Rural Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: The Spatial Turn in Premodern Studies (Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture)

Older Research On The Premodern World Limited Its Focus On The Church, The Court, And, More Recently, On Urban Space. The Present Volume Invites Readers To Consider The Meaning Of Rural Space, Both In Light Of Ecocritical Readings And Social-historical Approaches. While Previous Scholars Examined The Figure Of The Peasant In The Premodern World, The Current Volume Combines A Large Number Of Specialized Studies That Investigate How The Natural Environment And The Appearance Of Members Of The Rural Population Interacted With The World Of The Court And Of The City. The Experience In Rural Space Was Important Already For Writers And Artists In The Premodern Era, As The Large Variety Of Scholarly Approaches Indicates. The Present Volume Signals How Much The Surprisingly Close Interaction Between Members Of The Aristocratic And Of The Peasant Class Determined Many Literary And Art-historical Works. In A Surprisingly Large Number Of Cases We Can Even Discover Elements Of Utopia Hidden In Rural Space. We Also Observe How Much The Rural World Was A Significant Element Already In Early-medieval Mentality. Moreover, As Many Authors Point Out, The Impact Of Natural Forces On Premodern Society Was Tremendous, If Not Catastrophic.--publisher's Website. In The Wake Of The Spatial Turn And The Emergence Of Ecocritical Theory, Rural Space Proves To Be A Highly Fertile Ground For The Reexamination Of Medieval And Early Modern Literature, History, And Art History. This Volume Combines Critical Articles That Examine The Way How Rural Space Was Perceived, Presented, And Evaluated In The Middle Ages And The Early Modern Time. The Extensive Introduction Surveys The History Of Research On This Topic And Outlines Major Approaches Toward Rural Studies. The Articles Pursue Specialized Research Topics Pertaining To Rural Space.-- Introduction. Rural Space In The Middle Ages And Early Modern Times: A Significant Domain Ignored For Too Long By Modern Research? / Albrecht Classen -- Reforming The Monastic Landscape: Peter Damian's Design / Kathryn L. Jasper -- Women's Place And Women's Space In The Medieval Village / Sherri Olson -- Gebrochen Bluomen Unde Gras: Medieval Ecological Consciousness In Selected Poems By Walther Von Der Vogelweide / Christopher R. Clason -- Utopian Space In The Countryside: Love And Marriage Between A Knight And A Peasant Girl In Medieval German Literature. Hartmann Von Aue's Der Arme Heinrich, Anonymous, Dis Ist Von Dem Heselin, Walther Von Der Vogelweide, Oswald Von Wolkenstein, And Late Medieval Popular Poetry / Albrecht Classen -- Rural Space And Agricultural Space In The Old French Fabliaux And The Roman De Renart / Sarah Gordon -- Wood, Court, And River In The Four Branches Of The Mabinogi / Andrew Breeze -- Rural Space And Transgressive Space In Bérenger Au Lonc Cul / Penny Simons -- Life On The Manor And In Rural Space: Answering The Challenges Of Social Decay In William Langland's Piers Plowman / Daniel F. Pigg -- Landscape Of Luxuries: Mahaut D'artois's (1302-1329) Management And Use Of The Park At Hesdin / Abigail P. Dowling -- Hunting Or Gardening: Parks And Royal Rural Space / Marilyn L. Sandridge -- The Significance Of Rural Space In Guillaume De Palerne / Penny Simons -- The Forest As Locus Of Transition And Transformation In The Epic Romance Berte Aus Grans Pies / Rosa A. Perez -- Juan Manuel's Libro De La Caza (ca. 1325) / Maria Cecilia Ruiz -- Hunting As Salvation In Gaston Phebus's Livre De La Chasse / Jacqueline Stuhmiller -- Rural Space In Late Medieval Books Of Hours: Book Illustrations As A Looking Glass Into Medieval Mentality And Mirrors Of Ecocriticism / Albrecht Classen -- The Tame Wilderness Of Princes: Images Of Nature In Exemplars Of Books Of Hours And In The Livre Du Coeur D'amour épris Of King René Of Anjou / Lia B. Ross -- Marshy Spaces In The Middle English Awntyrs Off Arthure At The Terne Wathelyne: Physical And Spiritual Territory / Jean E. Jost -- Peasant Authors And Peasant Haters: Matazone Da Caligano And The Ambiguity Of The Satira Del Villano In High And Late Medieval Italy / Nicolino Applauso -- Lazarus And Abraham, Our Jews Of Eggenburg: Jews In The Austrian Countryside In The Fourteenth Century / Birgit Wiedl -- Small Town, Big Business: A Wealthy Jewish Moneylender In The Austrian Countryside / Eveline Brugger -- Usos Rerum Rusticarum: Malae Consuetudines, Male Usos Lege And Peasant Rebellion As Resistance Or Adaptation To Legal Change / Scott L. Taylor -- Village People: The Presence Of The Rural In Late Medieval French Comedies / Sharon D. King -- Uprooted Trees And Slaughtered Peasants: The Savaging Of Rural Space In Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1532) / Elizabeth Chesney Zegura -- Representations Of The Plowman And The Prostitute In Puritan And Anti-puritan Satire: Or The Rhetoric Of Plainness And The Reformation Of The Popular In The Harvey Nashe Quarrel / Kyle Diroberto -- The Poet In Exile: Robert Herrick And The Loathed Country Life / Jessica Tvordi -- Women At The Hunt: Developing A Gendered Logic Of Rural Space In The Netherlandish Visual Tradition / Martha Moffitt Peacock -- The Free Enjoyment Of The Earth: Gerrard Winstanley On Land Reform / Thomas Willard. Edited By Albrecht Classen ; With The Collaboration Of Christopher R. Clason. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Introduction. Rural Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: A Significant Domain Ignored For Too Long by Modern Research? 1. Critical Inquiry: The Relevance of Rural Space 2. Natural Space and the Medieval Encyclopedia 3. The Spatial Turn in Medieval and Premodern Studies 4. Rural Space and Ecocriticism 5. Space and Historical-Literary Investigations 6. Perception of Rural Space in The Voyage of St. Brendan: An Early-Medieval Voice 7. Nature in a Spanish Medieval Epic Poem: El Poema de Mío Cid: Human Drama in the Wilderness 8. The Mountain in the Art and Literature of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age: The Most Massive Challenge in Nature 9. Climbing the Mountain, or Ascending to the Renaissance? Franceso Petrarca’s Reflections on Nature 10. Oswald von Wolkenstein: The Aristocrat versus the Peasant. Secret Longing for Life in Rural Space? 11. The Perception of the Natural World: The Testimony of Medieval Courtly Literature 12. Growing up in the Wilderness: Youthful Experiences in the Forest: Perceval/Parzival in the Romances by Chrétien de Troye and Wolfram von Eschenbach 13. Ominous Approaches: Wolfram von Eschenbach's Titurel: Seeking Refuge from Society in the Forest 14. Nature and the Courtly World: Literary Reflections on Rural Space in High Medieval Literature 15. The Protagonist's Existential Test in Nature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 16. Love (?) in the Mountains: Juan Ruiz’s Libro de buen amor. Late-Medieval Spanish Reflections on Rural Space 17. Rural Space in Late-Medieval Short Verse Narratives 18. The Court, the City, and the Rural Space in Boccaccio's Decameron 19. William Langland's Piers the Plowman: Late-Medieval English Religious and Social Reflections 20. Johannes von Tepl's Ackermann: A German-Czech Writer's Reference to the Metaphorical Peasant 21. Hugo von Trimberg's Renner: A Thirteenth-Century Didactic Perspective Toward Peasants 22. Wernher der Gartenære's Helmbrecht: The Attempted Break. Out of the Social Order 23. The Testimony of Medieval and Late-Medieval Art 24. Peasants, Rural Existence, the Protestant Reformation and Farmer's Self-Expression Until the Seventeenth Century 25. Economic Aspects Pertaining to Rural Space 26. Heinrich Wittenwiler's Ring 27. Rural Space and the Supportive Peasant Figure in Queen Sibille (Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken) 28. Collaboration of the Good Peasant with the Noble Lady 29. Exploration of Rural Space in Sixteenth-Century Literature: Till Eulenspiegel and Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron 30. The Testimony of Late-Medieval Art Once Again 31. Acknowledgment and Summaries of All Contributions in this Volume 32. Conclusion Chapter 1. Reforming the Monastic Landscape: Peter Damian's Design for Personal and Communal Devotion Chapter 2. Women's Place and Women's Space in the Medieval Village Chapter 3. “Gebrochen bluomen unde gras”: Medieval Ecological Consciousness in Selected Poems by Walther von der Vogelweide Chapter 4. Utopian Space in the Countryside: Love and Marriage between a Knight and a Peasant Girl in Medieval German Literature. Hartmann von Aue's Der arme Heinrich, Anonymous, “Dis ist von dem Heselin,” Walther von der Vogelweide, Oswald von Wolkenstein, and Late-Medieval Popular Poetry Chapter 5. Rural Space and Agricultural Space in the Old French Fabliaux and the Roman de Renart Chapter 6. Wood, Court, and River in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi Chapter 7. Rural Space and Transgressive Space in Bérenger au lonc cul Chapter 8. Life on the Manor and in Rural Space: Answering the Challenges of Social Decay in William Langland's Piers Plowman Chapter 9. Landscape of Luxuries: Mahaut d’Artois’s (1302–1329) Management and Use of the Park at Hesdin Chapter 10. Hunting or Gardening: Parks and Royal Rural Space Chapter 11. The Significance of Rural Space in Guillaume de Palerne Chapter 12. The Forest as Locus of Transition and Transformation in the Epic Romance Berte aus grans pies Chapter 13. Juan Manuel’s Libro de la caza (ca. 1325) Chapter 14. Hunting as Salvation in Gaston Phebus’s Livre de chasse Chapter 15. Rural Space in Late Medieval Books of Hours: Book Illustrations as a Looking-Glass Into Medieval Mentality and Mirrors of Ecocriticism Chapter 16. The Tame Wilderness of Princes: Images of Nature in Exemplars of Books of Hours and in the Livre du Cœur d’amour épris of King René of Anjou Chapter 17. Marshy Spaces in the Middle English Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne: Physical and Spiritual Territory Chapter 18. Peasant Authors and Peasant Haters: Matazone da Caligano and the Ambiguity of the Satira del villano in High and Late Medieval Italy Chapter 19. “Lazarus and Abraham, our Jews of Eggenburg”: Jews in the Austrian Countryside in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 20. Small Town, Big Business: A Wealthy Jewish Moneylender in the Austrian Countryside Chapter 21. Usos rerum rusticarum: Malae consuetudines, male usos lege and Peasant Rebellion as Resistance or Adaptation to Legal Change Chapter 22. Village People: The Presence of the Rural in Late Medieval French Comedies Chapter 23. Uprooted Trees and Slaughtered Peasants: The Savaging of Rural Space in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1532) Chapter 24. Representations of the Plowman and the Prostitute in Puritan and Anti-Puritan Satire: Or the Rhetoric of Plainness and the Reformation of the Popular in the Harvey Nashe Quarrel Chapter 25. The Poet in Exile: Robert Herrick and the “loathed Country-life” Chapter 26. Women at the Hunt: Developing a Gendered Logic of Rural Space in the Netherlandish Visual Tradition Chapter 27. “The free Enjoyment of the Earth”: Gerrard Winstanley on Land Reform List of Illustrations Contributors Index

Older research on the premodern world limited its focus on the Church, the court, and, more recently, on urban space. The present volume invites readers to consider the meaning of rural space, both in light of ecocritical readings and social-historical approaches. While previous scholars examined the figure of the peasant in the premodern world, the current volume combines a large number of specialized studies that investigate how the natural environment and the appearance of members of the rural population interacted with the world of the court and of the city. The experience in rural space was important already for writers and artists in the premodern era, as the large variety of scholarly approaches indicates. The present volume signals how much the surprisingly close interaction between members of the aristocratic and of the peasant class determined many literary and art-historical works. In a surprisingly large number of cases we can even discover elements of utopia hidden in rural space. We also observe how much the rural world was a significant element already in early-medieval mentality. Moreover, as many authors point out, the impact of natural forces on premodern society was tremendous, if not catastrophic.

Die neue englischsprachige Reihe zur Mediävistik strebt eine methodisch reflektierte, anspruchsvolle Verbindung von Text- und Kulturwissenschaft an. Sie widmet sich den kulturellen Grundthemen der mittelalterlichen Welt aus der Perspektive der Literatur- und Geschichtswissenschaft. ‚Grundthemen' sind die kulturprägenden Denkbilder, Weltanschauungen, Sozialstrukturen und Alltagsbedingungen des mittelalterlichen Lebens, also z. B. Kindheit und Alter, Sexualität, Religion, Medizin, Rituale, Arbeit, Armut und Reichtum, Aberglauben, Erde und Kosmos, Stadt und Land, Krieg, Emotionen, Kommunikation, Reisen usw. Die Reihe greift wichtige aktuelle Fachdiskussionen auf und stellt ein Forum der interdisziplinären Mittelalter-Forschung dar. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture steht Sammelbänden ebenso offen wie Monographien. Intention ist immer, kompendienhafte Werke zu zentralen Fragen der mittelalterlichen Kulturgeschichte vorzulegen, die einen soliden Überblick über einen geschlossenen Themenkreis aus der Perspektive verschiedener Fachdisziplinen vermitteln. Im Ganzen bietet die Reihe so eine Enzyklopädie der mittelalterlichen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte und ihrer Hauptthemen. Es werden ca. zwei Bände pro Jahr erscheinen.