Realms of Ritual: Burgundian Ceremony and Civic Life in Late Medieval Ghent (review)

Reviews 163 Arnade, Peter, Realms of Ritual: Burgundian Ceremony and Civic Life in Late Medieval Ghent, Ithaca and London, Cornell Univesity Press, 1996; cloth; pp. xvi, 298; 1 m a p , 9 b / w illustrations; R.R.P. US$47.50, £35.50. Symbolism as a subject for research has had a revival in the last decade, as historians, influenced by the ideas of Barthes and others, have realised that rituals to which chroniclers gave considerable space must have represented events highly significant to their contemporaries. Peter Arnade presents the ceremonies of the Burgundian court and the public entries and entertainments offered by the city of Ghent as a theatre of power which casts a unique light on the tense relationships between the ruler and the merchants on whose wealth the ruler depended. The role of p o m p and spectacle in reinforcing the idea of the distance which existed between a quasi-sacred monarch and the people has been recently re- examined in a number of states, especially at the court of Louis XIV. In thefifteenthcentury, Burgundy, as Huizinga and Cartellieri showed over seventy years ago, w a s the state whose formal and elaborate ceremonials had influenced other courts, including England and France. In reconsidering theirfindings,Arnade draws on more recent developments in anthropological and historical theory. Ritual, he believes, is a subtle means of communication in which the c o m m o n p l a c e classical images a n d stories are remodelled in each presentation to fit a n d c o m m e n t on contemporary political events and the sense of individual and group identity. In particular, A r n a d e thinks that the n e w confraternities which arose were critical both in the embodiment of civic identity and accomplishment and in confirming the tacitly accepted dominance of the prince. Their activities were more than 164 Reviews merely cultural. Thus, the socially prestigious, elite brotherhood of archers and crossbowmen ran highly managed and extremely expensive competitions with rival cities. These culminated in prizes both for the elaborate appearance and argument of the teams, who appeared in costume and with poets, players, jesters and clowns in their suite, as well as for proficiency with the bow—competitions in which the prince might participate. In some ways the sports leagues of the day, their military significance gave them an additional and overdetermined role. The confraternities of the poets and dramatists, the rhetoricians w h o had responsibility for the tableaux and performances in all public ceremonial, not only shaped the recorded memory of events but also commented on state and urban power. They too ran competitions and awarded prizes. In this way, through celebrations designed to entertain they also delimited the boundaries of authority. Entry ceremonies, to Arnade, are avenues through which change could be effected. This is perhaps to exaggerate the power which theatre possessed. That it was a means of signalling an attitude or a stand on one part or the other—as through the parading of banners which had been formally banned—one cannot doubt. That i t determined, rather than reflected, behaviour, seems less evident. Arnade perceives a link between court hierarchy, these urban developments, and the process by which the princes enforced their will on the cities and reduced or revoked their privileges, trampled on their autonomy, limited their self-government and imposed a penal tax regime. This m a y overstate the power of representation. Military force also had some effect. The city of Ghent, or some of its inhabitants attempted revolt more than once, most famously in 1447-52, in support of their traditional autonomous identity. Their ultimate military defeat was terminated by public humiliation and Reviews 165 ritual subservience. Arnade does not, however, clearly demonstrate that this itself was more than the accepted means of spelling out the consequences of a defeat which had its explanation elsewhere. The prince was able to undermine apparent urban solidarity and s p l i t its hierarchy because there were divisions to be exploited. In 1467 i t was the continuing disaffection of parts of the inhabitants which turned an entry...