Erika Rummel

An enchanting telling of the complex life of Luisa, who forges a new life after freedom from slavery in colonial Mexico. Luisa Abrego, a slave in Seville, is set free upon her master’s death and marries a white man. After boarding Luisa’s illegitimate child with the nuns of St. Clare, the couple sets out for Mexico. There Luisa is accused of bigamy and tried in the court of the Inquisition. This is, however, not Luisa’s own story: the narratives here are those of historical figures who encountered her, from nuns to silver miners to Inquisitors. These are European voices, the recorded voices of history, in whose accounts a fractured portrait of a fascinating and complex woman emerges, like glimpses of a figure moving past a mirror. Based on 16th century trial records of the real Luisa, this novel is not just one woman’s life in fragments, but a carefully researched imagining, told in vivid, distinct voices, of how the Inquisition affected the Spanish colonies.

What They Said About Luisa

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On the Threshold of Spain's Golden Age

Jiménez de Cisneros

Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies

Milton Kooistra

Except perhaps for Wittenberg, no place in the German Empire played a greater role in the early Reformation than the free imperial city of Strasbourg. This volume presents the results of a workshop on the correspondence of a major figure in the Strasbourg Reformation, Wolfgang Capito. The collection includes interpretive essays, text editions of two Capito works and documents of a lawsuit that affected his establishment in the city, as well as studies of the problems of producing modern editions of Capito himself and his contemporaries Erasmus, Bucer, Bullinger, and Beza. Readers will find fresh insights into the intellectual, religious, and political world of southwestern Germany in the early sixteenth century.

The Letters of Wolfgang Capito and His Fellow Reformers in Alsace and Switzerland

Reformation Sources

In the last half of the fifteenth century, the classic Platonic debate over the respective merits of rhetoric and philosophy was replayed in the debate between humanists and scholastics over philology and dialectic. The intense dispute between representatives of the two camps fueled many of the most important intellectual developments of the Renaissance and Reformation. Erika Rummel delves into the extensive primary sources of the times, bringing the issues and their continuing legacy to light and making a valuable contribution to our understanding of the intellectual climate of early modern Europe. Rummel demonstrates how the passionately fought issue of the period changed focus as humanists such as Lorenzo Valla and Desiderius Erasmus applied philological skills to Scripture. The controversy over form versus content entered a new phase, pitting humanists trained as philologists against scholastic theologians trained as dialecticians. Rummel shows us the framework for the debate still intact as the medium/message dichotomy, and traces its development into quarrels over qualification and entitlement in the academy, as theologians and humanists disputed the intellectual and territorial boundaries of their respective disciplines. Finally, in the first half of the sixteenth century we see the controversy entering the sphere of doctrinal dispute. The question of authority became centered not only on professional competence but also on the more explosive issues of faith and Christian teaching. This in-depth study will reclaim the attention of those who believe these debates were merely personal and episodic; Rummel's innovative research provides ample evidence that the polemics of the age arose from a fundamental conflict over methodology and the freedom to pursue research.

The Humanist-scholastic Debate in the Renaissance & Reformation

Dale R. Schrag

With 1750 titles produced before the 18th century the Erasmus prints form an important group in the holdings of the Herzog August library. The collection represents the entire range of the writings of Erasmus. The existing number of copies of prints also reflect the popularity and the literary interest of the scholarly readers of the 16th and 17th Centuries in Erasmus. The VD 16 registers the Erasmus prints published in the 16th century in the German language area and provides their locations. At the same time the catalog also provides descriptions of the individual items, drawing attention to historically interesting covers, notes of previous owners, donations, marginalia and additions of handwritten materials.

The Erasmus Collection in the Herzog August Bibliothek

Jacqueline Glomski

Annotated Catalogue of Early Editions of Erasmus at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Toronto

Desiderius Erasmus was one of the most influential writers of his time and widely acclaimed as the principal Northern humanist. He was, however, not only a man of letters but also a shrewd observer of society, a sharp critic of the institutional church, and a scholar on the cutting edge of biblical studies. Although not a systematic philosopher or theologian, he left his stamp on the intellectual milieu of his time and was regarded by Catholic apologists as the inspirational source of the Lutheran reformation. In this book, Erika Rummel introduces readers to Erasmus' ideas on education, piety, social order, and the epistemology underpinning his thought. The educational programme proposed by Erasmus aims at creating a Christian humanist, speaking with Ciceronian eloquence and breathing the spirit of the gospel. The perfect piety envisaged by Erasmus involves a progression from the observance of rites to inner devotion and a love of Christ that guides every action. The ideal social order, according to Erasmus, is hierarchical. He depicts the three estates arranged in concentric circles around Christ, with the clergy closest to him, followed by the nobility and the common people. The Christian prince reflects the qualities of God, whose steward he is. A father-figure to his people, the ruler dispenses justice and provides spiritual leadership. Erasmus' magnum opus, his pioneering edition of the Greek New>

Erasmus

Alfred Nobel made his name as an inventor and successful entrepreneur and left a legacy as a philanthropist and promoter of learning and social progress. The correspondence between Nobel and his Viennese mistress, Sofie Hess, shines a light on his private life and reveals a personality that differs significantly from his public image. The letters show him as a hypochondriac and workaholic and as a paranoid, jealous, and patriarchal lover. Indeed, the relationship between the aging Alfred Nobel and the carefree, spendthrift Sofie Hess will strike readers as dysfunctional and worthy of Freudian analysis. Erika Rummel’s masterful translation and annotations reveal the value of the letters as commentary on 19th century social mores: the concept of honour and reputation, the life of a "kept" woman, the prevalence of antisemitism, the importance of spas as health resorts and entertainment centres, the position of single mothers, and more generally the material culture of a rich bourgeois gentleman. A Nobel Affair is the first translation into English of the complete correspondence between Alfred Nobel and Sofie Hess.

The Correspondence between Alfred Nobel and Sofie Hess

A Nobel Affair

Erasmus was concerned not only with the mechanics of conveying the factual contents and literary qualities of the original, but also with the applicability of its moral content to Christian philosophy.

Erika Rummel

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