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Focusing on the early Middle Ages, Majewski compares the literacy practices of European scribes with those of East Asian calligraphers. His analysis is based on the principles of the psychodynamics of handwriting, both alphabetic and ideographic. Majewski attempts to find the same principles in sources that discuss the psycho-physiological states related to the discussed literacy practices.
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The material is part of the Ottoman customs register of Dupnitsa for financial year 1846–1847. The Register describes the goods that passed through the state land control – their type, quantity, value, the size of gyumruk (customs duty) and the market fee (bach). The names of the traders, the villages they came from and traveled to are also entered in the register. Dupnitsa is one of the few land customs stations in the Bulgarian lands in the nineteenth century, situated on strategically important country roads from Thessaloniki to Sofia and Europe and from the Adriatic Sea to Plovdiv, Odrin and Tsarigrad. The author presents a translation and commentary of the first 5 of the 20 pages of the register preserved in the Ottoman Department of the National Library St. Cyril and Methodius, Sofia. So far this is the only document of land customs checkpoints in the Bulgarian lands in the nineteenth century, which makes it a source of great cognitive significance, not only for goods flow and turnover at Dupnitsa, but also for documenting the Ottoman regulation policy of the urban economy in the Bulgarian lands at that time.
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The year 1989 marked a new stage in the Slovak historiography which allowed a new reinterpretation of the previous research and opened up topics which were considered taboo until then. This article discusses the results of scientific research in the field of Rusyns' history in the twenties of the last century. This later research showed that it was a crucial period for them. On the one hand, in this period began divergent development that separated Rusyns of eastern Slovakia from their countrymen in Ruthenia. On the other hand, while this development was initially perceived negatively, it is argued that of the entire homeland of Rusyns in the Carpathian Mountains, Rusyns in eastern Slovakia have probably the best prospects for their further national development.
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This article focuses on the content analysis of the theoretical concept of non-democratic regimes by Juan J. Linz in his major publication Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes (2000) and its application to the regime of the Slovak Republic in the years 1939 – 1945. The aim of this paper is to define the character of regime in Slovakia and determine whether the regime of the first Slovak republic was directed more to the totalitarian or authoritarian type of the non-democracies. The main aim of work is reflected in the structure of the paper, divided into two chapters. The first one describes the principal characteristics of totalitarianism and authoritarianism and difference between them. The second one analyzes threebasicfeatures ofauthoritarianism – limited political pluralism, mentalities and political mobilization – and applies them toSlovak terms in 1939 – 1945. The application has shown there were features which are identical with characteristics of authoritarianism specified by Linz. Therefore, we cannot say the regime of the first Slovak Republic was totalitarian, but it was regime which tended to authoritarian type of non-democracies.
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The paper’s main aim is to present two South-Slavonic translations of the Renaissance Greek drama Abraham’s sacrifice (I Thysía toú Avraám) by Vincenzo Cornaro; the first one was made by the Serbian man of letters Vikentije Rakić (1750–1818) at the end of the eighteenth century, the second one – by Andrey Pop-Doynov Robovski (1801–1858), a Bulgarian priest, teacher and activist for autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The different reception and spread of the two translation was probably due to their various cultural contexts and literary value. Rakić’s translation was widely disseminated in both printed editions and manuscript copies, two of which are described in detail in the present article.
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The article presents the results of author's research of the origins of the general concept of contract in continental legal science in the Middle Ages and early Modern Times. This general concept marks one of the key features of the legal style in civil law countries, unknown to Roman jurisprudence, Muslim fiqh or Anglo-American common law. The formation of the general concept of contract proves to be the outcome of several generations of jurists archived through the combination of two models of contract in the medieval ius commune: agreement-based (in the commentaries on Roman law) and promise-based (in the church canons). It is argues that the synthesis of the two models in the 16th century is due to the efforts to reduce the Roman classical law to an art (as in the case of the French humanists) or to explain every rule of positive contract law through the ideal concepts of natural law and commutative justice (as in the case of Spanish legal thinkers). In arranging contract law the French jurists (such as François Connan and Ugo Donellus) followed the intended project of Cicero (ius in artem redigere) by means of the methodology of Petrus Ramus. The representatives of the Spanish late scholasticism (Domingo de Soto, Louis de Molina, Leonard Lessius) aimed at explaining all the provisions of the positive contract law in the sense of the higher moral and theological principles of natural law, as it was laid out in 'Summa Theologica' by Thomas Aquinas. The author looks into the relevant works of the French and the Spanish jurists to analyse the definition of contract, its criteria, and to trace their origins in the legal commentaries of the medieval civilians and canonists, as well as in the medieval and antique treatises on moral theology and philosophy. The analysis allows for critical assessment of the inconsistencies and contradictions of the general concept of contract in the doctrines at the beginning of Modernity.
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The present study examines the causes, unfolding and outcome of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 from a cultural-structural perspective and argues that this revolution can be explained on the basis of a theoretical model which focuses on structural, conjunctural and nation-specific factors. This study concludes that, although an incipient “snowballing effect” did occur in 1956, the aggregation of the factors mentioned above did not lead to a regime change in Hungary, but to a communist counter-revolution conducted by Moscow. The long-term effects of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 were undeniable:in 1989, the countries which opened the sequence of collapse of the communist regimes in ECE were Poland and Hungary, that is, those countries that had already experienced a revolutionary situation in 1980–81 and, respectively, in 1956.
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The Presentation of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia in medallions is typical for the monumental programs of Postbyzantine churches in the Balkans. In Bulgaria their images were especially concentrated in the church murals dated from 17th century located near old metropolis Turnovo, mainly in the village of Arbanassi. In St Demetrius church (1621) 9 images were remained and partly identified, in St Athanasius (1667) – 8, in the church of the Virgin monastery (between 1684 and 1692) – 17, in the old chapel of Kilifarevo monastery (second part of 17th century) – 24; probably in the Nativity church also some of the Forty Martyrs were depicted in medallions but without forming any detached rows. Functions of the presentations. There are three general types of functions of the painted images of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia in the monumental programs: 1. Liturgical; 2. Preventive; both of them are universal in the all Orthodox area; 3. Historical – it is peculiar to the mural decoration of the churches in Arbanassi, connected with the royal cult to the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia in Turnovo dated from 1230 when in their holly day tsar Ivan Asen II won the battle of Klokotnitsa and ordered a temple dedicated to his celestial patrons to be built in his capital. Iconography and identification of the martyrs. There are a great many discrepancies of the names of the Forty Martyrs in all the Greek and Slavonic aghiographical and panegyric literature dated from the time preceding our depictions in Arbanassi up till now. Indications of the iconography of their images in the old Ermineias (16th – 18th cc.) are not in unity also. So the works of the painters in 17th century are full of contaminations and incorrect inscriptions. A brief attempt for identification of every personal image presented in medallion on the south wall of St Demetrius church in Arbanassi may be an illustration of the problems.
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The article discusses the possibility of the existence of images of St Parascheva of Epivates (St Petka) with wings. The question came up in connection with an image from St Petka Church (1636) in the city of Vidin, Bulgaria, which has been previously wrong identified by the author as winged St Parascheva. In order to clarify the problem, a brief survey of the development of the saint’s imagery is made with special attention to 15th and 16th century examples kept today in Polish and Ukrainian museums. Some details concerning the earlier stages of the visual aspect of St Parascheva’s cult are examined and a correction is made concerning the image from the church in Vidin and another image from St Petka Church (1580) in Trnava, Serbia, which was indicated in the literature as an image of St Parascheva with wings. As a result of the research it is established that to represent St Petka with wings has not been a common practice in Orthodox art. The one and only instance of the winged St Parascheva, known to the author, comes from a much later epoch, being represented in the 19th-century paintings of St Constantine and Helena Church (1865) in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, but it remains an exotic exception even in the practice of those times. The hypothetic image of St Parascheva with wings is juxtaposed to the image of the winged St John the Baptist, which became something habitual in Orthodox art, on the basis of some common connotations of their images revealed in hagiography and hymnography. In addition, the text includes some considerations on the factors that trigger the emergence of a certain iconographic type and on the mechanisms of visualization of hymnographic motifs in medieval art.
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The term “Silk Road” is used in two senses – literal and metaphorical. At the time of the original sense of this term the Arab world was a centre of global trade. Later, however, the centre of global commerce shifted gradually westwards, driven by the disasters and calamities that affl icted the Arab world. Much later, however, the fortunes of the world trade began to revive, particularly starting from the Far East to the Arabian/Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Some economists today are talking about “a revival of the Silk Road” – in its literal rather than metaphorical sense. Today the economic focus on the Silk Road has never been stronger. This article stresses that the new Silk Road also has a cultural side and discusses numerous ways of its refl ection.
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The development of the legal personality of political parties in Czechia has evolved through various legislative changes. Initially, political associations were subject to strict regulations, including restrictions on membership and activities. Over time, political parties gained more recognition and legal status, particularly after the enactment of laws in 1990 and 1991, which formally acknowledged them as legal entities capable of participating in both private and public legal relations. The historical context, including the influence of the Austro-Hungarian legal system and the impact of the communist regime, played a significant role in shaping the legal framework for political parties. The legal status of political parties was often ambiguous, with various interpretations and judicial decisions influencing their recognition and rights. The post-World War II period saw further developments, with political parties being integrated into the National Front and their legal status being gradually clarified. The transition to a democratic system in the late 20th century marked a significant shift, leading to the current legal recognition and regulation of political parties in Czechia.
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This article explores the introduction and consolidation of Christian rulership ideology in medieval Poland and Norway. Both realms started to be integrated into the Christian European culture around the turn of the first millennium, marked by the introduction of Christianity and the establishment of a kingdom with a Christian rulership ideology imported from Latin Europe. However, the adoption of this ideology and its repercussions were substantially different in the two realms. In both countries, introducing the new ideology increased political tensions, as its notion of undivided power made sharing power a more delicate issue. However, the way that these tensions played out in the two realms differed substantially. In Poland, the new ideology acquired a specific, non-royal dimension, and the result was that Poland was divided into several political entities. In Norway, the new rulership ideology became focused at the rank of kings and promoted sole kingship, which resulted in intense political and ideological struggles. In the long run, however, the ideology of Christian rulership led to consolidated kingdoms in both realms, albeit earlier in Norway (1240) than in Poland (1320).
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Carlos Tello Díaz, full time professor at the Centro de Investigaciones sobre América Latina y el Caribe in Mexico’s National University (UNAM). BA (First Honours) and MA in Philosophy and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford, and PhD (Mention très honorable) in History from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Visiting fellow at the universities of Cambridge, Harvard, and La Sorbonne. Author of several books, among which a biography in three volumes of general Porfirio Díaz, the last of which will be published soon in Mexico.
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The discipline of folklore studies was introduced to China in the early twentieth century while the country faced a grave national crisis resulting from intense foreign pressure and a rigid political system that was incapable of adapting to the challenges of the modern world. Nationalism contributed to the rising interest in folklore from the late 1910s to early 1920s, then became the dominant theme of folklore studies thereafter. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, folklore studies spread all over the country and developed vigorously within China. However, the eruption of the War of Resistance in 1937 interrupted this revitalization process and most folklore activities came to a standstill. In wartime China, leading scholars looked to the past in part as a reaction to Japanese imperialism, but also to strengthen cultural cohesion for the nation. In Japanese-occupied areas, some scholars persisted in independent folklore investigations and writing even though most upper tier Chinese universities and leading figures in the folklore movement gradually relocated to non-occupied territory. Scholars who remained in the occupation zone often had contact with foreign-backed institutions and were able to continue working during the war years. Their research activities served the purpose of rallying the nation and fed a growing popular demand for more and deeper investigations into China’s folk traditions. This work examines the influence of nationalism on folk studies in Beiping and Shanghai, shining a light on folklorists’ activities, folklore organizations, and primary publications during China’s War of Resistance against Japan.
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This article is the second part of a two-part study of the relationship between the full menology to the 13th-century western Bulgarian Karpino Gospel (“KE”), a family of Greek full menologies (the “α family”), and five other related Greek and Slavic menologies. Part I1 contains the introduction, the manuscript descriptions (section one), and an interlinear transcription of the KE menology commemorations and their α-family equivalents (section two). Part II begins with section three, an analysis, organized by typikon tradition, of uncommon calendar entries and textual formulae which are shared by KE and the Greek family members, but which only infrequently co-occur in the earliest Slavic menologies. Subsection 3.4 offers a tentative hypothesis regarding the place of KE within the rough stemma of the family. Section four, which also is organized by typikon tradition, examines the Greek α-family commemorations that are omitted from KE; conversely, section five examines the commemorations in KE that are not shared by the Greek family, and explores the relationship of KE and the α family to the three 13th- and 14th-century Slavic menologies introduced in Part I that, like KE, contain unusual α-family commemorations. Section six examines distribution patterns of the rare KE and/or Greek family commemorations in the three Slavic apostoli menologies and one Slavic tetraevangelion described in section three below. Section seven offers general conclusions and a full stemma of proposed relationships among KE, the Greek α-family members, and the additional six Slavic and Greek gospel menologies in the orbit of the Greek α family. Part II is followed by Appendix I, a list of the manuscripts referred to by codes in the study. Appendix II is a spreadsheet of all the commemorations contained in KE, in each of the Greek α-family members, and in each of the other five menologies in the family’s orbit.
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Following Pierre Nora's concept of topical historical memory, the author examines Lev Tolstoy's War and Peace and Alois Slovák's Cairn of Peace. Both these cultural facts seek to resist the return to the Middle Ages and create a certain mechanism of humanistic historical memory for the whole of mankind. In this context the historical views of the author of War and Peace acquire a renewed meaning, since it was precisely his view of history that prevented him from receiving the 1902 Nobel Prize. His prediction of an imminent anthropological catastrophe, the first symptom of which was indifference towards the simultaneous destruction of thousands of human beings in the name of invented historical values, unfortunately went unheard by his contemporaries and came to fruition in the 21st century.
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This article describes the functioning of a Latin grammar school (so-called ‘particular’ school) in Kouřim and its links to the Charles University of Prague in the period of 1547–1622. The author investigates the economic situation of the school, its staff, the students, and their relations to the townspeople. Explored is also teacher and student mobility, the school’s relationship with the university, and the school’s alumni. New findings have been confronted with previous research.
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