The Archpoet and Medieval CultureThis is the first monograph to be published about one of the most famous and least understood authors of the Latin Middle Ages. We know him by the pseudonym of Archpoet. Setting the Archpoet's world and works in their historical contexts, Peter Godman argues that they provide insight into a brilliant counter-culture of medieval Germany. Its subtlest exponent did not indulge in literary play but refashioned the political, social, and religious roles available to a twelfth-century thinker in order to create, for himself and his patron, an identity alternative to the norms of clerical conformity prevalent elsewhere in Europe. At a time when Germans were being decried as backward barbarians, he produced a manifesto of intellectual heterodoxy which wittily challenged the truth-claims made by humourless moralists. The Archpoet and Medieval Culture reconsiders the categoriesin which the literature of the Middle Ages is interpreted and suggests a less literal mode of reading the sources to historians. |
Contents
| 1 | |
The Ruin of the World | 5 |
Culture and Conflict in the Chancery | 31 |
Transmontane Identity | 54 |
A Depraved Man Sowing Tares | 78 |
The AntiActor | 102 |
The Reluctant Encomiast | 129 |
The Penitent at Pavia | 157 |
The Preacher of Sin | 185 |
The Roving Prophet | 209 |
The Culture of the Barbarians | 234 |
| 251 | |
| 275 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adrian antipope Appelt archbishop archbishop-elect archchancellor Archipoeta Archpoet audience Bernward Besançon bishops Burkhard Carm chancellor chancery Chapter VIII Church clerical Cologne composed Conrad context culture deutschen document domine doppelgänger ecclesiastical Ekbert emperor empire entourage Friedrich Barbarossa German Geschichte Gesta Frederici God’s Godman Görich Guido of Biandrate Hildesheim Hohenstaufen holy Hugh Primas humour imperial imperium intellectual investiture crisis Italian Italy Jahrhundert John of Salisbury king Köln Latin legates less letter literature Lodi lord master medieval Middle Ages Milan Mittelalter Munich nobis notary Novara Otto of Freising Otto’s papal Paris patron Pavia poem poet polemic political pope praise princes quam Quellen quod Rahewin Rainald H Rainald of Dassel Reich repr Roman Rome Salve schism Schmale secular St Martin Stablo strophe Studien Stuttgart style Teutonic theme Thomas Becket Transmontane Turnhout twelfth century verse Vita Watenphul–Krefeld Wibald wine writing