The Navigator Who Never Navigated

Henry the navigator (1394-1460)

Portuguese Prince and promoter of exploration. Though he never navigated, Henry more than anyone else inaugurated the Age of Exploration that produced such remarkable results in the late 15th century. For him, Portugal might not have undertaken its dazzling but exhausting leadership in overseas expansion.

Son of King John I of Portugal, and born from a British mother, Philippa. In 1415, young Henry participated brilliantly in the capture of Ceuta, on the Moroccan shore opposite Gibraltar. Henry later conceived the idea of exploring the sea route down the west coast of Africa. This would lead him to India, though he may not have seen that far ahead.

To finance the ambitious project, his father made him grand master of the well-endowed Order of Christ. In this role, Henry remained rigidly celibate all his life. At Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, he established a center for exploration, gathering all the writings and experts available. Superstition and navigational difficulties slowed progress down the African coast, until one captain, Gil Eanes, pushed past Cape Bojador in 1434.

Henry had taken an active part in colonizing Madeira and the Azores, the islands of the atlantic, some of which had been discovered before his day. He also tried to buy the Canaries which, however, finally went to Spain. By the time Henry died, Portugal was thoroughly commited to the policy of exploration and expansion, that led to the voyage (1497-99) of Vasco da Gama, around the Cape of Good Hope to India, and the establishment of the first modern colonial empire.

A Wind from the North: The life of Henry the Navigator by Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford (German Edition - January 1, 1960)

Source Encyclopedia International by Robert G. Albion, Harvard University.

History of The Book: Codex

History of the Bible in English by Frederick Fyvie Bruce

Book, a tool for communication that had been used since 5,000 years ago. Book has survived many radical changes in format. An obsolete form of book is the cuneiform clay tablet, used in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians from 3,000 BC. Cuneiform is based on a wedge-shaped mark, and represents one of man's earliest efforts to communicate by written language, until it was abandoned around 500 BC, in favor of alphabetic writing on papyrus.

Ancient Egyptian papyrus scroll was in common use until 300 AD. It was made by gluing sheets of papyrus together on alternate edges. Chinese 5th century BC books were made of bamboo strips bound together by cords. The saying of Confusius were recorded on bamboo. Chieh-yuan, a Buddhist scripture, was written in 448 AD, became one of the oldest manuscripts extant in China. Other primitive forms include leather rolls, as in the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls, was writing on bark, and palm leaves.

Codex, a conventional modern book. Codex is made by binding together along one edge a number of leaves piled on top each other, each leaf being folded from a sheet that contains two or more leaves. Codex was slow in replacing the scroll, and it was first used by Christians, such as the four Gospels, or St. Paul's Epistles. Vellum codices came into general use in the 4th century. The following are some most important historically codex in alphabetical order:

Codex Alexandrianus
Codex A, a 5th century manuscript of the Greek Bible, nearly complete (773 leaves out of 820), evidently written in Egypt. Cyril Lucar, when Patriach of Constantinople, presented it to King James I of England (c.1625). It's now in the British Museum.

Codex Amiatinus
The best extant manuscript of the Vulgate edition of the Latin Bible. It was written at one or other of the twin Benedictine monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth, England, to the order of Abbot Ceolfrid, in 716 for presentation to Pope Gregory II. It is now in the Laurentian Library at Florence.

Codex Bezae
Codex D, a 5th century bilingual manuscript of the Gospels, Acts, and part of III John, with Greek on the left hand page, and Latin on the right. Important for its additions to the common text. It was presented by Theodore Beza to Cambridge University Library in 1581.

Codex Ephraemi
Codex C, a 5th century manuscript containing 64 leaves of the Old Testament, and 145 out of 238 of the New. It's a palimpsest, the Biblical text having been rubbed out to make room for a treatise of St. Ephraem Syrus. It's now on Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

Codex Fuldensis
A Latin Vulgate manuscript of the New Testament, written about 545 for Bishop Victor of Capua, Italy. Brought to Jarrow, England, 150 years later. It's now in Fulda, Germany, where it was taken by the English missionary St. Boniface (c.744). In it the four Gospels are rearranged so as to form one continuous narrative.

Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Aleph, a 4th century Greek manuscript, containing one third of the Old Testament, and all of the New. Discovered in 1844 by Constantine Tischendorf in St. Catharine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. It was presented in 1859 to the Tsar of Russia, and was bought for the British Museum in 1933.

Codex Vaticanus
Codex B, a 4th century vellum manuscript of the Greek Bible, of unsurpassed importance. Probably written in Alexandria, Egypt, 759 leaves survive out of 820, and the New Testament ends at Heb. 9:14. Its earlier history is unknown, but it has been in the Vatican Library since the 15th century, except for six years 1809-15, in Paris. Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus were the oldest Biblical manuscripts known before the discovery of the Chester Beatty Papyri in 1931, and the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948-56.

Source Encyclopedia International by:

Howard Woodrow Winger,
Professor and Dean, Graduate Library School, University of Chicago.
Editor: Library Quarterly.
Author:

• The Medium-sized Public Library.
• Area Studies and the Library.
• Deterioration and Preservation of Library Materials.

Frederick Fyvie Bruce,
Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegenis, University of Manchester, England.
Author:

• The Books and the Parchments.
• History of the Bible in English.

The Papal States of The Holy See

Papal States, former Italian territory under the temporal rule of the Popes. Although earlier papal claims had been made to Rome and other parts of Italy, the states formally originated in 754, when Pepin The Short (c.714-768), 1st Carolingian King of the Franks, conquered the Lombards and bestowed a large portion of central Italy upon Pope Stephen III (752-757). Pepin founded the temporal power of Papacy, which endured until 1870.

In 773, Pope Hadrian I (772-795) prevailed upon Charlemagne, or Charles The Great (742-814), son of Pepin, to come to his help. The Frankish King repudiated the Lombard Queen he had married, and the Lombard alliance she had represented, then marched into Italy. In 774, Charlemagne deposed the last German Lombards, and claimed the title for himself. He confirmed for the Pope the ' Donation of Pepin', by which his father had recognized the regions around Rome as Papal territory (the Patrimony of St. Peter). On Chistmas night, 800, Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III (795-816). However, throughout his reign, Charlemagne himself and not the Pope remained the effective ruler of Papal States.

Europe and the Papacy suffered cruelly during terrible civil wars among the descendants of Charlemagne, and more terrible raids of the Vikings, Saracens, Avars, and Magyars. Saracen raiders sacked St. Peter's in 846.

Further territory was conferred upon the Church during the Middle Ages, but the status of the Popes as secular rules remained ambiguous, due to political conflicts with the Holy Roman Emperors. At their widest extent the Italian Papal States stretched in a rough diagonal from coast to coast in central Italy. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the county of Venaissin, with Avignon, in what is now France, was added.

While the Catholic Reformation of the 16th century increased the spiritual authority of the Pope, the political power of the Papacy declined. Twice during French Revolutionary and Napoleonic times, the Papal States were formally abolished and came under French hegemony. In 1815, Congress of Vienna restored papal control under Austrian protection.

The 19th century Popes were generally opposed to the movement for Italian unification. In 1859, as a result of the Italo-Austrian War, the Papacy was deprived of more than two-thirds of the 16,000 sq. mi. that constituted its traditional domain. In 1870, when an occupation force of French troops was withdrawn by Napoleon III, the remaining papal territory, centering around the city of Rome, was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy.

The Popes refused to recognize the legality of the action. Until Lateran Treaty, an agreement in 1929, between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy that healed the breach between the two created by Italy's seizure of Rome in 1870. It consisted a political agreement, a financial settlement, and an ecclesiatical concordant regulating the relations between the Church and the state in Italy. In February 11, 1929, under the terms of political agreement, the Holy See recognized the Kingdom of Italy, with Rome as its capital, and the new state of Vatican City, a small area of 108,7 acres within the city of Rome. Vatican City's inviolability and neutrality were guarantee by the Italian government, was created under the sovereignty of the Pope. The Lateran Treaty increased temporally the prestige of Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini. The republican constitution adopted in 1947, recognized that relations between the Church and the Italian state were governed by the Lateran Treaty.

Happy 83th Independence Day to The Papal States of The Holy See

Source Encyclopedia International by :

• Robert D. Warth, Hunter College. (Papal States, book 14:50)
• Istvan Deak, Professor of History and Director of the Institute on East Central Europe, Columbia University. (Pepin The Short, book 14:187)
• David Herlihy, Professor of History, University of Winconsin. Author, Pisa in the Early Renaissance: A Study of Urban Growth. (Charlemagne, book 4:256)
• Armand Patrucco, Associate Professor of History, Rhode Island College. (Lateran Treaty, book 10:372)

History of Fashion

Fashion, the artistic approach to designing, selling, and, wearing clothes. To be in fashion is to conform to the constantly changing artistic ideal of the current day.

Modern fashion began at the end of World War I, when the invention of the new industrial clothing machinery made the burgeoning of the now vast ready-to-wear industry possible. Before World War I, clothes were inspired by Paris, but made with many personal interpretations by dressmakers all over the world. A situation in which two well-known women, appeared at the same public event, in the same dress, would have been virtually impossible.

Although modern fashion may seem to outsiders, to have move capriciously in many directions, since its beginning, its course has actually been uniquely simple and direct. Fashion has been tending steadly toward simplification and realism.

Fabrics have become consistently lighter in weight and more workable. Miracle drip-dry fabrics created a world-wide furor, when they were invented in the early 1940's. The development of new stretch fabrics, which move with the body have made clothes even more workable.

Fashion's most drastic change happened in the 1920's, when at the end of the war, women rebelled against restriction and artificiality. Almost overnight they shifted into the limp little short dress that was the flapper's uniform. Paris designer, Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel sparked the fashion revolution. She also introduced wool jersey, the forerunner of the popular knit fashion.

The 1930's were probably the most charming era in modern fashion. Sportswear, at first very feminine, was born to answer to women's increasing freedom. Though clothes were becoming softer and simpler, they still kept some of their old-time personal mystery. Hollywood's stars were a fashion power in the US.

Paris in the 1930's was at a peak of creative activity. The snob appeal of buying original Paris designs, to be copied by American manufacturers, had begun. Paris was full of great names like Molyneux, Vionnet, and Mainbocher. The word chic, meaning the ultimate in fashion, became popular. It was personified in Elsa Schiaparelli, whose flippant, tongue-in-cheek fashion approach was cancelled by World War II, which saw the fashion capital occuppied by invading German armies.

In Paris 1947, Christian Dior launched the New Look. The New Look, probably a subconscious rejection of uniforms and restrictions, detoured fashion into a romantic bypath. Although it didn't actually change fashion inevitable course, it was a persistent influence for 7 years.

In 1951, Italy made its 1st bid as a fashion center. Its extrovert mood has been strikingly successful, chiefly in sportswear. Emilio Pucci's bold-colored silk print shirts and pants have been world influence in fashion.

England went ahead in the fashion world with the introduction of 'mod' and 'mini' clothes, in mid-1960's. London's influence was also felt in men's fashions, which changed markedly in the late 1960's.

The US is not actually in competition with England, France, or Italy, all of which it taps for creative ideas, simply because it likes to. US creative designers like Norman Norell, James Galanos, and Pauline Trigere, chooses to concentrate on successful production offering a wide range of types, sizes, and prices. An incredibly wide range of types, sizes, and prices make US ready-to-wear the envy of the rest of the world.

Source : Encyclopedia International by Eugenia Sheppard, Fashion Editor, New York Post