Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew AnglicusBartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
History
Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus
Bartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
Civilization, Medieval; Science, Medieval
body, and the body of the planet goeth about the roundness thereof.
And therefore it sheweth, that the sun and other planets move in their
own circles; and first alike swift, though they move diversely in
divers circles. Also in these circles the manner moving of planets is
full wisely found of astronomers, that are called Direct, Stationary,
and Retrograde Motion. Forthright moving is in the over part of the
circle that is called Epicycle, backward is in the nether part, and
stinting and abiding or hoving is in the middle.
II
MEDIAEVAL MANNERS
The sixth book of our author deals with the conditions of man, passing
in review youth and age, male and female, serf and lord. Our extracts
from it fall into three groups. The first deals in great measure with
the relations of family life. We have an account of the boy and the
girl (as they appeared to a friar "of orders grey"), the infant and
its nurse. However we may suspect Bartholomew of wishing to provide a
text in his account of the bad boy, it is consoling to find that the
"enfant terrible" had his counterpart in the thirteenth century, as
well as the maiden known to us all, who is "demure and soft of speech,
but well ware of what she says."
The second group presents mediaeval society to us under the influence
of chivalry. Suitably enough, we have beside each other most lifelike
pictures of the base and superstructure of the system. This, the man--
free, generous; that, the serf--vile, ungrateful, kept in order by
fear alone, but the necessary counterpart of the splendid figure of
his master. One of our writers today has regretted the absence of a
chapter in praise of the good man to set beside Solomon's picture of
the virtuous woman. Bartholomew has certainly endeavoured in the two
chapters quoted here, "Of a Man," and "Of a Good Lord," to picture the
ideal good man of chivalrous times. It may, however, be permitted
those of us who look at the system from underneath, to sympathise with
our fellows who struggled to free themselves from bondage under Tyler
and John Ball at least as much as with their splendid oppressors, and
to recognise that the feudal system, however necessary in the
thirteenth century, lost its value when its lords had ceased to be
such good lords as our author describes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account