Table Of ContentOld Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Fundamentals of Medieval
and Early Modern Culture
Edited by
Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge
w
GDE
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
Old Age in the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance
Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Neglected Topic
Edited by
Albrecht Classen
w
DE
G_
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Old age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance : interdisciplinary
approaches to a neglected topic / edited by Albrecht Classen
p. cm. - (Fundamentals of Medieval and early modern cul-
ture ; 2)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-3-11-019548-4 (alk. paper)
1. Old age in literature. 2. Literature, Medieval - History and
criticism. 3. European literature - Renaissance, 1450-1600 - His-
tory and criticism. 4. Old age - Europe -History. I. Classen,
Albrecht.
PN682.043043 2007
809'.93354-dc22
2007015534
ISBN 978-3-11-019548-4
ISSN 1864-3396
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet
at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
© Copyright 2007 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
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system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in Germany
Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin
Printing and binding: Hubert & Co., Göttingen
Table of Contents
Albrecht Classen
Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance:
Also an Introduction
Cristina Sogno
Age and Style in Late Antique Epistolography:
Symmachus's Polemics against the Rhetoric of the Old
Britt C. L. Rothauser
Winter in Heorot: Looking at Anglo-Saxon Perceptions
of Age and Kingship through the Character of Hrothgar
Valerie L. Garver
Old Age and Women in the Carolingian World
Jonathan Lyon
The Withdrawal of Aged Noblemen into Monastic Communities:
Interpreting the Sources from Twelfth-Century Germany
Juanita Feros Ruys
Medieval Latin Meditations on Old Age:
Rhetoric, Autobiography, and Experience
Rasma Lazda-Cazers
Old Age in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Titurel
Albrecht Classen
Old Age in the World of The Strieker and
Other Middle High German Poets: A Neglected Topic
vi Table of Contents
Anne Berthelot
Merlin, puer senex par excellenc 251
Jean E. Jost
Age-Old Words of Wisdom: The Power of the Aged
in Grail Literature 263
Gretchen Mieszkowski
Old Age and Medieval Misogyny: The Old Woman 299
Karen Pratt
De vetula: the Figure of the Old Woman in Old French Literature 321
Connie L. Scarborough
Celestina: The Power of Old Age 343
Marilyn Sandidge
Forty Years of Plague: Attitudes toward Old Age
in the Tales of Boccaccio and Chaucer 357
Harry Peters
Jupiter and Saturn: Medieval Ideals of "Eide" 375
Daniel F. Pigg
Old Age, Narrative Form, and Epistemology in
Langland's Piers Plowman: The Possibility of Learning 393
Scott Taylor
"L'aage plus fort ennaye": Scienta mortis, Ars moriendi
and Jean Gerson's Advice to an Old Man 407
Sarah Gordon
Representations of Aging and Disability in Early-Sixteenth
French Farce 421
Anouk Janssen
The Good, the Bad, and the Elderly: The Representation of
Old Age in Netherlandish Prints (ca. 1550-1650) 437
Table of Contents vii
Martha Peacock
Hoorndragers and Hennetasters: The Old Impotent Cuckold
as "Other" in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century
Netherlandish Art 485
Sophie Bostock
A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man—
with Emphasis on Titian 517
Allison P. Coudert
The Sulzbach Jubilee: Old Age in Early Modern Europe
and America 533
Contributors 557
Index 563
List of Illustrations 573
Albrecht Classen
(University of Arizona, Tucson)
Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance:
Also an Introduction1
In the foreword to his path-breaking collection of studies on the history of
European mentality from antiquity to the present, Peter Dinzelbacher, defining
some of the key elements of the history of mentality, lists as one of the most
important aspects for this research area the relationship between young and old
people, between the rule of the old and, hopefully, wise versus the rule of the
young, often considered impetuous, inconsiderate, hasteful, and lacking in
wisdom. Other aspects representative of the history of mentality are, to touch
upon a few more topics, the attitude toward sexuality, fears and hopes, the
experience of joy, sorrow, and happiness, the evaluation and treatment of sickness,
concepts of death and the afterlife, the significance of physical labor, concepts of
violence, religiosity, cosmogony, space, time, and communication.2 Since the
publication of this most useful handbook, which covers all three major historical
periods—antiquity, Middle Ages, the modern era—the history of mentality has
experienced a considerable expansion, as reflected by numerous new studies
which are concerned with issues such as anger, people's attitude toward the night,
the relationship between adults and children, marriage, the family, and so forth.3
1 I would like to recognize the helpful comments by Robert Levine and Juanita Feros Ruys, both
contributors to this volume. I also greatly appreciate Karen K. Jambeck's careful and critical reading
and her helpful suggestions.
2 Europäische Mentalitätsgeschichte: Hautthemen in Einzeldarstellungen, ed. Peter Dinzelbacher. Kröners
Taschenausgabe, 469 (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1993), X-XI.
3 Peter Dinzelbacher, Angst im Mittelalter: Teufels-, Todes- und Gotteserfahrung: Mentalitätsgeschichte und
Ikonographie (Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, and Zurich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1996); Anger's Past:
The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages, ed. Barbara H. Rosenwein (Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press, 1998); Tzotcho Boiadjiev, Die Nacht im Mittelalter, trans, from Bulgarian
to German by Barbara Müller (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2003); Nancy Caciola,
Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages. Conjunctions of Religion &
2 Albrecht Classen
Broadly speaking, the topic of old age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
however, though certainly dealt with by Klaus Arnold (Middle Ages) and Beatrix
Basti (modern era) in Dinzelbacher's volume, even if only cursorily, has not yet
attracted adequate attention. Arnold, for instance, discusses the various stages of
life according to classical models from antiquity and established by Isidor of
Sevilla and later further developed by Philip of Novare, and also explores generic
ideals of youth and the desire to resist the aging process, whereas Basti not only
extends Arnold's outline by examining the attitudes toward old age since the
sixteenth century, but also makes an attempt to differentiate between men's and
women's experiences of old age.4 Most recently, Dinzelbacher himself emphasizes
that medieval people generally died very early, but the attitudes toward old age
differed considerably, partly determined by great respect for the elder, partly by
self-pity (Walther von der Vogelweide, Hugo Primas). In general, as we learn from
Europa im Hochmittelalter, the proper preparation for death played a major role
within the world of Christianity.5
The massive research project by Philippe Aries and Georges Duby to explore the
history of private life seems to have ignored old age as such, although the volume
on the Middle Ages includes topics such as 'domestic society,' 'search for the
father/ 'exile,' 'courtly love and jealousy,' 'accused women/ 'brothers/ 'women
and marriage/ 'the couple alone/ 'women in the community/ 'heat and light in the
house/ 'the active life and the contemplative life/ 'the body/ 'bathing and
bleeding/ 'nudity,' 'the inner voice/ 'identity/ 'dreams/ etc.6 Aries offered
occasional comments on old age, but he mostly limited himself to highlighting the
Power in the Medieval Past (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003); Katarzyna Dybel,
Etre heureux au moyen age. D'apres le roman arthurien en prose du xiiie siecie. Synthema, 2 (Louvain,
Paris, Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2004); Childhood in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: The Results of a
Paradigm Shift in the History of Mentality, ed. Albrecht Classen (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter,
2005); Albrecht Classen, Der Liebes- und Ehediskurs vom hohen Mittelalter bis zum frühen 17.
Jahrhundert. Volksliedstudien, 5 (Münster, New York, Munich, and Berlin: Waxmann, 2005).
Surprisingly, the history of mentality has not yet met with much interest in the Anglophone world,
but see Janet Kay Ryder, "Miracles and Mentality: The Medieval Experience," Ph.D. dissertation,
University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993; Alan E. Bernstein, The Formation of Hell: Death and
Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian World (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press,
1993). See also Peter Dinzelbacher, Europa im Hochmittelalter: Eine Kultur- und Mentalitätsgeschichte.
Kultur und Mentalität (Darmstadt: Primus Verlag, 2003); Johannes Grabmayer, Europa im späten
Mittelalter, 1250-1500: Eine Kultur- und Mentalitätsgeschichte. Kultur und Mentalität (Darmstadt:
Primus Verlag, 2004).
4 "Lebensalter" (Arnold, "Mittelalter," 216-22; Basti, "Neuzeit," 222-29).
5 Dinzelbacher, Europa im Hochmittelalter, 139; id., An der Schwelle zum Jenseits: Sterbevisionen im
interkulturellen Vergleich (Freiburg: Herder, 1989); Grabmayer, Europa im späten Mittelalter, 123-24,
also offers only fleeting references.
6 Revelations of the Medieval World, ed. Georges Duby. A History of Private Life, Π (1985; Cambridge,
MA, and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1988).
