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purple motes

Artifacts to help you imagine more.

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Highlights

  • Abelard castrated
  • Byzantine wife saves husband
  • Amphitryon & Geta duped
  • Chastelaine de Vergi tragedy
  • Aristotle’s advice to Alexander
  • Empress Theodora: woman leader
  • Tristan & Isuet
  • Xanthippe & Socrates
  • New Modern Sexism Scale

Porete

Marguerite Porete (spelled variously, e.g. Margaret Porette) is a commonly regarded as the author of the Mirror of Simple Souls. That book advocated annihilation in love of the Christian God. After a lengthy inquisition, Porete is thought to have been burned in 1310 in Paris for refusing to repudiate her theological claims.

Candace & Alexander the Great: from cunning to inwardness

Queen Candace and Alexander the Great went from a match of cunning characters in the Alexander Romance to love by hearsay in the Mirror of Simple Souls. … Read the post Candace & Alexander the Great: from cunning to inwardness

Mirror of Simple Souls, rationalization, and the Virgin Mary

Manuscript copies of the Mirror of Simple Souls seem to have obscured an original rationalization for the Virgin Mary to have sacrificed her virginity. … Read the post Mirror of Simple Souls, rationalization, and the Virgin Mary

The Mirror: actively promoted, long book on doing nothing

In medieval France, Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls tried to explain writing (and actively promoting) a long book about the noble way of doing nothing. … Read the post The Mirror: actively promoted, long book on doing nothing

Porete rejects Holy Cathedral the Little & turns to annihilation

Disillusioned with dominant institutions, the transgressive medieval lay theologian Marguerite Porete proclaimed her superior path of annihilation. … Read the post Porete rejects Holy Cathedral the Little & turns to annihilation