Creating Clare of Assisi

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Publications & Services> Books> Book Series> Creating Clare of Assisi

Creating Clare of Assisi

Female Franciscan Identities in Later Medieval Italy

Lezlie S. Knox

Books

Available
Publication year: 2008


Series:	The Medieval Franciscans, 5
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 16651 6
ISBN-10:	90 04 16651 3

Cover:	Hardback
Number of pages:	xvi, 228 pp.

List price:	€ 89.00 / US$ 132.00

Table of contents

List of Maps ... ix
List of Abbreviations .. xi
Acknowledgments ... xiii

Introduction: The Friars and Sisters .. 1

Chapter One: Clare and the Poor Sisters of San Damiano ... 19
Chapter Two: The Order of Saint Clare .. 57
Chapter Three: Beyond Clare: A Franciscan Centered Order .. 87
Chapter Four: The Clarisses and Observant Reform ... 123
Chapter Five: Writing Female Franciscan Identity .. 157
Conclusion: The True Daughters of Francis and Clare ... 187

Bibliography .. 191
Index ... 215

Readership

All those interested in medieval religious history (both the history of spirituality as well as institutional developments), especially those concerned with women and their writings and the Franciscan Order broadly.

About the author(s)

Lezlie S. Knox, Ph.D. (1999) in Medieval Studies, University of Notre Dame, is Assistant Professor of History at Marquette University. She has published extensively on Clare of Assisi and the Franciscan sisters during the Middle Ages.

Earlier scholarship has characterized female Franciscanism as an institution established by Clare of Assisi in collaboration with Saint Francis. This understanding is anachronistic, however, and overlooks the more complicated disputes over what it meant for enclosed women to have a mendicant vocation. This book clarifies Clare’s contributions to these debates by distinguishing the historical figure from the uses made of her legacy by the papacy, the Friars Minor, and, most importantly, the enclosed sisters between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. By examining the diversity of female communities and their complicated institutional formation in medieval Italy, it examines how and when Clare was appropriated as a model of spiritual authority by the women to shape their identity as Franciscans.

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