Seeing Through the Veil: Optical Theory and Medieval Allegory

365 Pages·2004·19.144 MB·English

by  Suzanne Conklin Akbari

SEEING THROUGH THE VEIL
OPTICAL THEORY AND MEDIEVAL ALLEGORY
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Suzanne Conklin Akbari
Seeing through
the Veil
OPTICAL THEORY AND MEDIEVAL ALLEGORY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2004
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-3605-8
Printed on acid-free paper
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Akbari, Suzanne Conklin
Seeing through the veil: optical theory and medieval
allegory / Suzanne Conklin Akbari.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-3605-8
1. Literature, Medieval - History and criticism. 2. Allegory.
I. Title.
PN682.A5A32 2004 809'.915 C2003-906291-0
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through
the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
For Omama
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
1 Illumination and Language 3
2 The Multiplication of Forms 21
3 Guillaume de Lorris's Roman de la rose 45
4 Jean de Meun's Roman de la rose 78
5 Dante's Vita nuova and Convivio 114
6 Dante's Commedia 138
7 Chaucer's Dream Visions 178
8 Chaucer's Personification and Vestigial Allegory
in the Canterbury Tales 211
9 Division and Darkness 234
Notes 245
Bibliography 307
Index 339
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PREFACE
This is a study of several allegories by authors including Dante and
Chaucer in the context of medieval theories of optics. It differs from
previous studies both in the depth of its engagement with the medieval
scientific and philosophical background, and in the breadth of the
literature surveyed. The book is intended to be useful not only to readers
interested in the specific allegories discussed here, but also to those
interested in the scientific context of other medieval literature: chapter 2
includes a survey of optical theories prevalent in medieval Europe,
allowing the reader to learn about the intellectual milieu of works not
explicitly discussed in this book. It also suggests how medieval theories of
vision relate to modern psychoanalytic theories that also use optical
terminology to describe the link between subject and object.
Vision is almost always important in allegory, but its role varies: some
early medieval authors presume the identity of sight and knowledge,
while late medieval authors are often sceptical of the possibility of any
certain knowledge, whether mediated by vision or by language. Such
varied responses offer a way to track changes not only in the genre of
allegory, but also in the medieval understanding of the individual's
relationship to the surrounding world. This study attempts to follow the
models of David Lindberg and Katherine Tachau in seeking to under-
stand broad cultural changes as responses to medieval innovations in
optics; it differs, however, in illustrating these changes not within science
or philosophy, but in some of the best known literature of the Middle
Ages.
The transparent mediation between subject and object, between reader
and meaning, is the purpose of allegory. Some medieval allegories seem
to fulfil this purpose, acting as a perfect mirror which unites the earthly