Dreoming of the Middle Ages ‘ee there any conecson erent Heroic Famay of Fak Frmera te new soni, Ear he Anon as Jags Le Goff? If they met aboard some unidentified ying object near Mento, wal Dah Vader, qs our, nd Parl peck these lingage? Ise, wold be alc pin ore ain of the Gop! ecordng to Se Lake Stywaet Tne, sce ht peopl ie he idle Age. A ew mae sxe in an American boar allow out Sacre may ne cing specs ofthis nmedionl ee, Let me que aly few eof pupercis you fd nthe cone of nongemace Browse Word Cll Cet, Th er of King, Ta Sor 1s Fogel The Lae of he Bask, Drager. Drei, Te am te ore To Ls Defer of Cane, Toe Droge Hard, Dr Wh and th Cnc Mage Que, Cami th Het, tte ine rging fem Cae ge, ico each Ceslesand rod dengeon © sword nthe stn, ics sd elt comedic ope. 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American cultivated masochism has abundantly agonized about such wonders the eur Cale and he ene ofthe Clase f(b irr being move pli inped) Br Gh Beside he point “The cronies of he New Mile Agel el of hoards sf readers dconerng Barbara Tuchman. ‘The decor of the Meopottan Mise ha eid wo exit “re” fs all ‘the forgeries that his pablic previously admired as the real thing, sd the cows quetcing athe museum, eyes a, fr ‘Shion of edie ih acae acest upton ofa newest “Americ hving come to gis with 1776 devouring the Real Pas Cane pislogy props, bt phiblogy all he same. ‘The Americas want and realy ike repo hora recone ‘struction (perhaps because only after a text has been rigorously ‘conrad ca be incon cose). Like mary 2 Te te Me oe Europeans, many Americans aso took the lm Exalfur as the real Middle Ages but many, many others are looking for some {hing more rea ‘Wha’ happening on the other side ofthe Atantic Ocean? In Grea Brain and France the nineteenth century was the ag of the historical novel, of Walter Soot and Vietoe Hugo, and there is fae which links the historical novel co medieval opie. This trend never died, andthe shelves of every bookstore in London of Pars are ful of interesting examples of medieval aotels of 1 ‘mances. On the other hand, Kaians have never sored emaable achievement in this ld. The relationship berween Tain er= sure and the Middle Ages at alvaye been uinfornnate, Sach names 1s Guernizi, Cini, Gros, and D’Azefio sound wala © foneign ears and rightly so. Wich perhaps the sole exception of DiAzepi's Bore Fram, che medieval stuff produced in aly daring the lat century was clomy, boring, and bombastic. Out ‘atcnal novel of tut tine, Manzon’s The Beebe, didnot dog the foots of grand knights ad emperors; twas sti the sev ‘enteenth century and tld stony of oppressed peasants in a ped of raionl fustation. Thas Taian rcs have been irene that uring the las decade many Ilan aol inspired bythe Midle ‘Ages have appeared, some of them winning an unexpectedly large sudiene. I wl refain fom listing all he sound tbls and syne posi tha ave ecenly been devoted to this problem the ple fof “the rerun of che Midile Ages” has become obsessive, Other ‘countries, eventhough they are moce aerated to this Kind of revival ae alo debating the same question, and we shuld try to provide some answer "Thus we ae at presen winesng, both in Europe and Amer Jena period of renewed imeres in the Middle Ages, with acti ‘us esilation berwee fantastic neomedicrasm an response philological examination. Undoubredly what counts isthe second ‘spect ofthe phenomenon, and one must wonder why American 4ae more or less experiencing the same chsesion a8 Europeans aand why bth are devouring the reconstructions of Duby, Le Roy Lada, and Le Gof aif they were a new form of naratve. ‘Who could have suspected a decade ago, chat people were ready to sallow the registers of s medieval parish in Potos asi hey vere the chronicle ofan Agua Christie vice? ‘Weare dreaming the Middle Ages, some say. Bu in fc och ‘Americans and Europeans are inheritors of the Wester legacy, ‘andl the problems ofthe Western world emerged in the Middle ‘Ages Modem Ingages, merchant ies, cpinlisc economy (long swch bans, checks and prime rte) ar invention of medical so= ciey Inthe Middle Ages we witness the rise of moder armies, ofthe mover concept ofthe national sate, at well atthe iden of 8 superar federation (ander the banner ofa German Emperor ‘lcd bya Diet that functioned like an electoral convention) the struggle between the poor and the rch, the concept of heresy oF ideological deviation, even our contemporary notion of love a8 2 devesating unhappy happiness T could add the coficx between ‘church and se rade unions let in a eneporave mode) the technological transformation of lor. Ar the bepiasing of the ‘present millennium came the widespread inrodecion of wind- rls, there waste invention of horseshoes, ofthe shoulder har nest Tor horses and oxen, of straps and the modern ype of ‘udder hinged 1 he sera below the surfioe oF the water (withont ‘which invention the discovery of America would not have been posible). The compass came igo se, and there was the final a cezptance of Anb mathematics, hence the rise of modern ways of computing and doubl-entry bookkeeping. Ar the end ofthe er, iftweagre that the era sops conventionally in 1492, came gun. potrder and the Gutenberg galay. ‘We are sil lving under the banae of medial rechnology For instance, eyedases were 2 medieval vention, a imporant the mechanical loom or the team engine Ar thie, an ine teleewal who became fasghted a the age of fore va in mind the diclty of reading unreadable manasrps by torehigh in o Tatevl ede ark rooms beneath shadowy vauls) was nable to produce sc ‘ely after the age of fy. With the introduction of eyeglasses inllecual prodasiviy increted enormously and the following ‘centuries could beter exploit these human resources. [None of she aforementioned ideas and redies was bor in classical antiquiy. From ancient Greece and Reme we aquired 8 criain idea of tragedy (bur our theater is based on a medieval ‘model and an ideal of beauy, aswell s ou basi pileophic ‘concep. Bot from the Middle Ages we lered how to use them. ‘The Middle Ages are the root ofall our contemporary “hot” problems, and ic snot surprising that we go tack eo tht period very time we ask ourselves about our origin. ll he questions debated daring the sesons ofthe Common Marke originate from the siustion of medieval Europe. ‘Thus looking atthe Middle Ages mens loking at our ia- fangy, in the same way that a doctor, to understand our present state of health, asks ws aboot our childhood, o i the se way thatthe psychoanalyst, to understand our present neuroses, makes 4 careful investigation of the primal scene. ‘Our recur to the Middle Ages is quest for our root and, since we want to come back othe rel 10, we ae looking for “reliable Middle Ages" oc for romance and fanary, though (qeenrly this wih i misunderstood and, movel by «vague itt ple, we indulge in a sor of escpism a a Tolkien. ‘Bat is dreaming ofthe Middle Ages rely typical contem- porary or postmodem temptation? Its tue—and ie is~ thatthe ‘Mile Ages tamed us nto Weer animal, eis equally tre that people started dreaming of the Middle Ages from the very begio= ing ofthe modern er. ‘A Continuous Resura ‘Modem ages have revisited the Middle Ages fom the moment ‘when, acording to historical handbooks, they came to an end. «‘The mover ea bepas with some astounding achievements ofthe Inunan sii the discovery of Amesie, the iberaton of Granada (th dhe consequent destruction ofthe Arb cen legacy which ould hive aneipated the Renassince and the sise of modem science), andthe beginning ofthe second Diaspora wit the exile ofthe Jews from Spin (pogroms were invented eal, by the (Crusader; Westem clzaton has a complex pedigree). ‘immediately afer che oficial ending ofthe Middle Ages, Ea rope mas ravaged by 2 persive medieal nosagi. In Kay the ‘great poets ofthe Rensanee fom Pale to Boiardo and Aros, ‘eared tothe themes of che Kaighs sage. Teoflo Folengo wrote Balas, 2 poem conceived in an incredible atin dean; Torgeat> ‘Tasso, the great poet of Ialian Mannerism, celebrated the gores ofthe Crsiders In Spin, Cervantes tld the story of a man un- be to recoeile the intrusion of realty with is love for medieval Treratare Shakespeare borrowed and reshaped lot fom medie~ vil nareave. ‘AC the dowering of the English Rensissnce John Dee or ‘Rober: Fudd rediscovered symbols and emblems of medieval Jew= ‘sh mysticism. Even in the baroque period, when moder science seemed dominated by the new paridgms of Galileo or Newton, the Church of the Counter Reformation worked slemly tim prove or to pollute the philosophy of the Schoolmen, while in France Mabilon redicorered the treasures of mediel man Scrpts. Asa stmiodcian I eannot forget that ne of the most out standing achievements in the theory of signs was due to an ino= ‘ating follower of Aquinas, Jon of Ssine Thomas or as they call, him now, Jean Poinsot. Daring the Age of Reason, while the circle ofthe French Engel was seemingly Sighting the final bate guns che remnants of the Dark Ages, thee Dark Ages started charming the astocras, with the Gothic novel and early Ossie ‘Romanticism. Geographically dose, even thovgh prychoogialy far from the Case of Ouran, Ludovico Antonio Marstri col Iced in his Ren Lala Serigars the ancient chronicles of “ —_ ‘hen tee ge ‘medieval grandeur. Soon Chateaubriand wast celebrate the rise of Gothic cathedral under the tees ofthe Calc forest, while ‘thanks ro Walter Sent, Veto Hogo, and the resorasons of Vil- Jecle-Doc, the whole inetenth century would dream of is own ‘Middle Ages, ths avenging the enlightened eesrure of Napoleon, ‘who cat che ympanum of Notre Dame t allow his imperil cor: ‘ge to enter the cathedral (Oday enough one could see, fom the Conesional of the Black Penitents, Futons seambou sang eriamphandly and T do not exscly know whether the spinning jenny and che power loom ‘were neo-Gothic machinery or whether the Nightmare Abbey of Gregory the Monk was ¢faceory for the concocion of Gothic dreams. The Taian Risorgimento was a period of abundant me- iva repboge, not to metion Italian opera, ill 25 it of trou ‘badous and finaly there was the German neomediral veri of the ease of Ludvig of Havaria and Wagner's pasion of the univer. ‘What would Roskin, Morris, and the pre-Raphaclies have said if they had been told thc the rediscovery ofthe Middle Ages ‘woul be the work ofthe twenteth-cenury mass media? (Casi and Medieralizn Ac this pon we mast being up atleast wo questions. First, what dstinguishes this permanent rediscovery ofthe Middle Ages from the equally permanent rer to the asic heritage? Second, did the many Middle Ages (00 many) amas fc the sume archergpe? ‘As fr the first question, we can oppose the model of pio logical reconstruction to that of wari bricolage. Tn the cae ofthe remains of classi angry we reconstret them but, once we have rebuie them, we don'e duel in chem, we ‘only contemplate them as an ideal model and a masterpiece of fitful restoration. On the contrary, the Midle Ages have never been reconstricted from scratch: We have alvayy mended ot opatched them up, as something in which we sil Ine. We have cobbled op the bank aswell s the extbedral he state a well 5 the church, We no longer dvell in the Parthenon, but we sil valk or pray i the raves ofthe cathedral Even whe we ie with Aristotle of Plt, we del wth them in che same terms suggested ‘by car medieval ancestors, When one scrapes away the medieval ‘ncrstations ftom Aristotle and renews him, this reread Aristo wl adom the shelves of academic Liraries bat wil ell ot con ect with our everyday Le. Since the Middle Ages have always been mested up in onder ‘meet the val roquirments of diferent periods i wis inspor ‘ble for chem to be always messed sbout inthe stne way. So TL ‘uy @ catlne atleast ten types of Middle Ages, ro warn readers that everytime one speaks of 2 dram ofthe Middle Ages, one should ist ask which Middle Ages one is dreaming of “Ten Linle Middle Ages 1. The Middle Ages ata prexe This i the Mile Ages of opera or of Torquato Tasso. There i no real interes inthe hie torial bachground; the Middle Ages are taken a a sort of myth- ‘logical sage on which to place contemporary charscers. Under this heading we can indude also che socalled cloakeand-dagger roves (or kr romans de cape et dpi). There sa diference be- tween historical novels and. cloakoand-dagger sa. The former choose a particular historical period so sto gain a beer under standing not enly ofthat period but (through if) of our present time, seen a the end result of those remote hisoricl events. The ‘chancters of the novel need not be “realy historical” (dar i, ‘people who realy ented) is enough for them (lbeie Sonal) ‘tw be representative oftheir pciod. Lady Rowena and Pierre Be- ‘ako ae inventions of noel, bt they tel os something “tue” bout che English Middle Ages and about Rusa a the time of ‘apoeon. On the contrary inthe close and- dagger novel the fc- e ‘heen athe Mie op onl characters must move among “rel” historical Sgures who ‘wll suppor tei credibly. Thnk of Dumas and ofthe ec raraive fle played by such characers as Richelen and Louis [IL Notwithstanding the presence of real” characters the p= chology of P’Artagnan has nothing todo withthe pychology of ‘is century, and he could hve blastered through the sume adven- ‘aes during the French Revolution. Thus in historical novels f= ‘dona characters help one to understand the pst (and the past rot taken asa preted, while in cloaeand-dogger novels the past (Gaken ata preter) helps one to enjoy the fctonal characters, 72. The Middle Ages as the ste of an ional revatio, in ‘onder to speculate about our infancy, ofcourse, but lio about the ison of oar seni. Aristo and Cervantes revisit che Middle ‘Age in the same way that Sergio Leone and the other masters of the “spaghers Western” revise ninetenthcentury America, Iheroiefntsy, something already fashioned by che early Holly. ‘wood studios. Tn che same sense, Rabelas was plying upon Bis ‘tstialy revisited Sorbonne, but he no longer belived inthe ‘Prise wasting of, the chances in Monty Python movies