Recreation in the Renaissance

Recreation in the Renaissance

Also by Alessandro Arcangeli DAVIDE O SALOMÈ? Il dibattito europeo sulla danza nella prima età moderna

Recreation in the Renaissance Attitudes towards Leisure and Pastimes in European Culture, c. 1425 1675 Alessandro Arcangeli Lecturer in Early Modern History Department of History, Arts and Geography University of Verona

Alessandro Arcangeli 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-333-98453-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43074-1 ISBN 978-0-230-50798-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230507982 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Arcangeli, Alessandro. Recreation in the Renaissance : attitudes towards leisure and pastimes in European culture c. 1425 1675 / Alessandro Arcangeli p. cm. (Early modern history) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Leisure Europe History. 2. Recreation Europe History. 3. Renaissance. I. Title. II. Early modern history (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm)) GV73.A73 2003 791.094 dc21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 2003054870

Contents List of Figures Preface vii viii 1 Introduction 1 Games and leisure between history and social theory 4 2 The Need for Recreation 10 Paradise lost 10 A saint, an archer and his bow (story of an exemplum) 12 A right to be idle? 14 3 The Medical Discourse 18 Motion and rest 18 Ancient and modern forms of exercise 23 The manner of governing health 32 Amor et alea 36 4 The Moral Discourse 46 Reason versus Joy 47 A virtue to remember 48 A view from Paris 52 Games without a chance 55 The ethics of the audience 61 Juego(s) 65 A time for play? 68 5 Games and Law 73 Ius commune 74 De ludo 76 Panem et circenses 81 The regulation of extravagance 85 6 Varieties of Pastimes 89 Leisure and social hierarchy 89 Plaisirs des dames 93 Children s games 100 Medieval and Renaissance taxonomies 108 v

vi Contents 7 Conclusion 116 Appendix: the European Vocabulary of Recreation 128 Notes 133 Bibliography 157 Index 173

List of Figures 3.1 Cantus, from Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS series nova 2396, fol. 34. Photo: Bildarchiv, ÖNB Wien 24 3.2 Oscellae vel petaurum, from H. Mercurialis, De arte gymnastica libri sex, 4th edn (Venice, 1601), p. 164 26 3.3 Schoinobates, funaboli, from Mercurialis, De arte gymnastica, p. 148 27 3.4 Engraved frontispiece of P. Justus, De alea libri duo (Amsterdam: L. Elzevirium, 1642). Cambridge University Library, Kkk.230. By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library 44 4.1 Frontispiece of Bernardino da Siena, La petite dyablerie dont Lucifer est le chef et les membres sont tous les ioueurs iniques et pecheurs reprouves, intitule Leglise des mauvais (Paris: the widow of J. Trepperel and J. Jeannot, 1520). London, British Library, C.53.h.9.1. By permission of the British Library 57 6.1 La tenture de la Vie Seigneuriale: La Promenade. Tapestry, early sixteenth-century. Paris, Musée du Moyen-Age Cluny. Photo: RMN Franck Raux 99 6.2 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Children s Games. Oil on panel, 118 161cm., 1560. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 102 3 6.3 Le Brelan, from J. Stella, Les jeux et plaisirs de l enfance, engraved by C. Bouzonnet-Stella (Paris: Stella, 1667; repr. Geneva and Paris: Slatkine, 1981), fol. 31 105 vii

Preface This work springs from a previous book of mine, which was concerned with cultural attitudes towards dance in a variety of texts ethical, medical and ethnographical from late medieval and early modern Europe. When, about ten years ago, I started to look at neighbouring topics, in order to better understand the cultural framework within which my sources conceived and interpreted dance, play and leisure appeared to be the most frequent associates (rather than, say, religion and ritual, or music and theatre). While I was moving my first steps in this direction, a thought-provoking contribution by Peter Burke on The invention of leisure in early modern Europe was published both within the proceedings of an international conference of economic history and as an article for Past and Present. Consequently, although the origins of this book are rooted in my own itinerary of research, it can also be read as a development of the agenda set by Burke (the reader of us both will notice that I am indebted to many of his hypotheses and recommendations). Work on the project became more systematic thanks to a Fellowship at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Florence, 1998/99), and a Research Fellowship from my faculty at the University of Verona (1999 2001). With the former I concentrated on Italian material, with the latter I extended the work via a series of European comparisons. The title of my Florentine project, Studies in the historical anthropology of leisure, should be taken as a caveat for the reader of the present volume: in a mine of potentially unlimited sources, I can only hope to have considered an intelligent selection. I would also like to thank the Harvard University Center at Villa I Tatti for subsequently awarding me a Lila Wallace Reader s Digest Special Project Grant (2001/02), which helped me in completing my research and collecting material for this book. Over the past few years, I presented the general outlook and/or specific aspects of my work-in-progress in research seminars and conferences at the Universities of Rotterdam, Verona, Geneva and Cambridge (Emmanuel College). During the process of writing and publishing with Palgrave Macmillan I have incurred many debts, which I wish to thankfully acknowledge here. The editors of the present series, Rab Houston and viii

Preface ix Ed Muir, took an early interest in this project and trusted me from the time when there was yet little to read. Ed Muir read the whole manuscript at different stages and provided me with helpful advice and constructive criticism, as did Peter Burke. Among the editorial staff, Luciana O Flaherty and John M. Smith have played an important role in turning a project into an actual book. I dedicate this book to my wife Marion, who for many years has had to put up with the blurring between my own leisure and work time. Cambridge and Verona Note Every effort has been made to contact the copyright-holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.