Like a lot of good stories, this one begins with a rumor: in 1239, Pope Gregory IX accused Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, of heresy. Without disclosing evidence of any kind, Gregory announced that Frederick had written a supremely blasphemous book—De tribus impostoribus, or the Treatise of the Three Impostors—in which Frederick denounced Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as impostors. Of course, Frederick denied the charge, and over the following centuries the story played out across Europe, with libertines, freethinkers, and other “strong minds” seeking a copy of the scandalous text. The fascination persisted until finally, in the eighteenth century, someone brought the purported work into actual existence—in not one but two versions, Latin and French. Although historians have debated the origins and influences of this nonexistent book, there has not been a comprehensive biography of the Treatise of the Three Impostors. In The Atheist’s Bible, the eminent historian Georges Minois tracks the course of the book from its origins in 1239 to its most salient episodes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, introducing readers to the colorful individuals obsessed with possessing the legendary work—and the equally obsessive passion of those who wanted to punish people who sought it. Minois’s compelling account sheds much-needed light on the power of atheism, the threat of blasphemy, and the persistence of free thought during a time when the outspoken risked being burned at the stake.

The Atheist's Bible: The Most Dangerous Book That Never Existed

History

MINOIS, Georges

Europe

University of Chicago Press

History of Old Age is the first major study of the ways in which old age has been perceived in western culture throughout history. Georges Minois paints a vast fresco, starting with the first old man to relate his own story—an Egyptian scribe some 4500 years ago—and ending with the deaths of Elizabeth I and Henry IV in the sixteenth century. Tracing the changing conceptions of the nature, value, and burden of the old, Minois argues that western history during this period is marked by great fluctuation in the social and political role of the aged. Minois shows how, in ancient Greece, the cult of youth and beauty on the one hand, and the reverence for the figure of the Homeric sage, on the other, created an ambivalent attitude toward the aged. This ambiguity appears again in the contrast between the active role that older citizens played in Roman politics and their depiction in satirical literature of the period. Christian literature in the Middle Ages also played a large part in defining society's perception of the old, both in the image of the revered holy sage and in the total condemnation of the aged sinner. Drawing on literary texts throughout, Minois considers the interrelation of literary, religious, medical, and political factors in determining the social fate of the elderly and their relationship to society. This book will be of great interest to social and cultural historians, as well as to general readers interested in the subject of the aged in society today.

History of Old Age: From Antiquity to the Renaissance

Americas

A comprehensive biography of the Treatise of the Three Impostors, a controversial nonexistent medieval book.\nLike a lot of good stories, this one begins with a rumor: in 1239, Pope Gregory IX accused Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, of heresy. Without disclosing evidence of any kind, Gregory announced that Frederick had written a supremely blasphemous book—De tribus impostoribus, or the Treatise of the Three Impostors—in which Frederick denounced Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as impostors. Of course, Frederick denied the charge, and over the following centuries the story played out across Europe, with libertines, freethinkers, and other “strong minds” seeking a copy of the scandalous text. The fascination persisted until finally, in the eighteenth century, someone brought the purported work into actual existence—in not one but two versions, Latin and French.\nAlthough historians have debated the origins and influences of this nonexistent book, there has not been a comprehensive biography of the Treatise of the Three Impostors. In The Atheist’s Bible, the eminent historian Georges Minois tracks the course of the book from its origins in 1239 to its most salient episodes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, introducing readers to the colorful individuals obsessed with possessing the legendary work—and the equally obsessive passion of those who wanted to punish people who sought it. Minois’s compelling account sheds much-needed light on the power of atheism, the threat of blasphemy, and the persistence of free thought during a time when the outspoken risked being burned at the stake.

History of Old Age

translated by Sarah Hanbury Tenison

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Chicago: U. Of Chicago, 1989

This book is the first major study of the ways in which old age wasperceived in Western culture and society. Beginning from ancientPalestine and Classical Greece, Minois traces the changingconceptions of the nature, value and burden of the old.   He shows how, in ancient Greece, the cult of youth and beauty, onthe one hand, and the reverence for the figure of the Homeric sage,on the other, created an ambivalent attitude towards the aged. Thisambiquity appears again in the contrast between the active rolethat senior citizens played in Roman politics, and their depictionin satirical literature of the period. Christian literature in theMiddle Ages also played a large part in defining thesociety′s perception of the old, both in the image of therevered holy sage and in the total condemnation of the aged sinner.  Minois traces the increasingly positive image of old age invarious professions from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries.He shows how, as medical advances lengthened the averagelife–span, more and more old people were seen to take anactive part in the life of the society. Throughout, Minoisconsiders the interrelation of literary, religious, medical andpolitical factors in the social fate of old men and women and theirrelationship with the rest of society.

Polity

History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture (Medicine and Culture)

Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title
In this compact and illuminating history, Georges Minois examines how a culture's attitudes about suicide reflect its larger beliefs and values―attitudes toward life and death, duty and honor, pain and pleasure. Minois begins his survey with classical Greece and Rome, where suicide was acceptable―even heroic―under some circumstances. With the rise of Christianity, however, suicide was unequivocally condemned as self-murder and an insult to God. With the Renaissance and its renewed interest in classical culture, suicide reemerged as a philosophical issue. Minois finds examples of changing attitudes in key Renaissance texts by Bacon, Montaigne, Sidney, Donne, and Shakespeare.
By 1700, the term suicide had replaced self-murder and the subject began to interest the emerging scientific disciplines. Minois follows the ongoing evaluation of suicide through the Enlightenment and the Romantic periods, and he examines attitudes that emerge in nineteenth- and twentieth-century science, law, philosophy, and literature. Minois concludes with comments on the most recent turn in this long and complex history―the emotional debate over euthanasia, assisted suicide, and the right to die.

Self-Help

Death & Grief

Johns Hopkins University Press

[Paris]. 24 cm. 671 p. Index. Encuadernación en tapa blanda de editorial ilustrada. Idioma Francés. Texte imprimé. 72-La Flèche. Impr. Brodard et Taupin. couv. ill. en coul. Minois, Georges(1946-. ) .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. ISBN: 2-213-60130-5

Histoire de l'athéisme

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

FAYARD

Charlemagne

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

TEMPUS PERRIN

Richard Coeur de Lion

PERRIN

Abélard, Héloïse et Bernard

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