The Knowledge of Childhood in the German Middle Ages, 1100-1350

340 Pages·1995·19.816 MB·English

by  James A. Schultz Jr.

The Knowledge of Childhood
in the German Middle Ages, 1100-1350
University of Pennsylvania Press
MIDDLE AGES SERIES
Edited by
Ruth Mazo Karras,
Temple University
Edward Peters,
University of Pennsylvania
The Knowledge of
Childhood in the
German Middle Ages,
1100-1350
James A. Schultz
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 1995 by the University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schultz, James A. (James Alfred), 1947-
The knowledge of childhood in the German Middle Ages, 1100-1350
/ James A. Schultz.
p. cm. —(Middle Ages Series)
Includes
ISBN 0-8122-3297-6
1. Children—Germany—History. 2. Social history—Medieval,
500-1500. 3. Children in literature. I. Title. II. Series.
HQ792.G3S376 1995
305.23'0943'0902—dc2o 95-17057
CIP
for my parents
SHIRLEY AND WILBERT SCHULTZ
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiii
On Notes, Translations, and Names xix
1. Zingerle's Rattle: History and the Knowledge of Childhood 1
Historiography from Ariès to Zingerle 2
The Knowledge of Childhood 9
The Nature of the Evidence 13
The Shape of the Argument 17
2. Words: Defining the Terms of Childhood 21
General Terms 23
Aristocratic Terms 31
Vocational Terms 34
Service 35
Abstraction 37
The Power of Words 40
3. Nature: The Determinations of Birth 43
The Nature of the Child 45
The Nature of the Noble Lineage 54
The Nature of the Hero/ine 61
The Nature of Change 69
4. Nurture: The Limits of Intervention 72
Care 73
Education 77
viii Contents
Pedagogy 92
Nature and Nurture 98
Congruence and Contradiction 103
5. Relations: Attachment, Separation, and Strange Situations 106
Filiation: Natal Relations 108
Exfiliation: Breaking Ties 117
Affiliation: Making New Ties 132
Growing Away 138
6. Adulthood: Coming of Age or Growing Up 143
Love and Friendship 144
Secular Rites of Passage 148
Saintly Affiliations 163
Disdaining the Secular Rites 167
Childhood and Adulthood, Secular and Religious 170
7. Genres: Different Children's Stories 174
Scenes from Childhood 175
Coming of Age 178
Later Childhood 184
Comprehensive Childhood 187
The End Justifies the Means 196
8. History: Two-and-a-Half Centuries of Childhood 199
1100-150: The Age of the Prophets 200
1150–1200: Importing Childhood 201
1200–1250: The Golden Age of Secular Childhood 209
1250–1300: Disillusion and the Return of the Saints 219
1300–1350: Perfunctory Childhood 235
History, Sacred and Secular 241
9. Obilot's Games: A Different Knowledge of Childhood 244
The Deficiency of Childhood and the Hegemony
of Adulthood 246
Contents ix
Static Nature and Social Change 251
Female and Male 256
Sacred and Secular 259
Childhood, Literature, History 263
Quid Obilot cum Hanno? 267
Bibliography 269
Middle High German Texts 269
Other Texts 279
Index of Middle High German Children 301
General Index 309