Courtly Pastimes

Courtly Pastimes PDF Author: Gloria Allaire
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000798887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
The modern concept of passing leisure hours pleasantly would, in the Middle Ages, have fallen under the rubric of Sloth, a deadly sin. Yet aristocrats of past centuries were not always absorbed in affairs of state or warfare. What did they do in moments of peace, "downtime" as we might call it today? In this collection of essays, scholars from various disciplines investigate courtly modes of entertainment ranging from the vigorous to the intellectual: hunting, jousting, horse racing; physical and verbal games; reading, writing, and book ownership. Favorite pastimes spanned differences of gender and age, and crossed geographical and cultural boundaries. Literary and historical examples come from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Courtly Pastimes analyzes the underlying rationales for such activities: to display power and prestige, to acquire cultural capital, to instill a sense of community, or to build diplomatic alliances. Performativity − so crucial in social rituals − could become transgressive if taken to extremes. Certain chapters explore the spaces of courtliness: literal or imaginary; man-made, natural, or a hybrid of both. Other chapters concern materiality and visual elements associated with courtly pastimes: from humble children’s toys and playthings to elite tournament attire, castle murals, and manuscript illuminations.

Courtly Pastimes

Courtly Pastimes PDF Author: Gloria Allaire
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000798887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
The modern concept of passing leisure hours pleasantly would, in the Middle Ages, have fallen under the rubric of Sloth, a deadly sin. Yet aristocrats of past centuries were not always absorbed in affairs of state or warfare. What did they do in moments of peace, "downtime" as we might call it today? In this collection of essays, scholars from various disciplines investigate courtly modes of entertainment ranging from the vigorous to the intellectual: hunting, jousting, horse racing; physical and verbal games; reading, writing, and book ownership. Favorite pastimes spanned differences of gender and age, and crossed geographical and cultural boundaries. Literary and historical examples come from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Courtly Pastimes analyzes the underlying rationales for such activities: to display power and prestige, to acquire cultural capital, to instill a sense of community, or to build diplomatic alliances. Performativity − so crucial in social rituals − could become transgressive if taken to extremes. Certain chapters explore the spaces of courtliness: literal or imaginary; man-made, natural, or a hybrid of both. Other chapters concern materiality and visual elements associated with courtly pastimes: from humble children’s toys and playthings to elite tournament attire, castle murals, and manuscript illuminations.

Courtly Pastimes

Courtly Pastimes PDF Author: William F. Prizer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 636

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Book Description


Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age PDF Author: Albrecht Classen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110623706
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 946

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Book Description
Jan Huizinga and Roger Caillois have already taught us to realize how important games and play have been for pre-modern civilization. Recent research has begun to acknowledge the fundamental importance of these aspects in cultural, religious, philosophical, and literary terms. This volume expands on the traditional approach still very much focused on the materiality of game (toys, cards, dice, falcons, dolls, etc.) and acknowledges that game constituted also a form of coming to terms with human existence in an unstable and volatile world determined by universal randomness and fortune. Whether considering blessings or horse fighting, falconry or card games, playing with dice or dolls, we can gain a much deeper understanding of medieval and early modern society when we consider how people pursued pleasure and how they structured their leisure time. The contributions examine a wide gamut of approaches to pleasure, considering health issues, eroticism, tournaments, playing music, reading and listening, drinking alcohol, gambling and throwing dice. This large issue was also relevant, of course, in non-Christian societies, and constitutes a critical concern both for the past and the present because we are all homines ludentes.

Court and Culture

Court and Culture PDF Author: F. P. van Oostrom
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520067776
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
"While being compared favorably to Johan Huizinga's Waning of the Middle Ages, this is in fact a livelier, more convincing analysis of the late fourteenth century."--Johan P. Snapper, University of California, Berkeley

Courtly Song in Late Sixteenth-Century France

Courtly Song in Late Sixteenth-Century France PDF Author: Jeanice Brooks
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022676771X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
In the late sixteenth century, the French royal court was mobile. To distinguish itself from the rest of society, it depended more on its cultural practices and attitudes than on the royal and aristocratic palaces it inhabited. Using courtly song-or the air de cour-as a window, Jeanice Brooks offers an unprecedented look into the culture of this itinerant institution. Brooks concentrates on a period in which the court's importance in projecting the symbolic centrality of monarchy was growing rapidly and considers the role of the air in defining patronage hierarchies at court and in enhancing courtly visions of masculine and feminine virtue. Her study illuminates the court's relationship to the world beyond its own confines, represented first by Italy, then by the countryside. In addition to the 40 editions of airs de cour printed between 1559 and 1589, Brooks draws on memoirs, literary works, and iconographic evidence to present a rounded vision of French Renaissance culture. The first book-length examination of the history of air de cour, this work also sheds important new light on a formative moment in French history.

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England PDF Author: Joseph Strutt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Games
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description


Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy PDF Author: Marco Sgarbi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3319141694
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 3618

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Book Description
Gives accurate and reliable summaries of the current state of research. It includes entries on philosophers, problems, terms, historical periods, subjects and the cultural context of Renaissance Philosophy. Furthermore, it covers Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Byzantine and vernacular philosophy, and includes entries on the cross-fertilization of these philosophical traditions. A unique feature of this encyclopedia is that it does not aim to define what Renaissance philosophy is, rather simply to cover the philosophy of the period between 1300 and 1650.

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England: Including the Rural and Domestic Recreations, May Games, Mummeries, Shows, Processions, Pageants, and Pompous Spectacles, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England: Including the Rural and Domestic Recreations, May Games, Mummeries, Shows, Processions, Pageants, and Pompous Spectacles, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time PDF Author: William Hone
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3368877593
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1845.

The sports and pastimes of the people of England, New ed. by W. Hoone

The sports and pastimes of the people of England, New ed. by W. Hoone PDF Author: Joseph Strutt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England ... A New Edition ... by William Hone

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England ... A New Edition ... by William Hone PDF Author: Joseph STRUTT (Engraver.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description