Friendship in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Explorations of a Fundamental Ethical Discourse

Description

Although it seems that erotic love generally was the prevailing topic in the medieval world and the Early Modern Age, parallel to this the Ciceronian ideal of friendship also dominated the public discourse, as this collection of essays demonstrates. Following an extensive introduction, the individual contributions explore the functions and the character of friendship from Late Antiquity (Augustine) to the 17th century. They show the spectrum of variety in which this topic appeared‑ not only in literature, but also in politics and even in painting. Table of Contents Introduction: Friendship—The Quest for a Human Ideal and Value: From Antiquity to the Early Modern Time A. Early Modern Perspectives B. Friendship in Antiquity C. Marcus Tullius Cicero D. Friendship in Late Antiquity: Bishop (Saint) Augustine E. Friendship from the Early Middle Ages to the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries F. Friendship in Twelfth-Century English Monastic Circles: The Case of Aelred of Rievaulx G. Theological Approaches to Friendship: Thomas Aquinas H. A Variety of Voices: Old and New. Retrospectives and Innovative Perspectives on Friendship I. Friendship and Women: Still a Somewhat Unchartered Territory J. The Homosocial vs. the Homoerotic K. Friendship at the Courts L. Friendship between People and Animals: Interconnectedness of Culture and Nature M. Vernacular Medieval Spanish Commentators N. Friendship in the Italian World of Intellectuals: The Case of Brunetto Latini O. Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, as Proponents of the Ideal of Friendship: Voices from the Early Italian Renaissance P. Religious Friendship in the Late Middle Ages: Thomas à Kempis Q. Friendship in Late-Medieval German Literature: Sebastian Brant: A Last Hurrah for a Traditional Ethical Ideal? R. Friendship in Late-Medieval and Early-Modern Literature: A Variety of Vernacular Voices S. Women as Friends in the Middle Ages and Beyond: Still a Thorny Issue T. Women and Friendship (By Marilyn Sandidge) U. Early Modern Friendships: Additional Perspectives (By Marilyn Sandidge) V. The Opinion of the Encyclopedists: At the Threshold of Modernity W. Some Concluding Remarks X. Summaries of the Contributions to This Volume Y. The Decline of the Friendship Ideal? The Transformation of a Trope. Some Final Reflections Z. Some Dedicatory Words in the Spirit of Friendship Chapter 1 Friendship of Mutual Perfecting in Augustine’s Confessions and the Failure of Classical amicitia Chapter 2 The Gift of Friendship: Beneficial and Poisonous: Friendships in the Byzantine Greek Passion of Sergius and Bacchus Chapter 3 Where Textual Bodies Meet: Anglo-Saxon Women’s Epistolary Friendships Chapter 4 Sapienter amare poterimus: On Rhetoric and Friendship in the Letters of Heloise and Abelard Chapter 5 Peter the Venerable and Secular Friendship Chapter 6 Mysterious Friends in the Prayers and Letters of Anselm of Canterbury Chapter 7 Monastic Friendship in Theory and in Action in the Twelfth Century Chapter 8 Ideological Friendship In The Middle Ages: Bonizo of Sutri and His Liber Ad Amicum Chapter 9 Friendship in the Heroic Epic: Ruedegêr in the Nibelungenlied Chapter 10 Spiritual Friendship in the Works of Alfonso X of Castile: Images of Interaction Between the Sacred and Spiritual Worlds of Thirteenth-Century Chapter 11 The Spiritual Friendship of Henry Suso and Elsbeth Stagel Chapter 12 Engendering Obligation: Sworn Brotherhood and Love Rivalry in Medieval English Romance Chapter 13 Schotland Talking Bird and Gentle Heart: Female Homosocial Bonding in Chaucer’s “Squire’s Tale” Chapter 14 Sovereign Fathers and Sovereign Friends in Hamlet and Michel de Montaigne’s “Of Friendship” Chapter 15 Die zwei Freunde des Leonardo da Vinci: Eine kunsthistorische Fallstudie (with an English abstract) Chapter 16 Friendship and Good Counsel: The Discourses of Friendship and Parrhesia in Francis Bacon’s The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall Chapter 17 Painted Friends: Political Interests and the Transformation of International Learned Sociability Chapter 18 “If I must example bee”: Donne’s Petrarchan Heart as Speculum Amicitiae Chapter 19 George Herbert’s Friendship with Christ in The Temple (1633) Chapter 20 Friendship and Enmity to God and Nation: The Complexities of Jewish-Gentile Relations in the Whitehall Conference of 1655 Illustrations Contributors Index: Persons, Subjects, Titles, Concepts