Review article
On the Goliardic Criticism and World-view
Tomislav Čanković
; Zagreb
Abstract
Taking into consideration the fact that the goliards, wandering (vagantes) scholars and clerics of the Middle Ages, are seldom dealt with in Croatian historiography and literary history, while also examining the etymology of their name, this article wishes to evaluate what it means to be a goliard, or rather what justifies someone or something to be given the epithet goliardic. This evaluation of goliardic world-view is based on an analysis of their poetry, largely preserved and gathered in the famous codex Carmina Burana from the 13th century, one of the most important collections of medieval Latin poetry, which, however, also contains several “non-goliardic” poems. In general, the goliards wrote erotic love poetry, songs dedicated to wine, youthfulness and (mis)fortune, but they also wrote poems of satire and social criticism, in the context of the foundation of the first universities and the growing power of the Church and its reforms, which aspired to fulfill the ideal of immaculate clergy. Questions that arise then are not only what can be discerned about goliards from their own poetry, but also how they, and Carmina Burana as well, fit into the medieval context and on which side of the historiographical discussion about the Christian nature of the Middle Ages (most prominently, between John Van Engen and Jean-Claude Schmitt) they belong.
Keywords
goliards; vagantes; Carmina Burana; medieval Latin poetry
Hrčak ID:
212201
URI
Publication date:
11.12.2018.
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