Visual Power and Fame in René d'Anjou, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Black Prince
Title | Visual Power and Fame in René d'Anjou, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Black Prince PDF eBook |
Author | S. Gertz |
Publisher | Springer |
Total Pages | 243 |
Release | 2010-04-26 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0230106536 |
Reading semiotically against the backdrop of medieval mirrors of princes, Arthurian narratives, and chronicles, this study examines how René d Anjou (1409-1480), Geoffrey Chaucer s House of Fame (ca. 1375-1380), and Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) explore fame s visual power. While very different in approach, all three individuals reject the classical suggestion that fame is bestowed and understand that particularly in positions of leadership, it is necessary to communicate effectively with audiences in order to secure fame. This sweeping study sheds light on fame s intoxicating but deceptively simple promise of elite glory.
Ethics in the Arthurian Legend
Title | Ethics in the Arthurian Legend PDF eBook |
Author | Melissa Ridley Elmes |
Publisher | Boydell & Brewer |
Total Pages | 421 |
Release | 2023-07-11 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 184384687X |
An interdisciplinary and trans-historical investigation of the representation of ethics in Arthurian Literature. From its earliest days, the Arthurian legend has been preoccupied with questions of good kingship, the behaviours of a ruling class, and their effects on communities, societies, and nations, both locally and in imperial and colonizing contexts. Ethical considerations inform and are informed by local anxieties tied to questions of power and identity, especially where leadership, service, and governance are concerned; they provide a framework for understanding how the texts operate as didactic and critical tools of these subjects. This book brings together chapters drawing on English, Welsh, German, Dutch, French, and Norse iterations of the Arthurian legend, and bridging premodern and modern temporalities, to investigate the representation of ethics in Arthurian literature across interdisciplinary and transhistorical lines. They engage a variety of methodologies, including gender, critical race theory, philology, literature and the law, translation theory, game studies, comparative, critical, and close reading, and modern editorial and authorial practices. Texts interrogated range from Culhwch and Olwen to Parzival, Roman van Walewein, Tristrams Saga, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Malory's Morte Darthur. As a whole, the approaches and findings in this volume attest to the continued value and importance of the Arthurian legend and its scholarship as a vibrant field through which to locate and understand the many ways in which medieval literature continues to inform modern sensibilities and institutions, particularly where the matter of ethics is concerned.
Chivalry and the Ideals of Knighthood in France during the Hundred Years War
Title | Chivalry and the Ideals of Knighthood in France during the Hundred Years War PDF eBook |
Author | Craig Taylor |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 363 |
Release | 2013-10-10 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1107513111 |
Craig Taylor's study examines the wide-ranging French debates on the martial ideals of chivalry and knighthood during the period of the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). Faced by stunning military disasters and the collapse of public order, writers and intellectuals carefully scrutinized the martial qualities expected of knights and soldiers. They questioned when knights and men-at-arms could legitimately resort to violence, the true nature of courage, the importance of mercy, and the role of books and scholarly learning in the very practical world of military men. Contributors to these discussions included some of the most famous French medieval writers, led by Jean Froissart, Geoffroi de Charny, Philippe de Mézières, Honorat Bovet, Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier and Antoine de La Sale. This interdisciplinary study sets their discussions in context, challenging modern, romantic assumptions about chivalry and investigating the historical reality of debates about knighthood and warfare in late medieval France.
A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry
Title | A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry PDF eBook |
Author | Geoffroi de Charny |
Publisher | University of Pennsylvania Press |
Total Pages | 124 |
Release | 2013-03-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0812208684 |
On the great influence of a valiant lord: "The companions, who see that good warriors are honored by the great lords for their prowess, become more determined to attain this level of prowess." On the lady who sees her knight honored: "All of this makes the noble lady rejoice greatly within herself at the fact that she has set her mind and heart on loving and helping to make such a good knight or good man-at-arms." On the worthiest amusements: "The best pastime of all is to be often in good company, far from unworthy men and from unworthy activities from which no good can come." Enter the real world of knights and their code of ethics and behavior. Read how an aspiring knight of the fourteenth century would conduct himself and learn what he would have needed to know when traveling, fighting, appearing in court, and engaging fellow knights. Composed at the height of the Hundred Years War by Geoffroi de Charny, one of the most respected knights of his age, A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry was designed as a guide for members of the Company of the Star, an order created by Jean II of France in 1352 to rival the English Order of the Garter. This is the most authentic and complete manual on the day-to-day life of the knight that has survived the centuries, and this edition contains a specially commissioned introduction from historian Richard W. Kaeuper that gives the history of both the book and its author, who, among his other achievements, was the original owner of the Shroud of Turin.
Women of Mediaeval France
Title | Women of Mediaeval France PDF eBook |
Author | Pierce Butler |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 492 |
Release | 1908 |
Genre | France |
ISBN |
The Art of Illumination
Title | The Art of Illumination PDF eBook |
Author | Timothy Husband |
Publisher | Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Total Pages | 390 |
Release | 2008 |
Genre | Belles heures of Jean of France, Duke of Berry |
ISBN | 1588392945 |
Literature as Recreation in the Later Middle Ages
Title | Literature as Recreation in the Later Middle Ages PDF eBook |
Author | Glending Olson |
Publisher | Cornell University Press |
Total Pages | 244 |
Release | 2019-05-15 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1501746758 |
This book studies attitudes toward secular literature during the later Middle Ages. Exploring two related medieval justifications of literary pleasure—one finding hygienic or therapeutic value in entertainment, and another stressing the psychological and ethical rewards of taking time out from work in order to refresh oneself—Glending Olson reveals that, contrary to much recent opinion, many medieval writers and thinkers accepted delight and enjoyment as valid goals of literature without always demanding moral profit as well. Drawing on a vast amount of primary material, including contemporary medical manuscripts and printed texts, Olson discusses theatrics, humanist literary criticism, prologues to romances and fabliaux, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He offers an extended examination of the framing story of Boccaccio's Decameron. Although intended principally as a contribution to the history of medieval literary theory and criticism, Literature as Recreation in the Later Middle Ages makes use of medical, psychological, and sociological insights that lead to a fuller understanding of late medieval secular culture.