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The Great Household and an Economics of Power

Elliot Kendall

in Lordship and Literature: John Gower and the Politics of the Great Household

This chapter introduces the great household as a late medieval social structure and introduces models of exchange, based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Marcel Mauss, as a means of describing the ... More

This chapter introduces the great household as a late medieval social structure and introduces models of exchange, based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Marcel Mauss, as a means of describing the economics of power in the period. Two models in particular will be central to the book's argument: one-sided ‘magnificence’ and asymmetric reciprocity or aristocratic ‘reciprocalism’, which emphasizes mutuality as well as hierarchy. The great household is introduced with discussion of membership, lordship, aristocratic status, landed interests, household office, livery, retinue, and ‘bastard feudalism’.Less

The Political Economy in the Late Fourteenth Century

Elliot Kendall

in Lordship and Literature: John Gower and the Politics of the Great Household

This chapter discusses the development of the great household's politics during Gower's lifetime. As context for this discussion, it outlines tensions between centralization and uncentralized or ... More

This chapter discusses the development of the great household's politics during Gower's lifetime. As context for this discussion, it outlines tensions between centralization and uncentralized or local politics, concentrating on justice, patronage, and perceived balances of power in landed society. Gower's aristocratic associations are detailed, placing him in a group of Kentish gentry with relatively uncentralized, strongly ‘reciprocalist’ interests. The chapter focuses on the flashpoint of the Merciless Parliament and the coup of the noble Appellants in 1388, and investigates Richard II's ideas of kingship and royal ‘magnificence’, but also takes a wider view of aristocratic politics in relation to the economic crisis that followed the Black Death.Less

Total Reciprocity and the Problem of Kingship

Elliot Kendall

in Lordship and Literature: John Gower and the Politics of the Great Household

The book's final chapter explores the theorization and narrative representation of kingship in Confessio Amantis Book Seven. It contextualises Book Seven in relation to salient ideas of medieval ... More

The book's final chapter explores the theorization and narrative representation of kingship in Confessio Amantis Book Seven. It contextualises Book Seven in relation to salient ideas of medieval kingship, particularly involving counsel and Aristotelian theory of princely virtues and princely reason. The chapter argues that deep contradictions are produced by Book Seven's attempt to secure an ideal of uncentralized, ‘reciprocalist’ politics by means of royal sovereignty. These contradictions are concentrated in the curious, violent representation of royal pity in Book Seven. In the discussion of pity, kingship thus tends towards ‘magnificence’, although it is elsewhere more securely reciprocalist.Less

Magnificence and Heroic Virtue (NE IV.2)

Howard J. Curzer

in Aristotle and the Virtues

Magnificence is usually thought to be large-scale liberality; its sphere is great wealth while liberality’s sphere is moderate wealth. But magnificence is better understood as heroic liberality. It ... More

Magnificence is usually thought to be large-scale liberality; its sphere is great wealth while liberality’s sphere is moderate wealth. But magnificence is better understood as heroic liberality. It is the version of liberality possessed by heroically virtuous people. In addition to solving various interpretative problems, taking magnificence to be heroic liberality captures an important moral intuition: the intuition that, within limits, the more generous a person is, the better.Less

Magnificence, Generosity, and Subordination

Daniel C. Russell

in Practical Intelligence and the Virtues

Aristotle's introduction of “magnificence” — a virtue concerned with large-scale public spending — into his list of virtues raises a question pertinent to the enumeration problem: given the lack of ... More

Aristotle's introduction of “magnificence” — a virtue concerned with large-scale public spending — into his list of virtues raises a question pertinent to the enumeration problem: given the lack of cardinality in Aristotle's list, what principle if any could be given for recognizing magnificence as a primitive virtue, without also paving the way for infinitely many other primitive virtues? This chapter argues that, in light of the enumeration problem, a better way to handle a virtue like magnificence is to make it subordinate to a cardinal virtue, such as generosity. Magnificence therefore presents a ready opportunity to apply the account of cardinality developed in Chapter 6, viz. that virtues are to be individuated in terms of their respective forms of responsiveness to reasons, and that if one virtue is subordinate to another, then they are responsive to reasons of the same kind. The chapter argues that magnificence is a virtue, that reasons of magnificence are of the same kind as reasons of generosity, and that magnificence is subordinate to generosity in the sense of being a “specialization” of generosity.Less

ARISTOTLE’S VIRTUES OF GREATNESS

DANIEL C. RUSSELL

in Virtue and Happiness: Essays in Honour of Julia Annas

This chapter focuses on the Aristotelian virtues of ‘magnificence’ and ‘magnanimity,’ rejecting the popular view that here Aristotle reveals a conception of the virtues as seemly qualities of members ... More

This chapter focuses on the Aristotelian virtues of ‘magnificence’ and ‘magnanimity,’ rejecting the popular view that here Aristotle reveals a conception of the virtues as seemly qualities of members of a grand, influential elite. Against this, it is argued first that some virtues are restricted to specific groups because only members of those groups will have the relevant occasion to develop and exercise those virtues; and there is nothing elitist about the thought that unusual social prominence can be such an occasion. Second, it is argued that it is exactly this thought that underlies Aristotle’s account of magnificence and magnanimity, which require distinctive forms of practical reasoning that are made salient only by demands peculiar to positions of social prominence. Lastly, the idea that some virtues are distinctive just in virtue of belonging to an elite class individuates virtues without reference to differences in practical reasoning between them. Such an idea, it is argued, is inimical to the very structure of an Aristotelian virtue theory.Less

Reason and Purpose in the Moral Virtues

Lorraine Smith Pangle

in Reason and Character: The Moral Foundations of Aristotelian Political Philosophy

This chapter probes the role of reason in the particular virtues and the standard it looks to in defining them. Courage has a complex standard inasmuch as it embodies a mean with respect to both fear ... More

This chapter probes the role of reason in the particular virtues and the standard it looks to in defining them. Courage has a complex standard inasmuch as it embodies a mean with respect to both fear and confidence and involves both willingness to sacrifice what is good and a grasping of something supremely good. Moderation and liberality both display an impressive freedom from excessive concern with bodily pleasures and money and a fine sense of balance, yet the standard that determines the correct mean in each is elusive, and precise calculation proves inimical to the spirit of loving the noble for itself. In magnificence the concern for the noble or beautiful reaches a peak, but the noble comes to sight especially as that which befits something higher, not an activity that is simply for itself. The claim that moral virtue is just for itself makes an interesting last stand in greatness of soul, correctness with respect to honor and ambition, which combines an aspiration to self-sufficiency with a quest for objects worthy of one’s efforts. Considerations of the proper mean regarding friendliness, anger, shame, and wit show new complexities in reason’s role in guiding virtue.Less

Dining Well

Christina Normore

in A Feast for the Eyes: Art, Performance, and the Late Medieval Banquet

This chapter examines the close relationship between feasting and systematic ethics, both in practice and through the iconographic conventions of histories, romances, philosophical texts and ... More

This chapter examines the close relationship between feasting and systematic ethics, both in practice and through the iconographic conventions of histories, romances, philosophical texts and behavioural manuals. Feasting was regularly used to visualize the cardinal virtue temperance, which promoted balance in all human endeavours, as well as gluttony and magnificence. These images and their accompanying texts suggest that feasting should be considered not as a celebration of excess, as many modern scholars suggest, but rather as a key site for negotiating the balance between virtue and vice. Feasts thus promoted a culture of discernment directed at observing and regulating both the actions of others and oneself.Less

Economic Cultures, Ideologies of Debt, and State Virtue

Kenneth Dyson

in States, Debt, and Power: 'Saints' and 'Sinners' in European History and Integration

This chapter considers the importance of economic culture and associated ideologies of debt in shaping different images of state virtue. It shows the role that debt has played in identity formation ... More

This chapter considers the importance of economic culture and associated ideologies of debt in shaping different images of state virtue. It shows the role that debt has played in identity formation and in the construction of historical memory. The chapter goes on to analyse the main types of economic culture, debt ideology, and state virtue: the culture of elite magnificence; stability culture; consumer culture; social welfare culture; and welfare protection culture. Historical examples are provided, ranging from Imperial Rome and the Renaissance courts, through the United Provinces and the German Bundesbank, to modern Greece and Italy. Each type is shown to be associated with its own distinctive illusions, hubris, and complacency. The chapter concludes by considering the implications of such a variety of economic cultures and debt ideologies for European integration, the euro area, and Optimum Currency Area theory.Less

For the Love of Glory: Napoleonic Imperatives in the Early American Republic

Matthew Rainbow Hale

in Warring for America: Cultural Contests in the Era of 1812

Utilizing a political-cultural approach to the concept of glory, this essay offers not only a fresh account of American perceptions of Napoleon, but also a new perspective on democracy’s development ... More

Utilizing a political-cultural approach to the concept of glory, this essay offers not only a fresh account of American perceptions of Napoleon, but also a new perspective on democracy’s development in the United States. More specifically, an investigation of select Bonapartist phenomena—printed accounts of and reader responses to Napoleon; post-revolutionary soldiers’ and sailors’ actions, dress, and utterances; a John Wesley Jarvis painting; and gender roles and concepts—illuminates early American democracy’s romance with power as expressed in a new culture of war. This new culture held that martial values were superior to civilian ones and depicted warfare as a compelling forum for romantic self-expression and nationalist apotheosis. Those preoccupied with Napoleonic glory were motivated by the idea that extraordinary individuals and nations could make a spectacle of themselves and transcend even as they dramatically altered history. This self-important, exhibitionist streak induced many to indulge preposterous fantasies. Yet no matter how outlandish, no matter how implausible, these fantasies should be taken seriously. In their Napoleonic flights of fancy, a sizeable number of Americans betrayed a desire to overturn longstanding assumptions about democracy’s weakness by ruthlessly enforcing its standing at home and in the world. Dreams of incontrovertible democratic power, moreover, undergirded popular fascination with and an inclination to employ—even at the expense of genteel civility and morality—terrifying, neo-monarchical authority. Even though democracy is often seen as the antithesis of monarchy, it is in many ways its fulfilment and amplification, so that nothing is more democratic than bold, even cruel, assertions of autocratic-military power.Less

Virtues and Vices

in Aristotle's Dialogue with Socrates: On the "Nicomachean Ethics"

According to the ergon argument of Book I of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, the distinctive human function is “some practice (praktikē) of that which has logos”, hence the virtue that enables one to ... More

According to the ergon argument of Book I of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, the distinctive human function is “some practice (praktikē) of that which has logos”, hence the virtue that enables one to perform it well should be phronēsis. In Book II, the original conception of virtue—as a disposition aiming at a mean determined by logos as the phronimos would determine it—was replaced by a plurality of virtues, each understood to constitute, in regard to some particular passion, a mean state between two extreme states, which count as vices. The manifold of passions, which together make up the desiring part of the soul, is the source of that manifold of virtues and vices that now furnishes the subject matter of Books III and IV. The seemingly casual selection of virtuous dispositions, which covers such a broad range in Ethics III and IV, stands out by contrast with the standard set of four virtues that typically appear in the Platonic dialogues: liberality, magnificence, courage, and moderation.Less

The Arts of Magnificence: Early Modern Exemplars

Richard A. McCabe

in 'Ungainefull Arte': Poetry, Patronage, and Print in the Early Modern Era

This chapter approaches patronal relationships from the patrons’ viewpoint, with particular attention to the Estensi and Medici, to examine how patronage became the art of the powerful and ... More

This chapter approaches patronal relationships from the patrons’ viewpoint, with particular attention to the Estensi and Medici, to examine how patronage became the art of the powerful and ‘magnificence’ its aesthetic. While Humanists commonly promoted the cultivation of letters as an expression of true nobility, an equally forceful motive was blatant competition between families such as the Sforza, Gonzaga, Medici, and Estensi. The chapter considers the contrasting fortunes of Ugolino Pisani and Leon Battista Alberti at the court of Leonello d’Este, and the relationships between Ficino, Politian, and Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo’s own poetry is read in conjunction with Politian’s to reveal something of the conflicting ‘authorities’ that patronage invariably entailed.Less

The Spaces of Diplomacy

Isabella Lazzarini

in Communication and Conflict: Italian Diplomacy in the Early Renaissance, 1350-1520

The previous chapters have dealt with the structuring of political interactions within diplomatic negotiations in a ritualized and recognizable way. Such actions need to be performed on a stage, be ... More

The previous chapters have dealt with the structuring of political interactions within diplomatic negotiations in a ritualized and recognizable way. Such actions need to be performed on a stage, be it a public scene or a private setting: the space can dictate its own rules and times, and influence the interactions by modifying the concrete patterns of contact and dialogue, of self- representation and reciprocal confrontation. This chapter tries on the one hand to trace the peninsular geopolitical hierarchy of diplomatic settings, and on the other to define a tentative map of the monumental and environmental places in which daily interactions developed, openly or secretly. However, in many cases diplomatic correspondence does not particularly emphasize the role of space in interaction: attention to the places (cities, castles, streets) and to the spaces (rooms, halls, antechambers) of diplomacy still largely remains a ‘functional’ one.Less

Living Standards and Display

Martin Heale

in The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England

This chapter illustrates how the growing control of abbots and priors over monastic finances provided further opportunities for expenditure on their own office. Over the course of the later Middle ... More

This chapter illustrates how the growing control of abbots and priors over monastic finances provided further opportunities for expenditure on their own office. Over the course of the later Middle Ages, increasingly large sums of money were devoted to the financing of the head’s household and to impressive abbatial residences. Late medieval superiors also adopted new and ostentatious forms of display, utilizing their initials, rebuses, and even personal coats of arms to advertise their high-status artistic and architectural patronage. In short, monastic superiors were becoming more prelatical over this period, adopting the bishop as their model. This increased emphasis on the dignity of the abbatial office should not be equated with ‘worldliness’, but was rather the expression of an ecclesiastical magnificence thought appropriate for princes of the Church—even if this pursuit did not sit particularly comfortably with traditional monastic ideals.Less