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

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2156011
AutoresRichard C Trexler (Binghamton University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1984
Volumen1
Número1
Páginas97-126
Fecha de publicación1984-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0275-7206 • E-ISSN: 1477-2612
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02757206.1984.9960737
OpenAlexW2087400188
IdiomaEN
Referencias 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