CITY

 

“I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arabella (sic) three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier. “We must always consider”, he said, “that we shall be as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us”. 

 

Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill—constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities. 

 

For we are setting out upon a voyage in 1961 no less hazardous than that undertaken by the Arabella (sic) in 1630. 

 

We are committing ourselves to tasks of statecraft no less awesome than that of governing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, beset as it was then by terror without and disorder within. 

 

History will not judge our endeavors—and a government cannot be selected—merely on the basis of color or creed or even party affiliation. 

 

Neither will competence and loyalty and stature, while essential to the utmost, suffice in times such as these. 

 

For of those to whom much is given, much is required ...”

 

The Western End has held a palace since Merovingian times, and its eastern end since the same period has been consecrated to religion, especially after the 10th-century construction of a cathedral preceding today’s Notre-Dame.

 

city (n.)

c. 1200, from Old French cite "town, city" (10c., Modern French cité), from earlier citet, from Latin civitatem (nominative civitas; in Late Latin sometimes citatem) originally "citizenship, condition or rights of a citizen, membership in the community," later "community of citizens, state, commonwealth" (used, for instance of the Gaulish tribes), from civis "townsman," from PIE root *kei- (1) "to lie," also forming words for "bed, couch," and with a secondary sense of "beloved, dear."

 

Now "a large and important town," but originally in early Middle English a walled town, a capital or cathedral town. Distinction from town is early 14c. OED calls it "Not a native designation, but app[arently] at first a somewhat grandiose title, used instead of the OE. burh"(see borough).

 

Between Latin and English the sense was transferred from the inhabitants to the place. The Latin word for "city" was urbs, but a resident was civis. Civitas seems to have replaced urbs as Rome (the ultimate urbs) lost its prestige. Loss of Latin -v- is regular in French in some situations (compare alleger from alleviare; neige from nivea; jeune from juvenis. A different sound evolution from the Latin word yielded Italian citta, Catalan ciutat, Spanish ciudad, Portuguese cidade.

 

London is The City from 1550s. As an adjective, "pertaining to a city, urban," from c. 1300. City hall "chief municipal offices" is first recorded 1670s; to fight city hall is 1913, American English. City slicker "a smart and plausible rogue, of a kind usu. found in cities" [OED] is first recorded 1916 (see slick (adj.)). City limits is from 1825.

The newspaper city-editor, who superintends the collection and publication of local news, is from 1834, American English; hence city desk attested from 1878. Inner city first attested 1968.

 

 

*kei- (1)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to lie," also forming words for "bed, couch," and with a secondary sense of "beloved, dear."

 

It forms all or part of: ceilidh; cemetery; city; civic; civil; civilian; civilization; civilize; hide (n.2) measure of land; incivility; incunabula; Siva.

 

 

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit Sivah "propitious, gracious;" Greek keisthai "to lie, lie asleep;" Latin cunae "a cradle;" Old Church Slavonic semija "family, domestic servants;" Lithuanian šeima "domestic servants," Lettish sieva "wife;" Old English hiwan "members of a household."

 

 

incunabula (n.)

1824, a Latin word meaning "swaddling clothes," also, figuratively, "childhood, beginnings, birthplace, place where a thing had its earliest development, the beginning of anything;" especially "early printed book using movable-type technology," From Gutenberg's beginning c. 1439 to the close of the year 1500. Latin incunabula "a cradle; a birthplace," figuratively "rudiments or beginnings," is from in "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + cunabula, diminutive of cunae "cradle," from PIE *koi-na-, suffixed form of root *kei- (1) "to lie," also forming words for "bed, couch."

 

 

Interest in collecting them began c. 1640 with the celebration of (as it was supposed) the 200th anniversary of printing. Perhaps this use of the word traces to the title of the first catalog of such books, Incunabula typographiae (Amsterdam, 1688). The word in this sense has come into general use throughout Europe. The number of books put on the market throughout Europe during that period has been estimated at 20 million. Prof. Alfred W. Pollard ["Encyclopaedia Britannica," 1941] wrote that "up to the end of the 17th century," Caxton's original printings "could still be bought for a few shillings."

 

Meet Barbara Gordon!

 

The New Commissoner for Gotherm City!

 

She was top of her class at Harvard for Police. 

 

She cleaned up the streets of Gotham's nearby Sister City Bludhaven with STATISTICS and COMPASSION!

 

Sydney Barrett-Bird :

What is it? 

 

Oliver Bird :

It-it's called The Ostrich.

 

 

Oh, wait, that's not right.

It's The Big Bird, isn't it? 

 

No, 'The City'.

It's called 'The City'.

Also known as The Real World.

 

Sydney Barrett-Bird :

What makes it Real? 

 

Oliver Bird :

I'll explain when you're older.

 

Sydney Barrett-Bird :

No, now.

 

 

Oliver Bird :

That's not the way it works, Little Bird.

 

I'm The Daddy,

and you're The Baby,

and

I'll tell you about The Real World

when you're older.

 

Now, come on.

Mommy's making stuffed animal pie.

Mmm.

We don't want to be late.

 

 

Sydney Barrett-Bird :

Do you remember That Wall We Built?

 

Oliver Bird :

The rock wall?

Of course.

 

Sydney Barrett-Bird :

Why did we do that? 

It didn't do anything.

 

Oliver Bird :

It was A Wall.

It did Wall Things.

 

Sydney Barrett-Bird :

You know what I mean.

 

Oliver Bird :

Your mother and I taught you to work hard

So you'd know how to work hard.

 

We taught you to ask questions

So you'd know how to answer questions.

 

Plus, I like a nice rock wall.

 

 

 

Christianity was introduced to the Franks by their contact with Gallo-Romanic culture and later further spread by monks. The most famous of these missionaries is St. Columbanus (d 615), an Irish monk.

 

Merovingian kings and queens used the newly forming ecclesiastical power structure to their advantage. Monasteries and episcopal seats were shrewdly awarded to elites who supported the dynasty. Extensive parcels of land were donated to monasteries to exempt those lands from royal taxation and to preserve them within the family.

 

The family maintained dominance over the monastery by appointing family members as abbots.

 

Extra sons and daughters who could not be married off were sent to monasteries so that they would not threaten the inheritance of older Merovingian children. This pragmatic use of monasteries ensured close ties between elites and monastic properties.

 

Numerous Merovingians who served as bishops and abbots, or who generously funded abbeys and monasteries, were rewarded with sainthood. The outstanding handful of Frankish saints who were not of the Merovingian kinship nor the family alliances that provided Merovingian counts and dukes, deserve a closer inspection for that fact alone: like Gregory of Tours, they were almost without exception from the Gallo-Roman aristocracy in regions south and west of Merovingian control. The most characteristic form of Merovingian literature is represented by the Lives of The Saints.

 

Merovingian hagiography did not set out to reconstruct a biography in the Roman or the modern sense, but to attract and hold popular devotion by the formulas of elaborate literary exercises, through which the Frankish Church channeled popular piety within orthodox channels, defined the nature of sanctity and retained some control over the posthumous cults that developed spontaneously at burial sites, where the life-force of the saint lingered, to do good for the votary.

 

The vitae et miracula, for impressive miracles were an essential element of Merovingian hagiography, were read aloud on saints’ feast days. Many Merovingian saints, and the majority of female saints, were local ones, venerated only within strictly circumscribed regions; their cults were revived in the High Middle Ages, when the population of women in religious orders increased enormously. Judith Oliver noted five Merovingian female saints in the diocese of Liège who appeared in a long list of saints in a late 13th-century psalter-hours. The vitae of six late Merovingian saints that illustrate the political history of the era have been translated and edited by Paul Fouracre and Richard A. Gerberding, and presented with Liber Historiae Francorum, to provide some historical context.