Corpus Christi: the Eucharist in late medieval culture (review)

Short notices 199 Rubin, Miri, Corpus Christi: the Eucharist in late medieval culture, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993; rpt; paper; pp. xv, 432; 19 illustrations; R.R.P. AUS$49.95. First published in 1991, this important study was reprinted in 1992 and again in 1993. It has received much acclaim from reviewers as a bold, wideranging , and ambitious work, one which offers 'a major new reading of the late Middle Ages'. There is litde doubt that Rubin's book is a major contribution to the field of late medieval culture. It tells the story of 'the raising of a fragile, white, wheaten little disc to amazing prominence' from ca. 1150, focusing especially on the institution and celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi throughout much of Europe in the fourteenth andfifteenthcenturies. By drawing on a wide range of theological, liturgical, artistic, and documentary sources, and by exploring the manner in which the Eucharist intersected and interacted with the broader social and political culture, Rubin is able to demonstrate how central the Eucharist was to the symbolic language of this period. The book offers a wonderfully rich and evocative account of a powerful cultural symbol which encompassed quite different notions about authority, the supernatural, and virtue, and could therefore generate powerful loyalties as well as violent conflict. Of the limitations pointed out by past reviewers, the most significant are three. First, the account of Corpus Christi celebrations and responses to it are too narrowly based on English materials. Yet to be fair, Rubin far from ignores parallel developments in other European societies. Indeed, her book should act as a powerful stimulus to, and model for, further comparative studies. Secondly, the study deals insufficiently with the broader liturgical and festive context within which the celebration of Corpus Christi needs to be understood. And, thirdly, the very selective refererences to place-names and author-names in the index does little justice to the breadth and depth of discussion within the text. Nevertheless, this book represents one of the most stimulating examples of a broad cross-disciplinary approach to medieval religious culture. Although scholars may not always agree with Rubin's incisive readings of the varied meanings of Corpus Christi, they cannot ignore them. Charles Zika Department of History University of Melbourne ...