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Introduction. Identity in the Middle Ages

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Identity in the Middle Ages
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IntroductionIDENTITY IN THE MIDDLE AGESFLOCEL SABATÉ*He had no recollection of anything that he had done. He lies in wait for the beasts in the woods, killing them, and then eating the venison raw. Thus he dwelt in the forest like a madman or a savage, until he came upon a little, low-lying house belonging to a hermit, who was at work clearing his ground. When he saw him coming with nothing on, he could easily perceive that he was not in his right mind; and such was the case, as the hermit very well knew.1According to the twelfth­century tale by Chrétien de Troyes, the knight Yvain lived wild in the forest, naked, killing animals, and eating raw meat because he did not remember any of his previous acts and had gone mad. So, eating uncooked meat and going without clothes demonstrated behaviour inappropriate for a mentally healthy human being, and if someone adopted this behaviour it was because he had forgotten everything he had done throughout his life and had lost awareness of who he was. He would only revert to behaviour considered normal when he regained the knowledge of who he was, in other words, when he returned to his identity. The starting point is thus the individual’s own identity.Identity of the IndividualThe core of the medieval human being was thus identity; being aware of who one was and where one came from and so be able to adopt adequate behaviour and determine a future path in one’s life. Does this suppose an awareness of the individual in itself ? It is highly significant that historians do not agree on the elements that indicate an assump-tion of an individual identity. In fact, there is a whole series of elements that, taken *This study focuses on the medieval West, without going into the analysis of societies and cultures like the Muslim or Jewish that, precisely given their importance, require specific treatment.1“Porqant mes ne li sovenoit / De rien que onques e’st feite. / Les bestes par le bois agueite, / Si les ocit; et se manjue / La venison trestote crue. / Et tant conversa el boschage, / Com hom forsenez et salvage, / C’une meison a .i. hermite / Trova, mout basse et mout petite; / Et li hermites essartoit. / Quant vit celui qui nuz estoit, / Bien pot savoir, sanz nul redot, / Qu’il n’ert mie an son san del tot.” Cited from Chrétien de Troyes, Le chevalier au lion, MS H. vv. 2822–34, accessed July 28, 2013, http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/lfa/activities/textes/chevalier-au-lion/NouvPres/A/H2681­3334.html. The English translation is taken from: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Yvain,_the_Knight_of_the_Lion/Part_4.Flocel Sabaté (flocel@historia.udl.cat) is Professor of Medieval History at the Universitat de Lleida, Spain.
© 2021 Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam

IntroductionIDENTITY IN THE MIDDLE AGESFLOCEL SABATÉ*He had no recollection of anything that he had done. He lies in wait for the beasts in the woods, killing them, and then eating the venison raw. Thus he dwelt in the forest like a madman or a savage, until he came upon a little, low-lying house belonging to a hermit, who was at work clearing his ground. When he saw him coming with nothing on, he could easily perceive that he was not in his right mind; and such was the case, as the hermit very well knew.1According to the twelfth­century tale by Chrétien de Troyes, the knight Yvain lived wild in the forest, naked, killing animals, and eating raw meat because he did not remember any of his previous acts and had gone mad. So, eating uncooked meat and going without clothes demonstrated behaviour inappropriate for a mentally healthy human being, and if someone adopted this behaviour it was because he had forgotten everything he had done throughout his life and had lost awareness of who he was. He would only revert to behaviour considered normal when he regained the knowledge of who he was, in other words, when he returned to his identity. The starting point is thus the individual’s own identity.Identity of the IndividualThe core of the medieval human being was thus identity; being aware of who one was and where one came from and so be able to adopt adequate behaviour and determine a future path in one’s life. Does this suppose an awareness of the individual in itself ? It is highly significant that historians do not agree on the elements that indicate an assump-tion of an individual identity. In fact, there is a whole series of elements that, taken *This study focuses on the medieval West, without going into the analysis of societies and cultures like the Muslim or Jewish that, precisely given their importance, require specific treatment.1“Porqant mes ne li sovenoit / De rien que onques e’st feite. / Les bestes par le bois agueite, / Si les ocit; et se manjue / La venison trestote crue. / Et tant conversa el boschage, / Com hom forsenez et salvage, / C’une meison a .i. hermite / Trova, mout basse et mout petite; / Et li hermites essartoit. / Quant vit celui qui nuz estoit, / Bien pot savoir, sanz nul redot, / Qu’il n’ert mie an son san del tot.” Cited from Chrétien de Troyes, Le chevalier au lion, MS H. vv. 2822–34, accessed July 28, 2013, http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/lfa/activities/textes/chevalier-au-lion/NouvPres/A/H2681­3334.html. The English translation is taken from: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Yvain,_the_Knight_of_the_Lion/Part_4.Flocel Sabaté (flocel@historia.udl.cat) is Professor of Medieval History at the Universitat de Lleida, Spain.
© 2021 Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS iv
  3. List of Illustrations vii
  4. Foreword viii
  5. Introduction. Identity in the Middle Ages 1
  6. Chapter 1. Identity as a Historiographical Concept 55
  7. PART ONE: CONSTRUCTING INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
  8. Chapter 2. Baptismal Names and Identity in the Early Middle Ages 67
  9. Chapter 3. Personal Names and Identity in the Iberian Peninsula 113
  10. Chapter 4. Gender and Feminine Identity in the Middle Ages 123
  11. Chapter 5. Identity, Memory, and Autobiographical Writing in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century French Literature 137
  12. Chapter 6. Why Ibn Ḥazm became a Ẓāhirī: Law, Charisma, and the Court 153
  13. Chapter 7. Eunuchs in the Emirate of al-Andalus 179
  14. PART TWO: SOCIAL IDENTITIES
  15. Chapter 8. Identity and Minority Status in Two Legal Traditions 203
  16. Chapter 9. Medieval Peasants’ Image of Themselves in Relation to the Seigneurial Regime 213
  17. Chapter 10. Chivalric Identity: Arms and Armour, Text and Context 229
  18. Chapter 11. The Emergence of a Bourgeois Urban Identity: Late Medieval Catalonia 243
  19. Chapter 12. Culture and Marks of Identity among the Social Outcasts and Criminals of Late Medieval Spain 261
  20. PART THREE: IDENTITY AND TERRITORY
  21. Chapter 13. Identity and the Rural Parish in Medieval Iberia 275
  22. Chapter 14. The Breakdown of Vertical Solidarity among the Late Medieval Basque Nobility 293
  23. Chapter 15. Identity-Making Discourses in the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica and the Giudicato of Arborea 309
  24. Chapter 16. The Crown of Aragon and the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae in the Fourteenth Century: Comparing Institutional Identities 329
  25. PART FOUR: REPRESENTATIVE COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES
  26. Chapter 17. Political Identity and Patrician Power in the City of Burgos during the Fifteenth Century 349
  27. Chapter 18. Fiscal Attitudes and Practices and the Construction of Identity in Late Medieval Cuenca 365
  28. Chapter 19. Constructing an Identity: Urban Centres and their Relationship with the Crown of Navarre, 1300–1500 379
  29. Chapter 20. Celebration of Identity in Thirteenth- to Fifteenth-Century Florence, Milan, and Venice 407
  30. Chapter 21. Local and “State” Identities in Cities of Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Northern and Central Italy 433
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781641892599-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS iv
  3. List of Illustrations vii
  4. Foreword viii
  5. Introduction. Identity in the Middle Ages 1
  6. Chapter 1. Identity as a Historiographical Concept 55
  7. PART ONE: CONSTRUCTING INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
  8. Chapter 2. Baptismal Names and Identity in the Early Middle Ages 67
  9. Chapter 3. Personal Names and Identity in the Iberian Peninsula 113
  10. Chapter 4. Gender and Feminine Identity in the Middle Ages 123
  11. Chapter 5. Identity, Memory, and Autobiographical Writing in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century French Literature 137
  12. Chapter 6. Why Ibn Ḥazm became a Ẓāhirī: Law, Charisma, and the Court 153
  13. Chapter 7. Eunuchs in the Emirate of al-Andalus 179
  14. PART TWO: SOCIAL IDENTITIES
  15. Chapter 8. Identity and Minority Status in Two Legal Traditions 203
  16. Chapter 9. Medieval Peasants’ Image of Themselves in Relation to the Seigneurial Regime 213
  17. Chapter 10. Chivalric Identity: Arms and Armour, Text and Context 229
  18. Chapter 11. The Emergence of a Bourgeois Urban Identity: Late Medieval Catalonia 243
  19. Chapter 12. Culture and Marks of Identity among the Social Outcasts and Criminals of Late Medieval Spain 261
  20. PART THREE: IDENTITY AND TERRITORY
  21. Chapter 13. Identity and the Rural Parish in Medieval Iberia 275
  22. Chapter 14. The Breakdown of Vertical Solidarity among the Late Medieval Basque Nobility 293
  23. Chapter 15. Identity-Making Discourses in the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica and the Giudicato of Arborea 309
  24. Chapter 16. The Crown of Aragon and the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae in the Fourteenth Century: Comparing Institutional Identities 329
  25. PART FOUR: REPRESENTATIVE COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES
  26. Chapter 17. Political Identity and Patrician Power in the City of Burgos during the Fifteenth Century 349
  27. Chapter 18. Fiscal Attitudes and Practices and the Construction of Identity in Late Medieval Cuenca 365
  28. Chapter 19. Constructing an Identity: Urban Centres and their Relationship with the Crown of Navarre, 1300–1500 379
  29. Chapter 20. Celebration of Identity in Thirteenth- to Fifteenth-Century Florence, Milan, and Venice 407
  30. Chapter 21. Local and “State” Identities in Cities of Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Northern and Central Italy 433
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