Bawdy badges and the Black Death : late medieval apotropaic devices against the spread of the plague.

Late medieval;Badges;Pilgrimage;Erotic;Tokens;Black Death

Lena Mackenzie Gimbel, 1976-

University:University of Louisville

Department:History

关键词: Late medieval;    Badges;    Pilgrimage;    Erotic;    Tokens;    Black Death;   

Others  :  https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1496&context=etd

美国|英语

来源: The Universite of Louisville's Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

This thesis examines a large corpus of enigmatic pilgrimage badges dating fromroughly 1350-1500 CE. The badges were brought to light during archaeologicalexcavations of water sites throughout the Schelde Estuary in the Netherlands, theriverbanks of the Seine in France, and the Thames in England. A small selection of theiconography of the corpus includes: ambulant vulvas on stilts, winged and crownedpudenda pilgrims complete with pilgrims' staffs and rosaries, couples having sex, andambulant winged phalli. The few scholars who have attempted their study have labeledthe badges as erotic, obscene, rude, naughty, and pornographic. The advanced study ofthe tokens provides a contrasting interpretation. Ultimately, this thesis argues that thebawdy badges functioned as apotropaic, or protective devices, meant to safeguard theirowners from the threat of the evil eye, which during the worst outbreaks of the BubonicPlague, was thought capable of transmitting the disease.