Handlyng Synne (ca. 1303) como espejo de los Pecados Capitales en el medievo anglonormando

There is an increasing interest in study and the comprehension of sinful actions during the Middle Ages, as proved by numerous publications that have appeared recently. However, it is also interesting to analyzed how the inhabitants of Europe during the Middle Ages understood and lived along sin. Beyond the Christian notion of transgression, sin became a reality that could be a source of inspiration to some cultural manifestations. Literature, as a mirror of the society in which it is created, was not alien to such a transversal notion as that of sin. In consequence, during the Middle Ages, many different literary works were created with the aim of illustrating the dangers of sin and the necessity of penance (both religious and secular penance) in order to subvert the social anomaly sin meant. Handlyng Synne, authored by the English Gilbertine monk Robert Mannyng was one of them, as it was the precedent work used by Mannyng as an inspiration: Manuel des pechiez, by the Anglo-Norman poet William of Waddington. The goal of this article is to analyze who Mannyng, through the exempla included in his didactic poem, explores the nature of the Seven Capital Sins, how the Anglo-Norman society at the edge of the 14th century understood them, and which penitential solutions were proposed. Thus, we will have the opportunity of seeing how sins (or thein condemn) became an object of artistic interest, and how the justification of the behaviour that was considered as appropriate is presented as a model, not only for good Christians, but also adapted to a social reality

Alien · Comprehension · Middle Ages · Penitential · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · Medieval and Early Modern Iberia · Medieval Iberian Studies