Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa
The abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientales département, in southwestern France. It was founded in 840, refounded at its present site in 878, after a flood destroyed the original buildings, it was an important cultural centre in the regency of Abbot Oliba. Parts of what was once building material from the 12th century abbey now make up The Cloisters museum in New York City; the origins of Cuixà abbey lie at Sant Andreu d'Eixalada, an abbey founded by the Benedictines in about 840, located at the head of the Tet valley. In the autumn of 878, the river broke its banks and destroying the monastery and causing a death toll of at least 12; the remainder of the monks were forced to seek shelter in the surrounding countryside. The community transferred to its present site at Cuixà, a minor cenobitic community dedicated to Saint Germanus, led by Father Protais. In June 879, Protasius and Miro the Elder, count of Conflent and Roussillon, signed the founding treaty of the new monastery, whereby Cuixà extended its properties with those contributed by Eixalada and Protasius was named abbot.
The abbey continued under the protection of the count of Conflent. The territory came under the domain of the family of Wilfred I, count of Barcelona in 870. In about 940, under the initiative of Sunifred II of Cerdanya, a new church dedicated to Saint Michael was built. In 956 the building was made more sumptuous; when the Doge of Venice, Pietro I Orseolo, accepted Romuald's advice to become a monk, he abdicated and fled in the night to Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa accompanied by Romuald and his companion, who established a hermitage nearby. Cesare Borgia never came to the abbey, although he was named by his father abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in 1494, one among many other revenue-earning titles, which he kept until 1498; the abbey was part of the territory of Barcelona, but in from the 15th century it began to fall under French influence, was signed over to the French government in 1659, with the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees. The abbey was nationalized along with other ecclesiastical properties during the French Revolution of 1789, subsequently sold, with the clergy evicted.
Subsequently, the buildings fell into disrepair. Some sculpture from the abbey found its way into a collection of George Grey Barnard, a prominent American sculptor, an avid collector and dealer of medieval art. In 1914, Barnard opened his "Cloisters" exhibit on Fort Washington Avenue, New York, along with sculpture from a number of medieval sites; the Cloisters was rebuilt and expanded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938 at Fort Tryon Park, Upper Manhattan and is now a significant Medieval museum within the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The centerpiece and namesake of the museum is a cloister built using fragments of the 12th century cloister of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxha; the Cuxa abbey was refounded in 1919 and subsequently restored under the Cistercians, an order which originated as an offshoot of the Benedictines. The famous cellist Pablo Casals was filmed in the abbey in 1954 as he performed Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major. The abbey was transferred back to the Benedictines in 1965. French Romanesque architecture Media related to Chapiteaux du cloître de Saint-Michel de Cuxa at Wikimedia Commons Official website - French.
History page in English. Sant Andreu d'Eixalada Catalan Wikipedia page. Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa - Visiting information - Dead link 2015
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic known as the Second Spanish Republic, was the democratic government that existed in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, it lost the Spanish Civil War on 1 April 1939 to the rebel faction, that would establish a military dictatorship under the rule of Francisco Franco. After the proclamation of the Republic, a provisional government was established until December 1931, when the 1931 Constitution was approved a Constitutional Republic was formally established; the republican government of Manuel Azaña would start a great number of reforms to "modernize" the country. After the 1933 general election, Alejandro Lerroux formed a government with the confidence and supply of the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups. Under Lerroux's premiership, the Republic found itself before an insurrection of anarchists and socialists that took a revolutionary undertone in Asturias; the revolt was suppressed by the Republic with the intervention of the army.
The Popular Front won the 1936 general election. On 17–18 July 1936, a coup d'état fractured the Spanish Republican Armed Forces and failed, marking the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. During the Spanish Civil War, there were three governments; the first was led by left-wing republican José Giral. The second government was led by socialist Francisco Largo Caballero of the trade union General Union of Workers; the UGT, along with the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, were the main forces behind the aforementioned social revolution. The third government was led by socialist Juan Negrín, who led the Republic until the military coup of Segismundo Casado, which ended republican resistance and led to the victory of the nationalists, who would establish a military dictatorship under the rule of Francisco Franco, known as Francoist Spain; the Republican government survived in exile, it had an embassy in Mexico City until 1976. After the restoration of democracy in Spain, the government formally dissolved the following year.
On 28 January 1930 the military dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera was overthrown. This led various republican factions from a wide variety of backgrounds to join forces; the Pact of San Sebastián was the key to the transition from monarchy to republic. Republicans of all tendencies were committed to the Pact of San Sebastian in overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a republic; the restoration of the royal Bourbons was rejected by large sectors of the populace who vehemently opposed the King. The pact, signed by representatives of the main Republican forces, allowed a joint anti-monarchy political campaign; the 12 April 1931 municipal elections led to a landslide victory for republicans. Two days the Second Republic was proclaimed, King Alfonso XIII went into exile; the king's departure led to a provisional government of the young republic under Niceto Alcalá-Zamora. Catholic churches and establishments in cities like Madrid and Sevilla were set ablaze on 11 May. In June 1931 a Constituent Cortes was elected to draft a new constitution, which came into force in December.
The new constitution established freedom of speech and freedom of association, extended suffrage to women in 1933, allowed divorce, stripped the Spanish nobility of any special legal status. It effectively disestablished the Roman Catholic Church, but the disestablishment was somewhat reversed by the Cortes that same year, its controversial articles 26 and 27 imposed stringent controls on Church property and barred religious orders from the ranks of educators. Scholars have described the constitution as hostile to religion, with one scholar characterising it as one of the most hostile of the 20th century. José Ortega y Gasset stated, "the article in which the Constitution legislates the actions of the Church seems improper to me." Pope Pius XI condemned the Spanish government's deprivation of the civil liberties of Catholics in the encyclical Dilectissima Nobis. The legislative branch was changed to a single chamber called the Congress of Deputies; the constitution established legal procedures for the nationalisation of public services and land and railways.
The constitution provided accorded civil liberties and representation. Catholic churches in major cities were again subject to arson in 1932, a revolutionary strike action was seen in Málaga the same year. A Catholic church in Zaragoza was burnt down in 1933, the cathedral in Oviedo was destroyed by flames in 1934; the church of San Lorenzo in Gijon was set ablaze in the same year. The church of San Juan in Albacete was torched three months prior to the onset of the civil war, in March 1936; the 1931 Constitution was formally effective from 1931 until 1939. In the summer of 1936, after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, it became irrelevant after the authority of the Republic was superseded in many places by revolutionary socialists and anarchists on one side, fascists on the other; the Republican Constitution changed the country's national symbols. The Himno de Riego was established as the national anthem, the Tricolor, with three horizontal red-yellow-purple fields, became the new flag of Spain.
Under the new Constitution, all of Spain's regions had the right to autonomy. Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia (although the Galician Statu
Montpellier
Montpellier is a city near the south coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the Hérault department, it is located in the Occitanie region. In 2016, 607,896 people lived in 281,613 in the city itself. Nearly one third of the population are students from three universities and from three higher education institutions that are outside the university framework in the city. Montpellier is the third-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Nice, it is the 7th-largest city of France, is the fastest-growing city in the country over the past 25 years. In the Early Middle Ages, the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone was the major settlement in the area, but raids by pirates encouraged settlement a little further inland. Montpellier, first mentioned in a document of 985, was founded under a local feudal dynasty, the Guilhem, who combined two hamlets and built a castle and walls around the united settlement; the two surviving towers of the city walls, the Tour des Pins and the Tour de la Babotte, were built around the year 1200.
Montpellier came to prominence in the 12th century—as a trading centre, with trading links across the Mediterranean world, a rich Jewish cultural life that flourished within traditions of tolerance of Muslims and Cathars—and of its Protestants. William VIII of Montpellier gave freedom for all to teach medicine in Montpellier in 1180; the city's faculties of law and medicine were established in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad of Urach, legate of Pope Honorius III. This era marked the high point of Montpellier's prominence; the city became a possession of the Kings of Aragon in 1204 by the marriage of Peter II of Aragon with Marie of Montpellier, given the city and its dependencies as part of her dowry. Montpellier gained a charter in 1204 when Peter and Marie confirmed the city's traditional freedoms and granted the city the right to choose twelve governing consuls annually. Under the Kings of Aragon, Montpellier became a important city, a major economic centre and the primary centre for the spice trade in the Kingdom of France.
It was the second or third most important city of France at that time, with some 40,000 inhabitants before the Black Death. Montpellier remained a possession of the crown of Aragon until it passed to James III of Majorca, who sold the city to the French king Philip VI in 1349, to raise funds for his ongoing struggle with Peter IV of Aragon. In the 14th century, Pope Urban VIII gave Montpellier a new monastery dedicated to Saint Peter, noteworthy for the unusual porch of its chapel, supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like towers. With its importance increasing, the city gained a bishop, who moved from Maguelone in 1536, the huge monastery chapel became a cathedral. In 1432, Jacques Cœur established himself in the city and it became an important economic centre, until 1481 when Marseille overshadowed it in this role. At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, many of the inhabitants of Montpellier became Protestants and the city became a stronghold of Protestant resistance to the Catholic French crown.
In 1622, King Louis XIII besieged the city which surrendered after a two months siege, afterwards building the Citadel of Montpellier to secure it. Louis XIV made Montpellier capital of Bas Languedoc, the town started to embellish itself, by building the Promenade du Peyrou, the Esplanade and a large number of houses in the historic centre. After the French Revolution, the city became the capital of the much smaller Hérault. During the 19th century the city thrived on the wine culture that it was able to produce due to the abundance of sun throughout the year; the wine consumption in France allowed Montpellier's citizens to become wealthy until in the 1890's a fungal disease had spread amongst the vineyards and the people were no longer able to grow the grapes needed for wine. After this the city had grown because it welcomed immigrants from Algeria and other parts of northern Africa after Algeria's independence from France. In the 21st century Montpellier is between 8th largest city; the city had another influx in population more largely due to the student population, who make up about one-third of Montpellier's population.
The school of medicine is what kickstarted the city's thriving university culture,however many other universities have been well established in the coastal city that has developments such as the Corum and the Antigone that too have been drawing in more and more students. William I of Montpellier William II of Montpellier William III of Montpellier William IV of Montpellier William V of Montpellier William VI of Montpellier William VII of Montpellier William VIII of Montpellier Marie of Montpellier and King Peter II of Aragon James I of Aragon James II of Majorca James III of Majorca The city is situated on hilly ground 10 km inland from the Mediterranean coast, on the River Lez; the name of the city, Monspessulanus, is said to have stood for mont pelé, or le mont de la colline Montpellier is located 170 km from Marseille, 242 km from Toulouse, 748 km from Paris. Montpellier's highest point is the Place du Peyrou, at an altitude of 57 m; the city is built on two hills and Montpelliéret, thus some o
Philology
Philology is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. Philology is more defined as the study of literary texts as well as oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics. Classical philology studies classical languages. Classical philology principally originated from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around the fourth century BCE, continued by Greeks and Romans throughout the Roman/Byzantine Empire, it was preserved and promoted during the Islamic Golden Age, resumed by European scholars of the Renaissance, where it was soon joined by philologies of other non-Asian and Asian languages. Indo-European studies involves the comparative philology of all Indo-European languages. Philology, with its focus on historical development, is contrasted with linguistics due to Ferdinand de Saussure's insistence on the importance of synchronic analysis.
The contrast continued with the emergence of structuralism and Chomskyan linguistics alongside its emphasis on syntax. The term "philology" is derived from the Greek φιλολογία, from the terms φίλος "love, loved, dear, friend" and λόγος "word, reason", describing a love of learning, of literature, as well as of argument and reasoning, reflecting the range of activities included under the notion of λόγος; the term changed little with the Latin philologia, entered the English language in the 16th century, from the Middle French philologie, in the sense of "love of literature". The adjective φιλόλογος meant "fond of discussion or argument, talkative", in Hellenistic Greek implying an excessive preference of argument over the love of true wisdom, φιλόσοφος; as an allegory of literary erudition, philologia appears in fifth-century postclassical literature, an idea revived in Late Medieval literature. The meaning of "love of learning and literature" was narrowed to "the study of the historical development of languages" in 19th-century usage of the term.
Due to the rapid progress made in understanding sound laws and language change, the "golden age of philology" lasted throughout the 19th century, or "from Giacomo Leopardi and Friedrich Schlegel to Nietzsche". In the Anglo-Saxon world, the term philology to describe work on languages and literatures, which had become synonymous with the practices of German scholars, was abandoned as a consequence of anti-German feeling following World War I. Most continental European countries still maintain the term to designate departments, position titles, journals. J. R. R. Tolkien opposed the nationalist reaction against philological practices, claiming that "the philological instinct" was "universal as is the use of language". In British English usage, in British academia, "philology" remains synonymous with "historical linguistics", while in US English, US academia, the wider meaning of "study of a language's grammar and literary tradition" remains more widespread. Based on the harsh critique of Friedrich Nietzsche, US scholars since the 1980s have viewed philology as responsible for a narrowly scientistic study of language and literature.
The comparative linguistics branch of philology studies the relationship between languages. Similarities between Sanskrit and European languages were first noted in the early 16th century and led to speculation of a common ancestor language from which all these descended, it is now named Proto-Indo-European. Philology's interest in ancient languages led to the study of what were, in the 18th century, "exotic" languages, for the light they could cast on problems in understanding and deciphering the origins of older texts. Philology includes the study of texts and their history, it includes elements of textual criticism, trying to reconstruct an author's original text based on variant copies of manuscripts. This branch of research arose among Ancient scholars in the 4th century BC Greek-speaking world, who desired to establish a standard text of popular authors for the purposes of both sound interpretation and secure transmission. Since that time, the original principles of textual criticism have been improved and applied to other distributed texts such as the Bible.
Scholars have tried to reconstruct the original readings of the Bible from the manuscript variants. This method was applied to Classical Studies and to medieval texts as a way to reconstruct the author's original work; the method produced so-called "critical editions", which provided a reconstructed text accompanied by a "critical apparatus", i.e. footnotes that listed the various manuscript variants available, enabling scholars to gain insight into the entire manuscript tradition and argue about the variants. A related study method known as higher criticism studies the authorship and provenance of text to place such text in historical context; as these philological issues are inseparable from issues of interpretation, there is no clear-cut boundary between philology and hermeneutics. When text has a significant political or religious influence, scholars have difficulty reaching objective conclusions; some scholars avoid all critical methods of textual philology
Bibsys
BIBSYS is an administrative agency set up and organized by the Ministry of Education and Research in Norway. They are a service provider, focusing on the exchange and retrieval of data pertaining to research and learning – metadata related to library resources. BIBSYS are collaborating with all Norwegian universities and university colleges as well as research institutions and the National Library of Norway. Bibsys is formally organized as a unit at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, located in Trondheim, Norway; the board of directors is appointed by Norwegian Ministry of Research. BIBSYS offer researchers and others an easy access to library resources by providing the unified search service Oria.no and other library services. They deliver integrated products for the internal operation for research and special libraries as well as open educational resources; as a DataCite member BIBSYS act as a national DataCite representative in Norway and thereby allow all of Norway's higher education and research institutions to use DOI on their research data.
All their products and services are developed in cooperation with their member institutions. BIBSYS began in 1972 as a collaborative project between the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters Library, the Norwegian Institute of Technology Library and the Computer Centre at the Norwegian Institute of Technology; the purpose of the project was to automate internal library routines. Since 1972 Bibsys has evolved from a library system supplier for two libraries in Trondheim, to developing and operating a national library system for Norwegian research and special libraries; the target group has expanded to include the customers of research and special libraries, by providing them easy access to library resources. BIBSYS is a public administrative agency answerable to the Ministry of Education and Research, administratively organised as a unit at NTNU. In addition to BIBSYS Library System, the product portfolio consists of BISBYS Ask, BIBSYS Brage, BIBSYS Galleri and BIBSYS Tyr. All operation of applications and databases is performed centrally by BIBSYS.
BIBSYS offer a range of services, both in connection with their products and separate services independent of the products they supply. Open access in Norway Om Bibsys
Système universitaire de documentation
The système universitaire de documentation or SUDOC is a system used by the libraries of French universities and higher education establishments to identify and manage the documents in their possession. The catalog, which contains more than 10 million references, allows students and researcher to search for bibliographical and location information in over 3,400 documentation centers, it is maintained by the Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education. Official website
Gràcia
Gràcia is a district of the city of Barcelona, Spain. It comprises the neighborhoods of Vila de Gràcia, Vallcarca i els Penitents, El Coll, La Salut and Camp d'en Grassot i Gràcia Nova. Gràcia is bordered by the districts of Eixample to the south, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi to the west and Horta-Guinardó to the east. A vibrant and diverse enclave of Catalan life, Gràcia was an independent municipality for centuries before being formally annexed by Barcelona in 1897 as a part of the city's expansion. Gràcia was established in 1626, by a Novitiate of Carmelites, who established a convent there, called "Nostra Senyora de Gràcia". Following the loss of Catalan independence from Spain in 1714, Gràcia remained an independent municipality in the direction of the Serra de Collserola mountains from central Barcelona. Passeig de Gràcia, the street, today home to the most high-end international fashion brands and posh hotels, was back a country road linking the town to the larger city, through the plain of Barcelona.
During the mid-1800s, Barcelona was industrialising and expanding its borders from those of the Roman murallas and old city. The advent of new industry was drawing Catalans by the thousands to abandon their farms and move to the city, spurring a shift from an agriculturally based, rural economy to an urban economy focused on manufacturing and trade. Between 1801 and 1850 alone, the population of Barcelona grew by over fifty percent, from 115,000 to 187,000 citizens. However, industrial expansion brought problems with it. Packed living quarters, densely lined streets, poor public infrastructure all contributed to the spreading of disease and uncleanliness that plagued the city's poorer masses. Life expectancy plummeted to 23 years old for 36 years for the rich; the sewage system was overwhelmed with the mass of people sharing cramped streets, the poorly designed streets offered little in terms of fresh air or ventilation. The Junta de Derribo in the 1840s was a published account of the conditions.
In 1854, the government of Barcelona recognised the need for an answer to the swelling population issues, began investigating the construction of what would become the Eixample district. Situated between the old city of neighbourhoods like El Raval, Ciutat Vella, El Born, the outlying municipalities of Gràcia, Sant Martí, Montjuïc, the Eixample underwent a number of iterations in the planning stages. In 1855, the Ministry of Development, under the authority of the federal government in Spain at the time, commissioned Ildefons Cerdà, a Catalan urban planner, to design the new district. However, when the local government changed political sides, Cerdà’s plan was discarded and as the new government held a project competition which Cerdà lost; the winning plan, supported by the local city council, was that of Antoni Rovira i Trias, another Catalan urban planner who played a central role in demolition of the 18th-century military installation, that helped open Barcelona to the developments of the new century.
Despite the contest, Cerdà’s plan weathered the controversy and became the basis of the Eixample district, as it retained the support of the central Spanish government. Over the next forty years, as the plan took hold and the city began to sprawl, the Eixample pushed Barcelona’s borders closer and closer to the long-independent municipality of Gràcia. In 1897, Barcelona formally annexed the town of Gràcia, it has existed since as a neighborhood of the Catalan capital. Although no longer independent, Gràcia has long maintained a distinct identity as a unique district of the diverse, larger metropolis to which it belongs. Today home to over 120,000 people, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Gràcia is both the smallest district by area, at 4.2 km2, the second most densely populated neighbourhood in Barcelona. One of the hippest, most cosmopolitan areas in the city, Gràcia’s intimate, close-packed streets and predominately low-rise, Mediterranean architecture give it a distinct feel.
Its old, one-way streets are organized around a series of plazas, including Plaça de Vila de Gràcia, Plaça del Sol and Plaça de la Virreina. “Old-world charm” abounds. The Gràcia population is an mix of young professionals and artists and a growing elderly population, with a significant portion of older Catalans who came of age as Franco came to power. Catalan flags adorn many a Gràcia window or terrace, symbols of the neighbourhood’s fiercely pro-independence politics. Compared to the other classic Barcelona neighbourhoods, Ciutat Vella and the rest of the old city, Gràcia is void of major tourist attractions. In this bohemian enclave of Catalan urban life there aren't many international brands or fast-food chains. Instead, small gourmet street food outposts are common. Ubiquitous as well are the bountiful small cafes serve classic Spanish tapas and Catalan specialties. Shopping abounds in funky dad shops selling stylish trinkets and vintage clothing. Talented artisans and artists can be found in small ground floor shops.
Travellers say that Gracia good for shopping and the true local experience - city's atmosphere on its quiet placas and catalan cuisine. Nightlife in Gràcia is dominated by Spanish café culture, with an abundance of small bars and restaurants that host late-night revelry and long conversations. At the weekends, one might hear any number of local live music acts, from a single guitari
