Living Dangerously

Description

The essays in Living Dangerously, written by some of the leading scholars in the fields of history and literature, examine the lives of those who lived on the margins of medieval and early modern European society. While some essays explore obvious marginalized classes, such as criminals, gypsies, and prostitutes, others challenge traditional understandings of the margin by showing that female mystics, speculators in the Dutch mercantile empire, and writers of satire, for example, could fall into the margins. These essays reveal the symbiotic relationship that exists between the marginalized and the social establishment: the dominant culture needs its margins.

This well-written and lively collection covers a wide geographical area, including England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, making it an ideal resource for a broad range of courses in European history and literature.

Contributors: Barbara A. Hanawalt, Richard Firth Green, Vickie Ziegler, Dyan Elliott, Anne J. Cruz, Ian Frederick Moulton, and Mary Lindemann.

Sujets

• Medieval
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Edad Media
• European studies
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268081645
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

                

D A l N i G v E i R O n U g S LY

O N T H E M A RG I N S I N M E D I E VA L A N D E A R LY M O D E R N E U RO P E

edited by Barbara A. Hanawalt and Anna Grotans

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright ©by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Designed by Wendy McMillen Set in. ∕.Adobe Minion by BookComp, Inc.

Publishedin the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Living dangerously : on the margins in Medieval and early modern Europe / edited by Barbara A. Hanawalt and Anna Grotans. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-:----(pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-:---(pbk. : alk. paper) history—Medieval,. Social ‒.. Marginality, Social—Europe— History.. Crime—Europe—History.. Middle Ages.. Civilization, Medieval.. Europe—History—‒Hanawalt, Barbara.. I. II. Grotans, Anna A.,– HN11.L  .'—dc 

∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

Contents Acknowledgmentsvii

Introduction         .     

        “Nede ne hath no lawe”: The Plea of Necessity in Medieval Literature and Law                 

        Upward Mobility in the German High Middle Ages: The Ascent of a Faithful Liar

            

        Women in Love: Carnal and Spiritual Transgressions in Late Medieval France

         

        Gendering the Disenfranchised: Down, Out, and Female in Early Modern Spain

     .    

vi

Contents

       

Sodomy and the Lash: Sexualized Satire in the Renaissance

                 

       

The Wind Traders: Speculators and Frauds in Northern Europe,–

            

List of Contributors

Index







Acknowledgments

In the course of preparing this volume for publication, we have had the invaluable assistance of James Bennett, Susanne Childs, Valerie Emanoil, Henry Griffy, and Elizabeth Zimmerman of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at The Ohio State University. We thank them for their meticulous work and efficiency in seeing this project to its end. We also owe our gratitude to Barbara Hanrahan and her staffat the University of Notre Dame Press. The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at The Ohio State University initiated the series under the leadership of Nicholas Howe. We dedicate this volume to him.

vii

Introduction

BARBARA A. HANAWALT

Living dangerously, or living on the margins, in medieval and early modern Europe holds considerable fascination. Marginals have been identified as in- cluding the poor, people of low status, and lawbreakers. Bronislaw Geremek, in his study of the low life of Paris, lumped all marginals into one class. They were not only people and groups who fell outside the social and eco- nomic mainstream, but they also formed an underclass that rendezvoused 1 in taverns and other gathering places. While some of the essays in this book look at the poor or at a criminal underclass, this definition of marginality is far too narrow. It has a structural limitation in that it presumes that only social outcasts will be on the margins of society. The essays in this book por- tray people living dangerously and on the edges, but they are marginal for many reasons. Poverty and crime may put people into the margins, but not all of the people considered in these essays are poor or criminal. Indeed, medieval and early modern society could express some sympathy for those who fell into want and need. Some marginals were from religious groups persecuted by the dominant state- and church-supported religion. Here one thinks of the Beguines, Moriscos, and Jews. Others were wealthy traders of the seventeenth century who took advantage of the burgeoning speculative markets and fraud. Women could fall into the class of marginal because of their knowledge of the occult or even their sexual or spiritual independence.

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