1.
Uffizi
–
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The building of Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi, the construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti and completed in 1581. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns filled with sculptures of artists in the 19th century. The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices, the Tribunal and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. He commissioned from the architect Buontalenti the design of the Tribuna degli Uffizi that collected a series of masterpieces in one room, over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, because of its huge collection, some of its works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the exhibition space some 6,000 metres² to almost 13,000 metres². On 27 May 1993, a car exploded in Via dei Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, the identity of the bomber or bombers are unknown, although it was almost certainly attributable to the Sicilian Mafia who were engaged in a period of terrorism at that time. Today, the Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence, in high season, waiting times can be up to five hours. In early August 2007, Florence experienced a heavy rainstorm, the Gallery was partially flooded, with water leaking through the ceiling, and the visitors had to be evacuated. There was a more significant flood in 1966 which damaged most of the art collections in Florence severely. Here is a selection from the collection, The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the Arrotino. Collections of the Uffizi Official website Uffizi – Google Art Project
Uffizi
–
Narrow courtyard between palace's two wings with view toward the
Arno.
Uffizi
–
Restored Niobe room represents Roman copies of late
Hellenistic art. View of daughter of
Niobe bent by terror.
Uffizi
–
Niobide rises on a rock
Uffizi
–
View of hallway. The walls were originally covered with tapestries.
2.
Florence, Italy
–
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
Florence, Italy
–
A collage of Florence showing the
Galleria degli Uffizi (top left), followed by the
Palazzo Pitti, a sunset view of the city and the
Fountain of Neptune in the
Piazza della Signoria
Florence, Italy
–
A wooden model of Florence as it would have probably looked during Roman times, showing the ancient amphitheatre
Florence, Italy
–
The façade of the Cathedral
Florence, Italy
–
Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the
Uffizi Gallery.
3.
Mirandola
–
Mirandola is a city and comune of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, in the Province of Modena,31 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital by railway. Mirandola originated as a Renaissance city-fortress, for four centuries it was the seat of an independent principality, a possession of the Pico family, whose most outstanding member was the polymath Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. It was besieged two times, in 1510 and 1551 and it was acquired by the Duchy of Modena in 1710. The city started to decay after the castle was destroyed in 1714, on 29 May 2012, a powerful earthquake hit the Mirandola area. It killed at least 17 people and collapsed churches and factories, the 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless. The Palazzo del Comune is a 15th-century edifice of Gothic style, the castle of the Pico family has been recently restored and it is now open to the public. Palazzo della Ragione, in late Gothic style, Palazzo Bergomi Palazzo Comunale, with the portraits of the Pico and other artworks, including an Adoration of the Magi once attributed to Palma il Giovane. The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, dating from the end of the 15th century, has been restored, san Francesco is a fine Gothic church. It houses the tombs of the Pico family, including that of Prendiparte Pico, collapsed during the second of the 2012 Emilia earthquakes. The Baroque Church of the Gesù, ostfildern, Germany Villejuif, France This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
Mirandola
–
Mirandola
4.
Renaissance philosophy
–
The designation Renaissance philosophy is used by scholars of intellectual history to refer to the thought of the period running in Europe roughly between 1355 and 1650. Intellectual historians, however, take into considerations factors such as sources, approaches, audience, language and this article reviews both the changes in context and content of Renaissance philosophy and its remarkable continuities with the past. The structure, sources, method, and topics of philosophy in the Renaissance had much in common with those of previous centuries and these areas provided the structure for the philosophy curriculum of the emerging universities. The general assumption was that the most ‘scientific’ branches of philosophy were those that were more theoretical, during the Renaissance too, many thinkers saw these as the main philosophical areas, with logic providing a training of the mind to approach the other three. A similar continuity can be seen in the case of sources, in terms of method, philosophy was considered during the late Middle Ages as a subject that required robust enquiry on the part of people trained in the subject’s technical vocabulary. Philosophical texts and problems were approached through university lectures and ‘questions’. The latter, similar in ways to modern debates, examined the pros. This style of philosophy continued to have a following in the Renaissance. Pico della Mirandola’s Disputations, for instance, depended directly on this tradition, given the remarkable range of Aristotelian philosophy, it was possible to discuss all kinds of issues in medieval and Renaissance philosophy. Indirectly he had stimulated discussion on two points that were particularly of concern to Christians, the immortality of the soul and the eternity of the world. Having established that many aspects of philosophy were held in common during the Middle Ages, I will use the same outline as above, to show that within trends of continuity one can also find surprising differences. It is therefore useful to reconsider what was mentioned above about philosophical sources and it is absolutely true, of course, that Aristotle was to educated Europeans what Shakespeare was to Elizabethan England. But the Renaissance also saw a significant broadening of source material, Petrarch was not able to read Plato directly, but he greatly admired him. Petrarch was also an admirer of Roman poets such as Virgil and Horace. Not all humanists of course followed his example in all things, in the sixteenth century anyone who considered himself ‘au fait’ read Plato as well as Aristotle, trying as much as possible to reconcile the two with each other and with Christianity. This is probably the reason why Donato Acciaiuoli’s commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics was so successful. Other movements from ancient philosophy also re-entered the mainstream, in all of these cases it is impossible to separate the pagan philosophical doctrines from the Christian filter through which they were approached and made legitimate. While generally the Aristotelian structure of the branches of philosophy stayed in place, interesting developments, in moral philosophy, for instance, a position consistently held by Thomas Aquinas and his numerous followers was that its three subfields were related to progressively wider spheres
Renaissance philosophy
–
Renaissance
5.
Magic (paranormal)
–
Magic or sorcery is the use of rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, and language with the aim of exploiting supernatural forces. The term magic has a variety of meanings, and there is no agreed upon definition of what it is or how it can be used. Religious scholars have defined magic in many different ways, one approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer, has magic and science be opposites. Many scholars of religion have rejected the utility of the term magic, the term magic comes from the Old Persian magu, a word that applied to a form of religious functionary about which little is known. This meaning of the term was adopted by Latin in the first century BCE. The concept was incorporated into Christian theology during the first century CE. This concept was pervasive throughout the Middle Ages, although in the modern period Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to establish the idea of natural magic. Both negative and positive understandings of the term were retained in Western culture over the following centuries, throughout Western history, there have been examples of individuals claiming to be practitioners of magic and referring to themselves as magicians. This trend has proliferated in the period, with a growing number of magicians appearing within the esoteric milieu. Scholars of religion have failed to agree on a definition of magic is. The subject has one of intense dispute, with some scholars criticizing the validity of the term in the first place. Even among those throughout history who have described themselves as magicians, there has been some debate among scholars as to whether to use the term magic at all. The scholar of religion Jonathan Z. Smith for example argued that it had no utility as a term that scholars should use. Religious historian Wouter Hanegraaff agreed, stating that the magic is an important object of historical research. Since the 1990s its usage among scholars has declined, within Western culture, magic has been linked to the idea of the Other. Using the term magic when discussing non-Western cultures or pre-modern forms of Western society raises problems, alternately, this term implies that all categories of magic are ethnocentric and that such Western preconceptions are an unavoidable component of scholarly research. Magic is one of the most heavily theorized concepts in the study of religion, the intellectualist approach to defining magic is associated with two prominent British anthropologists, Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer. This was an approach that viewed magic as being the theoretical opposite of science, in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, Tylor characterized magic as beliefs based on the error of mistaking ideal analogy for real analogy
Magic (paranormal)
–
"
Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses " by
John William Waterhouse
Magic (paranormal)
–
The "
Magician " card from a 15th-century
tarot deck.
Magic (paranormal)
–
Juju charm protecting dugout canoe on riverbank, in
Suriname.1954.
Magic (paranormal)
–
Traditional welcome performance,
Mitral,
Kheda district, Gujarat
6.
Plato
–
Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Platos entire work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy. Alfred North Whitehead once noted, the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. In addition to being a figure for Western science, philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche, amongst other scholars, called Christianity, Platonism for the people, Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy, which originate with him. He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word “philosopher” should be applied, few other authors in the history of Western philosophy approximate him in depth and range, perhaps only Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant would be generally agreed to be of the same rank. Due to a lack of surviving accounts, little is known about Platos early life, the philosopher came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies, the exact time and place of Platos birth are unknown, but it is certain that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BCE. According to a tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus. Platos mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker, besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children, these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus. The brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon are mentioned in the Republic as sons of Ariston, and presumably brothers of Plato, but in a scenario in the Memorabilia, Xenophon confused the issue by presenting a Glaucon much younger than Plato. Then, at twenty-eight, Hermodorus says, went to Euclides in Megara, as Debra Nails argues, The text itself gives no reason to infer that Plato left immediately for Megara and implies the very opposite. Thus, Nails dates Platos birth to 424/423, another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was sleeping, an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse about philosophy. Ariston appears to have died in Platos childhood, although the dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mothers brother, who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato and these and other references suggest a considerable amount of family pride and enable us to reconstruct Platos family tree
Plato
–
Plato: copy of portrait bust by
Silanion
Plato
–
Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
Plato
–
Plato and
Socrates in a medieval depiction
Plato
–
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of
The School of Athens, a fresco by
Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his
Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his
Timaeus and gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in
The Forms
7.
Marsilio Ficino
–
Marsilio Ficino was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day and his Florentine Academy, an attempt to revive Platos Academy, influenced the direction and tenor of the Italian Renaissance and the development of European philosophy. Ficino was born at Figline Valdarno, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the Italian humanist philosopher and scholar was another of his students. In 1459 John Argyropoulos was lecturing on Greek language and literature at Florence, when Cosimo decided to refound Platos Academy at Florence he chose Ficino as its head. In 1462, Cosimo supplied Ficino with Greek manuscripts of Platos work, among his many students was Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, who was considered by Ficino to be his successor as the head of the Florentine Platonic Academy. Diaccetos student, Giovanni di Bardo Corsi, produced a biography of Ficino in 1506. A physician and a vegetarian, Ficino became a priest in 1473, in 1474 Ficino completed his treatise on the immortality of the soul, Theologia Platonica de immortalitate animae. In the rush of enthusiasm for every rediscovery from Antiquity, he exhibited a great interest in the arts of astrology, in 1489 he was accused of magic before Pope Innocent VIII and needed strong defense to preserve him from the condemnation of heresy. This century appears to have perfected astrology, Ficinos letters, extending over the years 1474–1494, survive and have been published. Now if those little men grant life to the smallest particles of the world, neither to know that the Whole, in which we live and move and have our being, is itself alive, nor to wish this to be so. One metaphor for this integrated aliveness is Ficinos astrology, in the Book of Life, he details the interlinks between behavior and consequence. It talks about a list of things that hold sway over a mans destiny and those works, which were very popular at the time, dealt with astrological and alchemical concepts. Thus Ficino came under the suspicion of heresy, especially after the publication of the book in 1489. Ficino introduced the term and concept of love in the West. It first appeared in a letter to Alamanno Donati in 1476, after his death his biographers had a difficult task trying to refute those who spoke of his homosexual tendencies. But his sincere and deep faith, and membership of the clergy, put him beyond the reach of gossip, Ficino died on 1 October 1499 at Careggi. In 1521 his memory was honored with a bust sculpted by Andrea Ferrucci, harvard University Press, Latin with English translation. ISBN 0-674-01986-5 The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, English translation with extensive notes, the Language Department of the School of Economic Science
Marsilio Ficino
–
Bust of Ficino by
Andrea Ferrucci in
Florence Cathedral.
Marsilio Ficino
–
Zachariah in the Temple (detail), a fresco by
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1486–1490) in the
Tornabuoni Chapel, Florence, showing (L-R): Marsilio Ficino,
Cristoforo Landino,
Angelo Poliziano and
Gentile de' Becchi or
Demetrios Chalkondyles
Marsilio Ficino
–
De triplici vita, 1560
8.
Aristotle
–
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
Aristotle
–
Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by
Lysippus,
c. 330 BC. The
alabaster mantle is modern.
Aristotle
–
Aristotelianism
Aristotle
–
School of Aristotle in
Mieza,
Macedonia, Greece
Aristotle
–
"Aristotle" by
Francesco Hayez (1791–1882)
9.
Neoplatonism
–
Neoplatonists were heavily influenced by Plato, but also by the Platonic tradition that thrived during the six centuries which separated the first of the Neoplatonists from Plato. In defining the term Neoplatonism, it is difficult to reduce the school of thought to a set of ideas that all Neoplatonic philosophers shared in common. The work of Neoplatonic philosophy involved describing the derivation of the whole of reality from a single principle, instead, the most concise definition of Neoplatonism casts it as a historical term. Thinkers of this period include Syrianus, Olympiodorus the Younger. Neoplatonism has been influential throughout history. In the Middle Ages, Neoplatonic ideas were integrated into the philosophical and theological works of many of the most important medieval Islamic, Christian, yeats and T. S. Eliot, among many more. The term Neoplatonism has a function as a historical category. On the one hand, it differentiates the philosophical doctrines of Plotinus, on the other, the term makes an assumption about the novelty of Plotinus interpretation of Plato. The term Neoplatonism implies that Plotinus interpretation of Plato was so distinct from those of his predecessors that it should be thought to introduce a new period in the history of Platonism. Some contemporary scholars, however, have taken issue with this assumption and have doubted that Neoplatonism constitutes a useful label and they claim that merely marginal differences separate Plotinus teachings from those of his immediate predecessors. Whether Neoplatonism is a meaningful or useful historical category is itself a central question concerning the history of the interpretation of Plato, for much of the history of Platonism, it was commonly accepted that the doctrines of the Neoplatonists were essentially the same as those of Plato. The Renaissance Platonist Marsilio Ficino, for instance, thought that the Neoplatonic interpretation of Plato was an authentic, contemporary scholars often identify the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher as an early thinker who took Platos philosophy to be separate from that of his Neoplatonic interpreters. However, others have argued that the differentiation of Plato from Neoplatonism was the result of a historical development that preceded Schleiermachers scholarly work on Plato. The most important forerunners of Neoplatonism are the Middle Platonists, such as Plutarch, Neoplatonism is generally a metaphysical and epistemological philosophy. Neoplatonism is a form of idealistic monism combined with elements of polytheism, although the founder of Neoplatonism is supposed to have been Ammonius Saccas, the Enneads of his pupil Plotinus are the primary and classical document of Neoplatonism. One of the features of Plotinus system, which was also taken up by subsequent Neoplatonists, is the doctrine of the One beyond being. For Plotinus, the first principle of reality is a simple, ineffable, unknowable subsistence which is both the creative source and the teleological end of all existing things. Although, properly speaking, there is no name appropriate for the first principle, the One is so simple that it cannot even be said to exist or to be a being
Neoplatonism
10.
Nicholas of Cusa
–
Nicholas of Cusa, also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus, was a German philosopher, theologian, jurist, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renaissance humanism, he made spiritual and political contributions in European history. A notable example of this is his mystical or spiritual writings on learned ignorance, Papal legate to Germany from 1446, he was appointed cardinal for his merits by Pope Nicholas V in 1448 and Prince–Bishop of Brixen two years later. In 1459 he became general in the Papal States. Nicholas of Cusa has remained an influential figure, during the period 2000-2001, his sixth centennial of his birth was celebrated on four continents and commemorated by publications on his life and work. Nicholas was born in Kues in southwestern Germany and he was the second of four children of Johan Krebs and Katherina Roemer. His father was a boat owner and ferryman. He entered the Faculty of Arts of the Heidelberg University in 1416 as a cleric of the Diocese of Trier and he seemed to have left Heidelberg soon afterwards, as he received his doctorate in canon law from the University of Padua in 1423. In Padua, he met with the later cardinals Julian Cesarini and Domenico Capranica, afterwards, he entered the University of Cologne in 1425 as a doctor of canon law, which he appears to have both taught and practiced there. In Cologne, he made friends with the scholastic theologian Heymeric de Campo, following a brief period in Cologne, Nicholas returned to his hometown and became secretary to Otto of Ziegenhain, the Prince–Archbishop of Trier. Otto appointed him canon and dean at the stift of Saint Florinus in Koblenz affiliated with numerous prebends, in 1427 he was sent to Rome as an episcopal delegate. The next year he travelled to Paris to study the writings of Ramon Llull, at the same time he rejected a calling by the newly established University of Leuven. He acquired great knowledge in the research of ancient and mediæval manuscripts as well as in textual criticism, in 1433 he identified the Donation of Constantine as a fake, confirmed by Lorenzo Valla a few years later, and revealed the forgery of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. After the Archbishop Otto of Trier had died in 1430, Pope Martin V appointed the Speyer bishop Raban of Helmstatt his successor. Nicholas stressed the influence of the cathedral chapter and its given right to participate in the succession policy. His efforts were to no avail in regard to Ulrichs ambitions, however, Nicholas pleadings earned him a reputation as an intermediary. While present at the council, he wrote his first work, De concordantia catholica and this work remained useful to critics of the papacy long after Nicholas left Basel. Initially as conciliarist, Nicholas approached to his university friend Cardinal Julian Cesarini, Nicholas supported transfer of the council to Italy to meet with the Greeks, who needed aid against the Ottoman Turks
Nicholas of Cusa
–
Nicholas of Cusa, by
Master of the Life of the Virgin
Nicholas of Cusa
–
Birthplace in Kues
Nicholas of Cusa
–
Tomb in S.Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, with the relief "Cardinal Nicholas before St Peter" by
Andrea Bregno
11.
Kabbalah
–
Kabbalah is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought that originated in Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist in Judaism is called a Mekubbal, Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal, and mysterious Ein Sof and the mortal and finite universe. While it is used by some denominations, it is not a religious denomination in itself. It forms the foundations of religious interpretation. Kabbalah seeks to define the nature of the universe and the human being, the nature and purpose of existence and it also presents methods to aid understanding of the concepts and thereby attain spiritual realisation. Kabbalah originally developed within the realm of Jewish tradition, and kabbalists often use classical Jewish sources to explain, traditional practitioners believe its earliest origins pre-date world religions, forming the primordial blueprint for Creations philosophies, religions, sciences, arts, and political systems. Safed Rabbi Isaac Luria is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah and it was popularised in the form of Hasidic Judaism from the 18th century onwards. According to the Zohar, a text for kabbalistic thought. These four levels are called pardes from their initial letters, peshat, the direct interpretations of meaning. Derash, midrashic meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses, sod, the inner, esoteric meanings, expressed in kabbalah. Kabbalah is considered by its followers as a part of the study of Torah – the study of Torah being an inherent duty of observant Jews. A third tradition, related but more shunned, involves the magical aims of Practical Kabbalah and they can be readily distinguished by their basic intent with respect to God, The Theosophical tradition of Theoretical Kabbalah seeks to understand and describe the divine realm. Consequently, it formed a minor tradition shunned from Kabbalah. According to traditional belief, early kabbalistic knowledge was transmitted orally by the Patriarchs, prophets, According to this view, early kabbalah was, in around the 10th century BC, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel. Foreign conquests drove the Jewish spiritual leadership of the time to hide the knowledge and make it secret and it is hard to clarify with any degree of certainty the exact concepts within kabbalah. There are several different schools of thought with different outlooks, however. From the Renaissance onwards Jewish Kabbalah texts entered non-Jewish culture, where they were studied and translated by Christian Hebraists, syncretic traditions of Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah developed independently of Jewish Kabbalah, reading the Jewish texts as universal ancient wisdom. Both adapted the Jewish concepts freely from their Judaic understanding, to merge with other theologies, religious traditions, with the decline of Christian Cabala in the Age of Reason, Hermetic Qabalah continued as a central underground tradition in Western esotericism
Kabbalah
–
Latin translation of
Gikatilla's Shaarei Ora
Kabbalah
–
Jewish mysticism
Kabbalah
–
Grave of
Rabbi Akiva in
Tiberias. He features in Hekhalot mystical literature, and as one of the four who entered the
Pardes
12.
John Colet
–
John Colet was an English churchman and educational pioneer. Colet was an English scholar, Renaissance humanist, theologian, member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, Colet wanted people to see the scripture as their guide through life. Furthermore, he wanted to restore theology and rejuvenate Christianity, Colet is an important early leader of Christian humanism as he linked humanism and reform. John Colet was a friend of Erasmus, a key figure in Christian humanism. The eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, he was born in London in January 1467, and was educated at St Anthonys school and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took his M. A. in 1490. He was already nonresident rector of Dennington, Suffolk, and vicar of St Dunstans, Stepney, in 1493 he went to Paris and then to Italy, studying canon and civil law, patristics and Greek. During his time abroad he became acquainted with Budaeus and Erasmus, due to their influences, when he arrived back in England, he returned more than just a humanist, he returned a Christian reformer. His methods did much to influence Erasmus, who visited Oxford in 1498, since 1494, Colet had been prebendary of York, and canon of St Martin le Grand, London. In 1502 he became prebendary of Salisbury, in 1505 prebendary of St Pauls and he continued to lecture on the books of the Bible, and he soon afterwards established a perpetual divinity lecture, three days each week, in St Pauls itself. While at St. Pauls between 1505 and 1519, Colet used his preaching, administration, scriptural exegesis and education towards Church reform, the school, dedicated to the Child Jesus, was in place to give young boys a Christian education. The celebrated grammarian William Lilye was the first master, and the company of mercers were appointed trustees, some held Colets religious opinions to be heretical, but William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to prosecute him. King Henry VIII also held him in high esteem despite his sermons against the French wars, Colet was rector of the guild of Jesus at St Pauls Cathedral and chaplain to Henry VIII. In 1514 he made the Canterbury pilgrimage and in 1515 preached at Wolseys installation as cardinal, one is the beginning of the Convocation of the clergy of Canterbury province at the London Cathedral on 6 February 1512. Archbishop Warham of Canterbury invited Colet to make the speech, Colets speech is both direct and insightful. It represents his work, or as Colet said himself, he is speaking out of zeal, furthermore, Colet stated that he came …here today, fathers, to admonish you with all your minds to deliberate, in this your Council, concerning the reformation of the Church. The Convocation sermon is one of the most well known of his sermons, many opinions regarding Colet emerged due to this sermon, in addition to the biographical information described by Erasmus. In addition, Colet gave a sermon before the royal court on Good Friday,1513. He gave this speech in the wake of political tension, specifically, in his speech, Colet condemned war and prompted Christians to fight only for Jesus Christ
John Colet
–
Portrait drawing by
Hans Holbein the Younger.
John Colet
–
Frontispiece and titlepage of "The Life of Dr John Colet", Dean of St Paul's" by Samuel Knight, 1724.
John Colet
–
Tomb of John Colet, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's. After Hollar.
John Colet
–
Deans
13.
Erasmus
–
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch/Netherlandish Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet Prince of the Humanists, and has called the crowning glory of the Christian humanists. He also wrote On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia, Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works. Erasmus remained a member of the Roman Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the Church and he also held to the Catholic doctrine of free will, which some Reformers rejected in favor of the doctrine of predestination. His middle road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps, Erasmus died suddenly in Basel in 1536 while preparing to return to Brabant, and was buried in Basel Minster, the former cathedral of the city. A bronze statue of him was erected in his city of birth in 1622, Desiderius Erasmus is reported to have been born in Rotterdam on 28 October in the late 1460s. He was named after Saint Erasmus of Formiae, whom Erasmuss father Gerard personally favored, a 17th-century legend has it that Erasmus was first named Geert Geerts, but this is unfounded. He was born in Rotterdam, but there are insufficient records to confirm that, a well-known wooden picture indicates, Goudæ conceptus, Roterodami natus. According to an article by historian Renier Snooy, Erasmus was born in Gouda, the exact year of his birth is debated, with most biographers citing the year as 1466. Some evidence confirming 1466 can be found in Erasmuss own words, of twenty-three statements Erasmus made about his age, all and he was christened Erasmus after the saint of that name. Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for four years. Information on his family and early life comes mainly from vague references in his writings and his parents were not legally married. His father, Gerard, was a Catholic priest and curate in Gouda, little is known of his mother other than that her name was Margaretha Rogerius and she was the daughter of a physician from Zevenbergen, she may have been Gerards housekeeper. Erasmus was given the highest education available to a man of his day. During his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the principal of the school, for the first time ever Greek was taught at a lower level than a university in Europe, and this is where he began learning it. He also gleaned there the importance of a relationship with God but eschewed the harsh rules. His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483, and his mother, in 1492, poverty forced Erasmus into the consecrated life
Erasmus
–
Desiderius Erasmus in 1523 as depicted by
Hans Holbein the Younger. The Greek and Latin words on the book translate to "The Herculean Labours of Erasmus of Rotterdam".
Erasmus
–
Bust by
Hildo Krop (1950) at
Gouda, where Erasmus spent his youth
Erasmus
–
Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus by
Albrecht Dürer, 1526, engraved in
Nuremberg, Germany.
Erasmus
–
Bronze statue of Erasmus in Rotterdam. It was created by
Hendrick de Keyser in 1622, replacing a stone statue of 1557.
14.
Sir Thomas More
–
Sir Thomas More, venerated by Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532 and he also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary ideal island nation. More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther, More also opposed the Kings separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason, of his execution, he was reported to have said, I die the Kings good servant, but Gods first. Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr, Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr, the Soviet Union honoured him for the Communist attitude toward property rights expressed in Utopia. From 1490 to 1492, More served John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, Morton enthusiastically supported the New Learning, and thought highly of the young More. Believing that More had great potential, Morton nominated him for a place at the University of Oxford, More began his studies at Oxford in 1492, and received a classical education. Studying under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, he became proficient in both Latin and Greek, More left Oxford after only two years—at his fathers insistence—to begin legal training in London at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery. In 1496, More became a student at Lincolns Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where he remained until 1502, according to his friend, theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk. Between 1503 and 1504 More lived near the Carthusian monastery outside the walls of London, although he deeply admired their piety, More ultimately decided to remain a layman, standing for election to Parliament in 1504 and marrying the following year. In spite of his choice to pursue a career, More continued ascetic practices for the rest of his life, such as wearing a hair shirt next to his skin. A tradition of the Third Order of Saint Francis honours More as a member of that Order on their calendar of saints, More married Jane Colt in 1505. She was five years younger than her husband, quiet and good-natured, Erasmus reported that More wanted to give his young wife a better education than she had previously received at home, and tutored her in music and literature. The couple had four children before Jane died in 1511, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, going against friends advice and common custom, within thirty days More had married one of the many eligible women among his wide circle of friends. He certainly expected a mother to care of his little children and, as the view of his time considered marriage as an economic union, he chose a rich widow. More was not viewed as being in haste to remarry for the gratification of sexual pleasure, as Alice was older than he, and their marriage was possibly not consummated. The speed of the marriage was so unusual that More had to get a dispensation of the banns, Alice More lacked Janes docility, Mores friend Andrew Ammonius derided Alice as a hook-nosed harpy
Sir Thomas More
–
Sir Thomas More, by
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527
Sir Thomas More
–
Medallion of Thomas More
Sir Thomas More
–
Rowland Lockey after
Hans Holbein the Younger, The Family of Sir Thomas More, c. 1594
Sir Thomas More
–
Study for a portrait of Thomas More's family, c. 1527, by
Hans Holbein the Younger
15.
Plotinus
–
Plotinus was a major Greek-speaking philosopher of the ancient world. In his philosophy there are three principles, the One, the Intellect, and the Soul and his teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition. Historians of the 19th century invented the term Neoplatonism and applied it to him, much of the biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyrys preface to his edition of Plotinus Enneads. His metaphysical writings have inspired centuries of Pagan, Islamic, Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic metaphysicians and mystics. Porphyry reported that Plotinus was 66 years old when he died in 270, eunapius reported that Plotinus was born in the Deltaic Lycopolis in Egypt, which has led to speculations that he may have been a native Egyptian of Roman, Greek, or Hellenized Egyptian descent. Plotinus had an inherent distrust of materiality, holding to the view that phenomena were an image or mimicry of something higher. This distrust extended to the body, including his own, it is reported by Porphyry that at one point he refused to have his portrait painted, likewise Plotinus never discussed his ancestry, childhood, or his place or date of birth. From all accounts his personal and social life exhibited the highest moral and spiritual standards, Plotinus took up the study of philosophy at the age of twenty-seven, around the year 232, and travelled to Alexandria to study. There he was dissatisfied with every teacher he encountered until an acquaintance suggested he listen to the ideas of Ammonius Saccas, upon hearing Ammonius lecture, he declared to his friend, this was the man I was looking for, and began to study intently under his new instructor. Besides Ammonius, Plotinus was also influenced by the works of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Numenius, after spending the next eleven years in Alexandria, he then decided, at the age of around 38, to investigate the philosophical teachings of the Persian philosophers and the Indian philosophers. In the pursuit of this endeavor he left Alexandria and joined the army of Gordian III as it marched on Persia. However, the campaign was a failure, and on Gordians eventual death Plotinus found himself abandoned in a hostile land, and only with difficulty found his way back to safety in Antioch. At the age of forty, during the reign of Philip the Arab, he came to Rome, there he attracted a number of students. He had students amongst the Roman Senate beside Castricius, such as Marcellus Orontius, Sabinillus, finally, Plotinus was a correspondent of the philosopher Cassius Longinus. While in Rome Plotinus also gained the respect of the Emperor Gallienus, an Imperial subsidy was never granted, for reasons unknown to Porphyry, who reports the incident. Porphyry subsequently went to live in Sicily, where word reached him that his teacher had died. The philosopher spent his days in seclusion on an estate in Campania which his friend Zethos had bequeathed him. According to the account of Eustochius, who attended him at the end, Plotinus final words were, Eustochius records that a snake crept under the bed where Plotinus lay, and slipped away through a hole in the wall, at the same moment the philosopher died
Plotinus
–
Plotinus
16.
Theory of Forms
–
Platos theory of Forms or theory of Ideas argues that non-physical forms represent the most accurate reality. When used in this sense, the form or idea is often capitalized. However, the theory is considered a classical solution to the problem of universals, the early Greek concept of form precedes attested philosophical usage and is represented by a number of words mainly having to do with vision, sight, and appearance. The words, εἶδος and ἰδέα come from the Indo-European root *weid-, eidos is already attested in texts of the Homeric era, the earliest Greek literature. This transliteration and the tradition of German and Latin lead to the expression theory of Ideas. The word is not the English idea, which is a mental concept only. The pre-Socratic philosophers, starting with Thales, noted that appearances change, the answer was substance, which stands under the changes and is the actually existing thing being seen. The status of appearances now came into question, what is the form really and how is that related to substance. Thus, the theory of matter and form was born, starting with at least Plato and possibly germinal in some of the presocratics the forms were considered as being in something else, which Plato called nature. The latter seemed as carved wood, ὕλη in Greek, corresponding to materia in Latin, from which the English word matter is derived, shaped by receiving forms. The Forms are expounded upon in Platos dialogues and general speech, in every object or quality in reality has a form, dogs, human beings, mountains, colors, courage, love. Form answers the question, What is that, Plato was going a step further and asking what Form itself is. He supposed that the object was essentially or really the Form and that the phenomena were mere shadows mimicking the Form, that is, momentary portrayals of the Form under different circumstances. For example, Parmenides states, Nor, again, if a person were to show that all is one by partaking of one, but if he were to show me that the absolute one was many, or the absolute many one, I should be truly amazed. Matter is considered particular in itself, for Plato, forms, such as beauty, are more real than any object that imitate them. Though the forms are timeless and unchanging, physical things are in a constant change of existence, where forms are unqualified perfection, physical things are qualified and conditioned. These Forms are the essences of various objects, they are that without which a thing would not be the kind of thing it is. For example, there are tables in the world but the Form of tableness is at the core
Theory of Forms
–
Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
Theory of Forms
–
In the
Allegory of the Cave, the objects that are seen are not real, according to Plato, but literally mimic the real Forms.
Theory of Forms
–
The central image from Raphael's
The School of Athens (1509-1511), depicting Plato (left) and Aristotle (right). Plato is depicted pointing upwards, in reference to his belief in the higher Forms, while Aristotle disagrees and points downwards to the here-and-now, in reference to his belief in
empiricism.
17.
Form of the Good
–
Plato describes The Form of the Good, or more literally the idea of the good, in his dialogue the Republic, speaking through the character of Socrates. Plato introduces several forms in his works, but identifies the Form of the Good as the superlative and this form is the one that allows a philosopher-in-training to advance to a philosopher-king. It cannot be seen or explained, but once it is recognized. The first references that are seen in The Republic to the Form of the Good are within the conversation between Glaucon and Socrates and this form is the basis for understanding all other forms, it is what allows us to understand everything else. Through the conversation between Socrates and Glaucon Plato analogizes the form of the Good with the sun as it is allows us to see things. Here, Plato describes how the sun allows for sight, but he makes a very important distinction, “sun is not sight” but it is “the cause of sight itself. ”As the sun is in the visible realm, the form of Good is in the intelligible realm. It is “what gives truth to the known and the power to know to the knower”. It is not only the “cause of knowledge and truth, it is also an object of knowledge”, Plato identifies how the form of the Good allows for the cognizance to understand such difficult concepts as justice. He identifies knowledge and truth as important, but through Socrates says and he then proceeds to explain “although the good is not being” it is “superior to it in rank and power”, it is what “provides for knowledge and truth”. Plato writes that the Form of the Good is the object of knowledge, although it is not knowledge itself. Humans are compelled to pursue the good, but no one can hope to do successfully without philosophical reasoning. Plato supposes these perfect types to exist from all eternity and calls them the Forms or Ideas and he maintains that degree of skepticism which denies all permanent authority to the evidence of sense. In essence, Plato suggests that justice, truth, equality, beauty, aristotle discusses the Forms of Good in critical terms several times in both of his major surviving ethical works, the Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle argues that Plato’s Form of the Good does not apply to the physical world, Plato’s Form of the Good is often criticized as too general. Plato’s Form of the Good does not define things in the world that are good. According to Socrates in The Republic, the alternative to accepting a hypothesis is to refute all the objections against it. Aristotle along with other sees the Form of the Good as synonymous with the idea of One. Plato claims that Good is the highest Form, and that all objects aspire to be good
Form of the Good
–
Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
18.
Demiurge
–
In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge is an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was adopted by the Gnostics, depending on the system, they may be considered to be either uncreated and eternal, or considered to be the product of some other entity. The philosophical usage and the proper noun derive from Platos Timaeus, written c.360 BC and this is accordingly the definition of the demiurge in the Platonic and Middle Platonic philosophical traditions. In the various branches of the Neoplatonic school, the demiurge is the fashioner of the real, perceptible world after the model of the Ideas, Plato, as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the Socratic dialogue Timaeus, c.360 BC. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who fashioned and shaped the material world, Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly benevolent, and hence desirous of a world as good as possible. The world remains imperfect, however, because the Demiurge created the world out of a chaotic, Platos work Timaeus is a philosophical reconciliation of Hesiods cosmology in his Theogony, syncretically reconciling Hesiod to Homer. In Numeniuss Neo-Pythagorean and Middle Platonist cosmogony, the Demiurge is second God as the nous or thought of intelligibles and sensibles, Plotinus and the later Platonists worked to clarify the Demiurge. To Plotinus, the second emanation represents a second cause. In order to reconcile Aristotelian with Platonian philosophy, Plotinus metaphorically identified the demiurge within the pantheon of the Greek Gods as Zeus, the first and highest aspect of God is described by Plato as the One, the source, or the Monad. This is the God above the Demiurge, and manifests through the work of the Demiurge, the Monad emanated the demiurge or Nous from its indeterminate vitality due to the monad being so abundant that it overflowed back onto itself, causing self-reflection. This self-reflection of the indeterminate vitality was referred to by Plotinus as the Demiurge or creator, the second principle is organization in its reflection of the nonsentient force or dynamis, also called the one or the Monad. Plotinus form of Platonic idealism is to treat the Demiurge, nous as the contemplative faculty within man which orders the force into conscious reality. In this he claimed to reveal Platos true meaning, a doctrine he learned from Platonic tradition that did not appear outside the academy or in Platos text. This tradition of creator God as nous, can be validated in the works of philosophers such as Numenius. Before Numenius of Apamea and Plotinus Enneads, no Platonic works ontologically clarified the Demiurge from the allegory in Platos Timaeus. The idea of Demiurge was, however, addressed before Plotinus in the works of Christian writer Justin Martyr who built his understanding of the Demiurge on the works of Numenius. The figure of the Demiurge emerges in the theoretic of Iamblichus, here, at the summit of this system, the Source and Demiurge coexist via the process of henosis. The One is further separated into spheres of intelligence, the first and superior sphere is objects of thought, then within this intellectual triad Iamblichus assigns the third rank to the Demiurge, identifying it with the perfect or Divine nous with the intellectual triad being promoted to a hebdomad
Demiurge
–
A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in
Bernard de Montfaucon ’s L’antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures may be a depiction of the Demiurge.
Demiurge
–
Drawing of the leontocephaline found at the
Mithraeum of C. Valerius Heracles and sons, dedicated 190 AD at
Ostia Antica, Italy (CIMRM 312).
19.
Henosis
–
Henosis is the classical Greek word for mystical oneness, union, or unity. In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, the goal of henosis is union with what is fundamental in reality, the One, the Neoplatonic concept has precedents in the Greek mystery religions as well as parallels in Eastern philosophy. It is further developed in the Corpus Hermeticum, in Christian theology, soteriology, the term is relatively common in classical texts, and has the meaning of union or unity. Henosis, orprimordial unity, is rational and deterministic, emanating from indeterminism an uncaused cause, each individual as a microcosm reflects the gradual ordering of the universe referred to as the macrocosm. In mimicking the demiurge, one unites with The One or Monad, thus the process of unification, of The Being, and The One, is called Henosis. The culmination of Henosis is deification, Henosis for Plotinus was defined in his works as a reversing of the ontological process of consciousness via meditation toward no thought and no division within the individual. As is specified in the writings of Plotinus on Henology, one can reach a tabula rasa and this absolute simplicity means that the nous or the person is then dissolved, completely absorbed back into the Monad. Within the Enneads of Plotinus the Monad can be referred to as the Good above the demiurge, the Monad or dunamis is of one singular expression all is contained in the Monad and the Monad is all. All division is reconciled in the one, the stage before reaching singularity, called duality, is completely reconciled in the Monad. As the one, source or substance of all things the Monad is all encompassing, as infinite and indeterminate all is reconciled in the dunamis or one. It is the demiurge or second emanation that is the nous in Plotinus and it is the demiurge or nous that perceives and therefore causes the force to manifest as energy, or the dyad called the material world. Nous as being, being and perception manifest what is called soul, Plotinus words his teachings to reconcile not only Plato with Aristotle but also various World religions that he had personal contact with during his various travels. Plotinus works have a character in that they reject matter as an illusion. Matter was strictly treated as immanent, with matter as essential to its being, having no true or transcendential character or essence, substance or ousia and this approach is called philosophical Idealism. Within the works of Iamblichus of Chalcis, The One and reconciliation of division can be obtained through the process of theurgy, by mimicking the demiurge, the individual is returned to the cosmos to implement the will of the divine mind. One goes through a series of theurgy or rituals that unites the initiate to the Monad and these rituals mimic the ordering of the chaos of the Universe into the material world or cosmos. Thus one without conflict internal or external is united and is The One, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but also in western mysticism, henosis can be acquired by theoria, hesychasm and contemplative prayer. Yet, the concept of theosis, or deification, differs from henosis, since created beings cannot become God in His transcendent essence, nondualism Absolute Apotheosis Fana Form of the Good Moksha Monolatrism The All Theosis http, //www. goddess-athena. org/Encyclopedia/Friends/Iamblichus/index. htm
Henosis
–
Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
20.
Microcosm and macrocosm
–
Macrocosm and microcosm refers to a vision of cosmos where the part reflects the whole and vice versa. It is a present in all esoteric schools of thinking, according to scholar Pierre A. Riffard. It is closely associated with Hermeticism and underlies practices such as astrology, alchemy, §435, pg 151 Theories of Macrocosms and Microcosms in the History of Philosophy, G. P. Conger, NY,1922, which includes a survey of critical discussions up to 1922. Cosmos - an Illustrated Dimensional Journey from microcosmos to macrocosmos - from Digital Nature Agency
Microcosm and macrocosm
–
By looking down, I see up. Part of a pair of illustrations in Tycho Brahe's Astronomiæ instauratæ Mechanica depicting his understanding of the connection between macrocosm and microcosm.
21.
Nous
–
The three commonly used philosophical terms are from Greek, νοῦς or νόος, and Latin intellectus and intelligentia respectively. This activity is understood in a way, at least in some contexts. In philosophy, common English translations include understanding and mind, or sometimes thought or reason and it is also often described as something equivalent to perception except that it works within the mind. It has been suggested that the meaning is something like awareness. In colloquial British English, nous also denotes good sense, which is close to one everyday meaning it had in Ancient Greece, in Aristotles influential works, the term was carefully distinguished from sense perception, imagination, and reason, although these terms are closely inter-related. The term was already singled out by earlier philosophers such as Parmenides. In the Aristotelian scheme, nous is the understanding or awareness which allows human beings to think rationally. For Aristotle, this was distinct from the processing of sensory perception, including the use of imagination and memory, deriving from this it was also sometimes argued, especially in classical and medieval philosophy, that the individual nous must require help of a spiritual and divine type. By this type of account, it came to be argued that the human understanding somehow stems from this cosmic nous, which is not just a recipient of order. In early Greek uses, Homer used nous to signify mental activities of both mortals and immortals, for example what they really have on their mind as opposed to what they say aloud. It was one of words related to thought, thinking. In pre-Socratic philosophy, it became distinguished as a source of knowledge and reasoning and opposed to mere sense perception. For example, Heraclitus complained that much learning does not teach nous, among some Greek authors a faculty of intelligence, a higher mind, came to be considered to be a property of the cosmos as a whole. The work of Parmenides set the scene for Greek philosophy to come and he claimed that reality as the senses perceive it is not a world of truth at all, because sense perception is so unreliable, and what is perceived is so uncertain and changeable. Amongst the pre-Socratic philosophers before Anaxagoras, other philosophers had proposed a similar ordering human-like principle causing life and the rotation of the heavens. For example, Empedocles, like Hesiod much earlier, described cosmic order and living things as caused by a version of love. Anaxagoras wrote, All other things partake in a portion of everything, while nous is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone, itself by itself. For it is the thinnest of all things and the purest, and it has all knowledge about everything and the greatest strength, and nous has power over all things, both greater and smaller, that have soul
Nous
–
The earliest surviving text that uses the word nous is the
Iliad.
Agamemnon says to
Achilles: "Do not thus, mighty though you are, godlike Achilles, seek to deceive me with your wit (nous); for you will not get by me nor persuade me."
Nous
–
This diagram shows the medieval understanding of
spheres of the
cosmos, derived from
Aristotle, and as per the standard explanation by
Ptolemy. It came to be understood that at least the outermost sphere (marked "
Primũ Mobile ") has its own intellect, intelligence or nous - a cosmic equivalent to the human mind.
Nous
–
Anaxagoras of Clezomenae
Nous
–
Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
22.
Logos
–
LOGOS cards is a collectible card game developed for Second Life. The game was first conceptualized by Florian Kraner in 2008, development began in earnest early 2009 with the addition of Darien Caldwell to the creative team. The full game was released on July 1,2010, LOGOS is played by two players. Both of them start with 100.000 Hit Points. They do so by battling with cards that follow a Rock-paper-scissors principle, LOGOS cards is played in Second Life using a HUD. It consists of two SL items that have to be worn and will add a display of the hand dealt to you as well as other elements to the screen. The game can be played anywhere in Second Life on the go and this allows players to play the game in a fully emersive 3D environment, where they have full control over how their avatars and surroundings are represented. The community that has formed is constantly adding and maintaining new play areas where players organize tournaments and events, cardmotives are mostly generated from Second Life sceneries and sorted into 5 categories of cards, Energy, Matter, Information, Life and Neutral. When building decks the player needs to keep combo requirements and effects for their cards in mind, LOGOS makes use of Googles App Engine, which allows the Second Life game to be enhanced by a website interface that allows players to edit card decks and more for no cost
Logos
23.
Enneads
–
The Enneads, fully The Six Enneads, is the collection of writings of Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry. Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas and they were founders of Neoplatonism, then, he proceeded to set the fifty-four treatises in groups of nine or Enneads. He also collected The Enneads into three volumes, the first volume contained the first three Enneads, the second volume has the Fourth and the Fifth Enneads, and the last volume was devoted to the remaining Enneads. After correcting and naming each treatise, Porphyry wrote a biography of his master, Life of Plotinus, since the publishing of a modern critical edition of the Greek text by P. Henry and H. -R. These numbers are divided by dots, by commas or blank spaces, for Fourth Ennead, treatise number seven, chapter two, lines one to five, we write, IV.7.2. 1-5 E. g. In addition to this, the order of the treatises is numbered between brackets or parentheses, and given below. For the previously given, IV.7.2. 1-5 since treatise IV.7 was the written by Plotinus. III,5,9,8 since III.5 was the written by Plotinus. The names of treatises may differ according to translation, the numbers in square brackets before the individual works refer to the chronological order they were written according to Porphyrys Life of Plotinus. I.1 - What is the Living Being and What is Man, I.2 - On Virtue I.3 - On Dialectic. I.4 - On True Happiness I.5 - On Whether Happiness Increases with Time, II.6 - On Quality or on Substance II.7 - On Complete Transfusion II.8 - On Sight or on how Distant Objects Appear Small. II.9 - Against Those That Affirm The Creator of the Kosmos, III.1 - On Fate III.2 - On Providence. Many passages of Enneads IV-VI, now known as Plotiniana Arabica, the writings had a significant effect on Islamic philosophy, due to Islamic interest in Aristotle. A Latin version of the so-called Theology appeared in Europe in 1519, contemporary scholars refer to the Plotinus critical editions made by HENRY, P. and SCHWYZER, H. -R. Bruxelles and Paris, Museum Lessianum, 1951-1973, useful tools for the study of the Enneads are SLEEMAN, J. -H and POLLET, G. Lexikon Plotinianum. R. and BOMBACIGNO, R. Lexicon II, Plotinus, ATKINSON, M. Plotinus Ennead V.1, On the Three Principal Hypostases Oxford, OUP,1983. The One and its Relation to Intellect, allegorical interpretations of Plato Works related to The Enneads at Wikisource The Six Enneads in PDF, HTML, Microsoft Word, Plain Text, Theological Markup Language, and Palm Doc versions. The Six Enneads – Mackenna and Page translation divided into six sections in HTML, the Enneads, Greek text page scans of Kirchhoffs edition
Enneads
24.
Liber de Causis
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The Liber de Causis was a philosophical work once attributed to Aristotle that became popular in the Middle Ages, first in Arabic and Islamic countries and later in the Latin West. The real authorship remains a mystery, but most of the content is taken from Proclus Elements of Theology and this was first noticed by Thomas Aquinas, following William of Moerbekes translation of the works of Proclus into Latin. As such it is now attributed to a Pseudo-Aristotle, the original title in Arabic was Kitāb al-Īḍāḥ li-Arisṭūṭālis fī l-khayr al-maḥd, The book of Aristotles explanation of the pure good. The title Liber de Causis came into use following the translation into Latin by Gerard of Cremona,2005 Meiner Felix Verlag Gmbh ISBN 978-3-7873-1705-9, Latin text, German translation Adriaan Pattin, Le Liber de Causis. Edition établie a laide de 90 manuscrits avec introduction et notes, in Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 28 pp. 90–203, Latin text Dennis J. Brand, tr. 1, S. 172–243 Albertus Magnus, Liber de causis et processu universitatis a prima causa Cristina D’Ancona Costa, Tommaso dAquino, Commento al Libro delle cause. Rusconi, Milano 1986, commentary by Thomas Aquinas Sancti Thomae de Aquino super librum De Causis expositio Manuel Alonso Alonso, al-Andalus, revista de las escuelas de estudios árabes de Madrid y Granada,1945, pp. 345–382. Dragos Calma, The Exegetical Tradition of Medieval Neoplatonism, considerations on a Recently Discovered Corpus of Texts, in Dragos Calma, Neoplatonism in the Middle Ages. New Commentaries on Liber de Causis and Elementatio Theologica,2 vols, Turnhout, Brepols,2016, see Paloma Llorente Megías, Liber de Causis, Indice y Concordancia, Florence, Olschki 2004. Cristina D’Ancona Costa, Recherches sur le Liber de causis, vrin, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-7116-1225-2 Cristina D’Ancona, Richard C. University press, Freiburg 1995, ISBN 3-7278-0994-9 Richard C
Liber de Causis
25.
The Consolation of Philosophy
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The Consolation of Philosophy is a work by the sixth-century philosopher Boethius covering a wide range of topics, lauded as a great work of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Boethius was at the heights of power in Rome and was brought down by treachery. It has been described as by far the most interesting example of literature the world has ever seen. God is however represented not only as an eternal and all-knowing being, Boethius writes the book as a conversation between himself and Lady Philosophy. She consoles Boethius by discussing the nature of fame and wealth, and the ultimate superiority of things of the mind. She contends that happiness comes from within, and that virtue is all that one truly has, Boethius engages questions such as the nature of predestination and free will, why evil men often prosper and good men fall into ruin, human nature, virtue, and justice. He speaks about the nature of free will and determinism when he asks if God knows and sees all, on human nature, Boethius says that humans are essentially good and only when they give in to “wickedness” do they “sink to the level of being an animal. In the Consolation, Boethius answered religious questions without reference to Christianity, relying solely on natural philosophy and he believed in the correspondence between faith and reason. The truths found in Christianity would be no different from the found in philosophy. In the words of Henry Chadwick, If the Consolation contains nothing distinctively Christian, is a work written by a Platonist who is also a Christian, but is not a Christian work. To acquire a taste for it is almost to become naturalised in the Middle Ages — C. S and it is through Boethius that much of the thought of the Classical period was made available to the Western Medieval world. It has often been said Boethius was the “last of the Romans, the philosophical message of the book fits well with the religious piety of the Middle Ages. Readers were encouraged not to seek worldly goods such as money and power, evil had a purpose, to provide a lesson to help change for good, while suffering from evil was seen as virtuous. Because God ruled the universe through Love, prayer to God, the Middle Ages, with their vivid sense of an overruling fate, found in Boethius an interpretation of life closely akin to the spirit of Christianity. The book is influenced by Plato and his dialogues. Translations into the vernacular were done by famous notables, including King Alfred, Jean de Meun, Geoffrey Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth I, citations from it occur frequently in Dantes Divina Commedia. Of Boethius, Dante remarked “The blessed soul who exposes the deceptive world to anyone who gives ear to him. ”Boethian influence can be found everywhere in Geoffrey Chaucers poetry. The Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola used some of the text in his choral work Canti di prigionia, tom Shippey in The Road to Middle-earth says how “Boethian” much of the treatment of evil is in Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings
The Consolation of Philosophy
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From a 1385 Italian manuscript of the Consolation: Miniatures of Boethius teaching and in prison
The Consolation of Philosophy
The Consolation of Philosophy
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Lady Fortune with
the Wheel of Fortune in a medieval manuscript of a work by
Boccaccio; The Consolation of Philosophy was responsible for the popularity of the goddess of Fortune and the wheel of fortune in the Middle Ages
26.
De divisione naturae
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De divisione naturae is the title given by Thomas Gale to his edition of the work originally titled by Eriugena Periphyseon. This work was the magnum opus of ninth century theologian Johannes Scotus Eriugena, the work is arranged in five books. The form of exposition is that of dialogue, the method of reasoning is the syllogism, natura is the name for the universal, the totality of all things, containing in itself being and non-being. It is the unity of all special phenomena are manifestations. The first is God as the ground or origin of all things, the last is God as the end or goal of all things. Thus we distinguish in the system beginning, middle and end. We are compelled to envisage this eternal process under the form of time, the work was probably carried out beginning in the early 860s and completed around 866–67. This is based on a dedication in the book identifying as frater Wulfad, the work was not widely circulated in the authors lifetime. Eriugena was assisted by one, possibly two other persons in writing the book, based on the presence of margin notes indicating the penmanship of two separate persons. One of these is believed to have been Eriugena himself, while the other was the script indicates that the writer was a fellow Irishman. De divisione naturae was condemned by a council at Sens by Honorius III, who described it as swarming with worms of heretical perversity, and by Pope Gregory XIII in 1585. In 1681, the long-lost work was found at Oxford University, and was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. The Division of Nature has been called the achievement of ancient philosophy. It is presented, like Alcuins book, as a dialogue between Master and Pupil, Eriugena anticipates Thomas Aquinas, who said that one cannot know and believe a thing at the same time. Eriugena explains that reason is necessary to understand and interpret revelation, authority is the source of knowledge, but the reason of mankind is the norm by which all authority is judged. Digitized Latin version on Google Books Moran, Dermot
De divisione naturae
27.
Origen
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Origen, or Origen Adamantius, was a Greek scholar, ascetic, and early Christian theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a writer in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, philosophical theology, preaching. He was anathematised at the Second Council of Constantinople and he was one of the most influential figures in early Christian asceticism. Origens Greek name Ōrigénēs probably means child of Horus and his nickname or cognomen Adamantios derives from Greek adámas, which means adamant, unalterable, unbreakable, unconquerable, diamond. He acquired it because of his ascetical practices. Origen was born in Alexandria to Christian parents and he was educated by his father, Leonides of Alexandria, who gave him a standard Hellenistic education, but also had him study the Christian scriptures. The name of his mother is unknown, in 202, Origens father was martyred in the outbreak of the persecution during the reign of Septimius Severus. A story reported by Eusebius has it that Origen wished to follow him in martyrdom, the death of Leonides left the family of nine impoverished when their property was confiscated. Many modern scholars, however, doubt that Clements school had been an ecclesiastical institution as Origens was. His fame and the number of his pupils increased rapidly, so that Bishop Demetrius of Alexandria, Origen, to be entirely independent, sold his library for a sum which netted him a daily income of 4 obols, on which he lived by exercising the utmost frugality. Teaching throughout the day, he devoted the greater part of the night to the study of the Bible, Eusebius reported that Origen, following Matthew 19,12 literally, castrated himself. The later church historian Philostorgius of Apamea, on the other hand, Eusebius story was accepted during the Middle Ages and was cited by Peter Abelard in his letters to Heloise. Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, during the past century, scholars have often questioned this, surmising that this may have been a rumor circulated by his detractors. Henry Chadwick points out that, while the story may be true, it seems unlikely, however, many noted historians, such as Peter Brown and William Placher, continue to find no reason to deny the truth of Eusebius claims. But the school had far outgrown the strength of a man, the catechumens pressed eagerly for elementary instruction. Under these circumstances, Origen entrusted the teaching of the catechumens to Heraclas and his own interests became more and more centered in exegesis, and he accordingly studied Hebrew, though there is no certain knowledge concerning his instructor in that language. From about this period dates Origens acquaintance with Ambrose of Alexandria, later Ambrose, a man of wealth, made a formal agreement with Origen to promulgate his writings, and all the subsequent works of Origen were dedicated to Ambrose. In the following year, an uprising at Alexandria caused Caracalla to let his soldiers plunder the city, shut the schools
Origen
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Origen
Origen
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Origen reportedly studied under
Clement of Alexandria and was influenced by his thought.
Origen
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Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
28.
Porphyry (philosopher)
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Porphyry of Tyre was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre, in the Roman Empire. He edited and published the Enneads, the collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. His commentary on Euclids Elements was used as a source by Pappus of Alexandria and he also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics. His Isagoge, or Introduction, is an introduction to logic and philosophy, under Longinus he studied grammar and rhetoric. In 262 he went to Rome, attracted by the reputation of Plotinus, at one point he became suicidal. On the advice of Plotinus he went to live in Sicily for five years to recover his mental health, on returning to Rome, he lectured on philosophy and completed an edition of the writings of Plotinus together with a biography of his teacher. Iamblichus is mentioned in ancient Neoplatonic writings as his pupil, the two men differed publicly on the issue of theurgy. In his later years, he married Marcella, a widow with seven children, little more is known of his life, and the date of his death is uncertain. Porphyry is best known for his contributions to philosophy, in medieval textbooks, the all-important Arbor porphyriana illustrates his logical classification of substance. To this day, taxonomy benefits from concepts in Porphyrys Tree, the Introduction was translated into Arabic by Abd-Allāh Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ from a Syriac version. With the Arabicized name Isāghūjī it long remained the standard introductory text in the Muslim world and influenced the study of theology, philosophy, grammar. Besides the adaptations and epitomes of this work, many independent works on logic by Muslim philosophers have been entitled Isāghūjī, Porphyrys discussion of accident sparked a long-running debate on the application of accident and essence. There is debate as to whether it was written in his youth or closer in time to the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian, whether or not Porphyry was the pagan philosopher opponent in Lactantius Divine Institutes, written at the time of the persecutions, has long been discussed. The fragments of the Philosophy from Oracles are only quoted by Christians, especially Eusebius, Theodoret, Augustine, the fragments contain oracles identifying proper sacrificial procedure, the nature of astrological fate, and other topics relevant for Greek and Roman religion in the third century. Whether this work contradicts his treatise defending vegetarianism, which warned the philosopher to avoid animal sacrifice, is disputed among scholars. During his retirement in Sicily, Porphyry wrote Against the Christians which consisted of fifteen books, Porphyry acknowledged Jesus Christ only as an outstanding philosopher. Some thirty Christian apologists, such as Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinaris, Augustine, Jerome, in fact, everything known about Porphyry’s arguments is found in these refutations, largely because Theodosius II ordered every copy burned in A. D.435 and again in 448. Porphyry became one of the most able pagan adversaries of Christianity of his day and his aim was not to disprove the substance of Christianity’s teachings but rather the records within which the teachings are communicated
Porphyry (philosopher)
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Porphire Sophiste, in a French 16th-century engraving
Porphyry (philosopher)
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Imaginary debate between
Averroes (1126–1198 AD) and Porphyry (234–c. 305 AD). Monfredo de Monte Imperiali Liber de herbis, 14th century.
29.
Iamblichus
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Iamblichus, also known as Iamblichus Chalcidensis, or Iamblichus of Apamea, was a Syrian Neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy. Iamblichus was the representative of Syrian Neoplatonism, though his influence spread over much of the ancient world. The events of his life and his religious beliefs are not entirely known, according to the Suda, and his biographer Eunapius, he was born at Chalcis in Syria. He was the son of a rich and illustrious family, and he initially studied under Anatolius of Laodicea, and later went on to study under Porphyry, a pupil of Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism. He disagreed with Porphyry over the practice of theurgy, Iamblichus responds to Porphyrys criticisms of theurgy in a book attributed to him, around 304, he returned to Syria to found his own school at Apameia, a city famous for its Neoplatonic philosophers. Here he designed a curriculum for studying Plato and Aristotle, still, for Iamblichus, Pythagoras was the supreme authority. He is known to have written the Collection of Pythagorean Doctrines, only the first four books, and fragments of the fifth, survive. Scholars noted that the Exhortation to Philosophy of Iamblichus was composed in Apamea in the early 4th c, Iamblichus was said to have been a man of great culture and learning. He was also renowned for his charity and self-denial, many students gathered around him, and he lived with them in genial friendship. According to Fabricius, he died during the reign of Constantine, only a fraction of Iamblichus books have survived. For our knowledge of his system, we are indebted partly to the fragments of writings preserved by Stobaeus and others. The notes of his successors, especially Proclus, as well as his five extant books, besides these, Proclus seems to have ascribed to him the authorship of the celebrated treatise Theurgia, or On the Egyptian Mysteries. However, the differences between this book and Iamblichus other works in style and in points of doctrine have led some to question whether Iamblichus was the actual author. As a speculative theory, Neoplatonism had received its highest development from Plotinus, unlike Plotinus who broke from Platonic tradition and asserted an undescended soul, Iamblichus re-affirmed the souls embodiment in matter believing matter to be as divine as the rest of the cosmos. It is most likely on account that lamblichus was venerated. Iamblichus was highly praised by those who followed his thought, by his contemporaries, Iamblichus was accredited with miraculous powers. During the revival of interest in his philosophy in the 15th and 16th centuries, at the head of his system, Iamblichus placed the transcendent incommunicable One, the monad, whose first principle is intellect, nous. Immediately after the absolute One, lamblichus introduced a second superexistent One to stand between it and the many as the producer of intellect, or soul, psyche and these three entities, the psyche, and the nous split into the intelligible and the intellective, form a triad
Iamblichus
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Iamblichus
30.
Julian the Apostate
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Julian, also known as Julian the Apostate, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. A member of the Constantinian dynasty, Julian became Caesar over the provinces by order of Constantius II in 355 and in this role campaigned successfully against the Alamanni. Most notable was his victory over the Alamanni in 357 at the Battle of Argentoratum. In 360 in Lutetia he was proclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, before the two could face each other in battle, however, Constantius died, after naming Julian as his rightful successor. In 363, Julian embarked on an campaign against the Sassanid Empire. Though initially successful, Julian was mortally wounded in battle and died shortly thereafter, Julian was a man of unusually complex character, he was the military commander, the theosophist, the social reformer, and the man of letters. He was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, and it was his desire to bring the Empire back to its ancient Roman values in order to, as he saw it, save it from dissolution. He purged the state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the expense of Christianity. His anti-Christian sentiment and promotion of Neoplatonic paganism caused him to be remembered as Julian the Apostate by the church and he was the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty, the empires first Christian dynasty. Both of his parents were Christians and his paternal grandparents were Western Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and his second wife, Flavia Maximiana Theodora. His maternal grandfather was Julius Julianus, praetorian prefect of the East under emperor Licinius from 315 to 324, the name of Julians maternal grandmother is unknown. Constantius II, Constans I, and Constantine II were proclaimed joint emperors, Julian and Gallus were excluded from public life, were strictly guarded in their youth, and given a Christian education. They were likely saved by their youth and at the urging of the Empress Eusebia, if Julians later writings are to be believed, Constantius would later be tormented with guilt at the massacre of 337. After Eusebius died in 342, both Julian and Gallus were exiled to the estate of Macellum in Cappadocia. Here Julian met the Christian bishop George of Cappadocia, who lent him books from the classical tradition, at the age of 18, the exile was lifted and he dwelt briefly in Constantinople and Nicomedia. He became a lector, an office in the Christian church. Julian studied Neoplatonism in Asia Minor in 351, at first under Aedesius, the philosopher and he was summoned to Constantius court in Mediolanum in 354 and kept there for a year, in the summer and fall of 355, he was permitted to study in Athens. While there, Julian became acquainted with two men who became both bishops and saints, Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Great
Julian the Apostate
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Portrait of Emperor Julian on a bronze coin from
Antioch minted in 360–363
Julian the Apostate
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19th century depiction of Julian being proclaimed Emperor in Paris at the
Thermes de Cluny, standing on a shield in the
Frankish manner, in February 360.
Julian the Apostate
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The Church of the Holy Apostles, where Julian brought Constantius II to be buried.
Julian the Apostate
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Illustration from The Fall of Princes by
John Lydgate (which is a translation of De Casibus Virorum Illustribus by
Giovanni Boccaccio) depicting "the skyn of Julyan". There is no evidence that Julian's corpse was skinned and displayed, and it is likely that the illustrator simply confused the fate of Julian's body with that of Emperor
Valerian.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Pico della Mirandola". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Pico della Mirandola". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
