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The Culture of Dis/simulation in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe Michael Gordian A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Combined Historical Studies The Warburg Institute University of London 2014 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Michael Gordian 2 Abstract This dissertation examines early modern perceptions of the twin notions of simulation and dissimulation – which I refer to jointly as ‘dis/simulation’ – in various literary, social and semantic contexts and from a pan-European perspective. I look at how this thorny and controversial moral issue was addressed and discussed in a wide range of genres and texts and how it was disseminated to a broader readership. The introduction explains my approach to the subject, provides an overview of previous scholarship and includes a short excursus on three literary genres not discussed in detail in the dissertation. In the first chapter, I analyse the varied treatment of dis/simulation in emblem books. In the following chapter I explore the link between the problem of dis/simulation and early modern reform plans for poor relief, focusing on debates in Spain. Chapter 3 looks at texts from other European countries and establishes the connection between, on the one hand, learned and scholarly discussions of the problem of mendicancy and, on the other, popular literature in which the deceptions and disguises of beggars, rogues and tricksters were a recurrent theme. The next chapter deals with the contemporary perceptions of courtesans and analyses the nexus between love, passions and dis/simulation. The last two chapters show that the problem of feigning and disguise became increasingly important in medical and physiognomical literature. I investigate how both genres addressed a cluster of relevant intellectual contexts, including the possibility of reading the human countenance, the limits of dis/simulation and the morality of employing deception in the interest of healing. I conclude by considering the main contexts, themes and implications of early modern debates on dis/simulation and their gradual decline in the seventeenth century. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 8 Appendix 21 1. Est simulare meum – Ie ne le puis celer: Aspects of Dis/simulation in Early Modern Emblem Books 1.1. Introduction 29 1.2. The courtly world and the fringes of society 32 1.3. Disciplining the tongue 36 1.4. Entangled in Cupid’s trap 39 1.5. Dissimulating in vain 45 1.6. Hieroglyphica 49 2. Pias fraudes – ‘Pious Frauds’: Discussions of Dis/simulation among Beggars and Vagabonds in Sixteenth-Century Spanish Tracts on Poor Relief 2.1. Introduction 57 2.2. The emergence of a secularised system of poor relief 61 2.3. The debate between de Soto and de Robles 62 2.4. Miguel de Giginta 69 2.5. Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera 71 2.6. Virtuous disguises 72 2.7. The end of innocent misericordia? 73 2.8. One step away from utopia 75 3. Delle astutie de’ mendicanti, pitocchi e forfanti – ‘On the Scams of Mendicants, Rogues and Scoundrels’: The Ubiquity of Dis/simulation at the Fringes of Early Modern Society 3.1. Introduction 78 3.2. European voices 81 4 3.3. Unveiling arcana at the fringes of society 85 3.4. Taxonomies of dis/simulation 87 3.5. The industry of ‘deep dissimulation’ 91 3.6. The art of conny-catching 94 3.7. Picaresque dissemblers 97 3.8. Conclusion 99 4. Farsi natural il simulare – ‘To Make Simulation Natural’: Dis/simulation in Early Modern Discussions of Courtesans, Marriage and Love 4.1. The battle of the sexes 103 4.2 Under the veil of good and true love – the courtesan’s art 105 4.3. Con più dissimulazione, che di simplicità 108 4.4. The onestà of the courtesan 113 4.5. Prudent husbands and feigning wives 115 4.6. Dis/simulation and love 120 4.7. Conclusion 126 5. Qui nescit simulare, nescit etiam curare: ‘A person who does not know how to simulate does not know how to rule’ – The Early Modern Medical Discourse on Dis/simulation 5.1. Introduction 128 5.2. Charlatans 130 5.3. The early modern ideal of the medicus politicus 139 5.4. ‘Pious simulations’ or the deceived patient 144 5.5. Feigning illness and the challenges of detecting dis/simulation 151 5.5.1. De iis qui morbum simulant 152 5.5.2. Selvatico’s successors 162 5.6. Conclusion 171 6. Etiam valde dissimulatus homo, non potest adeo faciem mutare – ‘Even the man who is very good at dissimulating cannot change his face’: The Physiognomical Discourse on Dis/simulation in Early Modern Europe 6.1. Introduction 173 6.2. The place of physiognomy in early modern thought 174 5 6.3. Vultum sibi fingere multi possunt, frontem nemo – The physiognomical limits of dis/simulation 184 6.4. The passions of the mind and soul 192 6.5. A phenomenology of dis/simulation 195 6.6. The ‘art of knowing men’ in seventeenth-century France 203 6.7. The rise of the ars conjectandi in Germany around 1700 209 6.8. Relinquishing the ars conjectandi – The summit of prudence? 214 6.9. Conclusion 216 Epilogue 221 Conclusion 232 Bibliography Primary Sources 242 Secondary Literature 256 6 Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful to my supervisors Jill Kraye and Guido Giglioni for their tireless support and helpful guidance throughout my dissertation. My research owes a great deal to the intellectual environment of the Warburg Institute and its unique resources. Browsing through the shelves of the library, I have not only encountered new books but have delved into entirely new fields of study; and I have been rewarded with intriguing discoveries which eventually developed into new chapters of this dissertation. I would also like to thank the Friends of the Warburg Institute for granting me maintenance bursaries, which proved to be a vital support in difficult times. I have received constant support from my friend and mentor Jürgen Krause, to whom I am greatly indebted. I would also like to thank Jan Loop, who has helped me in various ways, and the Dr Günther Findel-Stiftung, the members of staff at the Herzog- August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel. I am grateful as well to Reinhard Blänkner and Stefan Luboschik for giving me the opportunity to gain some teaching experience. Finally, I wish to thank friends and family, above all Irina and Björn Hiss, for their support and encouragement. This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, whose love has always been boundless. 7 Introduction Shortly before the deadline of my research proposal at the Warburg Institute, my supervisor Jill Kraye handed me a recently published book on the culture of dissimulation and secrecy in the early modern period: Jon R. Snyder’s Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe.1 It turned out to be a defining moment for my dissertation. I hastily devoured the book with a nagging presentiment. At first, my worries seemed to be justified: it not only discussed most of the primary sources I had arduously collected for my proposal, but also surpassed by far my initial research. Considering that the book was the result of many years of research by an experienced scholar, this was hardly surprising. I was at a loss as to what I should do. Drafting up an entirely new proposal in less than two weeks was not an option, especially since I was very keen to delve deeper into my chosen subject. Discouraged, I consulted Guido Giglioni and Jill Kraye, who both advised me to continue my initial research, focusing on other sources, themes and questions related to the subject. Snyder’s book, thus, became my starting-point and a recurrent point of reference. It induced me to reconsider the outline of my entire thesis and to pursue an exhaustive hunt for new sources.2 Before I present the general aim of my study, it is necessary to explain briefly the notions of simulation and dissimulation. Simulation denotes pretending and feigning of something which does not exists, while dissimulation refers to forms of disguise and concealment of something which does exist.3 Both notions can apply to virtually 1 See Jon R. Snyder, Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe, Berkeley, 2009, p. 95. 2 The other pivotal point of reference was Jean-Pierre Cavaillé’s seminal study which includes a vast bibliography of primary texts from the Middle Ages until the Enlightenment: Jean-Pierre Cavaillé, Dis/simulations. Jules-César Vanini, François La Mothe Le Vayer, Gabriel Naudé, Louis Machon et Torquato Accetto. Religion, morale et politique au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 2002; see also Cavaillé’s research project at http://dossiersgrihl.revues.org/261, which features an impressive number of articles on the subject. 3 For a concise discussion of this twin notion from a literary and theoretical point of view, see Wolfgang Müller, ‘Ironie, Lüge, Simulation, Dissimulation und verwandte rhetorische Termini’, in Zur Terminologie der Literaturwissenschaft, ed. by Christian Wagenknecht, Stuttgart, 1989, pp. 189–208. On dis/simulation in connection with the notion of irony, see also Dilwyn Knox, Ironia. Medieval and Renaissance Ideas on 8 anything, for example, knowledge, religious beliefs, feelings and so on. In my understanding, they represent fundamental forms of individual (false) self-presentation and are important parameters and tools of social interaction and communication. According to Jean-Pierre Cavaillé and Perez Zagorin, who have made substantial contributions to this subject, simulation and dissimulation cannot be consistently separated.4 I have followed Cavaillé in adapting his neologism ‘dis/simulation’, which suggests the intrinsic epistemological connection between the two notions.