Legitimating prayer gestures in the twelfth century. TheDe Penitentiaof Peter the Chanter

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2156011
AutoresRichard C Trexler (Binghamton University, autor correspondente)
Ano1984
Volume1
Fascículo1
Páginas97-126
Data de publicação1984-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHistory and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0275-7206 • E-ISSN: 1477-2612
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02757206.1984.9960737
OpenAlexW2087400188
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas7

Different from his predecessors and successors, Peter the Chanter (d. 1197) justified prayer gestures by their presence in a sacred book rather than by their use by successful historical figures. From the bible he derived a canon of seven de‐individuated body postures, described each in words and, unique at the time, provided for pictures of each mode. An examination of the nine extant manuscripts of his work and their 59 pictures shows, however, that pictures could never be mere translations of texts: in each manuscript the postures vary with the age and status of the “mannequins”; represented. The Chanter's failure to recognize this points to his, and his readers’, clerical status. Clerks were the defenders of the Word, yet they were here called upon to learn how to image themselves in ritual through images, which they corporately scorned. Peter's attempt at a technologization of submission postures remains significant, however. It is congruent with the general technical direction of high medieval thinking

Art · Extant taxon · Gesture · Linguistics · Literature · Mode (computer interface · Prayer · Classics · Computer Science · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Religious studies