Skip to main content

Home

Mirabilia - Journal of Antiquity, Middle & Modern Ages

  • Home
  • Issues
  • About
  • Send article
  • Contact
  • Editorial Policies
  • Publication Ethics
  • Peer Review Guidelines and Form

Section

  • Mirabilia/MedTrans

Archive

  • Mirabilia/Ars
  • Mirabilia/Medicinæ

Eric PALAZZO

The five senses, the body and the spirit

Les cinq sens, le corps et l’esprit

Published in The Medieval Aesthetics

Keywords: Keywords: Body, Five senses, Spirit.

PDF download:

PDF icon 18.28.pdf

According to the Christian authors of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the general tendency in the appreciation of the symbolic meaning of the five senses rests on the consideration of the fundamental unity in man, between the body and the spirit, allowing to establish the doctrine of the corporal senses and the spiritual senses. From the first centuries of Christianity, theologians and philosophers endeavored to convey the Greek concept of “man” or the balance between body and spirit, or soul, as a superior source, following in this, on the one hand, the philosophical ideas of Plato and, on the other hand, those of Aristotle. The biblical passage that we have considered as the founding text of this conception of the unity of the body and spirit in man, in Christian perspective, is an excerpt from the first epistle to the Corinthians. The third century Christian sees, in the same way, the Christian concept of the five spiritual senses and their correspondences with the five corporal senses. Origins (185?-253?) Has been the initiator of the concept of the spiritual senses leading, mainly, to the reconciliation of the soul and the body by the establishment of correspondences between the bodily senses and the spiritual senses whose place is established by the Incarnation of the Word. Some expressions of human anatomy in the manuscripts of the second half of the Middle Ages, show strong similarities with the ideas of Lactantius regarding the relationship between the outer man and the inner man and as to the place given to the head in both site of the soul and where the main organs of the senses reside. As in most areas of theology, the thought of Augustine of Hippo has had a considerable influence on the Christian understanding of the five senses, which implies a deep reflection on the relationship between body and mind in Christianity. We can also mention Pedro Damiano in whom we find a pronounced interest in the metaphor of the Man-city where the senses are compared with doors and windows that give access to the outside world and their knowledge. A famous drawing contained in a manuscript realized in the German abbey of Heilbronn, in century XII, summarizes, in himself, a long part of the explored elements on the relation between the body and the spirit in the Christian theology of the Middle Ages from the exploration of the five senses. As we will see, the drawing also suggests a deep reflection on the sensory dimension in the journey of man on earth and in the perspective of what he will have to do in the future, guided by the model of Christ and the Christian virtues. On folio 130v, we see a final full page drawing where the role of the five senses in the journey of man on earth and in the hereafter is essential. In some aspects, the iconography of the drawings in folio 130v continues the reflection on the theme of the persecution of the Church or, in a broader way, the struggle between good and evil, which is at the center of the image of the mentioned folio. It expresses the theme of the path of life of the good and the bad or the two paths of human life. In the lower right part of the composition, the bust of the personification of nature brings out a naked man who begins to climb a staircase whose first five steps are assimilated to the five senses by their inscriptions. In the middle part of the image, the staircase separates into two paths offered to man to continue his course on earth and beyond. At the crossing of roads, man can choose between good and evil. The character who chose the path of evil is mounted by an imp that pushes down with the help of a fork in which is inscribed, in Latin, the maxim: “depraved behavior.” It will not escape the attentive observer that the character who chose the “depraved behavior” dresses as a prince and continues the “ascent” of his ladder resting on the bars identified by imprudence, intemperance, inconstancy and injustice. In the lower part of the image, the “evil man” is expected in hell by the demons and the devil himself who has in his left hand some types of phylacteries that allude to the “seven demons” that are the negative counterpart of Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit represented, too, in the form of phylacteries in the hands of Christ enthroned in majesty in the upper register of composition. The iconography of the folio 130v of the Heilbronn manuscript is, in many aspects, a unique case in Christian images of the Middle Ages. Certainly, the commentator of the thirteenth-century liturgy does not associate the five senses with the degrees on which he lectures. In spite of this, one has the right to suppose that, in the image of the German manuscript, the five senses are considered, also, virtues, in the same way as the other steps, the four cardinal virtues of the “positive” staircase presented by Man on the condition that he manifests the desire to reach the vision of God with a good intention and thanks to his will.

Indexed by

Mirabilia on ERIH PLUS
Journal of Scholar Metrics logo Medievalismo.org Modern Language Association
Dulcinea logo MIAR logo Indexed articles on Google Scholar Dialnet (Difusión de Alertas en la Red) InterClassica - Investigación y Difusión del Mundo Griego y Romano Antiguo Latindex Regesta Imperii BIBP - Base d'Information Bibliographique en Patristique AHLM - Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval University of California, Berkeley CUNY - The City University of New York Diarium GrinUGR - co-laboratorio sobre cultura digital en ciencias sociales y humanidades Cambridge Journals Mètode Rebiun - Red de Bibliotecas Universitarias Stadt Regensburg Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin UC Santa Barbara Universidad de San Andrés Associazione italiana di studi catalani : AISC THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The world's knowledge Brepols Publishers Die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: Aktuelles aus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek CBUC - Consorci de Biblioteques Universitàries de Catalunya A world top 100 University - Durham University Haverford College Institut d'Estudis Catalans: l'acadèmia catalana de les ciències i les humanitats University of Leeds Wissensportal ETH-Bibliothek RACO - Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert The Medieval Academy of America Qüern - Bibliographical Bulletin of Catalan Language and Literature of Mediaeval and Modern Ages Medievalists.net - Where the Middle Ages Begin Memorial University SLUB Dresden Staatsbibliothek Bamberg: Startseite UniFI - Corso di Laurea Triennale in Storia ORB - The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies Technische Informationsbibliothek und Universitätsbibliothek Hannover Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main Universidad de los Andes - Colombia Universität Hamburg Universität Regensburg UPR-RP The University of Tennessee at Martin Einrichtungen der Hochschule Darmstadt - Bibliothek- Hochschule Darmstadt Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek (ULB) Bibliothek der Hochschule Osnabrück: Bibliothek Universitätsbibliothek @ TU Braunschweig Universität Vechta - Niedersachsen - University of Vechta - Germany: Bibliothek Bibliotheken - EKHN | Evangelische Kirche in Hessen und Nassau GEI: Home Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek - Leibniz HsH - Bibliothek - Bibliothek im Kurt-Schwitters-Forum Herder-Institut: Startseite The University of Tennessee at Martin Hochschule Merseburg: Hochschulbibliothek Hochschule RheinMain IEG - Leibniz Institut für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Leuphana Universität Lüneburg: Bibliothek  Herzlich Willkommen auf der Homepage der Bibliothek Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg - Startseite Bibliothekssystem Universität Hamburg : Portrait Aktuelles aus der Hochschulbibliothek ThULB Jena - Thüringer Universitäts und Landesbibliothek UNIVERSITÄTSBIBLIOTHEK: Direktlinks Literaturrecherche Universitätsbibliothek Universitätsbibliothek Rostock - Home Startseite – Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt – Technische Universität Darmstadt Welcome to Justus Liebig University Giessen! — Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald - Bibliothek Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel | Startseite Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg - Universität Regensburg IEG - Leibniz Institut für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Startseite - Philipps-Universität Marburg - Universitätsbibliothek Bibliothek der Hochschule Osnabrück: Bibliothek Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: Universitätsbibliothek IEG - Leibniz Institut für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Startseite : Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz
Ivitra - Institut Virtual Internacional de Traducción

ISSN 1676-5818

© 2000 Mirabilia Journal.

All rights reserved.

Web design by Felipe Lube de Bragança.