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The Arma Christi, the cluster of objects associated with Christ's
Passion, was one of the most familiar iconographic devices of
European medieval and early modern culture. From the weapons used
to torment and sacrifice the body of Christ sprang a reliquary
tradition that produced active and contemplative devotional
practices, complex literary narratives, intense lyric poems,
striking visual images, and innovative architectural ornament. This
collection displays the fascinating range of intellectual
possibilities generated by representations of these medieval
'objects,' and through the interdisciplinary collaboration of its
contributors produces a fresh view of the multiple intersections of
the spiritual and the material in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
It also includes a new and authoritative critical edition of the
Middle English Arma Christi poem known as 'O Vernicle' that takes
account of all twenty surviving manuscripts. The book opens with a
substantial introduction that surveys previous scholarship and
situates the Arma in their historical and aesthetic contexts. The
ten essays that follow explore representative examples of the
instruments of the Passion across a broad swath of history, from
some of their earliest formulations in late antiquity to their
reformulations in early modern Europe. Together, they offer the
first large-scale attempt to understand the arma Christi as a
unique cultural phenomenon of its own, one that resonated across
centuries in multiple languages, genres, and media. The collection
directs particular attention to this array of implements as an
example of the potency afforded material objects in medieval and
early modern culture, from the glittering nails of the Old English
poem Elene to the coins of the Middle English poem 'Sir Penny,'
from garments and dice on Irish tomb sculptures to lanterns and
ladders in Hieronymus Bosch's panel painting of St. Christopher,
and from the altar of the Sistine Chapel to the printed prayer
books of the Reformation.
Lisa H. Cooper offers new insight into the relationship of material
practice and literary production in the Middle Ages by exploring
the representation of craft labor in England from c.1000-1483. She
examines genres as diverse as the school-text, comic poem,
spiritual allegory, and mirror for princes, and works by authors
both well known (Chaucer, Lydgate, Caxton) and far less so. Whether
they represent craft as profitable endeavor, learned skill, or
degrading toil, the texts she reviews not only depict artisans as
increasingly legitimate members of the body politic, but also
deploy images of craft labor and its products to confront other
complex issues, including the nature of authorship, the purpose of
community, the structure of the household, the fate of the soul,
and the scope of princely power.
Lisa H. Cooper offers new insight into the relationship of material
practice and literary production in the Middle Ages by exploring
the representation of craft labor in England from c.1000-1483. She
examines genres as diverse as the school-text, comic poem,
spiritual allegory, and mirror for princes, and works by authors
both well known (Chaucer, Lydgate, Caxton) and far less so. Whether
they represent craft as profitable endeavor, learned skill, or
degrading toil, the texts she reviews not only depict artisans as
increasingly legitimate members of the body politic, but also
deploy images of craft labor and its products to confront other
complex issues, including the nature of authorship, the purpose of
community, the structure of the household, the fate of the soul,
and the scope of princely power.
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