A medieval history blog

And being medievally about medievalisms

[medievalhistory]

The Three Orders: Cleric, Knight, and Workman [Image from the British Library MS Sloane 2435,  f.85.]

bourgeoisie 1707, "body of freemen in a French town; the French middle class," from Fr. bourgeois, from O.Fr. burgeis, borjois (12c.) "town dweller" (as distinct from "peasant"), from borc "town, village," from Frank. *burg "city" (see borough).  Communist use for "the capitalist class generally" attested from 1886.  

The bourgeoisie began as, and largely remained, an urban class in the Middle Ages. One must understand the origins of the bourgeoisie in the context of urban development. Even though the medieval bourgeoisie were lumped in with peasants as "those who work" (the other two socio-economic groups in this tripartite order being "those who pray," the clergy, and "those who fight," the knights and nobles) they were, of course, distinct from their rural counterparts. The driving force of the rural, peasant economy was agriculture--and, indeed, peasants represented, according to some estimations, over 90% of the medieval population.

Agricultural surpluses can stimulate population growth and, most importantly, migration from the countryside to the town. Indeed, a town is at first distinct from the village because the urban economy relies on trade and manufacturing, not agriculture. Once a population can eat without having to rely on themselves for actually producing the food, then they can engage in other activities that do not involve farming.

[medievalhistory]

Philipp Stolzl is not so well known as a director in the English-speaking world. You might know him from Erased (2012), a recent movie with Aaron Eckhart. So his newest movie, in German, is called The Physician, about a young orphan in 11th century England who travels through Europe and the Middle East drawing wisdom from many different traditions of medicine, including Jewish healing and Byzantine medicine. A central theme of the movie (if there is one), seems to me the 'translation' of Islamic medieval medicine into Christian forms: the boy ends up the court of the famous Persian doctor Ibn Sina (better known as Avicenna), played by Ben Kingsley. The movie is based on a novel from the 1980s by Noah Gordon, an American author who has written on topics as varied as the Inquisition and Jewish history.

The trailer suggests a lack of rigor with regards to medieval history. As others have pointed out, the reference to plague is completely anachronistic. Also, in the trailer, a manuscript is shown that actually belongs in the 14th century. This is the Sloane 1977 manuscript which is on view at the British Library. Click on the link, scroll down, and check out the amazing pictures of cranial operations. One wishes that the movie makers had sought out Monica Green for historical advice since her most recent work is focused on 'translation' of medical texts across time and space in the Middle Ages. But a larger point is about how one can use popular conceptions of the Middle Ages to learn more about the history of science and medicine in medieval times. Can we learn history from popular culture? Will Ben Kingsley turn the great Avicenna into a teachable moment? Tune in and watch.

[medievalhistory]

Reading this article right now by canon law historian Greta Austin (am always delighted to see when regular, established scholars venture into the world of medievalisms!): "Were the Peasants Really So Clean? The Middle Ages in Film." Film History 14:2 (2002): pp. 136-141.

Interesting quote that opens up the discussion on pop culture's value and influence on the study of the Middle Ages:

Nevertheless, some films do take pains to represent the Middle Ages in ways that are faithful to the existing sources. These films are extremely useful, particularly to the medievalist, because they en- courage us to imagine the past. For medievalists it is extremely important to consider the broader  picture, the world of the Middle Ages, because the Middle Ages in particular survive only in fragments, as a ruined castle here, a charter there, a music manuscript there. For instance, the Brother Cadfael TV series and The Name of the Rose depict life in a Benedictine monastery: how the brothers ate together, chanted the Psalms together, fell asleep while chanting, and worked at different tasks. The fragments of medieval culture are put together in a way that allows watchers to visualise the past as a living, breathing reality,rather than as fragments of the past, the surviving illuminations or manuscripts or stone walls or tapestries. 

[medievalhistory]

For much of late Antiquity, the 'mechanical arts' was seen as an activity beneath the attention of the learned. But this view on (what we would today call) technology changed by the late Middle Ages. One symptom of this was the positive correlation between technology and temperance, as exemplified by this sketch from the fifteenth century which shows a woman, representing Temperance, surrounded by technologies: she is sitting on a windmill, she has spurs on her feet, a bridle is in her mouth, she holds eyeglasses in her right hand, and there is a clock on top of her head. All of these juxtapositions would seem to suggest that mechanical instruments were seen as congruous with religious virtue or moderation. The accompanying text reads: "He who is mindful of the clock / Is punctual in all his acts... / He who puts glasses to his eyes / See better what's around him... / The mill which sustains our bodies / Never is immoderate."

Which naturally raises the following questions for us modern people: Does technology make us more moral? Does increased morality make us more open to technology?

Source: Allegory of Temperantia. From De quattuor vertutibus cardinalibus by Pseudo-Seneca. Dresden, Sachsische Landesbibliothek, Ms. Oc. 79, fol. 68 v. Deutsche Fotothek.

[medievalhistory]

Detail from the frontispiece to De Regimine Principum by Giles of Rome (c. 1243-1316), Bibliothèque nationale de France

Town members made considerable investments in the fortifications of the town, for whose upkeep they must have collected financial resources. Thus, urban governments and book-keeping were first developed for safeguarding the community.

Some fortified areas, or burgs, eventually became towns, for by the 12thcentury a borough was a town or city, inhabited by burghers or burgesses, who will become to be known as the bourgeoisie. Even today, the association lingers in such places as Edinburgh in Scotland, Hamburg in Germany, and— to use U.S. city as an example— Pittsburgh!

Townspeople were initially subject to the tolls and taxes levied by the noble, bishop, or monastery within whose territory their town lay. But, at an early date, the town’s wealthiest inhabitants, primarily those who made their living by trade (the merchants), began to band together to oppose these taxes and to agitate for privileges essential to their calling: freedom from servile dues; freedom of movement; freedom from having to pay inordinate tolls at every bridge or castle; freedom to hold property without any feudal or manorial services; and freedom for legal self-management.

By the 12th century townspeople began to obtain charters that guaranteed many or all of these privileges. The agitation for urban autonomy was so widespread that historians have labeled this phenomenon the communal movement of 12th-century Europe. In effect, each charter issued to the bourgeoisie of each town helped them carve out semi-autonomous political and legal entities— called communes in many parts of Europe— which had their own local government, courts, tax-collecting agencies, and legal customs (which will be the subject of the next post in this series on the medieval bourgeoisie).

In my opinion, there are very few depictions of the medieval bourgeoisie in TV and film. Pop culture is usually concerned with knights, princesses, and peasants. 

[medievalhistory]

The product description for this board game imagines this scenario:

Europe during the Middle Ages. You are a merchant, owner of important markets in six majestic cities of Europe. At the heart of this commercial trade are six different kinds of goods: cloth, iron, wine, food, silk and salt. These goods are, as much as possible, acquired at a low price. They are then transported by wagon to another city where, if the market is properly managed, they will be sold for a considerable profit. And what do you want to do with all that money? Make a name for yourself by raising your social status. At the end of the game, the player who managed to make the most prestigious name for himself wins the game.

Bold emphasis mine. I’ve not played this game (yet), but am pleased to see that the creators of this game seem to know a little about the world from which they drew their inspiration— and have rightly identified that having money and prestige were one and the same, and of equal importance, to the bourgeoisie in the Middle Ages. Since the medieval bourgeoisie (the most influential members being merchants) were moneyed but not aristocratic, financial success usually brought prestige, honor, and reputation to their families. Honor and prestige were valuable forms of political capital with which positions of power and influence could be secured and bought.

In the next few posts I’m going to be exploring the origins of the bourgeoisie in the Middle Ages. In the age of ‘feudalism’ (a problematic term, I know) contractual relationships between lord and serf, lord and vassal reigned supreme, so where did the bourgeoisie come from? Who were they? How did they start to become economically and politically influential?

Stay tuned.

[medievalhistory]

How the medieval period was characterized, according to Jakob Burckardt, author of The Civilization of Renaissance Italy (1860):

"both sides of human consciousness - the side turned to the world and that turned inward - lay, as it were, beneath a common veil, dreaming or half awake. The veil was woven of faith, childlike prejudices, and illusion; seen through it, world and history appeared in strange hues; man recognized himself only as a member of a race, a nation, a party, a corporation, a family, or in some other general category. It was in Italy that this veil first melted into thin air, and awakened an objective perception and treatment of the state and all things of this world in general; but by its side, and with full power, there also arose the subjective; man becomes a self-aware individual and recognises himself as such."

Welcome to my blog about medievalisms, conceptions of the middle ages, medievally pop culture, and medieval history in general. Hope you enjoy.