Emanuel GROSU (Università “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” di Iaşi)
DA REFRIGERIUM AL SUO CONTRARIO. ALCUNE SFUMATURE DEL CONCETTO NELLE VISIONES ANIMARUM MEDIEVALI
Keywords: visiones animarum, refrigerium, refrigerare, requies, hell, paradise.
Abstract: From refrigerium to its opposite. Some nuances of the concept in occidental visiones animarum. The term refrigerium/refrigerare acquired two fundamental semantic values in early Christianity: one relating to commemorating the dead, the other to eschatology. Both meanings have been the subject of extensive research linking the Christian meanings either to the etymon and uses of the term in pre-Christian Latin or to beliefs and practices in other cultures and religions of Antiquity. In the following lines, I will delve further into the nuances of this term in its sense of temporary and cyclical interruption/ suspension of infernal punishments, as they appear in some texts within the visiones animarum category. Consecutively, I will identify and justify the occurrence of the opposite of this meaning for the same category of texts.