Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Toys, Games, and Entertainment

Published by De Gruyter 2019

Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Toys, Games, and Entertainment

Edited by: Albrecht Classen

Volume 23 in the series Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110623079

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Pleasure and Leisure from the Middle Ages to the early Nineteenth Century The Rediscovery of a Neglected Dimension in Cultural History. Also an Introduction Albrecht Classen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Medieval Magicians as Entertainers: Magic as Demonic Illusion or Stagecraft Christa Agnes Tuczay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Hestaþing (Horse Meeting/s) in Medieval Icelandic Culture Carlee Arnett Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
The Transformation of the World through Pleasure and Performance in the Thousand and One Nights Sally Abed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Behüde mich vor vngerechtem gude. Were Goods Won in Game “Unjustified”? Medieval Gambling Chiara Benati Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Aldhelm’s Enigmata and the Commentaries from the Canterbury School: A Monastic Curriculum in Play Alex Ukropen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Understanding Monastic Recreations and Luxury within the Anglo-Saxon Patristic Tradition Warren Tormey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Subjects of the Game: The Pleasures of Subjection in William IX’s “Ben vueill que sapchon li pluzor” Fidel Fajardo-Acosta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Peregrine Pleasures: The Sport of Falconry, Lovers, and Self-Identity in Medieval German Literature William Mahan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
Tourney, Joust, Foreis and Round Table: Tournament Forms in the Frauendienst of Ulrich von Liechtenstein Alan V. Murray Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
Drinking, Partying, and Drunkenness in Late Medieval German Verse Narratives and Jest Narratives Albrecht Classen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	395
William Langland’s Attitude Toward Play, Leisure, and Pastime: A Realignment of Priorities in Post-Plague England Daniel F. Pigg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433
The Ambraser Hofämterspiel: Playing Cards as a Visual Source for Courtly Life during the Late Middle Ages Maria Raid Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	451
Gawain, Giants, and Tennis in the Fifteenth Century Marilyn L. Sandidge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	473
“J’ai tiré si près / Que je touche au but”: Ludic Roots, Spiritual Play in Marguerite de Navarre’s L’Inquisiteur Sharon Diane King Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	495
Jeux Interdits: The Rationale and Limits of Clerical and Lay Efforts to Enjoin “Scurrilia Solatia” Scott L. Taylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	517
Randomization in Paper: Shuffling as a Material Practice with Moral Implications in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern World Michael A. Conrad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	539
Calculated Losses: Molière, Regnard, and the Changing Comic Gamblers of Seventeenth-Century France Michael Call Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	583
“His usuall Retyrement”: Henry Vaughan’s Life and Writing during the English Civil War Thomas Willard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	601
Jokes and the Eighteenth-Century Unconscious: Enlightening the Early-Modern European Id Allison P. Coudert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	623
Enjoying the Waters: Cross-Class Leisure and Pleasure at the Eighteenth Century British Spa Melvyn Lloyd Draper Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	673
Nine Men’s Medievalisms: Conquests of the Longbow, Nine Men’s Morris, and the Impossibilities of a Half-Forgotten Game’s Ludic Past Kevin Moberly and Brent Moberly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	695
Biographical Notes about the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	735
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	743

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Historians, medievialists, scholars in cultural studies
Pages
- Front matter: 13
- Main content: 751
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 5
- Coloured Illustrations: 37
Keywords: Entertainment; game; Middle Ages

eBook

Published: August 5, 2019
ISBN: 9783110623079

Hardcover

Published: August 5, 2019
ISBN: 9783110622584