In den sechziger Jahren des 12. Jahrhunderts wird in Westeuropa der Brief eines fernöstlichen Herrschers bekannt, dessen Urheberschaft bis heute ungeklärt ist. 655 Das Schreiben ist an den byzantinischen Kaiser Manuel 1. Komnenos gerichtet; der Absender des Briefes nennt sich »Presbiter Iohannes« (1). Er behauptet, auf eine freundliche und interessierte Botschaft des Regenten von Byzanz zu reagieren, und schildert diesem statusbewusst den materiellen Überfluss und weitere Besonderheiten seines Reiches. Eine Vielzahl überlieferter Handschriften bezeugt, dass der Brief vom 12. Jahrhundert bis ins späte Mittelalter weit verbreitet war und dass er viel gelesen wurde. Es ist Ausdruck der großen Bedeutung, die man dem Brief zumaß, und es hat dessen Relevanz in der Wahrnehmung der Zeitgenossen vermutlich weiter gesteigert, dass Papst Alexander III. im Jahr 1177 ein Schreiben an Johannes richtet. Im Verlauf des 13. Jahrhunderts werden dann mehrfach Expeditionen ausgesandt, um den Priesterkönig zu finden, und im Spätmittelalter tauchen erneut Schriftstücke auf, die an ihn adressiert sind. Das Interesse am Priesterkönig Johannes in Hochund Spätmittelalter war offensichtlich groß; heute geht man jedoch davon aus, dass es ihn nie gegeben hat. 656 Nach gegenwärtigem Verständnis gelten sowohl der sagenhafte Herrscher selbst als auch sein Reich als Fiktionen. Dass der Papst auf den Brief eines fernöstlichen Unbekannten an einen europäischen weltlichen Herrscher antwortet, dass man nach dem Presbyter Johannes sucht und dass er nicht nur in literarischen Texten der folgenden Zeit erscheint, sondern dass auch die Historiographen ihn erwähnen, deutet aber darauf hin, dass das ferne Großreich im Mittelalter durchaus als real existent angesehen werden konnte. Damit ist die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Priesterkönigreich des Johannes als einem Ort, der in der Wahrnehmung vieler 239 1 \

TEMPLA is a permanent workshop of Medieval Studies composed of specialists from universities, museums and archives from different parts of Spain, Europe and in particular Catalonia. The members of this team share common interests as well as complementary areas of expertise. The impact of its research and interactions with experts from other disciplines are reflected in its specific research projects and academic activities, which in turn are disseminated in annually organised scientific meetings and resulting publications. TEMPLA members actively seek to collaborate with different research groups and scientific institutions. They aim to facilitate exchanges among researchers and to stimulate scientific debates relating to visual programs and spatial organization from the Middle Ages. Particular attention is devoted to the liturgical influences and architectural scenery and to reflection on the social and academic status of research into Middle Ages art and culture.
TOPICS AND AIMS: TEMPLA invites national and international researchers into medieval art history and related disciplines to debate the concept and expression of "Cathedral Cities", which have boosted in European episcopal sees during the medieval period. The studies of Cathedral City Landscapes could reveal the historical and living memory they contain. This call aims to understand how the fragile historical centers of cathedral cities have become the bearers of European's identity, memory and their complex and plural intangible heritage. The medieval cathedral is widely seen as one of the most important contributions to European and global cultural history. Besides they often are the largest and oldest of all monuments in a city or town, cathedrals and their functioning influenced the way the city evolved. They are therefore essential to our understanding of local and regional history. Alongside their urban influence cathedrals are places for people-social congregation for secular and religious occurrence, where the memories of people and events were made and are now stored, where history and "invented traditions" intertwine. The progress about knowledge of this European heritage is a necessary measure to protect its visibility and understanding as well as to justify the survival and sustainability of their uses. This living heritage, condenser and referential framework of social and cultural pan-European principles, is at risk of depletion and irrelevance. Therefore the results of the II TSS will be transferred to the academic community, but also to policy makers and citizens in general.
SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE II TEMPLA SUMMER SCHOOL 2016: 1. To analyse the confluence of diverse resources and actors (institutional, economic, topographic, architectural...) activated to planning and building the place of cathedrals inside medieval cities and development of medieval cities around their cathedrals. 2. To propose new forms of contextualising historical building of European bishoprics in order to explain the results of artistic promotion underlining extra-artistic factors: e.g. liturgical, devotional,

In this chapter, Tilo Renz explores the essential roles that objects play in the formation of the utopian medieval community of Crisa in Heinrich of Neustadt’s Apollonius von Tyrland. He shows that ANT’s claims that objects both gain agency within networks of different actors and contribute to community building hold true for ideal societies developed in medieval literature as well. Heinrich took poetic license in his translation of a late antique source, adding the lengthy passage about Crisa, a utopian society to which marvelous objects – a wheel, a fountain, a staircase, and a pillar – contribute in a significant way by controlling the borders and preserving the community’s integrity, allowing strangers to enter only if they fulfill certain moral and ethical conditions. Unexpectedly, through their important role in migratory processes, objects also foster the community’s evolution. The objects have these effects, as Renz shows, not by acting on their own, but by acting together with human and divine agents (the goddess Venus) as part of a larger network.

A etimologia da palavra utopia remete-nos ao grego, cujo prefixo u pode indicar uma negação ou dar o sentido de variedade. O substantivo topos, que compõe a palavra, é claramente a referência a algum lugar. Dessa forma, pesquisadores que tratam do tema das utopias costumam defini-la, etimologicamente, com o não-lugar ou outro lugar, que não é o aqui e nem o agora1. Por esse motivo, as expressões utópicas são muito apropriadas para a problematização das aporias do tempo e do espaço. Essa é a pretensão do ensaio apresentado aqui, o qual foi originado de uma palestra proferida em nove de novembro de 2016 na Universidade Estadual de Santa Catarina2. A abordagem que daremos ao tema cruza perspectivas da teoria da história, da filosofia e da literatura, em uma análise direcionada para o período que se convencionou chamar medieval, mas que ampliará sua lente para o fenômeno na longa duração