Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance : : Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Neglected Topic / / ed. by Albrecht Classen.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• MitwirkendeR: Berthelot, Anne,; Bostock, Sophie,; Classen, Albrecht,; Coudert, Allison P.,; Garver, Valerie L.,; Gordon, Sarah,; Janssen, Anouk,; Jost, Jean Ε.,; Lazda-Cazers, Rasma,; Lyon, Jonathan R.,; Mieszkowski, Gretchen,; Peacock, Martha,; Peters, Harry,; Pigg, Daniel F.,; Pratt, Karen,; Rothauser, Britt C. L.,; Ruys, Juanita Feros,; Sandidge, Marilyn,; Scarborough, Connie L.,; Sogno, Cristiana,; Taylor, Scott L.,
• HerausgeberIn: Classen, Albrecht,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2012]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture , 2
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (575 p.)

After an extensive introduction that takes stock of the relevant research literature on Old Age in the Middle Ages and the early modern age, the contributors discuss the phenomenon of old age in many different fields of late antique, medieval, and early modern literature, history, and art history. Both Beowulf and the Hildebrandslied, both Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Titurel, both the figure of Merlin and the trans-European tradition of Perceval/Peredur/Parzival, then the figure of the vetula in a variety of medieval French, English, and Spanish texts, and of the Old Man in The Stricker's Daniel, both the treatment of old age in Langland's Piers the Plowman and in Jean Gerson's sermons are dealt with. Other aspects involve late-antique epistolary literature, early modern French farce in light of Disability Studies, the social role of old, impotent men in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Netherlandish paintings, and the scientific discourse of old age and health since the 1500s. The discourse of Old Age proves to have been of central importance throughout the ages, so the critical examination of the issues involved sheds intriguing light on the cultural history from late antiquity to the seventeenth century.

Table of Contents

i-iv -- Table of Contents -- Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Also an Introduction -- Age and Style in Late Antique Epistolography: Symmachus’ Polemics against the Rhetoric of the Old -- Winter in Heorot: Looking at Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of Age and Kingship through the Character of Hrothgar -- Old Age and Women in the Carolingian World -- The Withdrawal of Aged Noblemen into Monastic Communities: Interpreting the Sources from Twelfth-Century Germany -- Medieval Latin Meditations on Old Age: Rhetoric, Autobiography, and Experience -- Old Age in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival and Titurel -- Old Age in the World of The Stricker and Other Middle High German Poets: A Neglected Topic -- Merlin, puer senex par excellence -- Age-Old Words of Wisdom: The Power of the Aged in Grail Literature -- Old Age and Medieval Misogyny: The Old Woman -- De vetula: the Figure of the Old Woman in Medieval French Literature -- Celestina: The Power of Old Age -- Forty Years of Plague: Attitudes toward Old Age in the Tales of Boccaccio and Chaucer -- Jupiter and Saturn: Medieval Ideals of “Elde” -- Old Age, Narrative Form, and Epistemology in Langland’s Piers Plowman: The Possibility of Learning -- “L’aage plus fort ennaye”: Scienta mortis, Ars moriendi and Jean Gerson’s Advice to an Old Man -- Representations of Aging and Disability in Early Sixteenth-Century French Farce -- The Good, the Bad, and the Elderly: The Representation of Old Age in Netherlandish Prints (ca. 1550-1650) -- Hoorndragers and Hennetasters: The Old Impotent Cuckold as “Other” in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Art -- A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man – with Emphasis on Titian -- The Sulzbach Jubilee: Old Age in Early Modern Europe and America -- Contributors -- Index -- List of Illustrations