Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Neglected Topic

Published by De Gruyter 2007

Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Neglected Topic

Edited by: Albrecht Classen

Volume 2 in the series Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110925999

Overview
Contents

About this book

After an extensive introduction that takes stock of the relevant research literature on Old Age in the Middle Ages and the early modern age, the contributors discuss the phenomenon of old age in many different fields of late antique, medieval, and early modern literature, history, and art history. Both Beowulf and the Hildebrandslied, both Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Titurel, both the figure of Merlin and the trans-European tradition of Perceval/Peredur/Parzival, then the figure of the vetula in a variety of medieval French, English, and Spanish texts, and of the Old Man in The Stricker's Daniel, both the treatment of old age in Langland's Piers the Plowman and in Jean Gerson's sermons are dealt with. Other aspects involve late-antique epistolary literature, early modern French farce in light of Disability Studies, the social role of old, impotent men in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Netherlandish paintings, and the scientific discourse of old age and health since the 1500s. The discourse of Old Age proves to have been of central importance throughout the ages, so the critical examination of the issues involved sheds intriguing light on the cultural history from late antiquity to the seventeenth century.

Author / Editor information

Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.

Reviews

"A collection of this nature is more than the sum of its parts. The closely argued and detailed evidence of each contribution provides stimulating cross-currents, carefully marshalled by the Introduction to give a valuable resource for further work on Old Age Studies."
Rosalind Field in: Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 2/2009

"This is a stimulating and often fascinating assembly of viewpoints and material that will justly elicit and provoke further research and reflection."
Robert G. Sullivan in: Monatshefte 4/2008

Topics

i-iv Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Also an Introduction Albrecht Classen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Age and Style in Late Antique Epistolography: Symmachus’ Polemics against the Rhetoric of the Old Cristiana Sogno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Winter in Heorot: Looking at Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of Age and Kingship through the Character of Hrothgar Britt C. L. Rothauser Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Old Age and Women in the Carolingian World Valerie L. Garver Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
The Withdrawal of Aged Noblemen into Monastic Communities: Interpreting the Sources from Twelfth-Century Germany Jonathan R. Lyon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Medieval Latin Meditations on Old Age: Rhetoric, Autobiography, and Experience Juanita Feros Ruys Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Old Age in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival and Titurel Rasma Lazda-Cazers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Old Age in the World of The Stricker and Other Middle High German Poets: A Neglected Topic Albrecht Classen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Merlin, puer senex par excellence Anne Berthelot Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Age-Old Words of Wisdom: The Power of the Aged in Grail Literature Jean Ε. Jost Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Old Age and Medieval Misogyny: The Old Woman Gretchen Mieszkowski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
De vetula: the Figure of the Old Woman in Medieval French Literature Karen Pratt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
Celestina: The Power of Old Age Connie L. Scarborough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Forty Years of Plague: Attitudes toward Old Age in the Tales of Boccaccio and Chaucer Marilyn Sandidge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	357
Jupiter and Saturn: Medieval Ideals of “Elde” Harry Peters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375
Old Age, Narrative Form, and Epistemology in Langland’s Piers Plowman: The Possibility of Learning Daniel F. Pigg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
“L’aage plus fort ennaye”: Scienta mortis, Ars moriendi and Jean Gerson’s Advice to an Old Man Scott L. Taylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	407
Representations of Aging and Disability in Early Sixteenth-Century French Farce Sarah Gordon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	421
The Good, the Bad, and the Elderly: The Representation of Old Age in Netherlandish Prints (ca. 1550-1650) Anouk Janssen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	437
Hoorndragers and Hennetasters: The Old Impotent Cuckold as “Other” in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Art Martha Peacock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	485
A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man – with Emphasis on Titian Sophie Bostock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	517
The Sulzbach Jubilee: Old Age in Early Modern Europe and America Allison P. Coudert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	533
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	557
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	563
List of Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	573

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Institutes, Libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 7
- Main content: 575
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 30
Keywords: Old Age Studies; Middle Ages; Early Modern Age; Late Antiquity; Literature; History; and Art History

eBook

Published: February 14, 2012
ISBN: 9783110925999

Hardcover

Published: June 18, 2007
ISBN: 9783110195484