Gesture in Medieval Western European Sermons (based on the example of 13th and 14th century Italian sermons)

Abstract

The attitude towards the use of gesture and facial expression in medieval sermons was ambivalent. On the one hand, treatises on the art of making sermons (Artes praedicandi)  warned preachers of excessive gesticulation as an expression of personal emotion. On the other, gesture became a concentration of thought, a visualization of a certain idea or concept, and a means of attracting the attention of a tired audience, entertaining it, and helping it to understand complex problems. In this article, we analyze from this standpoint the manner of preaching of St. Francis of Assisi, about which we know from his vitae. His seemingly eccentric behavior while preaching always hid a certain spiritual meaning that was concentrated in a concrete gesture (putting a rope around his neck, taking off his clothes, squeezing the paw of the wolf from Gubbio, blessing birds, etc.). The Franciscan tradition of gesticulation was continued by the 15^th -century preacher Bernardino of Siena. His favorite gesture - holding up a tablet with the initials of Jesus Christ with diverging rays in the background - expressed the essence of his credo as a preacher: living faith in everyday life. A similar function was performed by a gesture of Roberto Caracciolo da Lecce: holding a Crucifixion before the audience. Bernardino of Siena's manifold facial expressions, emotional exclamations, interjections, and sighs represent a well-planned strategy for controlling the audience.

Thus gesture in medieval sermons was not an immediate expression of emotion but a means of transmitting theological content and helping the audience to assimilate it, no matter what its educational background.