„Othering“ a Neighbour: Perceptions of the French Body
in the Early Modem German Lands
Irina Savinetskaya
The human body lies in the centre of collective images and is one of the
key elements in the perception of self and other. 1 Already in 1 527 Agrippa of
Nettensheim believed that „several nations have some particular marks of distinction,
which are the more immediate marks of Heaven; so that a man may
easily discem of what nation such or such a stranger may be, by his Voice,
Speech, Tone, Design, Conversation, Diet, Love or Hatred, Anger and Malice,
and the like.“2 It is therefore not surprising that representations of other nations
largely centre on the issue of the body. Being understood broadly, the body
encompasses such spheres as sexuality, gender, appearance, morals and medicine.
This article attempts to describe various elements of the image of the
„French“ body in the German Iands, trace its origins and establish their relation
to each other as weil as to the self-image of the Germans.
Resorting to the expression of Gonthier-Louis Fink, „auto-stereotypes and
herero-stereotypes are often a curious cocktail of tradition and modemity.“3
While studying national images it becomes clear that their development cannot
be regarded as a linear process. A national image appears to be a construct
assorted from various members taken from the stock of conunon representations,
„conventions and commonplaces inherited from a pre-existing textual
tradition.‘.4 The assortment of characteristics depends on the epoch and author’s
intentions. Thus, at times of crises between nations certain unfavourable
characteristics are being invoked and reinforced, while at times of peace and
good relations pattems of plausible representations seem to be playing a more
significant role. Also, the image of an „other“ can either represcnt a role model
or a negative example depending on the author’s sense ofbelonging to his or her
1 Elena Agazzi, „Body“ in lmagology. The Cuitura/ Construcrion and Literary Representation
of National Characters. A Critical Survey, ed. Manfred Bell er and Joep Leerssen (Amsterdam:
Rodopi, 2007), 270-72.
2 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa of Nettensheim, The Vanity of Arts and Seiences (London: J. C.
for S. Speed, 1676), 127.
3 Gonthier-Louis Fink, „Reflexions sur l’lmagologic,“ Recherehes germaniques 23 ( 1 993):
19.
4 Joep Leerssen, “National ldentity and National Stereotype“ (http://www.imagologica.eu/
leerssen – last access December 28, 20 12).
94
own group. The set of variable common national characteristics is certainly not
permanent and undergoes changes tltroughout epochs depending on historical,
social and cultural circumstances. However, it seems that the changes occur very
slowly with tradition playing a leading roJe.
The hetero-image of the French in early Modern Germany has a longstanding
pre-existing literary tradition dating back to the Antiquity and the
Middle Ag es featuring the works of Caesar, Diodoms, Pomponius Meta, Isidore
of Seville, Otto of freising, Konrad of Magdeburg and others.5 With the rediscovery
of ancient texts in the Renaissance, the climate the01y and the theory of
the four humours started to play a significant role a!ong with the already existing
patterns of representation. The climate theory originated from the works of
Aristotle, Galen and Hippocrates and although it was never entirely abandoned
in the Middle Ages it became much more popular in the Early Modem period.6
The theory divided the world into the northem cold, the southem hot and the
temperate middle climate zones each of which defined the morals and physical
appearance of peoples living there. Thus, each nation was assigned certain characteristics
based on its geographical origins.
In the fifth century Hippocrates developed a theory according to which the
heat, cold, humidity and aridity were the primaty elements of human bodies.
The influence of climate through the medium of weather, soil properties, etc.
preconditioned the combination of these elements in human bodies. The balance
of the four humours was believed to b e an underlying principle behind peoples‘
characters. In On the Temperaments Galen identified the four main
temperaments based on the predominating combination of two out of the four
humours. The four temperaments elaborated by Galen were sanguine, choleric,
melancholic and phlegmatic in which the combination of the wann and moist,
warm and dry, cold and dly or cold and moist dominated accordingly.
Another fi.eld of knowledge which also flourished in the Renaissance and
influenced the perception of nations was astrology. Planets and zodiacal signs
were believed to govern countries and peoples and define their characters. Thus,
the Jews were considered to be govemed by Scorpio, France by Mercury (and
sometimes by Jupiter), Gennany by Mars, etc. Mars was tightly related to the
stereotype of the Gennans being fearless warriors. The belief that France was
mied by Mercury, the God who had given knowledge to the Egyptians, led to a
stereotype of the French being versed in letters. At the same time, the perception
of Mercuty as volatile and inconstant; flying from one place to another was
interconnected with the stereotype of the French being inconsistent. Already in
the thirteenth century Alexander of Roes claimed that inconstantia was among
5 For an overview, see for example: Ingomar Weiler, „Ethnographische Typisierungen im
antiken und mittelalterlichen Vorfeld der ,Völkertatel‘,“ in Europäsi cher Völkerspiegel.
Imagologsi ch-ethnographische Studien zu den Völkertafeln des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts, ed.
Franz K. Stanze! (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 1999), 97-119.
6 Waldemar Zacharasiewicz, „Klimatheorie und Nationalcharakter auf der ,Völkertafel‘ ,“ in
Europäischer Völkerspiegel, ed. Stanze!, 1 1 9-39.
95
the main characte1istics of the French 7 At the beginning of the sixteenth century
Martin Luther stated in the Tischreden ( 1 5 3 1 – 1 546) that in matters of Iove the
French were to be regarded fickle: „In amoribus Germani ambitiosi, Galli
leves.“ 8 Sebastian Münster ( 1 544) also claimed that the French were to be
considered „nachlässig“ (fickle ), 9 while Scaliger ( 1 5 6 1 ) thought of them as
„leichtsinnig“ (frivolous). 10
The rediscovery of Tacitus‘ Germania in the mid-fifteenth century played
one ofthe most crucial roles in the early modern self-fashioning ofthe Germans.
The image of the Germans created by Tacitus served the purpese of a
„Sittenspiegel“: by describing a foreign barbaraus people in a plausible light,
Tacitus wanted to express his stance on the current moral state of Rome. 1 1
German humanists eagerly adopted Tacitus‘ strategy to show the superiority of
the Gem1an nation above Romanic peoples. This brought about new directions
and dynamics in the self-fashioning of the Germans as weil as in representations
ofthe French in the Early Modem German Iands.
Auto-images of the Germans and German images of the French constructed
by German humanists were related on the basis of the principle of
„inverted“ sameness, using the term of franyois Hartog.12 Following Tacitus, the
Gem1ans presented themselves as people with strong physique and expressive
features. In contrast, the French were often depicted as delicate and effeminate
(„weibisch“). Martin Luther stated in the Tischreden that „the Gennans have a
posture of gladiators, unrestrained features, animal-sounding speech, fierce
bchaviour. . . “ while „the French have delicate posture, pleasant featmes,
charming voice, moderate behaviour. .. “ 13 In The Vanity Of Arts and Seiences
Agrippa refers to the same dichotomy: „For who that sees a man marehing in
more state than a Dunhill-Cock, in gate like a Fencer, a confident Look, a deep
Tone, grave Speech, severe in his Carriage, and tatter’d in Habit, that will not
straight judge him to be a German? Do we not know the French by their
moderate Gate, effeminate Carriage, smiling Countenance, pleasing Yoice,
courteous Speech, modest Behaviour and careless Habit?“14 Johann Boehmc, the
„father of folklore studies“ whose work Omnium Gentium Mores, Leges et Ritus
7 Jean-Marie Moeglin, Kaisertum und allerchristlicher König 1214 bis 1500 (Darrnstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Bucbgesellschaft, 20 10), 294.
8 Ruth Florack. Tiefsinnige Deutsche, Frivole Franzosen – Nationale Stereotype in deutscher
undfranzösischer Literatur (Stuttgart: Metzler Verlag, 2001), 23.
9 Jbidem, 5 1 .
1 0 Edward Reichet, ‚“Heimath der Schaullust, der Eitelkeit, der Moden und Novitäten‘ –
Frankreich und der Franzose,“ in Europäischer Völkerspiegel, ed. Stanzet, 175.
11 Herfried Münkler, Die Deutschen und ihren Mythen (Berlin: Rowohlt, 2009), 150.
12 Franyois Hartog, The Mirrar of Herodotus. The Representation of the Other in the Writing
of History (Berkley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1988). 2 1 3 .
13 Florack, Tiefsinnige Deutsche, Frivole Franzosen , 23: Germanus habet gestum gladiarorum,
[. . .} vultum effrenem, vocem bubulam, mores feroces [. . .} Gallus habet gesrum
mol/um, vultum b/andum, vocem dulcisonam, mores modestos.
14 Agrippa of Nettesheim, The Vanity of Arts and Sciences, 127.
96
( 1 520) was translated and reprinted forty tim es until 1 62015 wrote that the voice
of the Getmans shows „that they are not in any way effeminate, but very
manly.“16
The stereotype of the effeminacy of the French can be traced back to the
Middle Ages. At the beginning of the thirteenth century Jacques de Vitry wrote
in his Historia Occidentalis that the French „are considered arrogant, delicate
and women-like, while the Germans are regarded brutal and are known as heavy
drinkers.“17 In the foutieenth century Konrad of Megenberg mocked the French
for being too effeminate to be good soldiers and claimed that they dressed up for
a battle as if for a wedding. 18 One can speculate that the origins of the stereotype
of the effeminacy of the French lie in the sphere of astrology. In his Tetrabiblos,
a major astrological work in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Times,
Ptolemy divided planets into masculine and feminine. According to him, Moon
and Venus were feminine planets with predominately moist elements, while
Sun, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars were masculine planets with prevailing bot
elements. He calls Mercury „common to both genders inasmuch as it produces
the dry and the moist alike.“ Since the ancient sources describe the French as the
worshipers of Mercury it is possible that the stereotype about the effeminacy of
the French was associated with the double nature of the planet.
The indifference of the Getmans to money and their appearance as
opposed to the fondness of the French for luxuty was another proverbial pair of
mirror-like charactetistics. According to Tacitus, the Germans had no interest in
gold or silver and did not pay much attention to their clothes or food, leading a
simple life. The stereotype of the luxuriousness of the French and Italians was
rather widespread. Since luxmy was believed to conupt men and was tightly
associated with lechery, 19 by representing themselves as indifferent to luxuty,
the Germans thus contributed to the development of a discourse on the innocence
ofthe Getman nation, which was initiated by Enea Silvio Piccolomini and
became already a „stock image“ by the second half of the sixteenth century?0 I n
line with this idea, Johann Boehme wrote that at first the Germans did not know
what to do with money that were given to the German ambassadors by
representatives of other peoples and that only with time they accepted the
practice of using money.21 A part of the discourse on German innocence was the
15 Franz Stanze!, „Zur literarischen Imagologie. Eine Enfi.ihrung,“ in Europäischer Völkerspiegel,
ed. Stanze!, 14.
16 Johann Boehme, Omnium gentium mores, Ieges et ritus, ex multis c/arissimis rerum
scriptoribus (Friburgi Brisgoiae, 1 5 26), 196: „Vox quae nil muliebre sonat, sed tota virilis.“
17 Moeglin, Kaisertum und allerchristlicher König, 293.
18 lbidem, 294.
19 Christopher J. Berry, The Idea of Luxury: a Conceptual and Hisrorica/ /nvestigation (New
20 York: Cambridge University Press, 1 994).
On the discourse about the innocence of tbe Germans, see: Helmut Puff, Sodomy in
Reformation Germany and Switzerland: 1400-1600 (London and Chicago: University of
21 Chicago Press, 2003), 130-32.
Boehme, Omnium gentium mores, Ieges et ritus, 197.
97
modest dress of German women which according to Johann Boehme was „rather
distinguished and decent and that there would be no one who could reprehend
them, for their dresses would never have a too low neck.“22
The French fashion was one of the manifestations of the French fondness
for luxury. As Ulinka Ruhlack writes, „clothing continued to be understood not
as something extemal to the body, that could be simply put on and taken off, or
that could function as an abstract sign: rather, it was seen to mould a person and
materialize identity.“23 Since the French clothing was considered intrinsic to the
image of the French, the popularity of the French fashion in early modern
Germany was often perceived as alanning and disturbing. Some authors represented
the French clothing as targeting the German national unity and corrupting
the inner strength of the Gennans. The often quoted passage from the
„School of Tyranny“ of Ulrich of Hurten referring to the foreign fashion reads:
„it is hardly credible that things which do not originate here are good for those
born here. If this was the case, then nature would ensure that they were grown
here. This is why one desires them not for everyday usage, but for pleasure. Not
to keep up the body, but to indulge it, you (merchants) circulate these tempting
things. Thus it is no surprise that health is endaugered and that one is prone to
suffer every illness. Also you have imported silk and every kind offoreign dress
through which the inborn German strength is softened up and the best morals are
comtpted, because through you a female obsessiveness about Iooks and awful
effeminacy spreads in the life of man.“24
The Annals of Bavaria of Johannes Aventinus contain an interesting
passage in which Charlemagne criticises the French fashion and the fondness of
the Gennans for it. lt is obvious that Charlemagne in Aventinus‘ chronicle in
fact refers to thc popularity of the French fashion in the sixteenth-century
German Iands: „0 Germans and free Franks, how imprudent and inconsistent
you are! That you adopted the clothes of those, whom you have conquered and
overthrown, after you became their Iords, is not a good sign: you adopted their
clothing and they will take your hearts from you. What are these welsche
patches and rags? They do not cover the whole body, leaving half of it naked,
they are not good, neither for cold nor hot weather, neither for rain nor for wind
. . . Then a country decree that one should neither buy nor sell the French
clothing in Germany was issued.“25
22 lbidem, 205: „Satis honestus hodie foeminarum vestitus est, satis decorus, nihil haberet
quod merito reprehendere quis posset. si a quibusdam supeme nimium non excaveretur.“
23 Ulinka Rublack. Dressing Up: Cultural ldentity in Renaissance Europe (Oxford, New
York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 138.
24 lbidem, I 38-39.
25 Caspar Hirschi, Wettkampf der Nationen: Konstruktionen einer deutschen Ehrgemeinschaft
an der Wende vom Miete/alter zur Neuzeit (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2005), 3 1 8: „0 ir
Teutschen und freien Franken, wie seit ir als inbesunnen und unbeständig! das ir deren
claidung, die ir UberwwJden und bestritten habt, der ir herren seit, annembt, ist nit ain guet
zaichen, bedeut nichts guets: ir nembt in ire claider, so werden sie euch euere herzen
nemen. Was sollen dise wälsche flecken und hadern? Decken den gruJZen Ieib nit, lassen in
98
Another pattem of representing the French body was grounded in
xenohomophobia – a tenn introduced by Rebecca Zorach.26 Xenohomophobia
conditions the perception of other nations as homosexuals. As Helmut Puff
shows in his study on sodomy in Reformation Gennany, the Germans found
„people from regions where a Romance language was spoken, suspicious of
sexual misdoings.“ 27 At the same time the French considered the Italians
perpetuators of the „Italian vice“ or homosexuality. In a similar fashion, the
Tw·ks considered Persians homosexuals. The geographical map of xenohomophobia
can be expanded, since evety nation bad fears of homosexuality in regard
to its own „others. “
Unreyne liebe is an expression used by Johannes Lichtenberger in his
Pronosticatio zu teutsch when he referred to the practice of homosexuality in
France: „And as much as disorderly acts of Iust with the youth are spread in the
Italian Iands, as much the unehaste Iove with men as if they were women is
common among the French.“28 It is worth highlighting that Lichtenberger’s prognostic
was called a „medieval bestseller“ by Dietrich Kurze, the acknowledged
specialist on Lichtenberger. Kurze established that the interest in Lichtenberger’s
Pronosticatio in the German Iands was mostly particular at the times of conflicts
between Germany and France. Thus, the prognostic was published in an abridged
version six tim es in 1 62 0 and 1 6 2 1 , at the beginning of the Thirty Y ears
War. Between 1686 and 1 69 1 , when the French were mostly active at the Rhine,
five more editions appeared. In 1 8 1 3 Pronosticatio was pub1ished again as a
separate book tagether with a pamphlet agairrst Napoleon.29 This was largely
due to the overall anti-French character of the book.
Theophrastus Paracelsus was among the ones who showed great interest
in Lichtenberger’s work. In 1 529 or 1 530 he published a reflection on Lichtenberger’s
prophecies entitled „Interpretation of several figures of Joh. Lichtenberger
from the first and third parts.“ Paracelsus‘ work is almost entirely centred
on the French and their roJe in the future of the Christendom. At the vety
beginning of his work he states that the French are unchaste. He develops his
argument by saying that the connection between the rooster and the French is
provided by astronomy and that the French are unehaste and arrogant just like
wo! halben blos, sein weder fur kelt noch fur hitz, fur regen noch fur wind guet… ‚Lies
demnach ain Iandpot ausgen, das man solch Franzosen claider in Teutschland weder kaufet
noch verkauft. ‚“
26 Rebecca Zorach, „The Matter of Italy: Sodomy and the Scandal of Style in SixteenthCentury
France,“ Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 28/3 ( 1998): 581 -609.
27 Puff, Sodomy in Reformation Germany, 1 1 8 .
28 Johannes Lichteoberger, Pronosticatio zu theutsch (Heidelberg, 1488), G4a: „wie vyl
vnordenlliche werck der begerlich.keyt mit iungen vnd umbfahen werden geubet in
welschen lande wie vyl der by den Frantzosen vnd sust vyl vnreyner liebe werden vben die
mans personen glichsam die frauwen.“
29 Dietrich Kurze, „Prophecy and History: Lichtenberger’s Forecasts of Events to Come (from
the Fifteenth to the Twentieth Ceotury): Their Reception and Diffusion,“ Journal of the
Warburg and Courtland Institutes 2 1 , No. 1/2 ( 1 958): 65.
99
the roosters are in their very nature: „From the name of the French, who are
called the Ga/li, arises their nature which is similar to the nature of roosters, and
it has been established by natural philosophers that just as a rooster is full of
unchastity and pride, so are the French in their nature filled with unchastity . . .
Thus it is known that on both sides the French and the roosters have the same
combination and it is fully supported by astronomers.“30
Both the rooster and unchastity were commonly associated with the
French. In one of his Colloquies ( 1 5 1 8) Erasmus gives a conversation between a
certain Claudius and his friend Balbus, who has just retumed to Holland from
France:
Claudius: From a Hollander you’re tumed into a Frenchman.
Balbus: What? Was I a capon when l ieft here?
C: Your dress shows you’re changed from a Dutchman to a Frenchman.
B : Better this change than tum into a hen! But as a cowl doesn ‚ t make a
monk, neither do clothes make a Frenchman.3 1
It i s clear that Erasmus i s playing here with the words capus (rooster), Gallus
(Frenchman), gallus (rooster) and gallina (hen). I n her study of cultural imagery
of Italy in the French leamed culture, Rebecca Zerach quotes a passage which
alludes to the talk between Baibus and Claudius, showing that Ttaly was
important for France in a similar way as France was for Germany: „You could
well leave French, but you’ll return ltalian as well, in your mannerisms and
habits, your carriage and your language; in short, you’ll have the fur of an
ltalian, in order to be admired by your countrymen.“32
The stereotype about the unehaste nature of the French was grounded in
the climate theory and the theory of the four humours. Starting from the
Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages and Modem Times the French were
considered hot-blooded and sanfuine while the Germans were believed to be
phlegmatic and cold-blooded. 3 Aristotle believed that hot-blooded people
(„Young Men“) had troubles controlling their sexual desires:
Of the bodily desires, it is the sexual by which they are most swayed and
in which they show absence of self-control. They are changeable and
30 Thcoplu-asms Paracelsus, „Auslegung über ettliche Figuren Jo. Liechtenbergers aus dem
ersten und dritten teil,“ in Sämtliche Werke, ed. Kar! Sudhoff (München: Otto Wilhelm
Barth, 1923), vol.7, 477: „Von namen der Franzosen, das die Galli heissen, entspringt in
aus der natur, die sie haben gleich den hanen, und ist in geben worden von den naruralibus
dan zu gleicher weis wie ein han aller unkeuschheil und hoffart voll steckt, also sind auch
die Franzosen in irer natur voller unkeuschheiL. also wisset, das zu beiden seiten gleiche
constellation in Franzosen und in hauen stehen und ist wo! bestett von den astronomis.“
31 Erasmus, „Colloquies,“ in Co/lected Works of Erasmus, ed. Craig R. Thompson (Toronto,
Buffalo, London: University ofToronto Press, 1997), vol. 39, 1 8 .
32 Rebecca Zorach, „The Matter o f ltaly,“ 582.
33 Franz Stanze!, „Zur literarischen Imagologie. Eine Enfuhrung,“ 20-21; Weiler, „Ethnographische
Typisierungen,“ in ibidem, 105. The phlegmatic composition of the German
bodies was often named as an explanation to a popular stereotype that the Getmans were
heavy drinkers. Alcohol was believed to warm the cold element inside tbeir bodies.
100
fickle in their desires, which are violent while they last, but quickly over:
their impulses are keen but not deep-rooted, and are like sick people’s
attacks of hunger and thirst.
Unlike sanguine people, the cold-blooded people („Elderly Men“) are able
to easily abstain from sex: Their sensual passions have either altogerher
gone or have lost their vigour: consequently they do not feel their passions
much, and their actions are inspired less by what they do feel tban by the
Iove of gain.34
Since the French were considered sanguine and the Spanish choleric, they were
regarded as unable to control their sexual desires and therefore unchaste, while
the Germans beinf generally perceived as phlegmatic people were often represented
as chastc.3 Thus, for instance already in the thirteenth century, Alexander
of Roes believed that luxuria or Iust were one of the major characteristics of
the French.36 The already quoted Agrippa wrote that „for the Love of women is
common to all, and there is no person that at one time or other does not feel the
Fire thereof; though the women Iove one way, the men another; young men one
way, great personages another way; the poor one way; the rich another way;
and, which is more miraculous, according to the difference of Nations and
Climates. The Italians are of one humour in the Amours, the Spaniards of
another, the French of another, the Germans of another. The same difference of
Love appears in the difference of Sex, Age, Dignity, Fortune, and Nation, every
one having a different sort of amorous Frenzy . . . The lascivious French-man
trusts in his Obsequiousness, and strives to win his Ladies favour with Songs
and merry Discourse. lf he grows jealous, he complains of his hard fortune; but
if he looses his Love, he revi I es her, threatens revenge, and attempts to compass
his ends by force. After enjoyment, he neglects her, and marries another. The
cold German slowly moves to Iove; but being once inflam’d, he makes use of art
and liberality.“37 Johann Boehme quoted Dionysius claiming that the French
were hot spirited38 and wrote that the Germans „could not endure thirst and heat
unlike the French, but were very tolerant to cold.“39
It was believed that the composition of the four elements defined peoples‘
proneness to certain diseases. Based on the theory of the four humours, Joseph
Grunpeck claimed that the sanguine French with predominating warm and moist
elements were more susceptible to „Böze Franzos“ or syphilis than other
peoples:
34 Aristotle, „Rhetoric,“ in Complete Works: the Revised Oxford Translation, ed. Jonathan
Bames (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), vol. 2 , book 2: 12-13.
35 Tilmann Waller, Unkeuschheit und Werke der Liebe: Diskurse über Sexualität am Beginn
der Neuzeit in Deutschland (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998), 324.
36 Moeglin, Kaisertum und allerchristlicher König, 294.
37 Agrippa of Nettesheim, The Vanity of Arts and Sciences, 193-94.
38 Johann Boehme, Omnium gentium mores, Ieges et ritus, 28 1 : „ignea mens Gallis.“
39 Jbidem, 197: „sitim et aestum ut Galli non ferunt, frigorum patientissimi.“
101
. . .t hat happened thus, for it has been found that Jupiter, which is a hot and
moist planet, rules over France. But life and strength are in wannth and in
natural dampness, as the masters of science prove. Therefore, the French
are fit by nature, but they fall more easily into such sicknesses, for their
bodies are subject to greater harm than others, because they have more
blood and more moisture and are more saturated, which moistness and
saturation are more prone to rotting, and can sooner be broken up.40
It should be noted that at the beginning of the epidemic the French disease was
not considered a venereal disease and sexual intercourse was described as only
one way out of many of contracting it. Nevertheless even though syphilis was
not associated with the stereotype of the „unchaste“ nature of the French, the
very fact that syphilis became widely known as „mal franzos,“ „böse franzos“ or
simply „franzosen“ is in itself noteworthy.
As Mary Douglas argued, the physical body is perceived as a microcosm
of the social body and that the body natural provides symbols for the expression
of social experience.41 The naming of the disease after the French in the German
Iands reveals phobias of an imminent threat coming from the French. The highly
contagious new disease was perceived as a danger not only to an individual
body of a Gennan, but also to the German national body.42 The French disease
was one of the elements, along with foreign fashion, that could corrupt the
Gennan body and make it less „German“. Lamenting on the neglect of Gennan
traditions and habits among his contemporaries and on their fondness for foreign
fashion, Johannes Agricola wrote: „They wear ltalian, Spanish and French
clothes, have Ttalian cardinals, French and Spanish diseases and also cany out
Italian practices.'“‚3 The betrayal of truly „German“ clothing made the German
bodies feeble and diseased, claimed Konrad Celtis.44
Being „at once an object of desire and derision“45 using the notion of
Homi K. Bhabha, France played a crucial role in the development of German
consciousness at the time. The idea that the French fashion and the French
disease could somehow diminish the „Germanness“ of German bodies reveals
phobias of superiority of a perceivably more powerful neighbour. The fact that
the French leamed culture showed almost no interest in Gennany until the mid-
4’Merrill Moore and Harry C. Solomon, „Joseph Gliinpeck and his Neat Treatise (1496) on
the French Evil. A Translation with a Biographical Note,“ in British Journal of Venereal
Di seases I I/I (1935): 2 1 .
41 See: Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (New York: Routledge,
1996).
42 Being the disease of „others,“ syphilis received the name of the French or Spanish disease
in Ttaly, the Naples disease in France, the French disease in England, the Spanish disease in
Holland and Portugal, the German disease in Poland, Polish in Russia and Portuguese or
Persian i n lndia.
43 Puff, Sodomy in Reformation Germany, 134.
44 Rublack, Dressing Up, 132.
45 Homi K. Bhabha, „The other question: stereotype, discrimination and the discourse of
colonialism,“ in The Location ofCulture (London, New York: Routledge, 1994), 67.
102
eighteenth century46 indicates that France did not perceive Getmany as a threat
to its national body. For France it was Italy that played the same roJe as Gallia
did for Germania, inciting an „abstract cultural desire mixed with fear“47 and
generating similar discourses of contagion and invasion. After all, at this time
syphilis was known in France as mal de Napfes, sodomy as the Italian vice, and
the Italians were blamed for making the French too effeminate with their style,
as Rebecca Zorach demonstrates in her article. These conclusions reveal striking
similarities between conventions in stereotyping. Perhaps, we should not Iimit
ourselves to simply bringing anthropological methods of research into medieval
and early modern material, but also focus on achieving a complex understanding
of mechanisms and themes involved in the image construction of „others“
throughout histoty.
46 Fink, „Reflexions sur l’imagologie,“ 29.
47 Rebecca Zorach. „The Matter of l taly,“ 605.
103
MEDIUM AEVUM
QUOTIDIANUM
64
KREMS 2012
HERAUSGEGEBEN
VON GERHARD JARITZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DERKULTURABTEILUNG
DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
KULTUR rn NIEDERÖSTERREICH .•
Titelgraphik Stephan J. Tramer
ISSN 1029-0737
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der
materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 1 3 , 3500 Krems, Österreich.
Für den Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche
Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. –
Druck: Grafisches Zentrum an der Technischen Universität Wien, Wiedner
Hauptstraße 8-10, I 040 Wien.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Francesca Battista, Umotismo, satira e parodia nelle lettere erotiche
di Enrico di Isernia ………………………………….. ………………….. 5
Jan Odstrcilik, The Effects ofChrist’s Coming into the Soul.
A Case Study on a Group of Anonymous Treatises
in Ms. Cambtidge, Corpus Christi Library 524 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2
Katefina Homickova, My Saints: „Personal“ Relic Collections
in Bohemia before Emperor Charles IV . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Elisabeth Vavra, Totentanz a la mode . .. . . . . . …. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . …. .. . . …. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. 62
Ievgen A. Khalkov, Everyday Life and Material Culture
in the Venetian and Genoese Trading Stations ofTana in the 1430s
(Based on the Study ofNotarial Documents) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ….. 84
Irina Savinetskaya, „Othering“ a Neighbour: Perccptions
of the French Body in the Early Modern German Lands . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Buchbesprechw1g . . . .. . ……. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . 104
Anschriften der Autorinnen und Autoren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 08
Vorwort
Die vorliegende Ausgabe von Medium Aevum Quotidianum soll neuerlich die
Breite vermitteln, in welcher Bereiche des mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen
Alltags in der Quellenüberlieferung unterschiedlichster Inhalte, Autoren,
Datierung, Provenienz und sozialer Gmppierungen auftreten können.
Wärend sich Francesca Battista mit „erotischen“ Musterbriefen des Heinrich
von lserna aus dem dreizehnten Jalu·hundert beschäftigt, konzentriert sich
Jan Odstrcilik auf anonyme Texte böhmischer Herkunft in einer Handschrift des
vierzehnten Jahrhunderts aus der Corpus Christi Library in Cambridge, welche
sich mit dem Eintritt Gottes in die menschliche Seele auseinandersetzen. Auch
Katei‘.ina Hornlekova widmet sich Lebensäußerungen im böhmischen Raum und
zwar den Reliquiensammlungen von Angehörigen der Prager Eliten bereits vor
dem Zeitraum und den diesbezüglichen Bestrebungen Kaiser Karls IV.
Elisabeth Vavra untersucht Totentanz-Darstellungen des deutschsprachigen
Raumes aus dem fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhundert und kann feststellen,
dass die in diesen auftretenden Kleidungsdarstellungen der wiedergegebenen
Protagonisten zur Kenntlichmachung der Standeszugehörigkeit derselben
dienen sollten und nicht, um visuell auf deren standestypische Verfehlungen
hinzuweisen. Tevgen A. Khalkov untersucht die letztwilligen Verftigungen der
Bewohner der Venezianischen und Genueser Handelstationen von Tana am
Schwarzen Meer aus den Dreißigerjahren des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts hinsichtlich
ihrer Aussagen zur materiellen Kultur und weist auf die herausragende
Stellung des Kleidungswesens hin. lrina Savinetskaya liefert Ergebnisse ihrer
Forschungen zur Konstruktion des Fremdbildes von Franzosen in deutschen
Quellen des fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhunderts und deren Verhältnis zur
Selbstbeurteilung der Deutschen.
Damit liefern die sechs Beiträge wichtige Ergebnisse zu Alltag, spiritueller
und materieller Kultur von Angehörigen unterschiedlicher sozialer Schichten
profaner und klerikaler Provenienz. Sie können dadurch mithelfen, die komparative
Erforschung mittelalterlicher und frühneuzeitlicher Lebensgestalttung
erfolgreich voranzutreiben.
Gerhard Jaritz
4