fourteenth century, glassmakers were allowed to wear swords, enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state and found their daughters married into Venice’s most affluent families
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Germans
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Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
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Kingdom of Hungary
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The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom in about the year 1000, by the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918, from 1867 territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, the kingdom was nominally restored during the Regency of 1920–46, ending with the Soviet occupation in 1946. From 1102 it also included Croatia, being in union with it. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a holiday in Hungary. The Latin forms Regnum Hungariae or Ungarie, Regnum Marianum, or simply Hungaria, were the used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used officially from 1784 to 1790, the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The non-official Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, which is still the colloquial, in Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty and he fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians, Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000. After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles, in 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats, before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary. This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I, Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary. He was also canonized as a saint, however, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman
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Nitra
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Nitra is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. With a population of about 79,472, it is the fifth largest city in Slovakia, Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia, it was the political center of the Principality of Nitra. Today, it is a seat of a kraj and an okres, the first mention of Nitra dates back to the 9th century. The name of the city is derived from the Nitra river, the name is Indo-European, but the question of its pre-Slavic or Slavic origin has not been satisfactorily answered yet. Nitra might be derived from the old Indo-European root neit-, nit- meaning to cut or to using a derivation element -r-. The same root is present in the Slovak verb nietiť. Another view to the origin of the name is related to the Latin Novi-iter or Neui-iter meaning new territory behind the limes, the hypothetical Latin name could be adopted by the Quadi and later by the Slavs. The first written records contain also suffix -ava, particularly in older literature, the suffix is interpreted as an Indo-European/old Germanic basis ahwa. However, the suffix -ava can be also in numerous toponyms with a clearly Slavic origin. Although, the existence of hydronym Nitrava remains hypothetical and all versions with the suffix are related to a location, thus, the form Nitrava can refer to a larger property or territory around the river Nitra. Both forms were used concurrently and were recorded already in the 9th century. The name has different varieties in different languages, including Latin, Nitria, German, Neutra, Hungarian, Nyitra, the oldest archaeological findings in Nitra are dated around 25, 000-30,000 years ago. The locality has been inhabited in all periods in last 5. The people of Madarovce culture built the first fortification on Castle Hill already around 1,600 BCE, in the Iron Age, a large hillfort was built on Zobor Hill and additional smaller hillforts on the Lupka Hill and in Dražovce. Several Celtic settlements are known from the 5th-1st centuries, the Celts minted silver tetradrachms known as coins of Nitra type and probably also built a hillfort in the locality Na Vŕšku. In the Roman period, the Germanic tribe of Quadi settled in the area, the largest Germanic settlement from the migration period in Slovakia was unearth in Nitra-Párovské Háje. The first Slavs arrived to Slovakia at the end of the 5th, the early Slavs settled mainly in the lowlands near the water flows, the highest density of their settlements is documented just in the area of Nitra. As the Avars expanded to the territory of Slovakia in the half of the 7th century and early 8th century
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Camaldulians". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "