HUI216 Italian Civilization

1. HUI216Italian Civilization Andrea Fedi HUI216 (Spring 2008)

2. 16.1 St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226): his life • Was born in Assisi (Umbria) • His father was a merchant, and Francis was supposed to follow in his footsteps • he also had dreams of becoming a troubadour (a poet) or a knight • 1201 Francis takes part in an attack on the city of Perugia • He is taken hostage, and remains there for a year • 1205 enlists in a military expedition to Apulia HUI216

3. 16.1 St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226): his life • Has a dream in which God calls him to his service • returns to Assisi and begins to care for the sick • 1206 has a vision in which Jesus calls him to repair His Church • Francis interprets this as a command to repair the church of San Damiano, near Assisi • His father, angry and embarrassed by his son's behavior, has him imprisoned and brings him before the bishop HUI216

4. 16.1 St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226): his life • Francis renounces his rights and abandons his possessions, including his clothes • He feels himself called to preach, and is joined by a few companions • He gives them a short Rule and receives approval from pope Innocent III for the brotherhood (Friars Minor) • The friars return to Assisi and settle in huts near the Porziuncola • They (Francis too) travel on foot throughout central Italy, preaching everywhere HUI216

5. 16.1 St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226): his life • Francis emphasized simplicity and poverty, practicing God's word to the letter • Gospel without comments • 1212 Clara/Chiara Sciffi, from a noble family of Assisi, leaves her family to join Francis • At San Damiano she establishes a sisterhood, the Poor Ladies, later the Poor Clares • 1219 Francis preaches before the Sultan of Egypt, according to a tradition that many scholars still give credit to • Gives up the leadership of the Order • Dies at the Porziuncola on Oct. 3, 1226 HUI216

6. 16.2 St. Francisgives his cloakto a poor man (From Thelegend of St.Francis, c. 1300,a cycle offrescoes in theUpper basilicaof S. Francesco,Assisi, byGiotto, Cimabue,and others) HUI216

7. 16.2 The church of S. Francesco (Assisi) HUI216

8. 16.2 The interior of theUpper basilica, beforethe 1997 earthquake HUI216

9. 16.2 The Temple of Minerva (Assisi) HUI216

10. 16.2 The Fathers of the Church:St. Jerome, St. Ambrose,St. Augustine, St. Gregory (Giotto and others, Basilica of S. Francesco,c. 1300) HUI216

11. 16.2 St. Francis renouncesworldly goods(Giotto? c. 1300) HUI216

12. 16.2 The first Nativityscene, at Greccio(Giotto? c. 1300) HUI216

13. 16.2 The sermon to the birds(Giotto? c. 1300) HUI216

14. 16.3 St. Francis of Assisi, The Canticle of the Sun • O most high, almighty good Lord God, to thee belong praise, glory, honor, and all blessing! • Praised be my Lord God with all his creatures; and specially our brother the sun who brings us the day, and who brings us the light; fair is he, and shining with a very great splendor: O Lord, to us he signifies thee! • Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon,and for the stars that which he has set clear and lovely in heaven. • Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind,and for air and cloud, calms and all weather, by which you upholds in life all creatures. • Praised be my Lord for our sister water, who is very serviceable unto us, and humble, and precious, and clean. HUI216

15. 16.3 The Canticle of the Sun • Praised be my Lord for our brother the fire , by which you dispel darkness: beautiful is he, and useful and strong and powerful. • Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, that which does sustain us and keep us, and brings forth diverse fruits, and flowers of many colors, and grass. • Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another for his love's sake and who endure weakness and tribulation; blessed are they who peaceably shall endure, for you, O most Highest, shall give them a crown! • Praised be my Lord for our sister the death of the body, from whom no man escapes. HUI216

16. 16.3 The Canticle of the Sun • Woe to him who dies in mortal sin! Blessed are they who are found walking by your most holy will, for the second death shall have no power to do them harm. • The second death • an expression used also in the New Testament (Revelation); it is part of the final and permanent judgment rendered by the divine authority at the end of all times, on Judgment day: on that occasion each soul, living or dead, past or present, is (re)examined and assigned to Hell (a new, more fearful Hell?) or Heaven for eternity • Praise you, and bless you the Lord, and give thanks unto Him, and serve Him with great humility. HUI216

17. 16.4 The Canticle of the Sun: religious sources • Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20.6) • And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (Revelation 20.14) HUI216

18. 16.4 Other sources: Genesis 1 • And God said, Let there be a firmament… And God called the firmament Heaven. • … And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. … • And God made two great lights…: he made the stars also… • And God said, Let us make man in our image…: and let them have dominion… over all the earth… HUI216

19. 16.4 The Gospel of Matthew, chap. 5.9-11 • Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. • Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. • Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. HUI216

20. 16.5 St. Francis and religion • It is easy to notice that when it comes to the description of the role/function of humankind in the universe, St. Francis, rather than emphasizing positive qualities, such as creativity and the power to give shape to society, focuses on the passive acceptance of God's justice • the individual appears to be God's subject, rather than a partner, a co-creator or the Lord of the Earth, as man is presented in the first chapter of Genesis • St. Francis' attitude regarding religion and man's relationship with God, which is typically medieval and somewhat removed from our sensibility, is well represented by the following anecdote HUI216

21. 16.5 On perfect gladness (Fioretti [Little Flowers] of St. Francis), c. 1220 • "Write—he said—what is perfect gladness?" A messenger comes and says that all the masters of Paris have entered the Order, write, "this is not true gladness." Likewise that all the prelates beyond the Alps, archbishops and bishops; likewise that the King of France and the King of England: write, "this is not true gladness." Likewise, that my friars went among the infidels and converted them all to the Faith; likewise that I have from God this grace, that I heal the infirm and work many miracles: I say to you that in all these things there is not true gladness. HUI216

22. 16.5 On perfect gladness (Fioretti [Little Flowers] of St. Francis), c. 1220 • But what is true gladness? I return from Perugia and in the dead of night I come here and it is winter time, muddy and so frigid that there are icicles at the edge of my tunic and they pierce my legs, and blood comes out. And entirely covered with mud and in the cold and ice, I come to the gate, and after I knock for a long time and call, there comes a friar and he asks: "Who is it? I respond: "Friar Francis." And he says: "Go away; it is not a decent hour for traveling; you shall not enter." HUI216

23. 16.5 On true and perfect gladness • And again he would respond to me insisting: "Go away; you are a simpleton and an idiot; you do not measure up to us; we are so many and such men, that we are not in need of you!" And I stand again at the gate and I say: "For the love of God take me in this night." And he would respond: "I will not! Go away…." I say to you that if I will have had patience and will not have been disturbed, that in this is true gladness and true virtue and soundness of soul. HUI216

24. 16.6 Fire? • There is one element of creation, prominently displayed in the poem by St. Francis, which is unaccounted for in the biblical sources: fire, which, although mentioned in the Scriptures on several occasions, is not not normally associated with the act of creation of all things by God • Therefore we have to look for another system, another culture as common as Christian culture at that time HUI216

25. 16.6 The theoryof the fourelements HUI216

26. 16.6 The theory of the 4 elements • According to the Greek philosopher Empedocles (5th c. BCE) all substances are combinations of 4 elements • air, earth, fire, and water • In the physical world there are • solids, liquids, gases, and fire • Empedocles' theory provided an explanation for many observed phenomena in nature HUI216

27. 16.6 The theory of the 4 elements: from the Greek philosopher Aristotle (4th century BCE) • There are several ways in which things change • Quantitative change (e.g. the growth and decline of the oak) • Qualitative change (e.g. the changing of the color of the leaves) • Change of place, or motion • Motion can have an internal or external source • Animals move themselves or can be moved (e.g. by the flow of a river) • Inanimate objects also have an internal source of motion, their tendency to move toward their natural place HUI216

28. 16.6 The theory of the natural place • The theory of the natural place of things is based on the theory of the 4 elements • Earth tends to move downward and fire upward • Air tends toward a level between fire and water, and water toward a level between air and earth • Earth / water / air / fire • Where things move naturally depends on the proportion of those 4 elements that they possess • a piece of wood floats because it contains air, burns because… HUI216

29. 16.6 The theory of the 4 elements: the universe • The earth is a sphere, so its natural place is the centre of a sphere, surrounded by a shell of water, which in turn is surrounded by a shell of air, which finally is enclosed in a shell of fire • The idea that people believed that the earth is flat, during the Middle Ages, is mostly a myth, spread by 19th-century historians: see Jeffrey Burton Russell, Inventing the flat earth: Columbus and modern historians, New York: Praeger, 1991 (republished in paperback in 1997) • All the great scholars, writers, philosophers during that time believed that the earth was spherical, and so did the average person HUI216

30. 16.6 The theory of the 4 elements • Outside the shell of fire is a fifth element (quintessence), home of stars and planets • the planets move in concentric shells • the outermost shell, that of the fixed stars, never moves • There would be no motion at all if things were all in their natural places • The first or prime mover is responsible for mixing up the elements into their present unsettled state • The motion of the first mover applies to the outermost sphere, which communicates motion to the others • Aristotle believed that all motion is passed on by contact, there being no void • (Source of slides 29-33: Mattey, UC Davis) HUI216

31. 16.6 Aristotle's first mover • In medieval culture, the Aristotelian "first mover" was, naturally, identified with God • This view of the universe, in which God is "spinning" the world, was a medieval reinterpretation of Aristotle's model of the universe • Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that a force called the prime mover existed at the very edge of the universe, outside the last shell, the shell containing all the stars, the planet, the Moon and the earth HUI216

32. 16.6 Aristotle's first mover: God? • Medieval scholars and poets such as Dante thought that the prime mover was really God, fully responsible for the way this universe works, living not too far from our planet, at a distance that is sometimes measured as just a few dozen times the diameter of the earth • that is how and why God sees everything • The general assumption was that a great man, for example a philosopher such as Aristotle, could have grasped a relevant part of the divine truth about the universe because inspired by God himself • This divine inspiration would be the appropriate reward (to speak with terms borrowed from St. Augustine) for his virtues HUI216

33. 16.7 Aristotle in Western culture • Aristotle, certainly, was a genius. The only 'problem' is that starting from the end of the Roman empire, scholars started referring to him as a master who could not be discussed or criticized • In fact a famous Latin saying became popular during the Middle Ages, to signify the respect was due to Aristotle: "Ipse dixit," which means "He said it," that is to say, if Aristotle says anything, then it must be true • Well into the Renaissance the first modern scientists still had to face that attitude of blind respect for some of the ideas of Greek philosophy • Galilei himself (who, incidentally, had studied Aristotle and still relied on his principles of logic) had that problem, and he wrote the following amusing anecdote to ridicule those scholars who put Aristotle before the evidence of experience HUI216

34. 16.7 Galileo Galilei and the followers of Aristotle • One day I was at the home of a very famous doctor in Venice, where many persons came on account of their studies, and others occasionally came out of curiosity to see some anatomical dissection performed by a man who was truly no less learned than he was a careful and expert anatomist • It happened on this day that he was investigating the source and origin of the nerves, about which there exists a notorious controversy between the Galenist and Peripatetic doctors • The anatomist showed that the great trunks of nerves, leaving the brain and passing through the nape, extended on down the spine and then branched out through the whole body, and that only a single strand as fine as a thread arrived at the heart HUI216

35. 16.7 Galilei and the followers of Aristotle • Turning to a gentleman whom he knew to be a Peripatetic philosopher, and on whose account he had been exhibiting and demonstrating everything with unusual care, he asked this man whether he was at last satisfied and convinced that the nerves originated in the brain and not in the heart • The philosopher, after considering for a while, answered: "You have made me see this matter so plainly and palpably that if Aristotle's text were not contrary to it, stating clearly that the nerves originate in the heart, I should be forced to admit it to be true" • To know more about Aristotle and his achievements, you can read this article from the Internet encyclopedia of philosophy • http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm . HUI216

36. 16.8 Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) • She founded a convent, produced major works of theology, was a music composer • was consulted by/advised bishops and politicians • wrote treatises about medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones • her scientific views derive from the theory of the 4 elements, with their qualities (heat, dryness, moisture, and cold), and the corresponding four humours the body: choler (yellow bile), blood, phlegm, and melancholy (black bile) HUI216

37. 16.8 Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) • Temperament is based on the preponderance of one or two of the humors • Today we still use words "choleric", "sanguine", "phlegmatic" and "melancholic" to describe attitudes and personalities • Sickness upsets the balance of the humors • Consuming the plant or animal which has that quality you are missing, one can restore health • Giving descriptions of plants, trees, birds, animals, stones, Hildegard usually describes that object's qualities (moist, dry etc.) HUI216

38. 16.9 A modern opera on St. Francis of Assisi: excerpts from "The Vision of a Mystic" By Anthony Tommasini, NYT, Sept. 30, 2002 • Olivier Messiaen's only opera, "St. François d'Assise," is the wondrous, inspired and uncompromising work of a seminal 20th-century composer and profound Catholic mystic. It is also one of the most daunting operas to produce. The score calls for an orchestra of some 120 players, including 10 percussionists (5 alone are needed for the mallet instruments, like the xylophone and marimba), 3 performers on the ondes martenot and a chorus of more than 100. The work is complex and long, some four hours of music... • Not surprisingly, since its 1983 premiere in Paris, the opera has been produced only three times in Europe, by the Salzburg Festival (in 1992, revived in 1998) and companies in Leipzig and Berlin. It had never been staged in the United States. HUI216

39. 16.9 A modern opera on St. Francis of Assisi • Until Friday night at the San Francisco Opera. Pamela Rosenberg, the company's adventurous general director, wanted the city of St. Francis to present the American stage premiere of the work… • Rather than telling a biographical story of the 13th-century saint, the opera depicts his inner spiritual journey. We see Francis discussing the nature of perfect joy with his brethren in Christ, isolating himself in his prayer cell and forcing himself to confront human suffering by kissing an embittered leper. He engages in a dream encounter with an inquisitive angel, delivers a sermon to the birds -- losing ties to earthly space and time -- then prays to be wounded with the stigmata of Christ to overcome his feelings of unworthiness. Finally, he is ushered by the angel to death and his longed-for state of perfect joy. HUI216

40. 16.9 A modern opera on St. Francis of Assisi • That drama came through movingly in this daring production. The lights go up to reveal an abstract set by Hans Dieter Schaal that, on a rotating platform, depicts the spiritual road traveled by pilgrims in gray trench coats and fedoras, and the brothers in their monk's robes. In place of the thick, green cypress trees that the stage directions indicate should border the road, there are two massive gray walls with large rows of windows, making vividly real a curious image in the opening lines: Brother Leo tells Francis that he is afraid on the road, afraid of the "windows" (to the outside world?) that "grow larger and more obscure." HUI216