journal: Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies

Ceased

Published from September 15, 2014 to November 1, 2018

Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies

ISSN: 2198-0365

Editor-in-chief: Matthias M. Tischler

About this journal

The last decades have seen considerable changes with regard to our globalizing world which challenge academic education and scholarly research in various disciplines. Among these scholarly challenges, interreligious encounters, transcultural exchanges and entangled histories are most prominent.

The new Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies will provide a forum for scholarship of pre-modern times. It publishes comparative studies, which systematically reflect the entanglement and the interconnection of European, African, Asian and American cultures. The Journal will pursue an interdisciplinary approach. It also intends to foster methodological reflections on transculturality in the broad sense.

Each issue of the Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies will comprise three sections: 1) Articles, either miscellaneous or in thematic panels, 2) Reviews of recent publications in the field, committed to detailed and constructive criticism, 3) News, offering an up-to-date forum for the most recent activities in transcultural research (institutions, projects, networks, conferences, workshops).

The print version of the Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies is published twice a year (September and December). Submissions for the issues should be handed in to the Editorial Team no later than December, 31st of the preceding year. Papers are selected in a double-blind peer review process and accepted for publication by an international Advisory Board.

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Topics

Volume 5 (2018)

Volume 4 (2017)

Issue 1-2 Special Issue: The Sicilian Questions (continued), Guest Editor: Giuseppe Mandalà

Volume 3 (2016)

Issue 1-2 Special Issue: The Sicilian Questions, Guest Editor: Giuseppe Mandalà

Volume 2 (2015)

Volume 1 (2014)

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Editorial

Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief and Coordinator of the News Section: Prof. Dr. Matthias M. Tischler, Barcelona (IEM, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona): matthias.tischler@uab.cat

Senior Member of the Editorial Board: Prof. Dr. Alexander Fidora, Barcelona (ICREA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona): alexander.fidora@icrea.cat

Coordinator of the Review Section: PD Dr. Görge K. Hasselhoff, Dortmund (Technische Universität Dortmund): goerge.hasselhoff@udo.edu

Editorial Assistant: Dr. Sergi Grau, Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona): jtmstudies@gmail.com

Post Boxes of the Editorial Team

1. Papers

Prof. Dr. Matthias M. Tischler
ICREA Research Professor
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Institut d'Estudis Medievals (IEM)
Edifici B - Campus de la UAB -
Spain
Tel.: +34 935 868 390
E-Mail (ICREA): matthias.tischler@icrea.cat
E-Mail (UAB): matthias.tischler@uab.cat
E - 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès)

2. Reviewer's Copies

PD Dr. Görge K. Hasselhoff
Technische Universität Dortmund
Fakultät 14
Institut für Evangelische Theologie
Emil-Figge-Str. 50
E-Mail: goerge.hasselhoff@udo.edu
D - 44227 Dortmund

Editorial Board

Esperanza Alfonso Carro, Madrid (Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, CSIC)
Alexander Beihammer, Notre Dame, Indiana (University of Notre Dame)
Aline Dias da Silveira, Santa Catarina (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina)
Alexander Fidora, Barcelona (ICREA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Harvey J. Hames, Beer Sheva (Ben Gurion University of the Negev)
Patrick Henriet, Paris (École Pratique des Hautes Études)
Konrad Hirschler, Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin)
Christian Høgel, Odense (Syddansk Universitet)
Giuseppe Mandalà, Madrid (Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, CSIC)
Joan-Pau Rubiés Mirabet, Barcelona (ICREA, Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Roland Scheel, Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Dittmar Schorkowitz, Halle an der Saale (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Angela Schottenhammer, Salzburg (Paris Lodron University Salzburg)
Kristin Skottki, Bayreuth (Universität Bayreuth)
Ryan Szpiech, Ann Arbor (University of Michigan)
Kordula Wolf, Rom (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom)

Volume 5 Issue 2

November 2018

Publicly Available January 10, 2019

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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Editorial

January 9, 2018

Medieval Mental Maps

Matthias M. Tischler

Page range: 211-213

Papers

January 9, 2019

The Depiction of the Saracen Foreign Rule in the Prophetic Chronicle Through Biblical Knowledge

Patrick S. Marschner

Page range: 215-239

Abstract

The intention of this article is to interpret the biblical elements in the Prophetic Chronicle concerning their role in the process of identification of the cultural and religious Other in the Iberian Peninsula. To understand the Christian strategies of identification, the article contrasts the biblical elements in the text with their appearance in the Bible and compares the corresponding narrations. Since the contemporary foreign rulers over major parts of the former Visigothic kingdom were named almost entirely with biblically connoted ethnonyms, understanding these denominations is necessary to investigate both the perception and depiction of the Arab rulers of Hispania. Consequently, this article can point out the importance of the biblical elements in Christian-Iberian historical writing for research on the transcultural Iberian Peninsula and simultaneously offers new insight about the Prophetic Chronicle .

January 9, 2019

Hebrew and Aramaic Terms in the Extractiones de Talmud. The Term “Yeshivah” in the Thirteenth-Century Latin Translation of the Talmud

Federico Dal Bo

Page range: 241-260

Abstract

Translation is hardly an exceptional event. On the contrary, it is quite common and reflects the necessity of communication despite the obvious multiplicity of human languages. Therefore, it has often exhibited a practical and prescriptive nature – as a discourse characterised by instructions to translators about how, what and why to translate. In the present article, I will pay special attention to the treatment of Hebrew and Aramaic terms in the thirteenth-century Latin translation of the Talmud – better known as Extractiones de Talmud (‘Excerpts from the Talmud’). This translation is a large anthology from the Babylonian Talmud that was compiled by Christian authorities in consequence of the famous Paris process of 1240, when the Jewish convert Nicholas Donin confronted the prominent Rabbi Yehiel of Paris regarding the allegedly blasphemous, anti-Christian nature of the Talmud. This large anthology frequently emphasises linguistic difference and abounds in providing details about specific terms from Talmudic literature. Yet the Extractiones appear to neglect the complex nature of the Talmud. They never mention that the Talmud is bilingual – as it collects Hebrew and Aramaic texts – while emphasising that in it the Jews still employ the so-called ‘Holy Tongue’. I will argue that the Extractiones ’ emphasis on Hebrew has both ideological and practical purposes. On the one hand, the notion that Hebrew abounds in the Talmud resonates well with the Christian expectation that Judaism is still bound to the “hebraica veritas” (‘Hebrew truth’). On the other hand, an unexperienced Christian reader might have found it difficult to come to terms with the linguistically and historically complex nature of the Talmud. Therefore, the focus on Hebrew may have been the result of an oversimplification for the readers’ sake. The case will be proven on account of one central example: the translation of the Hebrew term “yeshivah”. I will show that the treatment of this term illustrates how the Latin translator of the Talmud intended to emphasise the cultural difference between Jews and Christians, without abandoning the practical need of offering some form of cultural adaptation.

January 9, 2019

In Search of Prester John and the ‘River of Gold’. Mecià de Viladestes’ Map and Late Medieval Knowledge about Africa

Gerda Brunnlechner

Page range: 261-294

Abstract

Mecià de Viladestes’ nautical map provides many-faceted incentives to travel down the African west coast, emphasising especially Africa’s riches in gold and the presence of a Christian ruler known as Prester John. Understanding maps not as a conclusive result of the collection of knowledge but as a means of communication, this article aims to explore the relations between contemporary Latin European conceptions about Africa, its representations on maps and their probable argumentative objectives. From Latin-African contacts the idea had arisen to form an alliance to fight the Muslims, attacking from two directions. The representation of sub-Saharan Africa on Mecià’s map can be interpreted as taking up this discussion to argue for further exploration of Africa down its Atlantic coast, which might have influenced future decision makers such as Henry the Navigator.

January 9, 2019

Mapping Continents, Inhabited Quarters and The Four Seas. Divisions of the World and the Ordering of Spaces in Latin-Christian, Arabic-Islamic and Chinese Cartography in the Twelfth to Sixteenth Centuries. A Critical Survey and Analysis

Christoph Mauntel, Klaus Oschema, Jean-Charles Ducène, Martin Hofmann

Page range: 295-367

Abstract

This paper explores the presence and development of large-scale geographic categories in pre-modern cartography (twelfth to sixteenth centuries) in a combination of comparative and transcultural perspectives. Analysing Latin-Christian, Arabic-Islamic and Chinese maps, we demonstrate the varying degrees of importance accorded to large-scale geographic structures. The choice of related as well as independent traditions allows for the identification of specific emphases which reflect the influence of the respective cultural backgrounds and strategies applied in the ordering of space. While the analysed Chinese material concentrates on a geographical space that was perceived to form an ideal political and cultural unity without representing the entire physical world, Latin-Christian and Arabic-Islamic traditions share the focus on the whole “oecumene” that they both inherited from antique models. However, only Latin-Christian maps consistently and explicitly present a tripartite world that resonates with Trinitarian structures in Christian thought.