Images and Daily Life
Axe/ Bo/vig (Copenhagen)
We gathered to discuss various methods and approaches in our research on medieval daily life. My field of research is concentrated on images – especially medieval wallpaintings.
I think that history is facing a paradigmatic change by the fast growing access to huge amounts of images. The written source material will no Ionger hold the Iead. And consequently quite another image of the Middle Ages will develop in our minds. Because images form a significant material to our understanding of medieval daily life I would like to outline my project shortly: Danish medieval wallpaintings on the Internet and in a database.
We scan and digitize images of our wall-paintings. We put them into a database and connect them with an indexing system. That is quite a normal procedure. The database is open to interdisciplinary approaches which we have not had time or funding enough to elaborate in a satisfactory way. But we operate with the possibilities of supplementing the image base with relevant texts of which, in Denmark, very few have survived. I am speaking of, e.g., hymns to the Virgin Mary, ballads, documents related to the decoration of the churches, etc. As our wallpaintings show a great variety of musical instruments, it would be an interesting task to supply the database with music played on original instruments. The base could be supplemented with images of medieval architectural remains. Groundplans of the churches would be a natural supplement, and, in the long run, 3-D models too. For the time being we are connecting the image database with a GIS system, so that you can highlight the geographic districts, where the subjects of research are located. As the wallpaintings still are to be found in situ, this is of great importance. Then, we shall have the opportunity of connecting the images to the Jandscape: watercouses, soil, villages, estates, archeological sites, etc.
The electronic revolution has offered possibilities of expanding the approaches to, e.g., the study of medieval daily Iife – to give our research wider dimensions. Some of the existing dimensions are realised through
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the access to other databases with medieval material. In this connection I would like to put fo ard some proposals.
Images communicate in another way than words – in some ways images are universal. In other ways, they are very exclusive. Images break the traditional barrier between different oups of society. Images question our division of medieval society into elite and popular culture. If we take a starting-point in Fe and Saussure’s semiological division Lan e/Parole, we see the universal importance of visual com munication.
In medieval Catholic society almost the total production of images relied o n the same Lan e – which i s corresponding to the icono graphical contents. In their way of presenting this common iconographical Lan e a ists, sponsors and spectators used their local, social and periodical Parole – which is corresponding to the artistic expression and the spectators‘ visual consumption. Many different kinds of images related to the notion of daily life. Almost all images were part of the daily production and consumption of visual material. Consequently, the analytical distinction between Lan Parole is of great importance to our understanding of medieval daily life.
As medieval images rely on the same Lan e it is natural to skip national deliminations in our work and in our attempts to create image databases which often are nancially bound to specific demarcations. (I personally know that, and this is why our image-base still is entitled: Danish Medieval Wall-paintings). The medieval visual Lan e is related to and used in whole Europe. The visual Parole – which is the artistic way of expression – does not respect na onal and political bounderies but develops in regional and social territories. Parallel to the Parole, daily life is formed by and connected to social groups and certain regions but not to national and political spheres. This means that the history we produce when relying on visual source material will take other forms and contents, and will be bound to other geographic areas than the history based on written source material.
I would like to advocate for
1. Creating better possibilities for exchanging digitized source material –
rst of all images.
2. Establishing a common web-site with references to all the different
relevant databases. In a long perspective, this should Iead to the establishment of one common huge database relying on a common indexing system. But I know that this is an enormous project – which at least will demand fqnding from the European Union. Perhaps such a project belongs to the world of imagination rather than reality. But the idea should be kept alive.
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3. On a lesser scale, I would like to promote a common debate forum for the many historians working with the broad and rather di se subject „Daily Life in the Middle Ages“. It would be a help and a challenge to have a kind of electronic magazine where we can consult colleagues, ask and answer questions, advertise for certain infonnation, put forward written and visual source material, etc.
4. As an ideal, such proposals could Iead to a kind of vi ual university of „The History ofEveryday Life“ in medieval Europe.
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MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
38
K MS 1998
HE USGEGEBEN VON GERH J TZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER KULTURABTEILUNG DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
Titel aphik Stephan J. Tramer
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellscha zur Erforschung der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Kömennar 13, A-3500 ems, Öste eich. F den lhalt verantwortlich zeiclmen die Autoren, olme deren ausdrüc iche Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. – Druck: KOPITU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Haupts aße 8-10, A-1050 Wien.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 HistoryofDailyLife:TheVarietyofApproaches………………………… 7
Franceise Piponnier,L’histoire de Ja vie quotidienne
auMoyenAge…………………………………………………………….. 8 Gerhard J , Geschichte des Alltags im Mittelalter-
eine Herausforderung komparativen Forschung . . . … . . . … . . 10 Axel Bolvig, Medieval Images and the History ofEverydayLife . . . 20 Norbert Schnitzler, „Reality“ oflmages- „Realities“ ofLaw . . . . … . 23
Melitta Weiss Adamson, Researching the Diet of
Medieval Germany: Possibilities andLimitations of
WrittenSourcesandMaterialEvidence…….. ………… . …… ….. 27
GordanRavancic,CrimeinTavemsofLateMedievalDubrovnik …….. 31
Anu Mänd, Shooting the Bird and the MaigrafFestival
inMedievalLivonianTowns………………………………………… 46 Rezensionen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 66
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Vorwort
Medium Aevum Quotidianum legt mit diesem He 38 die erste Ver öffentlichung des Jahrgangs 1998 vor. Der Band widmet sich im besonderen den Statements zu einem Round-Table-Gespräch „History of Daily Life: The Variety of Approaches“, welches im Juli 1997 am Inte at i o n a l Medie v a l Congress i n L e e d s m i t r e g e r P u b l i k u m s beteiligung stattgefunden hat. Dabei zeigte sich wieder, daß einerseits die interdisziplinäre Analyse unterschiedlichsten Quellenmaterials i m jeweiligen Kontext, andererseits die vermehrte Heranziehung bildlicher Überlieferung im Zen um der Diskussion stehen. Aspekte der digitalen Bildverarbeitung spielen dabei eine relevante Rolle sowohl in bezug auf Bilddokumentation als auch hinsichtlich der Analysen. Zwei Einzel studien behandeln Wirtshauskriminalität im spätmittelalterlichen Ragusa, sowie die Ausgestaltung von Kaufmanns- und Handwerkerfesten im spät mittelalterlichen Baltikum.
He 39 wird bereits anfangs Juli 1998 erscheinen und sich vorran gig mit verschiedenen Möglichkeiten der Bildanalyse in der Geschichte des Alltags auseinandersetzen. Die einzelnen Beiträge werden den nord und zentraleuropäischen Raum behandeln und konzentrie von Beispie len mittelalterlicher Wandmalerei ausgehen.
Unser Heft 40 wird – mit Schwerpunk auf dem ungarischen Raum – vor allem der mittelalterlichen E ährung gewidmet sein und soll neue interdisziplinäre Forschungsansätze vorstellen; dabei werden besonders die Möglichkeiten einer Verbindung der Analyse schri licher Quellen und archäologischen Materials im Zentrum der Argumentation stehen.
He 41 wird sich wiederum in starkem Maße mit jenen Ergeb nissen auseinandersetzen, welche am Inte ational Medieval Congress, Leeds 1998, in dessen alltagsgeschichtlichen Sektionen zur Vorstellung gelangen werden. Damit soll neuerlich vermittelt werden, auf welch intensive Weise sich die Anwendung mode er Methoden und die Verwirklichung neuer· Ansätze in aktuellen Studien zu Alltag und materieller Kultur des Mittelalters – im inte ationalen Rahmen – verfolgen läßt.
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Medium Aevum Quotidianum dankt seinen Mitgliede und Freunden r das anhaltende bzw. steigende Interesse an den Anliegen und an der Arbeit der Gesellschaft.
Gerhard Jaritz, Herausgeber
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History of Daily Life: The Variety of Approaches
At the Inte ational Medieval Congress, Leeds 1997, a round table discussion was organised as part of the strand „History of Daily Life“ that dealt with the variety of possible approaches towards this, still rather young eld of Medieval Studies. The inte ational panel consisted of Axel Bolvig (Copenhagen), Gerhard Jaritz (Krems), Franyoise Piponnier (Paris), Norbert Schnitzler (Chemnitz), and Melitta Weiss Adamson (London, Ontario).
a kind of basis for the discussion, it was emphasised that the history of medieval eve day life is a eld of research dependent on interdisciplinary approaches. Written and pictorial sources, as weil as archeological evidence play important rotes for any analysis. The different contexts of infonnation and their interpretation detennine our (re)constmction of everyday life in the Middle Ages decisively. The aim of the round table was to discuss some of the methods and approaches which are relevant for today’s research. It should also show that „History of Daily Life“, generally, has to be seen as undispensable eld of Medieval Studies that also offers relevant methodological aspects and results for many other historical disciplines.
We are happy to be able to publish the modi ed short statements of t h e p a n e l i s t s i n t h i s v o l u m e o f Medium A e v u m Q u o t i d i a n u m . T h e originally English statements of Franyoise Piponnier and Gerhard Jaritz were translated by their authors into French and Gennan respectively.
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