In the mid-nineteenth century, Jacob Grimm published a collection of late medieval records of local law called "Weistumer" that was scarcely less comprehensive than his famous collection of fairy tales. As with the fairy tales, Grimm assumed that before their transcription, people had handed these down orally from time immemorial. His interest in these customary laws arose from their seemingly folkloristic notions of custom and from their poetic narratives about ritualized encounters between lords and peasants, capturing an oral tradition from an unsophisticated time.
Grimm's readings...
In the mid-nineteenth century, Jacob Grimm published a collection of late medieval records of local law called "Weistumer" that was scarcely less c...
In one of his sermons, the medieval preacher Bernardino of Siena listed seven fathers to whom one owed obedience: God, one s natural father, godfather, confessor, benefactor, a government official, and any elderly man. This book seeks to answer the question of why medieval Europeans saw the need for so many fathers. Why was fatherhood so appealing as a metaphor? Situated at the intersection of social and cultural history, the study draws upon a variety of late-medieval and early-modern sources including witness depositions, personal letters and pedagogical treatises from the city of Basel,...
In one of his sermons, the medieval preacher Bernardino of Siena listed seven fathers to whom one owed obedience: God, one s natural father, godfather...
