Our point of entry will be a tale from the famous work of the Italian scholar Jacobus de Voragine (1228–1298) on the wondrous lives of the saints. This is evident in the history of monsters, a sub-group of the mediaeval phenomenon of wonders, as we will see at the end of this introduction.įirst, however, we need to become acquainted with the various categories of mediaeval wonders, which were related in countless examples. The history of wonders is one of many intersections, which took ever-new paths and shapes. We should not proceed from a linear progression of history that, beginning in the Renaissance, increasingly pushed wonders to the margins before they disappeared completely in the modern natural sciences. A look at mediaeval miracles also opens up key fields of society in those days: politics, religion, social relations, world-views and much more. 2Īnalyses of wonders are always social analyses as well. 1 Having watched pilgrims streaming into the town in search of miracles, Kurt Tucholsky called the place ‘one big anachronism’, but his 1927 account develops a wide-ranging analysis of society and the period, touching on national cults, class differences, the modern church and mass events in war and peacetime. Every now and then each of us hopes for a miracle, whether with or without divine assistance, and some of us are convinced that we have actually experienced one: Every year, more than five million people visit the French pilgrimage site of Lourdes. But a belief in wonders is not restricted to the Middle Ages. Far from being signs of irrationality, they were a widespread phenomenon that the intellectual elites addressed as well. In the Middle Ages, wonders did not occur at random, but were subject to certain rules. The subject of wonders and monsters in the Middle Ages is a broad, fascinating and complex one. The history of wonders and monsters is therefore in many cases entangled and shows respectively, which order a society formulated for itself. Eventually, in the 19th and 20th century, the criminal character appeared as monster and the monster became a popular protagonist in literature and film. Following the medieval debate scholars discussed which regularities of nature could be formulated based on these unusual occurrences. These monsters caused horror, amazement and fascination. During the 15th and 16th century interest in miracle births, on which early prints reported, increased rapidly. But a single miracle birth was also considered a monstrosity, “monstrating” God’s anger about human sins. These legendary people were identified as monsters in the Middle Ages. Marvels, on the other hand, were wonders of nature, such as unusual and fabulous beings like dragons or wondrous people: Humans with dog heads, headless people with a face on their chest, hermaphrodites and others. The hundreds of thousands of miracles worked by saints transmitted to us changed during the course of the Middle Ages and always had a political function too, since they provided dynasties, bishops, monasteries and cities with religious legitimacy. In total medieval wonders can be divided into two big main groups: Wonders performed by God either directly or after the intercession of saints were primarily considered to be miracles. At the same time a distinction was made between divine wonder working with a direct relation to human action and divine wonders affecting nature in a general manner. In a world that thought of itself as being created and led by God, ultimately all wonders were seen as divine works. In addition, on closer inspection they open our eyes to various aspects of medieval History: wonder analyses are always also societal analyses. Then as now, medieval wonders were highly entertaining.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |