Pleasure in the Middle Ages: An Introduction

Naama Cohen Hanegbi (1) , Piroska Nagy (2, 3)

1 TAU - Tel Aviv University
2 UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal
3 TELEMME - Temps, espaces, langages Europe méridionale-Méditerranée

Explores the manifold manifestations of pleasure in medieval culture and the various rationales to its appearance and use. This volume explores the diverse manifestations and uses of pleasure in medieval culture. Pleasure is a sensation, an affirmation, a practice, and is at the core of the medieval worldview, no less than pain. Applying a variety of methodological perspectives, the essays collected here analyse the role of pleasure in relation to a variety of subjects such as the human body, love, relationships, education, food, friendship, morality, devotion, and mysticism. They also integrate a wide range of sources including literature (monastic to courtly), medical texts, illuminated prayer books, iconography, and theatrical plays. Each document, each discipline, and thus each essay combine to provide a complex and diversified picture of medieval joys and delights — a picture that shows the extent to which pleasure is engrained in the period’s culture. This collection shows how pleasure in the Middle Ages is at once a coveted feeling and a constant moral concern, both the object and the outcome of a constant negotiation between earthly and divine imperatives.

Mots clés: Pleasure; Middle Ages; Introduction

Domaines: Histoire

Naama Cohen Hanegbi, Piroska Nagy. Pleasure in the Middle Ages: An Introduction. Cohen Hanegbi Naama, Nagy Piroska. Pleasure in the Middle Ages, Brepols, pp.xi-xxiii, 2018. ⟨hal-02089937⟩