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Res et significatio: The Material Sense of Things in the Middle Ages

Kumler, Aden and Lakey, Christopher R.. (2012) Res et significatio: The Material Sense of Things in the Middle Ages. Gesta, 51 (1). pp. 1-17.

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Official URL: https://edoc.unibas.ch/82735/

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Abstract

Influenced by typological exegesis and traditions of theological-philosophical speculatio, medieval people understood materials and material things as participants in powerful economies of signification. In his landmark 1958 essay, “Vom geistigen Sinn des Wortes im Mittelalter” (On the Spiritual Sense of the Word in the Middle Ages), the cultural philologist Friedrich Ohly described the medieval meaning of things (Dingbedeutung) as authorized by modes of scriptural analysis but exceeding the boundaries of sacred texts to include monuments, artifacts, and materials. This essay serves as an introduction to Friedrich Ohly's life and work and offers an analytic orientation to the methodological and historical questions taken up by this special issue of Gesta dedicated to medieval conceptions of signifcationes rerum (the signification of things). Reflecting on both the insights and limitations of Ohly's penetrating account of medieval significs (the meaning of things in the world as expressed through words), the essay poses several art historical challenges to Ohly's vision of medieval works of art and architecture, while arguing for the continuing relevance of his thought for art historical consideration of the meaning of things in the Middle Ages.
Faculties and Departments:04 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > Departement Künste, Medien, Philosophie
04 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > Departement Künste, Medien, Philosophie > Fachbereich Kunstgeschichte > Ältere Kunstgeschichte (Kumler)
UniBasel Contributors:Kumler, Aden
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:The University of Chicago Press
ISSN:0016-920X
e-ISSN:2169-3099
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Last Modified:06 Oct 2021 13:43
Deposited On:06 Oct 2021 13:43

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