Dominik, William J. (Durban RWG) [German version] A. Literature, Language and Onomastics (CT) Latin was used in numerous historical and legal documents of the 16th and 17th cents., namely in accounts of the early Cape Hottentots and in South African (SA) law. Born in SA, Gijsbert Hemmy (1746-1798), for instance, composed De testimoniis Aethiopum, Chinensium aliorumque paganorum in India Orientali (Leiden 1770) as his doctoral thesis, which consisted of testimonies of the Hottentots and other inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope; he also delivered a Latin oration entitled De Promonto…

Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) [German version] A. History from 1060 (CT) Sicily (S.) was under Norman rule until the end of the 12th cent., and, in adjusting to Western European conditions, especially from the time of William I (1154-1166), experienced an immense process of feudalization and an ecclesiastical and cultural reorientation to Latin Catholic Christianity. William II’s death without issue in 1189 introduced a period of instability, followed by the acquisition of the Sicilian throne by the Ho…

Strohmaier, Gotthard (Berlin RWG) I. The Near East (CT) [German version] A. Origin and Development of the Arabic-Islamic Cultural Sphere (CT) In a power vacuum between Byzantium and Persia, the prophet Mohammed founded a new theocratic and militant state on the Arabian peninsula in 622. Within less than a century, it extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus. These conquests were facilitated by mild taxation laws and tolerant religious policies: Jews and Christians, who for the most part belonged to national chu…

Busse, Wilhelm I. Middle Ages (CT) [German version] A. Introduction (CT) Collective memory of the end of Roman rule in Britain clearly became associated early on with a myth in Anglo-Saxon England: "This year [AD 418] the Romans collected all the hoards of gold that were in Britain; and some they hid in the earth, so that no man afterwards might find them, and some they carried away with them into Gaul" ( Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sub anno 418). To the Anglo-Saxon mind, burying treasure was equivalent to relinquishing power. The Roman renunciation of rule thus became the …

Domanski, Juliusz I. Reception History (CT) A. Literature (CT) [German version] 1. Middle Ages (CT) In medieval Poland (P.), as elsewhere in Latin Western Europe, the Classical tradition was neither received nor used in its historically authentic form (and, of course, not to its full extent), but rather as it had already existed for centuries, having been integrated into Christian culture from the Patristic period on. For that reason, Classical tradition should not be regarded as an autonomous object of recep…

Tobia, Ana Maria Gonzales De [German version] A. Concept and Political Divisions (CT) The geographical boundaries of the region that is called Latin America are the Río Bravo (Río Grande), which forms the border between the United States and Mexico in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the east, Cape Horn in the south and the Pacific Ocean in the west. The necessity of defining this historically augmented area goes hand-in-hand with the attempt to find names which best identify it: in 1824, Simón Bolivar spoke of repúblicas americanas ('American republics'); in 1884, José Martí chose…

Heesakkers, C. L. Tournoy, G. I. The Low Countries to 1575 (CT) [German version] A. The Territory and Academic Landscape (CT) The territory of the present-day Benelux states only began to form a certain geographical, political and cultural unit under the Dukes of Burgundy in the 14th cent. Philip the Bold, son of the French king and since 1363 Duke of Burgundy, married the heiress of Flanders in 1369. His grandson Philip the …

Buschendorf, Christa I. The Colonial Period until the New Republic (1607-1820) (CT) A. The Colonial Period (1607-1763) (CT) [German version] 1. History and Social Development (CT) The history of the English continental colonies took place quite differently in the three main regions: the South Atlantic to the south, New England to the north, and the Mid-Atlantic region. Buschendorf, Christa [German version] 1.1 The South (CT) The settlement of the South, beginning with the foundation of Jamestown (1607), was first and foremost an economic undertaking, initiat…

Férez, Juan Antonio López I. History of Scholarship (CT) [German version] A. Preliminary Remarks (CT) While dealings with Greek literature and culture in Spain (S.) from the Middle Ages to the present day are well researched, there are still many gaps in research into the corresponding Latin issues, so that this article necessarily places the greater weight on Greek culture. The description of the Middle Ages is primarily confined to Castile, although reference has also been made to materials from the other Spanish kingdoms. Férez, Juan Antonio López B. 11th -15th Centuries (CT) …