Critical edition of the earliest known astrological autobiography The present book reveals the riches of the earliest known astrological autobiography, authored by Henry Bate of Mechelen (1246–after 1310). Exploiting all resources of contemporary astrological science, Bate conducts in his Nativitas a profound self-analysis, revealing the peculiarities of his character and personality at a crucial moment of his life (1280). The result is an extraordinarily detailed and penetrating attempt to decode the fate of one's own life and its idiosyncrasies. The Astrological Autobiography of a Medieval Philosopher offers the first critical edition of Bate's Nativitas. An extensive introduction presents Bate's life and work and sheds new light on the reception and use of Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew texts among scholars in Paris at the end of the 13th century. The book thus provides a major new resource for scholars working on medieval science, autobiography, and notions of personhood and individuality. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Un regard renouvelé sur la cour de Bruxelles àl'époque moderneLes Gouverneurs-généraux des Pays-Bas espagnols du dix-septième sièclebénéficiaient du conseil de leur confesseur. Ce directeur spirituel, issu duclergé régulier, tint un rôle significatif dans l'organisation du pouvoirpolitique bruxellois.Cette étude, qui couvrela période courant des archiducs Albert et Isabelle jusqu'au dernierGouverneur-général issu de la famille royale, soit les années 1598 à 1659,propose, pour la première fois, une approche transversale de la fonction. L'auteurdémontre que ces religieux furent souvent impliqués dans des questionspolitiques et courtisanes de première importance. En exposant combien lesparcours individuels de ces religieux furent singuliers, Pierre-François Pirletsouligne également le polymorphisme de leur action. Enfin, ce volume met enévidence les liens étroits qu'entretinrent ces conseillers avec la Couronneespagnole, les autorités ecclésiastiques et les membres de la cour deBruxelles.This publication isGPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer Review Content).

New and comprehensive insights into the seminal eventsthat shaped Belgian identityIn 1790, between the birth of America (1776) and the creation of the FrenchNational Assembly (1789), nine provinces nestled between the French and Dutchborders declared themselves a new free and independent country: the UnitedStates of Belgium. Before then, the provinces had been part of the vastAustrian Habsburg Empire ruled by Joseph II. In 1789 revolutionaries fromBrussels to Ghent to Namur recruited a grass-roots army that, to the surpriseof many, successfully chased imperial forces from the majority of the territories.The exhilaration of military triumph and political independence quickly fadedas revolutionary factions fought each other and the European monarchies becamemore nervous in the face of French radicalization. Yet, the course of eventshad fostered the solidification of a new identity among the provinces'inhabitants: Belgianness. This is the story of the emergence of Belgianness inthe crucible of revolution.The United States of Belgium tells the story of the First Belgian Revolution before the creation of a language barrierbetween French and Dutch. It incorporates over 50 contemporary images of therevolutionary era.This publication isGPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Humanintentionality in chemical patterns in Bronze Age metals For the last 180 years,scientists have been attempting to determine the 'provenance' (geologicalsource) of the copper used in Bronze Age artefacts. However, despite advancesin analytical technologies, the theoretical approach has remained virtuallyunchanged over this period, with the interpretative methodology only changingto accommodate the increasing capacity of computers. This book represents aconcerted effort to think about the composition of Bronze Age metal as theproduct of human intentionality as well as of geology. It considers the traceelement composition of the metal, the alloying elements, and the lead isotopiccomposition, showing how a combination of these aspects, along witharchaeological context and typology, can reveal much more about the lifehistory of such artefacts, expanding considerably upon the rather limitedambition of knowing where the ore was extracted.Beyond Provenance serves as a 'how-tohandbook' for those wishing to look for evidence of human intentionality in thechemical patterning observed in bronzes.This publication isGPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer Review Content).

New perspectives on humor within photographyDespite the ubiquitous presenceof photographic humor in art and popular media, the phenomenon has as yetreceived very little scholarly attention. Focusing on staged humor rather thanon comic effects of snapshot photography, this volume brings together leadingscholars in the field addressing humor performed in front of the camera, oftenspecifically created for the camera, and the performative joke-work done by themedium itself. A first section explores how photography, due to its"shattering" qualities, turns into a privileged medium for eliciting humorouseffects and how humor can be discerned within the photographic event. A secondsection discusses the toolbox of photographic trickery (photomontage, doubleexposure and cinematic movement) that allows photography to mock itself. The bookcloses with a section on photographic wit in conceptual art, both in canonizedand more locally distinct practices.With artists' pagesfrom Paulien Oltheten, Lieven Segers and David HelbichThis publication isGPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).Contributors: Kevin Atherton (National College of Art and Design,Dublin), Anna Corrigan and Susana S. Martins (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa),Hilde D'haeyere (KASK School of Arts of University College Ghent), HeatherDiack (University of Miami), Louis Kaplan (University of Toronto), Ann KristinKrahn (Braunschweig University of the Arts), Sandra Križic Roban (Institute ofArt History, Zagreb), Esther Leslie (Birkbeck University of London), Johan Pas(Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp), Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans (VrijeUniversiteit Brussel)

Photographic analysis of the mining region's transition to culture and leisure economiesThe Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining region, bordering on Belgium, is part of northern Europe's historical centre of heavy industry, which extends as far as the Ruhr area in Germany. With the end of coal mining in the 1980s, the Lille region transitioned to new economic activities, particularly within the cultural and creative industries, taking advantage of its strategic location midway between Paris, London and Brussels. After de-industrialisation and the 1984 opening of the Lewarde Mining Museum—the first institution of its kind in France—the region took part in industrial heritage campaigns modelled on the Ruhr industrial region. Various historical sites in coal-mining areas in this region and in Belgium were classified as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2012. Renaissance (2014) presents a photographic analysis of the epochal transition from industry to culture and leisure economies and is organised around eight groups of a varying numbers of photographs. It sheds a light on the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining region's place in the European history of the capitalist nation-state. The artist Jorge Ribalta offers a contribution to the critique on the myths and utopian promises of cultural economies. His photographic work interrogates the correspondence between the decline of industrial economies in Europe and the crisis of the middle class. "For ten years, my work has been based on a desire to reinvent the documentary idea, by bringing historical density to that very idea, which is inseparable from the representation of work and the working classes. Documentary discourse can also contribute to an institutional critique right inside the art system through self-reflexivity that is to say through the documentary observation of artistic working conditions."Jorge Ribalta on his project "Renaissance".

Church leaders and their contrasting opinions in theface of the Great WarCardinal Désiré-JosephMercier, Archbishop of Malines, was the incarnation of the Belgian resistanceagainst the German occupation during the First World War. With his famous pastoralletter of Christmas 1914 'Patriotisme et Endurance' he reached a wide audience,and gained international influence and respect.Mercier's distinct patriotic stance clearly determined his views ofnational politics, especially of the 'Flemish question', and his conflict withthe German occupier made him a hero of the Allies. The Germans did not alwaysknow how to handle this influential man of the Church. Pope Benedict XV did notalways approve of the course of action adopted by the Belgian prelate. Whereas Mercierjustified the war effort as a just cause in view of the restoration ofBelgium's independence, the Pope feared that "this useless massacre"meant nothing but the "suicide of civilized Europe".Through a criticalanalysis of the policies of Cardinal Mercier and Pope Benedict XV, this book shedsrevealing light on the contrasting positions of Church leaders in the face ofthe Great War.This publication isGPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Theimpact of gender on migration processesConsidering thedynamic and reciprocal relationship between gender relations and migration, thecontributions in this book approach migration dynamics from a gender-sensitiveperspective. Bringing together insights from various fields of study, it isdemonstrated how processes of social change occur differently in distinct lifedomains, over time, and across countries and/or regions, influencing therelationship between gender and migration. Detailed analysis by regions,countries, and types of migration reveals a strong variation regarding levelsand features of female and male migration. This approach enables us to graspthe distinct ways in which gender roles, perceptions, and relations, eachembedded in a particular cultural, geographical, and socioeconomic context,affect migration dynamics. Hence, this volume demonstrates that gender mattersat each stage of the migration process. In its entirety, Gender and Migration gives evidence ofthe unequivocal impact of gender and gendered structures, both at a micro andmacro level, upon migrant's lives and of migration on gender dynamics.This publication isGPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer Review Content).Contributors: Marianna Bacci Tamburlini (Universidade de Lisboa), MilenaBelloni (University of Antwerp), Kitti Baracsi (University of Pécs), KamilaFialkowska (University of Warsaw), Hilde Greefs (University of Antwerp), KennethHemmerechts (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Alexandra Parrs (University ofAntwerp), Ferruccio Pastore (Forum Internazionale ed Europeo di Ricerchesull'Immigrazione FIERI Torino), Alina Poghosyan (Institute of Archaeology andEthnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia), Ilse Ruyssen(Ghent University), Sara Salomone (Ghent University and UNU-CRIS), RominaSeminario Luna (Lausanne University), Christiane Timmerman (University ofAntwerp), Lore Van Praag (University of Antwerp), Thomas Verbruggen (Universityof Antwerp), Zeynep Zümer Batur (University of Antwerp)

Editio princeps of Peter Thomae's De ente It is generally acknowledged by historians of philosophy that medieval philosophers made key contributions to the discussion of the problem of being and the fundamental issues of metaphysics. The Quaestiones de ente of Peter Thomae, composed at Barcelona ca. 1325, is the longest medieval work devoted to the problem of being as well as the most systematic. The work is divided into three parts: the concept of being, the attributes of being, and the descent of being. Many of the philosophical tools that Peter pioneered in this work, such as the distinction between objective being and subjective being, and various modes of quiddities and abstraction, were adopted by later thinkers and discussed up to the eighteenth century. Apart from defending and further extending Scotistic doctrine, one of Peter's achievements in the De ente is to fully reconcile Scotistic univocity with the traditional doctrine of the analogy of being. In addition to the critical edition, the present volume also contains a detailed introduction and study of the philosophy and the manuscripts of the De ente, with an appendix containing the question on univocity by Francis Marbres (John the Canon), who copied extensively from the De ente.This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).