The invisible man: body and ritual in a fifteenth-century noble household |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Hematology and Rheumatology, Saiseikai Noe Hospital, Osaka, Japan;2. Cancer Center, Hyogo College of Medicine, Hyogo, Japan;3. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Saiseikai Noe Hospital, Osaka, Japan;4. Department of Pathology, Saiseikai Noe Hospital, Osaka, Japan;5. Department of Pathology, Akashi City Hospital, Hyogo, Japan;6. Department of Diagnostic Pathology, Dokkyo Medical University School of Medicine, Tochigi, Japan |
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Abstract: | Ritual and gesture were central to medieval political cultures, yet few documents survive which attest to daily comportment in non-royal elite households. This article examines the late fifteenth-century ‘Harleian Ordinances’ (from British Library Harl. MS 6815), which describe in rare detail the ceremonies and servants' gestures used in an unnamed earl's house. It focuses on the para-liturgical elements of the household ceremony (notably the use of ritual kisses), argues that the Burgundian court provided direct inspiration for the ordinance, and suggests a connection to Richard, earl of Warwick (‘the Kingmaker’). More broadly, it explores aspects of the relationship between lord and noble servant in the later fifteenth century and contends that nobility – an essentially invisible quality – was in part conjured up through the gestures and deportment of a nobleman's servants. In their attempts to portray power and prestige, noblemen such as the invisible earl of this ordinance established secular household rites which required that their bodies be attended to with an almost religious reverence. |
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