old Crete: * see Endnote 49

home of the Minoan civilization (flourished 2600 to 1100 BC);  based on commercial ties across eastern Mediterranean, between Crete, Aegean & Mediterranean settlements in the Near East. Through their traders & artists, their influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Egypt's Old Kingdom, Cyprus, Canaan, the Levantine coast & Anatolia.  Knossos was the largest Minoan site, home to a splendid palace; the island according to Homer had 90 cities.

 

Dionysus religion: * see Endnote 50

This reference to the conflict over Dionysus religion is a reflection of Nietzsche’s thesis in Birth of Tragedy, namely that Socratic teaching killed the Dionysian tragedy.  Here Nietzsche addresses what he calls the ‘"he problem of science".  According to Nietzsche science conquers art, especially the tragic art of the Dionysian poet of ancient Greece.

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Kleisthenes of Sikyon:

(died 532 BC) tyrant of the polis Sikyon, 600–560 BC; famous for his reformation of the tribes of that city; organized war against Argos because of his anti-Dorian feelings.  After his victory over Argos he abolished the professional bards who recited Homer because they praised Argos excessively.  He also forbade the cult of Adrastos (a king and hero of Sikyon).  In both cases he aimed to deprive the Doric nobility of their spiritual roots

 

Reformation:

(1517-1648) 16th century religious, intellectual & political upheaval in Europe that splintered the Catholic Church; initiated by Luther’s 95 Thesis, continued by Calvin, Zwingli & others who challenged papal authority & questioned the Church’s ability to define Christian practice. They argued for a religious & political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible reading pastors & princes (Henry VIII).   Led to the Thirty Years' War between Protestants & Catholics, ending with the Peace of Westphalia, 1648.  Some 8 million died in this German civil war.

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German free cities: * see Endnote 51

cities in the Holy Roman Empire, known as “free” and” imperial”, the term was used from the 15th century to denote a self-ruling city with some autonomy and representation in the Imperial Diet.  

 

Huguenot wars: * see Endnote 52

also known as the French Wars of Religion, 16th century, a period of civil infighting, military operations and religious war primarily fought between Roman Catholics and Huguenots (Calvinist Protestants) in France.

 

Parmenides:

(late 6th century-early 5th century BC) pre-Socratic Greek from the Greek colony Elea, Southern Italy.  Founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy, considered father of ontology (metaphysics).  His only surviving work, the poem, On Nature, describes reality.  In "The way of truth" he explains what reality is: one, change impossible, existence timeless, uniform, & necessary.  In a 2nd view, "the way of opinion", he explains the world of appearances, where sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are false & deceitful. 

 

Descartes:

(1596-1650) French philosopher, mathematician & scientist; father of modern western philosophy, spent 20 years in the Dutch Republic; his Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) is a foundation for philosophy students; in maths he invented the Cartesian coordinate system & analytical geometry (the bridge between algebra and geometry) used in the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis.  A key figures in the scientific revolution.  He refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers.  Famous for "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am).

 

Ionic:

one of 3 orders of classical architecture; originated in the Archaic period (750-480 BC) in Ionia (southwestern coast & islands of Asia Minor); used in mainland Greece in the 5th century BC.  First great Ionic temple was the Temple of Hera on Samos, built 570 –560 BC by Rhoikos; another famous Ionic temple is the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World);  also see the Erechtheum (Athenian Acropolis).

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Baroque:

an artistic style & period beginning 1600 in Rome & Italy, used exaggerated motion & clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, & grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music; spreading to most of Europe.  The Catholic Church encouraged it as a response to the Reformation.  The Council of Trent decreed that art should communicate religious themes with direct and emotional involvement.  The aristocracy & crowns of Europe used it to project triumph, power & control.  Baroque palaces employ grand court entrances, impressive staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence.

 

Alexandria:

founded by Alexander the Great 331 BC; intended to replace Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, linking Greece & the rich Nile valley; became the seat of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world, an intellectual & cultural center, it attracted many of the greatest scholars, Greeks, Jews and Syrians.  Only Rome, which gained control of Egypt in 30 BC, eclipsed Alexandria in size and wealth.

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Nurnberg:

Nuremberg Castle in Germany was the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire; the presence of the Imperial Diet & courts led to increased trade.  In 1219 Frederick II granted the Great Letter of Freedom, including town rights, Imperial immediacy, privilege to mint coins & independent customs.  It became, one of the great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe.  Charles IV's Golden Bull (1356) made it the city where newly elected kings of Germany must hold their first Imperial Diet.  He was the patron for the Frauenkirche (built 1352-1362) where the Imperial court worshiped.

 

Salamanca:

city in NW Spain, provincial capital (for Castile & León); home of the University of Salamanca, founded1218 by Alfonso IX, became one of Europe's most prestigious academic centers; in the 16th century it had 6,500 students in a population of 24,000 and hosted the School of Salamanca (mostly Dominican scholars), featuring the most important intellectuals of the day. Their juridical doctrine represented the end of medieval concepts of law & founded the fundamental body of the modern European law & morality.

 

Bruges: * see Endnote 53

largest city of the province of West Flanders (Flemish Region of Belgium), important due to the tidal inlet vital for commerce linking it to the North Sea.  In the 12th century a wool market, weaving industry & cloth market grew, benefiting from the security of the city walls & patronage of the counts of Flanders, allowing profits to be kept safe. 

 

Prague:

Prague flourished in the 14th century under Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor & king of Bohemia who made it his imperial capital; at that time it was the 3rd largest city in Europe (after Rome and Constantinople).  He started many impressive constructions, ordered the building of the New Town next to the Old Town, the Charles Bridge, the Gothic Saint Vitus Cathedral and the Charles University (oldest university in Central Europe).  The city had a mint & was a center of trade for German & Italian bankers and merchants.  In the next century became the center for the Hussite heresy.

 

cosmopolitanism:

free from local, provincial, or national ideas, prejudices, or attachments; at home all over the world; belonging to all the world; not limited to just one part of the world.

 

Chrysippus, stoicism of:

(279 -206 BC) Greek Stoic philosopher, native of Cilicia, moved to Athens as a young man, became a pupil of Cleanthes in the Stoic school, later 3rd head of this school; expanded doctrines of Zeno (founder of school); created original system of propositional logic, adhered to a deterministic view of fate, but allowed for personal freedom; taught a therapy of extirpating the unruly passions; made Stoicism an influential philosophy in the Greek & Roman world.

 

Cato, stoicism of:

(95- 46 BC) aka Cato the Younger, statesman late Roman Republic; as a Stoic subjected himself to violent exercise, endured cold & rain with minimum of clothing , ate marginal amounts of food; done entirely for philosophical reasons as his inheritance would have permitted him to live comfortably.

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Seneca, stoicism of;

(4 BC- AD 65) aka Seneca the Younger; Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, humorist of the Silver Age of Latin literature; known for his tragedies Medea and Thyestes; tutor and later adviser to Nero, forced to suicide for alleged complicity in plot to assassinate Nero.  His stoic and calm suicide the subject for numerous paintings.  As a Stoic, he lived a comfortable (not austere) life & was criticized for not practicing what he preached.

 

Rousseau:

(1712 -1778) Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer; political philosophy influenced Enlightenment France & Europe & the French Revolution; his Discourse on Inequality & The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political & social thought; he helped develop modern educational thought; his novel Emile, is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship; his novel Julie helped progress the development of romanticism in fiction; his autobiographical Confessions was the first modern autobiography.

 

naturalism:

the belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world; argues that natural laws are the rules that govern the structure and behavior of the universe and that changes in the universe are products of these laws.  Some philosophers equate naturalism with materialism.   It asserts that spirits, deities, and ghosts are not real and that there is no "purpose" in nature.