Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 126, Issue 2, 2013

This special issue of Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis is dedicated to processes of civic education in the cities of pre-modern Europe. We suggest that civic education often relied on what we might call ‘civic mirrors’, i.e. texts, images, monuments, and rituals that offered instruction to citizens about acceptable and expected styles of citizenship and civic leadership, by presenting them with a (positive or negative) ideal type. The introduction aims to locate this notion in the wider bibliography of premodern citizenship and civic education.

Contrary to the strong tendency to consider Athenian citizenship in strictly political and juridical terms, the Athenians themselves often described their membership of the polis in terms of active religious participation. Athenian polis religion was thus an important defining platform for citizenship, while at the same time differences in participation could articulate and display an ideal image of the different groups, roles, and relations within the (worshipping) community, an observation which closely ties in with influential anthropological and sociological approaches. This article explores the ways in which the men who gained equal access to Athens’ political and juridical institutions through Cleisthenes’ democratic reforms of 508 BC participated in Athenian polis religion. We can see how Athenian rites were instrumental not only in bringing citizens together and thus creating and strengthening cohesion among the members of a radically new group, but also, through events like torch-races, beauty contests, and pyrrhic dances, in articulating their role in society in terms of being physically strong, militaristic, beautiful, and competitive.

This article explores notions of medieval citizenship by examining the ‘uncivil’ behavior of withdrawal in the ascetic tradition of Western European intellectuals. Although those intellectuals explicitly defined their way of life as solitary, they considered themselves at the same time as belonging to a metaphorical city of kindred souls. By taking a key moment in the long-term cultural history of Europe as a case study, the article examines shifting discourses about the solitary life, moving from a social-anthropological explanation of the solitary life in the twelfth-century monastic reform program to a ‘psychological’ view of social behavior in thirteenth and fourteenth-century scholasticism. This shift can be explained in two complementary ways. First, against the backdrop of twelfth-century monastic reforms on the eve of the rise of universities and the increasing urbanization of the Parisian region, new ideas about individuality emerged. Second, Aristotle’s Politica made Parisian intellectuals more aware of a social and urban context in which ascetics could and should have their place. The conclusion ties the discourse of the solitary life, political performance, and freedom of thought to the enduring influence of asceticism up to the present day.

The succesful vernacular work Le livre de bonnes meurs (c.1404/1410) by the Augustinian monk Jacques Legrand undermines several historical commonplaces about the late Middle Ages: it made parts of the Bible accessible to laypeople in the vernacular (laypeople are even strongly encouraged to read the Bible); and the author openly criticizes the behaviour of the religious and political authorities. Le livre de bonnes meurs has often been characterized as a mirror of princes, but this article argues that it should rather be considered as a civic mirror, because it helped its readers to improve their personal lives, and it provided them with directions as to how they should behave in society. The author gives advice to all three orders of society (clergy, nobility, and working people), and, consequently, provides a mirror in which the reader can judge his or her own behaviour and that of others. Because of the central role of the vernacular Bible as a spiritual, moral, and practical guide, sacred scripture itself is also turned into a civic mirror.

Ludovico Capponi (1534-1614) commissioned the painter Bernardino Poccetti (1548-1612) to decorate the Sala Grande of his palace in Florence around 1580. The subject of the elaborate programme was the political and military accomplishments of the Capponi family. By means of a text on the wall, Ludovico invites the viewer to consider these deeds as examples and incitements to virtue. He makes himself part of their virtuous history by having his own portrait painted alongside these heroic ancestors. The image of Ludovico as a perfect Florentine citizen is also displayed in his biography, written by Girolamo Muzio (1496-1576) in 1574. By highlighting Ludovico’s noble and reputable qualities, Muzio portrays him as a true gentiluomo. Through these works of art, Ludovico created his own image, and made himself the example of true Florentine citizenship.

This article discusses the rhetoric and function of seventeenth-century Dutch clandestine satire as counterpart to the more official laudatory literature in which the mighty regents were morally praised and honoured because of their civic virtues. While these laudatory texts served both as honorary monuments for the rulers and positive civic mirrors at the same time, their satirical counterparts functioned as moral negatives that actually subverted public order. We focus on the pamphlets against the influential Amsterdam ruling family Bicker in the context of political power games in 1650.

Laudatory poems from the middle of the seventeenth century present the new Amsterdam town hall as a wonder that completely overwhelms. They describe how visitors to the Civic Hall have to think of floating between the earth and the stars and how the tribunal stupefies them with its lifelike Gorgons and historical punishments. This article connects these overwhelming effects with the propagation of civic ideals and legitimisation of the power of the municipality.