Richard C. Trexler

Legitimating prayer gestures in the twelfth century. The De Penitentia of Peter the Chanter

Different from his predecessors and successors, Peter the Chanter (d. 1197) justified prayer gestures by their presence in a sacred book rather than by their use by successful historical figures. From the bible he derived a canon of seven de‐individuated body postures, described each in words and, unique at the time, provided for pictures of each mode. An examination of the nine extant manuscripts of his work and their 59 pictures shows, however, that pictures could never be mere translations of texts: in each manuscript the postures vary with the age and status of the “mannequins”; represented. The Chanters failure to recognize this points to his, and his readers’, clerical status. Clerks were the defenders of the Word, yet they were here called upon to learn how to image themselves in ritual through images, which they corporately scorned. Peters attempt at a technologization of submission postures remains significant, however. It is congruent with the general technical direction of high medieval thinking.

Butterflies Will Burn: Prosecuting Sodomites in Early Modern Spain and Mexico (review)

and alternative medicine plays a role in this book as does the perceived link between appearance and constitution, i.e. aestheticism as a reflector of health. A final chapter is dedicated to nudist culture in Weimar Germany, complete with illustrations of advocates, consumers and parks at the time. For all its presumed innocence, nudism created a vision of equality, a Volksgemeinschaft, that transcended social and political divisions and, instead, created a community of happy people committed to similar hobbies and leisure activities. In the end we may conclude that health, beauty and the human body meant different things to different people but always encompassed a vision of utopianism in a world that seemed threatening, lonely and lacking in promise to people in many different strata of society. Hau thus presents us with a wonderful example of what has come to be known as Körpergeschichte, body history, which ascribes both literal and metaphorical meaning to the idea of the physical self. Body history can be understood as an investigation of the human corpus and its interpretation over time. But it can also be seen as a canvas in which the term “body” assumes a meaning beyond its physical existence. By integrating medical and social history and uncovering a wealth of visual images, Michael Hau has successfully done both. It is, however, very difficult to read this book and not think about similar phenomena elsewhere before, after, and even at the time. Hau cautions us to understand the cult of health and beauty in Germany on its own terms and not necessarily frame it by racial discourses prevalent in the Third Reich. But even so, should we not draw parallels to other areas and other times as well? For example, physical exercise and character building were an integral part of U.S. and British late nineteenth-century culture—are we to apply Hau’s conclusions to these areas as well or should we look for other explanations? Was the cult of health and beauty a western and international phenomenon with culturally specific expressions or should we understand it—as Sonja Goltermann has done—on primarily national terms? And when did or does it end? Much of Hau’s narrative will resonate with a generation today driven by the cult of fitness as exhibited in postmodern gyms, TV ads, and health advice books. Are we to look to the late nineteenth century in order to grasp the underlying meaning of this disposition?