When ego was imago : signs of identity in the Middle Ages

Author(s)

    • Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte Miriam

Bibliographic Information

When ego was imago : signs of identity in the Middle Ages

by Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak

(Visualising the Middle Ages, v. 3)

Brill, 2011

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Twelfth-century individuals negotiated personal relationships along a continuum connecting rather than polarizing immediacy and mediated representation. Their markers of individuation, signs of identity and media of communication thus evidence practical engagement with contemporary medieval sign theory and perceptions of reality. In this study, the relevance of modern theory for the interpretation of medieval artifacts is shown to depend upon the parallel existence of theoretical activity by the producers and users of such artifacts. In the cultural landscape of the central Middle Ages, the axes of iconicity, semantics and materiality traced by charters, seals, and by both concrete and metaphorical images of the imprint, dynamically shaped the boundaries within which a sense of self was formulated, modulated, experienced, and enacted.

Table of Contents

List of Plates ... xi List of Abbreviations ... xxv Acknowledgments ... xxvii Introduction ... 1 PART I: SOURCES AND METHODS Chapter One Beyond the Text: Medieval Documentary Practices ... 9 Medieval Charters, Then and Now ... 9 Documentary, Production and Conservation ... 13 Diplomatic Discourse and the Performance of Charters ... 17 Acculturation to Documentary Practices ... 22 The Authentication of Charters: Persons, Signs, Seals ... 26 The Scope of Medieval Charter Referentiality ... 31 Chapter Two Toward an Archaeology of the Medieval Charter ... 37 The Archival Profile of Saint-Fursy of Peronne ... 40 The Production and Reproduction of Charters at Notre-Dame of Homblieres ... 44 The Dispersed Charters of the Counts of Ponthieu ... 46 Authority, Authenticity, and the Intertextuality of Diplomatic Discourse ... 49 Narrative Form and Material Format: A Mutual Engagement ... 50 Chapter Three Sign Theory, Medieval and Modern ... 55 The Role of Theory in Sigillography ... 55 Evaluating Sign Theories ... 60 A Mutually Challenging Encounter: Semiotic Anthropology and the Middle Ages ... 65 PART II: IMAGO Chapter Four The King's Sign ... 75 A Merovingian Icon: The Royal Seal ... 76 Carolingian Rulers: The Power of Royal and Imperial Seals ... 78 Post-Carolingian Kingship: Sealing in Transition ... 84 Capetian Kings: The End of a Prerogative and the Re-Invention of the Royal Seal ... 90 Chapter Five Eucharistic Theology and Episcopal Signature ... 95 Episcopal Modes of Communication ... 96 The Debate over Real Presence and the Appearance of Episcopal Seals ... 102 Chapter Six Medieval Identity: Subject, Object, Agency ... 109 A Network of Schools and Chanceries ... 113 The Augustinian Paradox and its Role in Scholarly Controversy ... 121 Personhood and Individuality ... 129 The Ego of Diplomatic Discourse ... 132 Persona in Sign and Metaphor ... 140 Ego to Imago ... 150 From Identity to Stereotype ... 152 Chapter Seven Images of Identity and the Identity of Images ... 161 Images and the Senses: From Gregory the Great to Guillaume Durand ... 161 The Currency of Imago: Augustine, Byzantine Anti-Iconoclasm, and Twelfth-Century Scholarship ... 171 Mirror ... 180 Imprint ... 186 Replica ... 202 PART III: EGO Chapter Eight Difformitas: Invective, Individuality, Identity ... 209 The Invectiva of Arnulf of Lisieux ... 210 Strategies of Character Assassination ... 216 The Rhetoric of Vilification ... 220 'Difformitas' as Individuality ... 225 Chapter Nine The Semiotics of Personality in the Middle Ages ... 231 Identity and Individuality ... 233 Individuality and Personhood ... 235 Urban Identity and the Ideal City ... 238 The Saint and the City ... 243 Urban Identity and the Historical City ... 247 The Individuality of Human Collectives ... 249 Conclusion ... 253 Bibliography ... 257 Index ... 287 Plates ... (after 296)

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