Women, Weapons and Violence in Medieval Europe, part 1
The combination of women, weapons and violence easily conjures up images of victimized women. I wouldn't go as far as to argue that the Damsel in distress is a character that formed first in the minds of the 19th century Victorians, since there are plenty of pictorial as well as textual evidence of her in illuminated manuscripts and medieval romances. While I cannot and will not deny her presence, I intend to direct my gaze towards something more controversial: the women who were, or were seen to be willing to defend themselves against violence and use it and it's instruments.
In the past few days I've been searching images of women, weapons and violence from late medieval manuscripts. My interest is focused mainly on 13th, 14th and 15th century sources. In this part I'll use two illuminated manuscripts form the 1350's and late 1400's as my main examples.
The text will be divided in different parts and I shall post on the subject as my research and writing goes ahead. At the moment it's hard to say what sort of angles, themes or resources I'm going to use as I progress. Writing is a journey and it has the tendency to lead to exciting and sometimes unexpected places!
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Women and weapons. Armed with a spear, bow and arrows, these amazons are one of the types of people and nations depicted in Der Naturen Bloeme, which could be translated as "The best in nature". Der naturen Bloeme. Jakob van Maerlant. Flander or Utrecht, c.1350. The Hague, KB, KA 16, fol. 40r. © Koninklijke Bibliotheek National Library of the Netherlands
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In the past few days I've been searching images of women, weapons and violence from late medieval manuscripts. My interest is focused mainly on 13th, 14th and 15th century sources. In this part I'll use two illuminated manuscripts form the 1350's and late 1400's as my main examples.
The text will be divided in different parts and I shall post on the subject as my research and writing goes ahead. At the moment it's hard to say what sort of angles, themes or resources I'm going to use as I progress. Writing is a journey and it has the tendency to lead to exciting and sometimes unexpected places!
Art as evidence: Der Naturen Bloemen and La Cité de Dieu
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The
scholar at work. The image of Jacob
van
Maelrant is quite typical of the period.
For
example the female scholar Christine
de
Pisan was depicted in the same manner
at
the turn of the 14th century. Source:
Wikipedia.
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This does not mean that we should take everything at face value: it seems highly unlikely that there were people who only lived by the the scent of apples, as the images in Jacob van Maerlants book Der naturen bloemen seem to suggest. Nor is it likely that there were headless people living in some part of the world at the time.
Still, we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that all medieval people believed in monsters the way we preceieve them. As a writer who is said to have moved away from the tradition of the romance, it is reasonable to think he aimed most of all to something he and his contemporaries would have recognized to be a scientific approach to world and it's phenomenons.
So, why does Der Naturen include such things as people who had their arms and legs backward or have dogs heads? In Maerlants case the answer lies in the traditional authority of the sources he used. They were both contemporary and classical. The introduction to the text in the pages of The National Library of Netherlands points to two sources: Der natura rerum, by french philosopher and theologian Thomas of Cantimpré (c. 1200-1272). He's sources go even further back in time, to antiquity. The Library suggest the main known classical source to be a second century Greek text Physiologus.
I's also good to notice, that the edition as well as the illuminations used here were made approximately half a decade after the death of Maerlant. In the end the images of this sort don't actually seem to be more fantastical than other imagery in contemporary manuscripts from 13th to 15th century. To see for yourself, you can browse the collection in for example Bodleian Library, Koninklijke Biblioteek and British Library.
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But
it's of course good to look at other sources as well, if they are
available. In any case I always try to keep in mind, that all sources
had a reason why they were made and why they were made the way they are.
Costly manuscripts were often made for prominent and wealthy people, as in the case of the the late 15th century copy of La Cité de Dieu, (wich was originally written by the Church Father Augustine in the beginning of 400 AD).
In Raoul de Presles translation of the book and in Der Naturens 1350's version the human figures, when dressed, are invariably and distinctly clothed in contemporary fashions. This is typical of medieval imagery. This can be interpreted in many ways, but I would suggest that the themes and stories of the manuscripts were just as current and meaningful to medieval people as they were at the time they were created.
My interpretation is that dressing the characters in fashionable attire was most likely deliberate and an effective strategy: it enabled the reader (or viewer) to identify with the characters and the often moral messages of the books. As owning a book such as these was a status symbol, since only the wealthy could afford them, it is likely they wouldn't want to commission something too old fashioned in fear it would
reflect on them in a negative way.
For me the illuminations offer a rich and graphic source to women and the many ways they were seen and depicted in the middle ages. In the next part I shall focus my attention to the images, where women and violence are combined.
The writer is always amazed how much space one can use while scratching the surface.
Costly manuscripts were often made for prominent and wealthy people, as in the case of the the late 15th century copy of La Cité de Dieu, (wich was originally written by the Church Father Augustine in the beginning of 400 AD).
In Raoul de Presles translation of the book and in Der Naturens 1350's version the human figures, when dressed, are invariably and distinctly clothed in contemporary fashions. This is typical of medieval imagery. This can be interpreted in many ways, but I would suggest that the themes and stories of the manuscripts were just as current and meaningful to medieval people as they were at the time they were created.
My interpretation is that dressing the characters in fashionable attire was most likely deliberate and an effective strategy: it enabled the reader (or viewer) to identify with the characters and the often moral messages of the books. As owning a book such as these was a status symbol, since only the wealthy could afford them, it is likely they wouldn't want to commission something too old fashioned in fear it would
reflect on them in a negative way.
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| Monks turn away from vices (1 of 2). La Cité de Dieu. Augustine. Transl. Pierre de Presles, 1475; 1478-1480. TheHague, MMW, 10 A 15. © Koninklijke Bibliotheek National Library of the Netherlands |
The writer is always amazed how much space one can use while scratching the surface.
Sources
Der naturen bloemen. Jacob van Maerlant. Flander or Utrecht, 1475;1478-80. Koninklijke Bibliotheek National Library of the Netherlands
La Cité de Dieu. Augustine. Translated from Latin by Raoul de Presles, 1475;1478-80. Bodleian Library. MS.Bodl.624.
Der naturen bloemen. Jacob van Maerlant. Flander or Utrecht, 1475;1478-80. Koninklijke Bibliotheek National Library of the Netherlands
La Cité de Dieu. Augustine. Translated from Latin by Raoul de Presles, 1475;1478-80. Bodleian Library. MS.Bodl.624.
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