Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Factory literary heritage. Study collections of biographical essays illustrated in France (1944-2000)." "David Martens" "French, Italian and Spanish Literature, Leuven" "This project seeks to provide both a historical study and a theoretical analysis of five collections of illustrated biographies of writers published in France between the post-war period and the present (1944-2013) – “Poètes d’aujourd’hui” (Seghers), “Écrivains de toujours” (Seuil), “Albums Pléiade” (Gallimard), “Les Géants” (Paris-Match) and “Les Contemporains” (Seuil). The project will focus on the functions of these collections in the context of the rise of paperback publishing and the construction of the literary canon in the last decades. The historical side of the project will study the history of the collections in terms of their relation to the larger French literary scene. These illustrated biographies represent a new literary format (small size), based on the interaction between multiple genres (biography, portrait, critical essay and anthology), along with a rich iconography. Accordingly, from a more theoretical perspective then, the project will analyse the way in which these works function in terms of genres and mediological and socio-literary constraints. The originality of the project is both historical and theoretical. It lies in the fact that it is the study f collections of works that have been neglected in the field of literary studies, despite having been widely diffused in the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, the project will apply a diversity of methodologies, including the history of the book and history of literature, discourse analysis, mediology, iconographic analysis and sociology. As such, this project will help deepen the theory on the author in literature as well as the study of genres, particularly in their interactions and in their relationship with the medium." "Authority and auctoritas. Italian poems on contemporary wars as an interface of powers (1530-1630)" "Bart van den Bossche" "Early Modern History (15th-18th Centuries), Leuven, French, Italian and Spanish Literature, Leuven" "This thesis investigates the interaction between different kinds of authority in Italian, narrative heroic poems, written between 1530 and 1630, on contemporary Habsburg wars in Europe.The analysed corpus consists of approximately forty poems, that concern the siege of Tunis (1535), the Guelders wars, (1542-3), the Smalcaldic conflict (1546-7), the war of Cyprus (1570-71), and the military campaign in the Low Countries commanded by Alexander Farnese, which culminated in the siege of Antwerp (1584-5). In these poems, the imaging of a foreign “Other” went hand in hand with the “making of” Italian heroes in the military, catholic Habsburgs conflicts. The poems manifest their contact with prestigious literary models, but also their own dynamics. Some of these poems (especially A.F. Olivieri’s Alamanna) have received surprisingly little attention, and their possible intertextual relations have also been neglected.The central question is how “literary authority” was applied to the singing of military conflicts, fought under Emperor Charles V and his descendants. On the one hand, this term involves literary traditions, genres and models, like Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, Trissino’s Italia liberata and Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata. On the other hand, it implies literary doctrine, especially Aristotle’s Poetics. Besides that, authors had to take into account other sorts of authority. An important role was played by the political power of the prominent people to whom the poems were often dedicated. Although they often also had a consanguinity or other bonds with the poems’ protagonist(s), their interests did not necessarily coincide with those of the Habsburg crown. The religious doctrinal power and doctrines of the Church, which received a prominent place in literature partly due to the Catholic Reformation, also had an effect on the textual dynamics. Thirdly, some poems manifest the penetration of specific forms of political-philosophical discourse, indicating Erasmian and Machiavellian influences. Fourthly, poets had to decide to what extent they would respect the historical, ‘factual’ authority of contemporary history. The influent poet Torquato Tasso even discouraged his colleagues from using contemporary history as the main subject of modern epic. Finally, the poems functioned as a place where authors profiled their own authority and prestige, where they tried to warrant their own social and literary position in their “negotiation” with a privileged reader of Maecenas.In order to adopt a systematic approach to these interactions the analysis is structured chronologically, while the methodological framework is based on the analyse du discours littéraire, developed by Dominique Maingueneau. In traditional approaches, the poems were usually considered as artistically passive encomia that would serve exclusively for the praise of contemporary heroes and the narration of deeds. This thesis presents a more complex approach by attaching particular importance to the specific spatial and temporal context of each poem. Where and when exactly, for and by whom have they been written and published, and in which political circumstances? Which (institutional) networks played a role? Moreover, it adheres to a view on literature according to which epically inspired encomia were not only intended to glorify, but also to hold a critical mirror up to the face of the communities and rulers addressed in the poems, or to play a very specific role in international peace diplomacy.The development of sixteenth-century epic in Italian started at the same time as the maturation process of a Habsburg imperial ideology based on military victories. From this perspective, the first chapter (L’esordio di Carlo V, crociato e ‘triumphator’: Tunisi 1535) yields insight into the ways in which poets in this phase used Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso for giving shape to the first important Habsburg ‘crusade’ against infidels. The tradition of romanzi cavallereschi functioned both as a model and as a repoussoir: although the Furioso offered a broad repertoire of topoi and linguistic elements, imitations were at the same time deprived of their frivolous connotations, while “love” received a civil, servile of religious interpretation. These dynamics are most visible in Sigismondo Paolucci’s Notte d’Aphrica, in which Dante’s Commedia, Petrarca’s Triumphi and Bembo’s Asolani contribute to a ‘pure’ ethos. By elaborating a feudal sociology, based on fidelity and the corresponding duty of a ruler to show his gratitude, several poems call into question the position of prominent Italian officers in relation to the Habsburg crown.The second chapter (Un complicarsi di prospettive: le guerre nell’Europa settentrionale, 1551-1567) discusses three poems on conflicts in Northern Europe in the 1540’s: the Guelders wars and the Danubian campagin. This chapter emphasises the problematic nature of singing wars against subjects within the framework of an ideology based on clement pietas austriaca and on Erasmian values. The reasons of their publication (which happened at least eight years after the events) have to be found in other factors rather than in the praise or narration of the res gestae themselves. Poems could receive a potentially anti-Machiavellian or even tragic charge through allusions to evangelic principles and to Maffeo Vegio’s Supplementum, Plutarchus’ De sera numinis vindicta, Trissino’s Italia liberata da’ Goti and Statius’ Thebaid. Even though their final interpretation is not univocal, the dynamics of these poems clearly has an eye for the ethical downside of violence and epic anger, while clemency is represented as an essential though multiple virtue. It is therefore significant that an ethical conflict of this type is at the basis of the only real epic poem of the corpus, Olivieri’s Alamanna (1567).In the third chapter (Le eredità di un imperialismo asburgico: Lepanto e le Fiandre) is examined how tendencies further develop in the “heirs” of the poems exposed in chapters 1 and 2. This chapter underscores the importance to differentiate between poems on wars against Turks and others on conflicts with rebellious Christians. The first part (III.1 L’inflazione del sistema. Cipro e Lepanto), which deals with the war of Cyprus, shows a continuity with the cycle of Tunis and poems on the siege of Malta: poems were published short after the events. Now, however, they show a relatively limited literary complexity and were remarkably concise. This indicates in many cases a shift towards the lyric genre or a return to primitive forms of the cantare bellico, as well as a general consolidation of short forms for singing contemporary exploits. As in the case of the first chapter, the image of the enemy was little nuanced. When ethical or political issues are brought up in these poems, they concern the internal communities of the Christian world. This chapter shows how a lack of unity within Italy is visible through its division in different politically and culturally determined discursive communities (Venice, the Papal State, the Habsburg South), each with their own editorial centers.The second part (III.2 Un’orbita pluritopica. Farnese e le Fiandre) reconstructs again a case on civil war, i.e. Alexander Farnese’s campaign in the Low Countries. From this case emerge, on the one hand, intertextual and iconographical aspects that derive from quite a coherent “Farnese-culture” in Parma and Rome. References to Habsburg clemency can receive both a political-diplomatic and a religious interpretation, leading to meaningful exponents of a “poetics of conversion”. On the other hand, poems elaborate specific functions and aspects of a context-bound ethos, such as a paratopie nobiliaire in Sanvitale’s Anversa conquistata (1609).Both from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view, the corpus emerges in this study as a heterogeneous continuum. The nature of the texts varies from short and simple descendants of an oral news diffusion tradition to extensive literary works with an original approach, in Italian or Latin. This thesis eventually shows that they were not necessarily passive imitations of texts that were already part of the literary canon: on the contrary, they could anticipate the development of important aspects of the poema eroico." "Towards a LGBTI-wise penology? Assessing the experiences, needs and human rights framework of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in Belgian prisons." "Tom Daems" "Leuven Institute of Criminology" "LGBTI prisoners constitute a hidden and vulnerable group of prisoners with special needs. However, LGBTI prisoners’ specific experiences, needs and rights receive little attention, neither in research nor in policy. The goal of this project is to assess the experiences and needs of LGBTI prisoners in Belgium and research the application of human rights on LGBTI persons in prisons. This study will be the first to specifically research LGBTI prisoners in Belgium and the translation of human rights on gender identity and sexual orientation in the Belgian penitentiary context. This project proposes an innovative approach to address methodological and ethical issues of researching LGBTI persons in prison. This study uses proxy-respondents (professionals from supporting services working with LGBTI persons during and after detention) as datasources and gatekeepers to provide access to LGBTI (ex-)prisoners through a multi-method approach which includes a quantitative survey and several phases of qualitative interviews. The project aims to produce: 1) an overview of experiences and needs of LGBTI prisoners in Belgium, 2) an evaluation of the application of human rights on LGBTI prisoners in practice, 3) an overview of existing (good) practices regarding LGBTI prisoners, and 4) a framework for a LGBTI-wise penology and its implications for policy makers." "The absolute construction in 15th to 18th century Spanish and Dutch translations from Latin. On Latin influence and natural language change" "Raúl Sánchez Prieto, Bert Cornillie" "Functional and Cognitive Linguistics: Grammar and Typology (FunC), Leuven" "The aim of this project is to accurately describe the development of the (pre)classical Spanish (Desaparecidas las joyas, llamaron a la policía) and Dutch (Wij zijn, alle factoren in aanmerking genomen, zeer tevreden) absolute construction (AC) on the basis of an exhaustive, corpus-based study. Previous research explained its origin either as an innovation ex novo, namely a case of Latin loan syntax in 15th-16th century erudite Renaissance environments (abrupt, direct, external influence) or either as a construction already present in Romance tradition, developing on an autochthonous, natural way in analogy with the syntactic patterns of European languages (gradual, indirect, internal influence). Yet, both hypotheses do not necessarily have to exclude each other: a native origin is not incompatible with Latin influence. Therefore this project will aim at a more encompassing explanation, whereby the principle of ‘selective frequential copying’ will be of key interest. The project has three specific objectives. The first two address the comparative-historical dimension, while the last one involves a contrastive perspective. The first purpose is to comprehensively describe the diachronic evolution of the AC from Latin to Spanish, analysing not only its structural but also its semantic changes. Secondly, the motivating factors of this change will be investigated and examined whether they are internal (analogy with other Romance vernacular languages) and/or external (Latin influence). Finally, we will try to explain from a contrastive and synchronic point of view why present-day written Spanish still shows a relatively high frequency and productivity of ACs in comparison to other European languages, in particular to Dutch. The corpus study is concerned with different text types. We will compare translated texts against the background of original (pre)classical Spanish writings of the 14th, 15th and 16th century and also analyse vernacular texts from different Discourse Traditions without translation background. This way we will not only be able to identify the typological differences between Latin and (pre)classical Spanish in the field of the non-finite syntactic AC construction, but also to determine the specific role of translation in contact-induced change. The last contrastive part is based on written corpora of Spanish and Dutch." "Setting the standard: Norms and usage in Early and Late Modern Dutch (1550-1850)" "Rik Vosters" "Linguistics and Literary Studies, Brussels Platform for Digital Humanities" "While implementation and acceptance of language norms are often described as crucial steps in the standardization process, recent empirical studies in a range of European languages show that the relationship between norms and usage is not self-evident. If and to what extent norms spread from grammarians and other codifiers’ prescriptions to actual usage depends on various factors, but an overarching empirical analysis into this phenomenon for the history of Dutch is still lacking. The proposed project therefore aims to determine the exact relationship between norms and usage by systematically analysing chronologies of change in a multi-genre corpus from the 16th to the 19th century. For a first substudy, we will investigate 10-12 linguistic variables undergoing standardization in the period under discussion, and propose an integrated analysis of norms, usage, and a range of factors mitigating the possible impact of norms on usage. In addition, in a second substudy, we will use normative works as a window into variability: the rejection of ‘incorrect’ forms in grammars, for instance, can help us attest and date incipient changes, but can also shed light on linguistic conditioning and social meaning or stigma attached to particular variants. The combination of both substudies will provide us with a broad view on the standardization history of Dutch, and will allow us to (re-)evaluate the effectiveness of standardization and norm implementation as top-down processes" "Involving Readers. Practices of Reading, Use, and Interaction in Early Modern Dutch Bibles (1522-1546)" "Sabrina Corbellini, Wim François" "Research Unit of History of Church and Theology" "In the words of the Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986): “The book is not a closed entity: it is a relation, an axis of innumerable relationships.” The book does not simply exist, but is created and shaped by the ongoing dialogue between makers and readers, text and context, time and space. This idea forms the backbone of this dissertation. In this study, I display the textual and material interactions between early modern Dutch Bibles and their readers.            The research corpus exists of 189 surviving copies of Dutch Bibles printed by the Antwerp printers Jacob van Liesvelt and Henrick Peetersen van Middelburch between 1522 and 1546. Among their Bible editions are not just editions of the entire Bible, but also separate editions of the New Testament and the letters of the apostles. Previous studies about sixteenth-century Bibles have mainly been concerned with the textual elements of Bible translations and the connectivity of the text, as well as of paratextual elements such as prologues and marginal commentaries, with confessional developments. In this thesis, I turn the attention towards the use of these Bibles by their readers. In order to illustrate the interactions between the book and the reader, this dissertation has been structured around two main issues: how the book could shape and influential an envisioned reader and how the actual, historic reader could shape and influence the book.            This study applies two important approaches that were developed within the scholarly field of the history of reading. Influenced by the work of philosophers, literary scholars, and book historians such as Michel de Certeau, Roger Chartier, Stanley Fish, Robert Darnton, and Roger Stoddard, a discipline developed over the course of the late 20th century, in which the reader was no longer considered a passive recipient of the text, but a active contributor in the dynamics of textual culture. The first approach that is centralized within this thesis concerns the so-called paratext. This concept, developed by the French literary scholar Gérard Genette, is used to describe the texts in the book that are not the main text, such as headings, prologues, the name of the printer-publisher, and marginal commentaries. By closely studying the presence, content, and characteristics of the paratext, one may gain insight into the envisioned reading public and the types of book use that the author, printer, or publisher aimed to facilitate. The second research approach put forward in this study considers book use by looking at the traces of use left by readers in their books. By leaving traces such as ownership inscriptions, annotations, and markings, readers connect themselves and their activities to the material book. By positioning both approaches alongside each other, it becomes evident to what extent readers of early modern Bibles were directed by the paratextual choices of printers-publishers, or rather proceeded beyond that. In chapter 1, the introduction, I discuss the historical context, the historiographical backgrounds, and the delineation of the research corpus. The paratextual analysis then follows in chapter 2 and 3. A distinction, be it a diffuse one, is made between ‘constructive paratext’ and ‘directive paratext’. Paratextual elements that shape and influence the reader before or after they read the biblical text, are considered constructive elements. Paratextual elements that aid readers’ navigation and support them when they dive into the Scriptures, are understood as directive elements.            Chapter 2 discussed the first of these two paratextual types. Blank pages, title pages, prologues, calendars and almanacs, and ‘terminal paratext’ (i.e. paratextual elements used to close off a textual unity, such as the explicit or colophon) create a textual, visual, and material framework for the reader, a programmed entrance to the text. Chapter 3 continues with the directive paratextual elements in Van Liesvelt’s and Peetersen van Middelburch’s Bibles: printed glosses in the margins, summaries, woodcuts, maps, tables of content, liturgical reading schedules, and topical registers. These elements support the early modern reader in a discontinues, non-linear approach to the biblical text: the reader did not need to begin reading in Genesis and end with Revelations, but could move freely through the book and select passages that were of particular importance to them, by applying the paratextual elements. Furthermore, almanacs, prologues, glosses, and maps invite readers to view the Scriptures not as a self standing entity, but rather in connection to a knowledge network of geography, history, and astrology.            Previous research about paratext in early modern Bibles has revealed that printers used paratextual elements to advertise their editions and attract readers of a certain confessional denomination. The analysis of the paratextual elements in Van Liesvelt’s and Peetersen van Middelburch’s Bibles confirms this idea, but also shows that the confessional colour of the paratextual elements is often rather eclectic, and that paratextual elements remained important after the purchase of a book, as it shaped and facilitated book use. Moreover, printers created suble differences between the paratextual programmes of their complete Bible editions and New Testaments: the readers of the complete editions were particularly pointed towards a scholarly consideration of the biblical text, whereas the separate editions of the New Testaments positioned the Bible reading in a liturgical, daily context. However, this distinction is not strict: a liturgical reading schedule, for instance, was included in the New Testament as well as in the complete Bible editions.            The paratextual programme of the Bibles created a ‘horizon of expectations’ for the early modern reader entering the book: it provided a sense of genre, of reading approaches, and of the wider textual, scholarly, and religious context in which the Bible ought to be understood. The content and design of the title page, the arguments made in the prologues, and the presence of topical registers and marginal glosses created, in particular in the complete Bibles, a feeling of learnedness, study, and reliability. In addition, paratextual elements in the complete Bibles and New Testaments could stimulate an active involvement of its readers in collecting and combining various elements and knowledge fields. Furthermore, paratext served readers’ efficient navigation through the book. Paratextual elements enabled readers to ‘break up’ the text in separate, accessible elements. By using the almanac, the reading schedule, the running headings, and the chapter titles, for instance, the reader could carve out a liturgy-based route through the many pages of the book. The paratext in Van Liesvelt’s and Peetersen van Middelburch’s Bibles offered the readers an extensive, detailed, and structured framework for approaching the text. In the diversity of reading possibilities presented and facilitated by the paratext, however, the reader played a central role: they would decide how to apply the paratextual apparatus, which paratexts to combine, to follow the references or not, or to simply try to ignore the paratext as much as possible. The issue regarding the actual implementation of these reading possibilities in readers’ practices is therefore crticially assessed in the remaining part of the dissertation, by studying traces of reading and use in the surviving copies of Van Liesvelt’s and Peetersen van Middelburch’s Bibles. As explained in chapter 4, these traces can be divided in five general categories: ownership marks (such as names or library stamps), marks (such as underlining or rubrication), annotations (such as liturgical annotations or cross references), accidental traces (such as stains or damage), and other traces and adaptations (such as added textual or visual material, or traces of restoration practices). Whilst these various traces of reading and use can be encountered across the research corpus, some prove to be connected to specific types of editions in particular. Colouring and rubrication, for instance, is encountered more often in smaller Bible editions, such as New Testaments, and theological annotations are found almost exclusively in the complete Bible editions. This suggests a difference in reading practices that complies with the paratextual differences between these types of editions. Moreover, the reader traces – in particular the ownership inscriptions – emphasise the diversity of the reading public. Among the historic owners were priests, countesses, tailors, and merchants. A considerable number of Bibles also proves to have been used within an institutional context, such as a convent or seminary.            Chapter 5 continues the discussion of reading traces with regard to those that provide insight into the dynamic interactions between the reader and the text or paratext of the book. Readers, firstly, prove to reflect upon the textual and paratextual content of the book within their annotations, corrections, or additions. They used the information structures offered in the printed glosses and extended these with more information, in which they, for instance, referred to ecclesiastical authorities. Readers also implemented their own references to and markings of the biblical text, for instance by including handwritten cross-references or underlining. Furthermore, they regularly responded to the confessional characteristics of the text, for instance regarding the controversial translation of certain Bible verses. Besides reflecting upon the printed text and paratext, readers also prove to have been active in shaping and optimizing navigational systems, adding text, paratext, and images, and facilitating their own liturgical or devotional use of the Bible. Readers were, in other words, not only recipients of the textual and paratextual directions, but also actively engaged in shaping the book for their own benefit.            Besides reading text and paratext, users had plenty other opportunities to interact with the book. Chapter 6 concerns the interactions of the reader with the book as a material object. Ownership inscriptions and genealogical annotations, in which record was kept of the births and deaths within the family, display the value users granted to leaving ‘something of themselves’ within the physical book and how they used empty spaces to shape and safe-keep intergenerational relations and emotional experiences. Besides the universal Word of God, the Bible became, in their hands, a space of personal and family identity as well. In addition, user traces such as accidental ink stains, burning holes, dried flowers, or rusty imprints of objects such as glasses prove that the early modern Bible was an inherently material object – a collection of paper pages in a sturdy binding – that could be used in ways that surpassed the reading of text and paratext and the viewing of woodcuts. Whereas the paratextual programmes of Jacob van Liesvelt’s and Henrick Peetersen van Middelburch’s Bibles shaped and facilitated an extensive but nevertheless fixed reading programme, the traces in surviving copies show that readers approached their books as movable and adaptable objects. They were aware of the opportunities to shape their book with pen, ink, scissors, and glue, and actively expanded the reading possibilities within the book based on their personal preferences. They eagerly applied the paratexts in doing so, but simultaneously developed practices of reading and use that were not yet facilitated by the paratextual programme. The functions of the Bible as an object of study and space of passages read in the liturgy are indeed confirmed by readers’ actions, but the book also proves to have been an object of prayer and meditation, a symbol and place of safe-keeping for family histories, a paper space for doodles or calculations, or a flower press. In this diversity, the Bible was a dynamic and changeable object, on textual, paratextual, visual, and material levels.            The diversity in the approaches and adaptations by book users relates to a crucial aspect in the life of the book: time. Whereas the printed paratext and the reading opportunities it facilitates were decided upon by printers at the moment of publication, reader traces show that these objects were often read, used, and optimized across decades or even centuries. Readers brought contemporary discussions and developments into the book by adapting its text, paratext, and images in accordance with confessional developments, or by including new elements such as verse numbering or detailed maps. Layers of traces, use, and interactions built within the book; from the printed, early sixteenth-century paratext to the pencil note of a twentieth-century curator. The book is an object that is in constant flux and that, at the same times, guarantees in its materiality a certain level of stability. In other words: the early modern Bible was a textual, paratextual, visual, and material anchor that had the potential to be appropriated, adapted, digested, or cherished by one reader after the other." "Iuxta uestigia patrum. Augustine's exegesis of Paul's Letter to the Romans in the Venerable Bede's Collectio ex opusculis sancti Augustini in epistulas Pauli apostoli" "Gert Partoens" "Latin Literature, Leuven" "During the Middle Ages, anthologies played a significant role in the diffusion of the theology and exegesis of Augustine of Hippo (354-430). The recapitulation of the vast oeuvre of the African Church Father into more manageable collections of excerpts started very early, possibly even during his lifetime. A particular kind of anthology is the Pauline commentary that is composed exclusively of fragments from the works of the bishop of Hippo, who had a predilection for Paul and very often quoted from the Apostle’s Epistles. The oldest preserved commentary of this type is the Collectio ex opusculis sancti Augustini in Epistulas Pauli apostoli, which consists of more than 450 fragments from around 40 different works of Augustine and was compiled by Beda Venerabilis (672/673-735).The Collectio is a crucial text for the study of the transmission and circulation of Augustine’s writings in the Early Middle Ages and for that reason various scholars have emphasized the need of a critical edition of Bede’ Pauline commentary. Nevertheless, the Collectio still awaits its editio princeps. Moreover, despite the fact that the commentary forms an invaluable testimony to the reception of Augustine’s exegesis and theology in the Early Middle Ages, the Collectio’s contents have not yet been the subject of a thorough and systematic study. Recent publications on Bede’s exegesis, on his use of Augustine’s works and thinking, and on the Early Medieval transmission of Augustine’s writings do not or only superficially take into account the Collectio. This is a major lacuna, since Augustine’s interpretation of the Pauline Epistles played a pivotal role in shaping the Western view on important philosophical and theological issues such as humanity’s sinful condition, free will, and divine grace.My project responds to these lacunae by preparing the first critical edition of the commentary’s section on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (coll. fr. 1-125) and by offering a detailed study of the Collectio’s structure and form, sources, compilation process, and transmission.1. Analysis(1) Literary context and authorship. In first instance, I discussed the commentary’s place within the broader context of Late Antique and Early Medieval Latin literature, by tracing the history of the genre of the Pauline commentary and that of the form of the Patristic (Augustinian) florilegium. In second instance, I discussed the different arguments to attribute the commentary to Bede’s authorship.(2) Form and structure, compilation process of the Collectio. I extensively analysed the ways in which the commentary’s fragments, titles, and Pauline lemmata are arranged and presented, which provided deeper insight into the Collectio’s conception, composition process, and state of completion. My analysis of the fragments’ titles revealed the Collectio’s value for the study of the history of chapter divisions and numbers in Augustine’s doctrinal treatises.(3) The Augustinian sources of the Collectio and Bede’s other works. Past scholars who studied the Augustinian sources of the Collectio and of Bede’s oeuvre as a whole came to different assessments of Bede’s knowledge and use of the Church Father’s writings. Based on a full study of the Collectio’s fragments and titles, I was able to verify and correct earlier surveys of the commentary’s sources and present a new source analysis of the Pauline commentary. In addition, I provided a new survey of the Augustinian sources of Bede’s oeuvre as a whole. On the basis of these indices, I subsequently presented the first thorough analysis of Bede’s knowledge of the direct and different indirect traditions of Augustine’s works, in order to determine how Bede knew the Church Father’s writings. This allowed me to present a new reconstruction of the contents and size of Bede’s Augustinian library in Wearmouth-Jarrow.(4) Transmission history. From a text-critical point of view, the commentary falls apart in two blocks, fr. 1-393 and fr. 396-457. A stemma for those parts in the witnesses that contain fr. 1-393 had already been established by G. Partoens. My own analysis of the Collectio’s direct witnesses allowed me to fully confirm Partoens’ stemma and to determine the genealogical relations within the different branches of his stemma, as well as to establish a stemma for those parts of mss. R F V So M that contain fr. 396-457. On the whole, the stemmatical position of the direct witnesses could be relatively easily determined, even though signs/traces of intervention could be noticed in several manuscripts. My analysis of the Collectio’s indirect witnesses allowed me to precisely assess the ways in which Carolingian compilers made use of Bede’s commentary for their own Pauline commentaries.2. Critical EditionThe second part of my dissertation presents the editio princeps of the Collectio’s section on Romans (coll. fr. 1-125), which will eventually be part of the complete edition of the Collectio that will appear in the Series Latina of the Corpus Christianorum (Brepols Publishers). The commentary is transmitted in twelve direct and five (maybe six) indirect witnesses. During the Carolingian Renaissance, Bede’s commentary was quite successful on the continent, which is probably the reason why our witnesses are all of continental origin, most of them dating to the ninth century. My edition considers ten of the twelve direct and four of the five indirect witnesses and is based on a thorough study of the genealogical relations between the commentary’s witnesses." "Exploration of an integrated zone for Sino-European cultural Exchange during the Early Qing Dynasty" "Nicolas Standaert" "Chinese Studies, Leuven" "China missionaries who were active from the late 16th century through the 18th century never published a Chinese-language Bible insofar as the Sacred Books of the Catholic Church were only published in Latin at the time. Nonetheless, the Chinese, Christian converts included, still had both knowledge of and access to the Bible despite not being able to read Latin. This dissertation studies the Chinese reception of the Bible in the absence of a Chinese Bible translation during the late Ming and early Qing. It focuses on one biblical narrative in particular—the foot-washing prototype from the Latin Vulgate Bible (John 13:1–15)—exploring the narrative’s appearance in a wide variety of Chinese Christian texts and examining how these texts presented the foot-washing narrative to different audiences.This dissertation identifies 41 fragments rendering the foot-washing account into Chinese; these fragments are found in 33 Chinese Christian texts. By doing a close reading of the foot-washing excerpts and the Christian texts that contain them, this study develops its own textual approach. The dissertation’s first part focuses on the foot-washing prototype and its Chinese renditions, adopting a structural method of narrative analysis to scrutinize the Latin verses and the individual Chinese foot-washing excerpts. It demonstrates how the foot-washing prototype was transformed from the version presented in the Latin Vulgate Bible into its diverse Chinese renditions. The second part of the dissertation investigates the 33 Chinese Christian texts, exploring their inherent textuality and intertextuality in search of their respective readerships and genres. It eventually characterizes individual texts and collects together those with shared audiences and uses.This study thus shows the trajectories of the foot-washing narrative from its prototype in the Latin Vulgate to specific Chinese audiences. It demonstrates that the foot-washing narrative was diffused in the Chinese Christian texts in a specific pattern: the Chinese renditions were incorporated into Christian jing texts, texts open to outsiders and texts intended for insiders, thus ready to engage with different types of audiences. This dissertation argues that the Bible was in fact received in late Ming and early Qing China, at least at the level of biblical narratives, despite the absence of a complete Chinese Bible translation. The reception of these narratives was mediated by Christian texts which bridged the Latin Bible and Chinese audiences. Through the Christian texts, the Chinese who encountered the biblical narrative were informed of the Bible and of the ways in which it related to specifics of Christian religiosity. They also engaged with these texts in different manners, thereby sharing a common textual experience within the Christian discourse. The audiences of these texts thus formed a Chinese Christian textual community in which members came from different backgrounds but created a common identity." "The development of the absolute construction in English: the interaction between internal and external factors of change." "Hubert Cuyckens" "Functional and Cognitive Linguistics: Grammar and Typology (FunC), Leuven, Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), Leuven" "This PhD aims to provide a comprehensive, corpus-based study of the development of the absolute construction (AC) in English, from its earliest attested instances in Old English up to the present. Present-day English (PDE) examples are '""That's better,"" he said, his spirits raising a little.' and 'With the teacher refusing to comply, Barry took the matter to the dean'. The specific objectives/research questions guiding this study can be formulated as follows. First, the project wishes to provide a full descriptive account of the AC's development; this descriptive component shows that the AC is characterized by fluctuating frequency, changing semantics and register distribution, growing structural flexibility and increasing productivity. These changes are best viewed as multi-causal developments which are the result of language external and language internal factors combined. Second, specific attention is devoted to three more general issues. The first is the AC's much debated origin, which is here claimed to be a case of selective frequential copying from Latin. The second is the question why English is the only Present-day Germanic language to make extensive use of the AC. The explanation is argued to lie in i. the special functional niche occupied by certain PDE ACs, ii. the fact that more possibilities for structural priming and form/function overlap are available to PDE ACs, iii. the fact that English has become more unbounded over time and iv. the fact that English prescriptivism has encouraged rather than discouraged the use of ACs. The third and final general issue concerns the development of augmentation, with specific attention being devoted to the role of the verbal gerund. It is thereby argued that the development of with-absolutes is a clear instance of grammatical constructionalization characterized by increasing schematicity, new constructional types and some loss of compositionality. Methodologically, the project makes use of extensive corpus research and statistics in order to report reliable results." "A study on the loss of small airways and epithelial cell changes in chronic lung diseases" "Ghislaine Gayan-Ramirez" "Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases and Thoracic Surgery (BREATHE)" "The main function of the lung is to ensure optimal gas exchange of oxygen uptake and removal of carbon dioxide during breathing. Air entering the nose and mouth is travelling through a well-organized airway tree consisting of branches like in trees. This starts at the trachea (termed generation 0), splitting at the first bifurcation (generation 1) into two branches, each dividing many times along the tree into smaller airways and ending up in terminal bronchioles (generation 5-16). The bifurcations are not symmetrical dichotomous but most often asymmetrical with major and minor bifurcations (1). The diameter and length of the airways are decreasing with increasing generation in a well-balanced and orderly fashion. The fractal geometry system of the airways and the distribution of flow and pressure along this system is highly relevant to understand lung pathologies but are often neglected. There are currently no comprehensive studies which have explored this aspect on (healthy) human lungs or lungs from patients with respiratory diseases as, up to now techniques allowing analyzing human airway organization were lacking. This will be the first issue addressed in this project.The structure of the airways is adapted to their functions and differs between the conducting zone and the respiratory zone. In the conducting zone (up to generation 16), convection occurs while in the respiratory zone (generation 17-23), gas exchange is taking place by diffusion. While large airways have a thick wall of fibrous connective tissue and cartilage rings, which confers them robustness, small airway (diameter"