“Friendship in Premodern Europe (1300-1700)” ABSTRACTS (In Alphabetical Order by Author)
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Abstracts, ―Friendship‖ Colloquium 1 “Friendship in Premodern Europe (1300-1700)” ABSTRACTS (in alphabetical order by author) Elizabeth Anderson (U of Chicago) ―To Love and Be Steve Baker (Columbia U) ―Petrarch‘s Community of Loved: Petrarchan Friendship in the Canzoniere and the Friends‖ Triumphs.” This paper delineates key components of Petrarchan In the epistolary mode of the familiar letter that Cicero friendship in his vernacular works and contextualizes had practiced and theorized, Petrarch begins Familiares the role of friendship in the amorous and penitential XII.16 abruptly – in medias res – and employs a direct, narrative that spans across the Canzoniere and the Tri- informal address. ―I wish to bring you together [iungam umphs. The concept of intersubjectivity provides a psy- vos, literally ―join you‖], O most illustrious men and chological and social approach to the dynamic bond of pride of Florence and Naples, I wish to bring you to- friendship in Petrarch‘s poetry, complementing our un- gether if you will permit me to do so and will not shud- derstanding of Petrarch as an isolated individual. The der at the touch of a friendly hand.‖ The first word of vero amico in the ―Triumph of Love‖ (TC) and the ex- the letter, iungam, gives us our first glimpse of the ways emplum of Sophonisba and Massinissa in TC II demon- in which further along in this political letter the poet strate how Petrarchan friendship, which is intersubjecti- seeks to literalize the metaphor of community as a join- ve, can co-exist with cupidinous love. Friendship with ing, a coming together, resulting in the convergence of Laura is perceptible in their dialogue in the ―Triumph of two men into a single body, into a unique and ultimate Death II‖ and subtly emphasized in the marginal reor- identity, no longer separate, but united: one soul in bod- dering of the final thirty poems of the Canzoniere. Thus ies twain. In the letter that immediately follows (XII.17) Petrarch‘s ongoing struggle to achieve peace in his dy- Petrarch lays out the strategy employed to get them face namic with Laura is partially resolved in friendship with to face to discuss the matter in such a way that would her, and friendship emerges as a dynamic that is inti- force them to engage in direct conversation and thus mately tied to his penitential, conversion narrative. also to confront their common humanity, if not their common Italian identity: ―I used a method whereby I Jackson Webster Armstrong (U of Aberdeen) sealed both men in a single letter so that they would at ―Friends and Enmities: The Evidence of Local Conflict least have to meet in order to read it.‖ My focus here is in the Anglo-Scottish Borderlands in the Fifteenth Cen- on Petrarch‘s adaptation and subversion of the conven- tury‖ tions of the familiar letter and the discourse of friend- ship (or amicitia) in these more official, political occa- To the extent that ‗mortal enmities‘ were part of the sions. Regarding the humanist‘s efforts to get Giovanni conceptual framework of conflict in Renaissance Barrili of Naples and Niccolò Acciaiuoli of Florence Europe, what was the role of ideas about ‗friendship‘ in into the same room, this paper addresses the topos of the management of conflict, including processes of vio- physical presence in the tradition of the familiar letter lence and peacemaking between disputing parties? This and the classical philosophical idea of friendship. paper will examine ideas about ‗friends‘ in legal proc- esses, arbitrated settlements, ‗feud‘, and related mecha- Adriana Benzaquén (Mount Saint Vincent U) ― ‗I love nisms of dispute in the Anglo-Scottish borderlands in you more then any man in the world‘: The Friendship of the fifteenth century. It will look at English and Scottish John Locke and Edward Clarke, c. 1682-1704‖ examples of local conflict among the lesser landowners in the region, and evaluate the significance of friendship ―If I tell you that I love you more then any man in the through illustrative cases. How were friends defined and world you will not finde it hard to beleive me, since not counted, what can they be seen to do in conflict, and only your actions have been such as deserve it but your what sort of expectations and ideals informed the lan- friendship soe long constant and to that degree that I guage of friendship as it appeared in context? Moreover, cannot but beleive that there are but few men in the were there differences between Scotland and England in world that you love better then you doe me‖ (John this regard, and how does all this fit in to what is known Locke to Edward Clarke, 20/30 December 1687). The about ideas and practices of friendship elsewhere in close friendship between the philosopher John Locke Europe? and the landowner and politician Edward Clarke, which lasted more than two decades, is extensively documen- ted in hundreds of letters between them and in the corre- Abstracts, ―Friendship‖ Colloquium 2 spondence between Clarke, his wife Mary, and his chil- should break it apart. This reclusive intellectual was in dren, and between Locke and other members of his large fact the promoter of a vast brotherhood open to all. circle of friends and acquaintances. Through an in-depth Amy Blakeway (Westminster College in Missouri) examination of these letters, I will recreate their friend- ―Friendship, Impartiality and Justice in Late Sixteenth- ship and show how it developed and changed over time: Century Scotland‖ how it grew during Locke‘s exile in Holland in the 1680s, despite the distance (these were the years when The importance of ‗kin and freindis‘ to early modern Locke wrote the ―directions‖ for the education of Scottish political life has long been recognised by schol- Clarke‘s children that would later be published as Some ars. However, in the case of monarchs and high political Thoughts concerning Education); how, in the 1690s, officers, such bonds of friendship potentially interfered new political interests and opportunities both brought with their ability to perform their duties, perhaps the the friends together and drew them apart (through most important of which, was a commitment to deliver Clarke, who entered Parliament in 1690, Locke‘s views impartial justice. This paper will explore these tensions were heard in the House of Commons, but Clarke‘s between the ‗private‘ individual and their obligation to time-consuming and onerous parliamentary duties took their friends, and the ‗public‘ individual, with their duty a toll on his health); and how, in the first years of the of impartiality. During a royal minority, when royal eighteenth century, and following several disappoint- power was wielded by a regent rather than a monarch, ments, misunderstandings and tragedies, the friendship such tensions were exacerbated. Accordingly, I shall grew weaker and colder, even though it continued until examine a case study from 1571, when Matthew Stew- the end of Locke‘s life. For Locke, the Clarkes repre- art, earl of Lennox and then Regent for James VI of sented (at least for a while) the family he did not have; Scotland, attempted to halt proceedings before the high- Clarke, however, proved wanting in one important re- est church court in the land, the Edinburgh consistory spect: he was unable, or unwilling, to engage intellectu- court, in order to aid one of his friends. ally with Locke‘s ideas and works (as other friends, such as William Molyneux, had). For Clarke, in turn, Joshua M. Blaylock (Brown U) ―Sharing Secrets: the demands of friendship (and politics) entered into Complicity and Friendship in Baldassare Castiglione's conflict with those arising from his role as (often absent) The Book of the Courtier (1528) and Marguerite de Na- husband and father. I will explore the various meanings varre's Heptaméron (1559)‖ and uses of friendship in Locke‘s and Clarke‘s lives and letters. While undoubtedly based on affection and inti- In this paper, I will explore the important role that se- macy and on shared interests, the friendship was also crecy plays in courtly friendships in sixteenth-century grounded on an elaborate exchange of favours and ser- France. I will begin by analyzing a marked shift in the vices: Clarke contributed his legal and financial acumen, theorization of secrecy in Baldassare Castiglione's Book and his willingness to run countless errands for his of the Courtier away from the medieval paradigm ex- friend, in exchange for Locke‘s medical and pedagogi- pressed in André le Chapelain's Treatise on Courtly cal expertise. Love. Next, I will explore the expression of this shift in the literary imaginary through the prism of Marguerite Jean Bernier (U of Geneva) ―Pierre Bayle‘s Quest for de Navarre's retelling of a medieval tale, La Châtelaine Pacified Relationships‖ de Vergi, in the 70th Novella of her Heptaméron. This paper will shed new light on the ways in which secrecy Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) strove in his writings to stop is both a fundamental component of friendship in the religion from being a divisive factor in society and Early Modern French court as well as the ways in which elaborated one of the most comprehensive theory of the dynamics of friendship, which pivot around the shar- tolerance of the early-modern period. I would like to ing of secrets, express themselves as a major narrative propose that the idea of tolerance conceived by Bayle strategy in the novellas of the Heptaméron. for the state and the clergy needed for him to have paral- lels at the personal level as well. He imagined the Re- William R. Bowen (U of Toronto Scarborough) public of Letters as a space for the exchange of ideas ―Amicitia in Music and Astrology‖ that transcended every boundary and in which every- body should be allowed to express himself freely.