medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I havent been following this thread carefully - has anyone already mentioned
Anne-Marie Bautier, "Typologie des ex-voto mentionnés dans des textes
antérieurs à 1200," in La piété populaire au moyen âge. Actes du 99e Congrès
National des Sociétés savantes, Besançon, 1974 (Paris, 1977), 237-282? It
should have the information.
Bernadette Filotas
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Dillon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 12:01 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Crutches, vel sim. (WAS: Re: cluttered chapels)
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> I guess I still haven't been clear enough: in the questions quoted below,
by "they"/"their" I mean crutches, braces, and similar aids, NOT body-part
ex votos (which latter, to repeat, are well known from Greek and Roman
antiquity).
>
> The reason why I'm drawing the distinction between these different forms
of ex voto is this: crutches and the like will have been given as symbols of
gratitude for healing, that is, like other Christian ex votos, for a grace
received (_Pro Gratia Recepta_). We know from inscriptions and from
literary evidence that ancient Greek and Roman ex votos were often also
given for the same reason. In fact, that what _ex voto_ signifies: "from a
vow", i.e. in fulfilment of a promise to make a donation in return for a
favor received. But objects called "body-part ex votos" are not certainly
ex votos in this literal sense: one suspects that many of these may have
been offered in supplication for a cure rather than in gratitude for having
received one. And in that case we might be dealing with a form of
sympathetic magic rather than with the symbolism evident in literal,
after-the-grace body-part ex votos.
>
> As the significance of body-part ex votos is thus ambiguous , it may be
best _not_ to treat them as representing a mentality or a motivation
identical to that inferrable for objects such as crutches or pictorial
votive tablets that clear are ex votos in the literal sense.
>
> Apropos of symbolism versus sympathy in a Christian context, it would be
useful to know whether the many ex votos in the form of a sailing vessel
that one finds in museums in European ports were given before departure on a
sea voyage or instead upon one's safe return.
>
> Best again,
> John Dillon
>
> On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 22:05:44 -0500
> Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> >
> > But what evidence do we have that they were
> >> also widely used in this fashion in Greek and Roman antiquity? And when
and
> >> where do we begin to hear of their use as ex votos medievally?
> >
> >Difficult questions, John. The problem with answering them is that what
has been
> >done falls into so many different -- and seemingly non-intersecting --
> >specializations. I've only just begun to look for evidence of this
nature from ancient
> >religions. Here is a representative tantalizing snippet from Matthew
Dillon, Pilgrims
> >and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece (London & New York, Routledge, 1997), p.
75:
> >large numbers of terracotta body parts have been discovered at Corinth.
As
> >references, he cites [no first name given] van Straten, "Gifts for the
Gods," in H.S.
> >Versnel, ed., Faith, Hope and Worship. Aspects of Religious Mentality in
the
> >Ancient World (Leiden, 1981), pp. 65-15, esp. 149-501, and John Ferguson,
Among
> >the Gods: An Archaeological Exploration of Ancient Greek Religion
(London, 1989),
> >p. 101. I'm sure that a more systematic survey could easily (time
permitting) be
> >compiled.
> >As for when they begin to crop up in the Middle Ages, there seems to be a
general
> >dearth of evidence for pilgrim badges, ex votos, etc. between the 7th or
8th
> >centuries and the 11th or 12th century, and so far as I am aware, nobody
has even
> >hazarded guesses as to why this is the case. To my knowledge, there is
little
> >evidence for votive body parts, etc. before the 13th century.
> >Cheers,
> >Jim Bugslag
> >
>
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