Illustrations of manuscript codices: a saga that dispels certain superstitions of then and today.
Even in the Middle Ages the bed was, so to speak, the place through which one gave meaning, good or bad, to life. And it does not matter if it was comfortable or not, indeed, so comfortable could not be considered the quality of the mattresses and above all the enormous disproportion between rich and poor.
The bed itself served to signal it, it was an infallible indicator, in reality, in drawings, in literature. The fact that those distant predecessors of ours are often depicted on beds apparently too short, intent on sleeping almost seated, perhaps depends on a representative convention, but also on the fact that abundant use was made (who could afford it) of cushions. .
It is one of the many suggestive ideas proposed by Chiara Frugoni (the great medievalist who died last April) in the book published posthumously for Il Mulino, A bed in the Middle Ages. How and with whom, and perhaps it has not been fully understood, at least as regards the second part of the title.
Perhaps it is also an unfinished work, certainly not due to the analysis conducted above all in the lesser known and “plowed” field, that of illustrations and miniatures in manuscript codices – but because it is a rich material from which conclusions can still be drawn (l The author of these lines would have wanted it very much while he was dealing with a similar topic for one of his books that was later concluded, unfortunately without the pleasure of this reading).
There are pages, such as those on the life of the Wizard Merlin, which open horizons, for example on the moral doctrines of a moralistic and obviously hypocritical society, as when a sister of Merlin’s future mother is cunningly reminded that “according to the justice of the time, unlawful sexual intercourse does lead to death but is admitted if repeated with more people “; or let’s say, in the case in which Chiara Frugoni explains to us, on historical grounds, how sodomy and could then designate, perhaps as needed, “all the men and women who, feeling lust for each other, come together against nature: the devil takes possession of each of their members to drag them to hell, where they will be damned forever ”: as the contemporary commentary on the illustration of a Bible from the 15th century clarifies. In the image a Franciscan friar embraces a young lay person and at the same time a girl abandons herself in the arms of her lover. All four sodomites, then (it would be worthwhile to remind some of the current homophobes who pose as defenders of the “natural” family).
In general, all of Chiara Frugoni’s research would do a great deal of good if they ever approached it to a certain public opinion; and in particular the part concerning one of the most beautiful medieval stories, that of Merlin, the magician of the Arthurian legend, born from the monstrous union between a woman and a little devil (or a bad devil, you name it).
Here the illustrations really look like modern comics: all black, the indiscreet visitor seems to smile, romantically lying on a large bed behind his partner, with a sweet and protective attitude; or blue and hairy he apostrophes while she is obviously sitting still alone among untouched sheets. Or she happily greets her once the hard work is done. In other images, the devil-goat, duly horned, certainly has something canine in his face and gaze, and the mating definitely suggests those of the nice animals that everyone has perhaps at one time or another observed on the street, but the scene seems not very frightening, if anything granguignolesque.
There is a bed for every situation, the scholar seems to remind us, and it is always a generator of narratives, therefore, indirectly, of meaning. As Maupassant wrote, we add, the bed is the man. And if Augustine prescribed that it should instead be as secret and invisible as possible, art and literature – especially the humblest ones, including illustrations and popular stories – not only took care not to listen to him, but played a long game against clerical anathemas. . In the end, he would say he was, winning it.