Chiara Benati, Università di Genova: Erwirdiger freundt Bernnharde…: Friendship and Community Among Late Medieval Surgeons as Presented in the Vernacular Translations of Lanfranc of Milan’s Surgical Works
As McVaugh (2006: 9) observes, “between 1240 and 1320, a new genre of medical writing appeared in Western Europe: Latin general surgery.” In the works produced during those eighty years, various authors developed a shared conception of surgery as a rational and scientific discipline. This is evident not only in the dedications to friends and colleagues in the proems of their works (e.g., to Bernard of Gordon in Lanfranc’s Chirurgia parva and magna), but also in how their texts build upon the teachings and experiences of their teachers, and predecessors, contributing to the growing body of collective knowledge. Despite the general tendency to reduce dedications and other rhetorical elements in the vernacular translations and adaptations of these Latin works, this sense of shared expertise continues to be present and is even more pronounced, as the core texts are often supplemented with remedies and techniques from other authors. This talk will focus on the Germanic translations of Lanfranc of Milan’s surgical works, particularly examining the additions suggesting that a late medieval surgical community really existed and was not a mere rhetorical convention.
Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, Department of German Studies: Community and Peace: The Political Discourse in the Late Middle Ages Regarding the Peaceful and Harmonious Community: Christine de Pizan and Frances Eiximenis
This talk will highlight the political treatises by Christine de Pizan and the Catalan Francesc Eiximenis addressing their society and outlining utopian concepts of harmony and peace within their respective community. On that basis, other late medieval narratives will be consulted, including negative examples, such as Heinrich Wittenwiler’s remarkably negative allegorical poem Der Ring.
William M. Mahan, Northern Arizona University: The Perfect Community? Proto-Capitalism and Proto-Socialism as Conceptual Antimonies in Medieval Visions of Utopia
In the present day, notions of utopia and dystopia have the additional burden of accounting for the coexistence of humans with artificial intelligence. The technology we create threatens us with (self-)destruction, and yet some are still hopeful of a paradisiacal future in which human and machine coexist in an ecologically stabilized world. Even more intriguing are the echoes of medieval imagination in the contradictions of utopia.
Epistemologies for the happiest possible earthly existence have reflected the possibility of an ideal community as early as antiquity. In the Middle Ages, happiness was achievable in the everyday sense; nonetheless, changing notions of happiness reflected hopes that it could be attained by creating and living in the perfect community. According to Frederic Jameson, authors such as Thomas More began to imagine alternatives to both feudalist society and to pastoral life. More is credited with the notion of Utopia, coining the title of his work from the Greek term, hence, a non-place, but also considered eutopia, or “good place.” As Jameson rightly observes, the imagined egalitarian, Commune-like social structures were proto-Marxist, but were also proto-capitalist in their emphasis on commerce, materialism and reification. Utopias were somewhat materially oriented and yet proposed notions of equality and abolition of private property. Examples include the poetry of Hartmann von Aue, the mythical medieval land of Cockaigne, the book Utopia by Thomas More, and the early modern mythical land of Arcadia. Ideas of various community sizes, political features, and locations varied greatly, but a commonality was some form of equality contributing to happiness. Many groups indeed relocated together in attempts to build a new, morally structured society.
While More’s vision included various (invented) religions coexisting in peaceful tolerance as well as an abolition of private property, there were paradoxically two slaves assigned to each household. Returning to present-day considerations, it is telling that the Czech and Russian word “robota” also means slave and labor. Medieval utopias seem to be an attempt to combine imagined notions of life without labor and ideas of how lasting peace could be reached. The abolition of property in this example seems not to be absolute and still creates dichotomies between privilege and servitude. This paper will seek to assess these imagined utopias not only in terms of Marxism (cf. Marxism in Medieval Studies), but also in terms of freedom, health, ecological friendliness and other measurements of well-being. This essay will consider fictional writings and poetry of the Middle Ages that imagines the ideal community, analyzing equality and other factors necessary for communal happiness.
Emanuele Piazza: Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy: A PATH TO PEACE AT THE END OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE: A READING OF THE GESTA KAROLI MAGNI IMPERATORIS OF NOTKER THE STAMMERER
The Gesta Karoli Magni imperatoris of Notker the Stammerer (ca. 840-912) reconstructs the figure of the great Frankish ruler, paying particular attention to highlighting the portrait of a pious and wise emperor rather than a great warrior. These virtues allowed Charlemagne to maintain peace in his kingdom, an objective that, according to Notker’s testimony, he achieved by, for example, disciplining the actions of the bishops and demonstrating his great value not only on the battlefields (although the strictly warlike dimension remains in the background), but also in establishing diplomatic relations with other politica! entities that came into contact with the Carolingians. In the Gesta, therefore, it is possible to trace some features of Charlemagne as a peaceful Emperor who, according to our author’s intentions, could have been a model for Charles the Fat, if the crisis of the imperial structure and the subsequent abdication had not interrupted the latter’s political! project.
John Pizer, Louisiana State University: Poetic Community, Social Standing, Friendship, and Happiness in Contexts of War and Peace: Contrasting Simon Dach with Sigmund von Birken
The Baroque Age in Germany witnessed the flourishing of poetic communities (“Sprachgesellschaften”) that were inspired by similar Italian societies already existent in the fifteenth century. While most of the German societies were devoted to developing a viable vernacular poetry that could rival the Latin verse prevalent at the time, these communities were disparate in terms of social standing, the thematization of war and peace, and the pursuit of happiness. The Kürbishütte (pumpkin cottage) was a society founded during the Thirty Years’ War and featured Simon Dach among its leading members. The group used the term “Kürbis” in its name to signal the transient and evanescent nature of life, exemplified by this short-lived plant. Dach’s poem on friendship as a mode of consolation in dire circumstances has attained a canonic status. Indeed, religion, community, and friendship are viewed as the only modes of happiness available by Dach and his colleagues in this society, who were primarily members of the middle class. On the other hand, poetic organizations such as the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (fruit-bearing society) and the Pegnesischer Blumenorden (Pegnitz order of flowers) had many aristocratic members. Poems generated by these groups often put aside the horrors of war and were frequently bucolic pastorals redolent with the simple, harmonious life of the shepherd. Relationships between figures in this poetry, while not devoid of rivalry, are largely amicable, sometimes amorous, and peaceful. A leading member of both societies was Sigmund von Birken, who had a close working relationship with Duke Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and was a prolific composer of pastoral poetry. My paper would contrast these differing modes and moods of poetic community by examining the often-antithetical attitudes of Dach and Birken with respect to their poetic communities, peace, happiness, and friendship, primarily as expressed in their poetry and as influenced by their social standing.
Leyla H. Tajer, University of Arizona: A Commitment to Happiness: Transforming Nature of Love in Rumi’s Cosmology
Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273) offers profound insights into the interplay of love (‘Ishq), happiness (Shādī), and self-realization in his Mathnawī. His philosophy suggests love as a transformative alchemical force that transcends individual boundaries, dissolves the ego, and connects humanity with the Divine. Rumi’s concept of happiness, rooted in the soul’s journey toward its source, reflects a dynamic spiritual state where sorrow and joy are inseparably linked, emphasizing self-awareness and surrender.
Building on contemporary scholarship, this paper situates Rumi’s vision of love within broader discussions of community building in Sufi traditions. It interrogates the relational dynamics of Rumi’s nafs al-mutma’inna (soul at peace), exploring how inner transformation fosters external harmony. Although Rumi’s focus on the ‘individual self’ and the ‘Divine Self’ might initially seem individualistic, his teachings ultimately emphasize the broader impact of personal spiritual growth in nurturing and enriching the community. This paper argues that Rumi’s notion of love – expanding beyond the self – lays the groundwork for communal flourishing by cultivating empathy, interconnection, and collective well-being.
By examining key passages from Mathnawī and Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, this paper delves into Rumi’s poetic brilliance to uncover profound insights into the human condition. It explores how his teachings on inner joy and divine love transcend temporal and cultural boundaries, offering transformative frameworks for addressing modern challenges. Through a synthesis of spiritual reflection and practical application, the paper illustrates how Rumi’s vision promotes unity, empathy, and resilience, laying the foundation for more harmonious and compassionate communities in today’s fragmented world.
Birgit Wiedl, Institute for Jewish History in Austria, St. Pölten, Austria:: My dear friend, the Jew. The Multitude of Jewish-Christian Relations in Medieval Ashkenaz
My dear friend, the wise and honorable David Steuss the Jew: Thus Johann Ribi von Platzheim-Lenzburg, Bishop of Gurk and chancellor of the Austrian Duke Rudolf IV addressed his business partner, the Viennese Jewish man David Steuss, who bore him nothing but loyalty and friendship, in 1364. Such friendly, sometimes even familiar addresses, while not to be over interpreted, hint at Jewish-Christian interaction that went beyond the stereotypical business relations and anti-Jewish pogroms. Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages were for a long time seen – and researched – as two separate entities that lived according to their own religions, customs, and laws. While their respective cultural identities, with all the regional and temporal differences, are still acknowledged (and researched), current research has turned to topics such as Jewish-Christian neighborhoods, to keywords such as entanglement and both gendered and social status. Modern scholarship therefore finds Jews and Christians in a multitude of relations: they acted as arbitrators together and sat as assessors in local courts; Jewish craftspeople worked for Christian customers and in Christian workshops, and vice versa; and although forbidden by both Christian and Jewish authorities, sexual relations were not unheard of. On a personal level, business contacts could develop into personal relationships based on trust and confidence in each other, and neighborly encounters might lead to closer acquaintance and even friendship.
Thomas Willard, University of Arizona: From Christian Rosencreutz to Christianopolis: The Utopian Journey of Johann Valentin Andreae
Best known as the lead author of the original Rosicrucian documents (1614–1615), and especially for Chymisches Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz, 1459 (1616), Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654) deserves to be better known for his Utopian novel Christianopolis, first published in Latin and German in 1619. Because the Rosicrucian documents were printed without permission a decade after they were conceived and written as a group exercise, and because the first of them was published in the year that Andreae completed his theology studies became a Lutheran pastor, they proved a great embarrassment to him. His response was to rewrite the Chymische Hochzeit (composed 1604) as a learned satire in the Menippean genre for which Erasmus served as his model. He continued the satire in Menippius (1617), a book of 100 “satiric dialogues” on all aspects of society, and Invitatio Fraternitatis Christi (1617), proposing a Christian society that would avoid the “chaos” of the Rosicrucian hoax. Other books followed in quick succession, continuing the satire of secret societies in Mythologia Christiana (1618) and the Peregri in Patria Errores (1618). They culminated in Republica Christianopolitanae Descriptio (1619), known in later reprintings as Christianopolis. Following the models of Thomas More’s Utopia (1515) and Tommaso Campanella’s Civitas Solis (1610), Andreae envisioned a functional society in which all members were engaged in lifelong learning and enjoyed free inquiry in religion, science, and technology while cooperating in pursuit of the good life. The book received little attention during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1548), but proved influential in the communal aspect of German Pietism in both Western Europe and Colonial America. However, he never escaped the satiric vision of any community as a melding of truth and error, and so never seems to have enjoyed the peace and happiness he sought.