Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the spatial, material, and affective dimensions of solitude in the late medieval and early modern periods, a hitherto largely neglected topic. Its focus is on the dynamic qualities of “space” and “place”, which are here understood as being shaped, structured, and imbued with meaning through both social and discursive solitary practices such as reading, writing, studying, meditating, and praying. Individual chapters investigate the imageries and imaginaries of outdoor and indoor spaces and places associated with solitude and its practices and examine the ways in which the space of solitude was conceived of, imagined, and represented in the arts and in literature, from about 1300 to about 1800. Contributors include Oskar Bätschmann, Carla Benzan, Mette Birkedal Bruun, Dominic E. Delarue, Karl A.E. Enenkel, Christine Göttler, Agnès Guiderdoni, Christiane J. Hessler, Walter S. Melion, Raphaèle Preisinger, Bernd Roling, Paul Smith, Marie Theres Stauffer, Arnold A. Witte, and Steffen Zierholz.
Trade Review“This edited volume is indispensable for anyone pursuing research in the formation of the cultures of modernity. The students of the history of culture, literature, art, and architecture of late medieval and early modern period of the West will equally find this book an important addition to their resources.” Mehran Qureshi, in: Reading Religion, 1 October 2020.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on the Editors Notes on the Contributors List of Illustrations 1 Realms of Solitude in Late Medieval and Early Modern European Cultures: An Introduction Christine Göttler Part 1: Solitude in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Foundations, Shifts, and Transformations 2 Petrarch’s Constructions of the Sacred Solitary Place in De vita solitaria and Other Writings Karl A.E. Enenkel 3 Monastic Solitude as Spiritual Remedy and Firewall against Reformation: Cornelius Musius’s Reappraisal of the Vita Solitaria (1566) Karl A.E. Enenkel 4 Concepts of Solitude in Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea Dominic E. Delarue 5 ‘Sacred Woods’: Performing Solitude at the Court of Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria Christine Göttler Part 2: Solitude in the Pictorial and Emblematic Imagination 6 Anachoretic Ideals in Urban Settings: Meditational Practices and Mural Painting in Trecento Italy Raphaèle Preisinger 7 Constructing the Imaginary Desert of the Soul in Emblematic Literature Agnès Guiderdoni 8 Emblemata solitariae Passionis: Jan David, S.J., on the Solitary Passion of Christ Walter S. Melion Part 3: Landscapes of Solitude 9 Giovanni Bellini’s San Francesco nel deserto Oskar Bätschmann 10 Landscapes and Visual Exegesis: Solitude in the Chapel of Fra Mariano Fetti in San Silvestro al Quirinale Steffen Zierholz 11 Alone at the Summit: Solitude and the Ascetic Imagination at the Sacro Monte of Varallo Carla Benzan Part 4: Architectures of Solitude 12 Dead Men Talking: The Studiolo of Urbino. A Duke in Mourning and the Petrarchan Tradition Christiane J. Hessler 13 Sociable Solitude: The Early Modern Hermitage as Proto-Museum Arnold A. Witte 14 A Solitude of Permeable Boundaries: The Abbey of La Trappe between Isolation and Engagement Mette Birkedal Bruun 15 Mirrors and Memories: The Chinese Mirror Cabinet at the Hermitage near Bayreuth Marie Theres Stauffer Part 5: Solitude in Antiquarian and Natural History 16 The Prophetess in the Woods: The Early Modern Debate about Veleda, Aurinia, and Vola Bernd Roling 17 Passer solitarius: Tribulations of a Lonely Bird in Poetry and Natural History, from Petrarch to Buffon Paul J. Smith Index Nominum
