Albrecht Classen - Incarceration and Slavery in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age: A Cultural-Historical Investigation of the Dark Side in the Pre-Modern World

Incarceration and Slavery
in the Middle Ages and
the Early Modern Age

Studies in Medieval Literature

Series Editor: Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona

Advisory Board

Werner Schaefke, University of Copenhagen

Christopher R. Clason, Oakland University

Andrew Breeze, University of Navarre

Connie Scarborough, Texas Tech University

Gloria Allaire, University of Kentucky

Fabian Alfie, University of Arizona

Raymond Cormier, Longwood University

Janina Traxler, Manchester University

Marianne Ailes, University of Bristol

Studies in Medieval Literature invites scholars to publish their most powerful, exciting, and forward-looking studies, which will thus become an excellent platform for medieval studies at large.

Recent Titles

Incarceration and Slavery in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age

Cultural-Historical Investigation of the Dark Side in the Pre-modern World

edited by Albrecht Classen

Dante Satiro: Satire in Dante Alighieri's Comedy and Other Works

by Fabian Alfie and Nicolino Applauso

Dantes Comedy and the Ethics of Invective in Medieval Italy: Humor and Evil

by Nicolino Applauso

Prostitution in Medieval and Early Modern Literature: The Dark Side of Sex and Love in the Pre-modern Era

by Albrecht Classen

Chaucers Neoplatonism: Varieties of Love, Friendship, and Community

by John M. Hill

Incarceration and Slavery
in the Middle Ages and
the Early Modern Age

A Cultural-Historical Investigation
of the Dark Side in the Pre-Modern
World

Edited by
Albrecht Classen

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Lexington Books

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom

Copyright 2021 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Classen, Albrecht, editor.

Title: Incarceration and slavery in the middle ages and the early modern age : a cultural-historical investigation of the dark side in the pre-modern world / [edited by] Albrecht Classen.

Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, 2021. | Series: Studies in medieval literature | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021033915 (print) | LCCN 2021033916 (ebook) | ISBN 9781793648280 (cloth) | ISBN 9781793648297 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: ImprisonmentHistory. | SlaveryHistory.

Classification: LCC HV8705 .I53 2021 (print) | LCC HV8705 (ebook) | DDC 365/.9dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033915

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033916

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Albrecht Classen

Warren Tormey

Chiara Benati

Doaa Omran

Christiane Paulus and Magda Hasabelnaby

Amany El-Sawy

Sarah Whitten

Abel Lorenzo-Rodrguez

Fidel Fajardo-Acosta

Carlee Arnett

Albrecht Classen

Maria Cecilia Ruiz

Sally Abed

Maha Baddar

Daniel F. Pigg

Andreas Lehnertz and Birgit Wiedl

J. Michael Fulton

Filip Hrbek

Thomas Willard

St. Leonard of Limoges, in Front of the Merovingian King Clovis I, Begging Him for the Release of Prisoners

St. Leonard Freeing Prisoners. Austrian Master around 1490

Joseph in Prison with a Butler and a Baker (Getty Museum)

St. Leonard, Wrzburg Cathedral (Dom), Domschatz (Treasury)

Ergastula in Astorga

The Temple of La Cilla in Talavera la Vieja (Extremadura) in the First Decade of Nineteenth Century

Tomb of Saint Leonard Decorated with Prisoner Chains

Adultery and Cat Punishment. Twelfth Century

Cat Scratching Adulterers Back. Twelfth Century

Punishment by Cat

Cat Hawling. 1843

Mamlk Lance Practice from a Furusiyya Manuscript

Hafturfehde of Sorel/Sarah, Daughter of Rabbi Meir Liberman, with Hebrew Signatures of the Rabbis Meir and Judah

Jewry-oath, with the Byline Feifelein der Juden chunch (Feifelein the Jews King) and Several Anti-Jewish Gibes in the Accompanying Text

A Christian Takes an Oath with Upright Fingers

Depiction of a Prison Tower, Murphy Haggadah, Joel ben Simeon, ca. 1455, Italy

Torre Vanga, the Location of the Imprisonment of the Jews during the Trent Blood Libel Trial in 1475

The Tempest, The Names of the Principall Actors in all these Playes, from Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, Faithfully Reproduced in Facsimile from the Edition of 1623

The Tempest, The Names of the Actors, from Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies

Albrecht Classen

Although many people throughout time have suffered from being imprisoned for many different reasons, whether due to their own fault or as innocent victims, and although many others have suffered from being victimized by raiders or military opponents and have been made into slaves, we tend not to pay enough attention to those two extreme life situations, especially not in the fields of medieval and early modern literature, art, philosophy, social studies, or religion.

Granted, there are by now a number of historical studies addressing specific issues in the field of law, such as court trials, punishments, and prisons, and even slavery itself has been the topic of a handful of detailed analyses of these issues pertaining to the Middle Ages and early modern age, but we still do not know enough about the general responses to, feelings about, or attitudes concerning both phenomena. What we really miss so far are dedicated analyses of prison as a literary metaphor, or the mental concept of incarceration in philosophical, religious, ethical, and moral terms.

Standard reference works, such as the Dictionary of the Middle Ages, the Lexikon des Mittelalters, the Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, or the Handbook of Medieval Studies all include, if at all, more or less shorter articles addressing those issues, and those are normally accompanied by brief bibliographies. However, we normally do not learn much at all about the personal experiences in prison, the individuals suffering, the feelings of the victims of crime, or of their relatives. What were medieval and early modern prisons like? What was actually a prison, at what time, and in what location? Were all prisoners treated the same way, or did they receive individualized treatment according to their social status?

Of course, already at that time money talked much louder than justice before the law! What were the reasons why some persons were imprisoned, others not, particularly in comparison with today? What crimes were treated in what ways? What methods existed to punish smaller or larger unlawful acts? Did women face the same conditions as men when they broke the law and were apprehended, brought to trial, and thrown into prison, if they were not executed? At what age were individuals regarded as liable for their deeds? Fortunately, we can now rely to some extent on G(uy). Geltners excellent critical survey of the relevant research on medieval prisons, in which he observes: