50 Antioch
Modern Anti-Semiticism(Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1997); Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews:
The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor-
nell University Press, 1982); Charlotte Klein, Anti-
Judaism in Christian Theology, trans. Edward Quinn
(London: S.P.C.K., 1978); Gavin Langmuir, History, Reli-
gion, and Antisemitism(Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1990); Ruth Mellinkoff, Antisemitic Hate Signs in
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts from Medieval Germany
(Jerusalem: Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, 1999).
Antioch (Antiochia, Antakya)Antioch was the chief
city of Byzantine SYRIAon the Orontes River, about 20
miles from the coast of the Mediterranean. It was one of
the great cities of the eastern Mediterranean until its
sack by the Persians in 540 and a subsequent series of
devastating earthquakes. It was retaken and rebuilt by the
emperor JUSTINIANand became a cultural, religious, theo-
logical, and administrative center. It was the seat of one
of the great Eastern patriarchs, graced with architecture
and strong fortifications. As the military base from which
Roman and later BYZANTINEmilitary expeditions attacked
the Persians. Captured in 637, during the first centuries
of Muslim occupation it was their strong point in frontier
defenses. Returning to the offensive against the Arabs, the
Byzantines recaptured Antioch in 969 and kept it until
1084, when it fell to the SELJUKS. The First CRUSADEcon-
quered it on June 28, 1098, after which it became a city
of contention between LATINrulers in the East, such as
BOHEMOND, and Byzantium. At various times there was
submission to the authority of Byzantium, such as that by
Raymond of Poitiers to the emperor JOHNII in 1137. In
the second half of the 12th century, its Christian and
Frankish rulers had to spend most of their time maintain-
ing independence from SALADINand from a reinvigorated
kingdom of ARMENIA. In 1268, however, Sultan BAYBARS
and the Mamluks from EGYPTcaptured the city and
massacred the population in punishment for the city’s
alliance with the MONGOLS. It never regained much
importance thereafter.
Further reading: Glanville Downey, A History of
Antioch in Syria: From Seleucus to the Arab Conquest
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961); J. H.
W. G. Liebeschuetz, Antioch: City and Imperial Adminis-
tration in the Later Roman Empire(Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1972).
antiphon In medieval Christian worship and liturgical
practice an antiphon was a short prose text sung before
and after a psalm, a group of psalms, or a canticle. Psalm
antiphons were usual in worship and within liturgical
chant. They gave context to a repeated psalm or canticle
by linking it to a particular feast or season. In its earliest
form the antiphon was repeated as a refrain after each
verse of the psalm it accompanied. During the Middle
Ages the antiphon largely lost its role as a refrain and
usually only framed other particular verses. The complete
antiphon was heard only at the end.
Those for ferial or nonfeast days were brief and
within a smaller melodic range. Those for festivals were
more elaborate musically. Antiphons occurred in the
MASSas the chants for the Introit, Offertory, and Commu-
nion. As in the office, each of these items originally
incorporated a complete psalm that used the antiphon as
a refrain between verses.
Further reading: Willi Apel, Gregorian Chant
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958), 305–312,
392–404; Terence Bailey, Antiphon and Psalm in the
Ambrosian Office(Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music,
1994); Joan Halmo, Antiphons for Paschal Triduum-Easter
in the Medieval Office(Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval
Music, 1995).antipodes Antipodes were originally the creatures who
put the soles of their feet against our own and live on the
opposite side of the Earth. In general, the term antipodes
actually referred to creatures that lived far away and were
exotic and different in their behavior and appearance,
though they were members of the human race. This
concept did reveal awareness of the spherical shape of
the Earth, an idea that had been current since Pythagoras
in the second half of the sixth century B.C.E.
A more elaborate idea of the antipodes was based on
the idea of the Earth as a sphere divided into four equal
island continents divided by oceans crossing each other
at right angles. In later medieval maps, parts of this world
were portrayed as populated with monstrous creatures.
Some of these creatures were said to lack faces or mouths,
some to have one eye, some four eyes, eyes on their
chest, a dog’s head, backward-facing feet, a huge foot
serving as a sunshade, six arms, gigantic ears, and other
strange characteristics. In the Middle Ages, these human
creatures were thought to inhabit a specific, only slightly
known opposite part of the Earth. The most important
literary work dealing with antipodes and the other side of
the spherical world is that of John MANDEVILLE.
Further reading:John Mandeville, Mandeville’s Trav-
els,ed. M. C. Seymour (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967);
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Before Columbus: Exploration
and Colonization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic,
1229–1492 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1987).Antoninus, Saint (Antonino Pierozzi)(1389–1459)
Dominican friar, theologian, archbishop of Florence
As the son of a notary born on March 11, 1389, Antoni-
nus studied canon law; but then under the guidance of
Giovanni Dominici (1357–1419), he entered the DOMINI-
CANobservants in 1405. Beginning as a novice at Cortona,