Imagining Otherness: The Pleasure of Curiosity in the Middle Ages
Anna KOŁOS
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Augustine of Hippo, Curiosity, Imagination, Order of things, Otherness, Pleasure.
The main aim of this paper is to take a closer look at both the philosophical and religious presumptions upon which the medieval concept of curiosity was premised. Such an enterprise needs to go back to Aristotle in order to fully comprehend the limitations for curiosity introduced by St. Augustine in his City of God and developed by such medieval thinkers as Isidore of Seville and Thomas of Aquinas. These conceptions will be analysed in reference to Foucauldian archeology of knowledge. Much attention should be paid to the ideas of curiositas, admiratio and studiositas.
Pleasures of Gluttony
Burçin EROL
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Gluttony, Middle English Literature, Pleasure, Seven deadly sins.
In the late Middle Ages, especially in England, displaying an abundance of food and feasting became not only an act of pleasure but also a means of establishing status and wealth, despite gluttony being one of the seven deadly sins. In the fourteenth century – due to various reasons such as increased population, crop failure, the Black Death, and the disruption of food production by warfare – feasting, the displaying of food, and indulgence in gluttony was an indicator of wealth, riches, and high status for the upper class or the social climber as it is well indicated in the works of Chaucer and some of his contemporaries.
Public festivities in Portuguese medieval towns
Arnaldo Sousa MELO; Maria do Carmo RIBEIRO
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Medieval towns, Pleasure, Portugal, Public festivities, Urban space.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the major Portuguese public festivities in late XIV and XV centuries, mainly in three Portuguese towns – Lisbon, Porto (Oporto) and Braga – in order to study their relationship with the urban space. We start by studying civic and religious festivities, namely royal baptisms, weddings and enthronements, as well as royal and lordly entries in towns, but also regular festivities such as the Corpus Christi. We proceed to study the urban areas where they occurred, their itinerary, the type of festivities (street theater, processions, bullfights, music and dance...) and the ornamentation of those urban areas. Finally we will analyze pleasure connected to these different types of festivities, as well as to various social groups. Our methodology is based upon different types of sources, namely written and iconographic documents, as well as remaining medieval historic buildings and urban plans.
The Rejection of the Epicurean Ideal of Pleasure in Late Antique Sources: Not Only Misunderstandings
Ilaria L. E. RAMELLI
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Christian reception, Epicureanism, Gregory Nazianzen, Origen, Pleasure.
Epicureanism was seen by its opponents, both ‘pagan’ and Christian, as the philosophy of pleasure and atheism. From the theological point of view, the accusation of atheism was incorrect, since Epicurus and the Epicureans admitted of the existence of deities, and posited them as models of moral perfection, while denying their interest in human affairs, i.e. providence. This denial aimed at guaranteeing their imperturbability (ataraxia). From the ethical point of view, the ideal of pleasure (hēdonē), on which I shall concentrate here, was grossly misunderstood or distorted by the opponents of Epicureanism, who generally did not take into consideration the moderation, equilibrium, and serenity that the superior ‘catastematic pleasure’ (Epicurus’s real ideal of pleasure) involved. I shall analyse the attitude of late-antique sources, especially Christian, toward Epicureanism and its ethics. A great many of Usener’s and Arrighetti’s fragments of Epicurus indeed come from Christian late-antique authors, such as Clement, Origen, Eusebius, Lactantius, and Augustine, but other patristic authors should be added, such as Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. Even if patristic interest in Epicureanism is often critical, and sometimes imprecise or distorted, nevertheless it is tangible. I shall focus on the authors who make the most interesting use of Epicurean sources, particularly with respect to the ethical doctrine: Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, Lactantius, Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine, Gregory Nyssen, and Nazianzen, the only one who really understood and praised Epicurus’s notion of hēdonē. I shall also argue that the fading away of the availability and use of good sources on Epicureanism, along with the disappearance of the Epicurean school itself, brought about an impoverishment in the understanding of, and hostility to, Epicurus and Epicureanism.
