History of morals
If parents allow and help their daughter to flirt, then this has another reason besides the desire to give her the opportunity to enjoy the “innocent joys” of intercourse with a man. Such generosity is also explained by the parents’ efforts to make it easier for their daughter to catch her husband.
Preface
Moral behavior, moral views and regulations that normalize and sanction the sexual life of each era are the most characteristic and vivid exponents of the spirit of that era. The essence of each historical period, each people and each class is reflected most clearly in them. The entire public and private life of people and nations is saturated and filled with sexual tendencies and interests. They are an eternal and inexhaustible problem and program that are never removed from the queue in the existence of the individual and society.
However, each era - and this is the most important thing - puts these experiences into different forms and constantly revises and directs its institutions. Flowed in a thousand different shades sex life people, understood either as a barely conscious elemental force, as a purely animal feeling, or, on the contrary, proclaimed as a wondrous mystery of existence and the highest point of creative manifestation, or reduced to the level of an endless obscene prank.
That is why the history of sexual morality at various stages of cultural development is at the same time one of the main components of the history of mankind. To be more precise, this means: the history of sexual morality covers the most important aspects of the social existence of people, therefore, the history of legal and unlawful love (marriage, marital fidelity, chastity, adultery, prostitution), the history of extremely diverse forms of mutual courtship for the purposes and interests of sexual needs, customs and mores, in the form of which they crystallized, ideas about beauty, joy, pleasure and ways of expressing feelings (language, philosophy, law, etc.), as well as, of course, the ideological sanctification of sexual life through art.
Since the history of sexual morality represents the most important part of the history of mankind, the wealth of documents testifying to it in every country is inexhaustible. Moreover, in them we have the most majestic and brilliant, the most refined and ugliest, the most absurd and trivial that the human spirit has ever conceived and created.
Despite this fundamental importance the history of morals, which specifically treats sexual morality, for a person striving for historical knowledge of the past, despite the wealth of sources at the disposal of the researcher, the history of sexual morality is an area that is still neglected by modern historians. There is not a single history of morals that would examine and substantiate the various modifications that have occurred in the views and norms of sexual morality since the outgoing Middle Ages. We have only collections of materials and several small condensed monographs devoted to individual special issues, countries and eras.
In such a history of sexual morality, as has been said, both the highest and the lowest are concentrated. By force of necessity, however, it will, if you like, more like history immorality.
This is so understandable, because what is considered “moral” in every era consists primarily in what is not done, that is, in what cannot be depicted, while immorality is revealed in certain actions, i.e. in what can be depicted.
Or, to put it paradoxically, in the history of sexual morality, the negative is often the only positive. The history of morals is, of course, not reading for schoolboys and schoolgirls, but such qualities are not characteristic of serious scientific research.
Eduard Fuchs Berlin-Zehlendorf 1909
Book I The Renaissance
The Renaissance ideal of physical beauty
Since the Renaissance was based on the development of world trade and served as the beginning of the Great geographical discoveries, then she pulled the man out other world, to whom he still belonged, and made him master of himself. As buyer or seller, each became a valuable object of interest to her.
The Renaissance ultimately proclaimed the ideal type of a sensual person, one who, better than anyone else, is able to evoke love in the other sex, moreover, in a strictly animal sense, therefore, a strong sexual feeling.
In this sense, purposeful beauty triumphed, and, moreover, extremely brightly, in the Renaissance, since it was a revolutionary era. After the fall of the ancient world, beauty now celebrated its highest triumphs. A man is considered perfect, that is, beautiful, if he has developed the signs that characterize his sexual activity: strength and energy. A woman is declared beautiful if her body has all the attributes necessary to fulfill her intended motherhood. First of all, breasts, a nourishing source of life. Breasts get it all greater value, the further the Renaissance develops. In contrast to the Middle Ages, which preferred women with narrow hips and a slender figure, preference was now given to wide hips, a strong waist, and thick buttocks.
Women's fashion. XVI century
They loved curvaceous figures in women, which did not go with cuteness and grace. The woman was supposed to be Juno and Venus in one person. A woman whose corsage foreshadows luxurious flesh is valued above all else. That is why the girl is already flaunting her magnificent breasts. A majestically built woman deserves our deepest admiration. She must be tall and impressive, must have lush, beautiful breasts, wide hips, strong buttocks, full legs and hands “capable of strangling a giant.” These are the women of Rubens, created by him for immortal life in the person of the Three Graces. The contemplation of such women gives the highest joy, because their possession promises a man the deepest pleasure.
The most thorough, detailed and numerous descriptions are devoted to female beauty. And this is understandable. Not only because the creative tendency is the result of male activity, designs of female beauty created by a man are more common than ideals of male beauty created by a woman, but mainly because a man is, in principle, aggressive, and a woman is a passive principle. True, a woman also seeks a man’s love, and even in an even more concentrated form than a man seeks a woman’s love, but she never does this clearly and distinctly like a man. A man therefore puts his demands regarding a woman's physical beauty into the clearest and most precise descriptions. Thirty-six virtues - according to other estimates only eighteen, twenty-three or twenty-seven - “a woman must have if she wants to be known as a beauty and to be desired.” These individual beauties are designated either by shape, or color, etc. To give this ideal even more tangible, concrete outlines, they usually pointed to women of certain countries and cities. The natives of Cologne are famous for their beautiful hands, natives of Brabant - beautiful backs, French women - beautifully convex bellies, wreaths - lush breasts, natives of Swabia - beautiful buttocks, Bavarians - the beauty of the most intimate parts female body. The people of the Renaissance did not want to forget anything and were distinguished by greater accuracy, and the rising classes, moreover, are never distinguished by hypocritical modesty. Sometimes they did not limit themselves even to these data, going into an even more intimate description. A woman who wants to be known as a beauty must have not just one of these virtues, but all of them together.
Dutch prostitute costume. XVII century
This code of beauty was everywhere clothed in the form of poetic aphorisms and has come down to us in a number of versions, sometimes with illustrations. It is enough to give one example.
A very common wedding song lists "thirty-five virtues beautiful girl” as follows: “Three should be white, three should be black, three should be red, three should be long, three should be short, three should be thick, three should be large, three should be small, three should be narrow, and overall woman must be tall and full build, should have a head like a native of Prague, legs like a native of the Rhine, a chest like a wreath, a stomach like a Frenchwoman, a back like a native of Brabant, arms like a resident of Cologne.”
German scientist, writer and political figure Eduard Fuchs (1870–1940) retained his fame largely due to his Illustrated History of Manners. The reader's attention will be drawn primarily by the rich factual and illustrative material of the book, collected by the researcher, but some of his approaches and conclusions may seem naive: after all, the author completed his work more than 80 years ago. But even from above modern knowledge and ideas, one cannot help but appreciate the titanic efforts of E. Fuchs in “excavations” of historical sources, which provided a truly invaluable compendium most interesting information about the customs of different times and peoples.
We tried to preserve the features of the language and style of translation, which was carried out in 1912 by a major art and literary critic, the future Russian academician V. M. Fritsche (1870–1929). Most famous names and surnames of the Renaissance are given in modern transcription, but the captions under the illustrations remained in the form in which they were given by E. Fuchs.
In preparing the volume for reprinting, unfortunately, due to technical reasons, it was not possible to reproduce all the illustrations, but most of them, including the most valuable ones, are presented in the book. These are almost three hundred works of famous and unknown painters and graphic artists of the Renaissance.
Maslenitsa custom. Girls who didn't get married last year pull a plow
Preface
Moral behavior, moral views and regulations that normalize and sanction the sexual life of each era are the most characteristic and vivid exponents of the spirit of that era. The essence of each historical period, each people and each class is reflected most clearly in them. In its thousands of radiations, sexual life reveals to us not only an important law, but also the fundamental law of life in general. In moral behavior and in moral institutions and views, the main function of life is expressed in tangible form. There is not a single form and not a single life manifestation that does not receive direction or at least a certain coloring from the sexual basis of life. The entire public and private life of people and nations is saturated and filled with sexual tendencies and interests. They are an eternal and inexhaustible problem and program that are never removed from the queue in the existence of the individual and society.
However, each era - and this is the most important thing - puts these experiences into different forms and constantly revises and directs its institutions. The sex life of people flowed in a thousand different shades, understood either as a barely conscious elemental force, as a purely animal feeling, or, on the contrary, proclaimed as a wondrous mystery of being and the highest point of creative manifestation, or reduced to the level of an endless obscene prank, with every word and every gestures were given over to the service of a sensual orgy.
That is why the history of sexual morality at various stages of cultural development is at the same time one of the main components of the history of mankind. To be more precise, this means: the history of sexual morality covers the most important aspects of the social existence of people, therefore, the history of legal and unlawful love (marriage, marital fidelity, chastity, adultery, prostitution), the history of extremely diverse forms of mutual courtship for the purposes and interests of sexual needs, customs and mores, in the form of which they crystallized, ideas about beauty, joy, pleasure and ways of expressing feelings (language, philosophy, law, etc.), as well as, of course, the ideological sanctification of sexual life through art, to to which this sex life led every now and then.
Since the history of sexual morality represents the most important part of the history of mankind, the wealth of documents testifying to it in every country is inexhaustible. Moreover, in them we have the most majestic and brilliant, the most refined and ugliest, the most absurd and trivial that the human spirit has ever conceived and created. They equally reveal his boldest thoughts, his most inspired moods and his saddest delusions.
Despite such a fundamental importance of the history of morals, which specifically treats sexual morality, for a person striving for historical knowledge of the past, despite the wealth of sources at the disposal of the researcher, the history of sexual morality, however, is an area that is still neglected by modern historians. In German scientific literature, significant works exist only on morals Ancient Rome. There is not a single history of morals that would consider and substantiate the various modifications that have occurred in the views and norms of sexual morality since the outgoing Middle Ages. We have only collections of materials and several small condensed monographs devoted to individual special issues, countries and eras. That's all.
But even this little does not matter, since among these works there is not a single one that is based on modern scientific premises.
My work should fill this gap to a certain extent. Although it is designed for three volumes, I know very well that it will represent only an insignificant part. Only a gigantic enterprise, at the service of which would be an army of specialists, a gigantic enterprise that would create an entire library, could fill this gap in a real way. Unfortunately, such specialists do not yet exist. And the few that exist completely do not understand the internal connection of historical phenomena.
In such a history of sexual morality, as has been said, both the highest and the lowest are concentrated. By necessity, however, it will be, if you like, rather a story of immorality.
This is so understandable, because what is considered “moral” in every era consists primarily in what is not done, that is, in what cannot be depicted, while immorality is revealed in certain actions, i.e. in what can be depicted.
Or, to put it paradoxically: in the history of sexual morality, the negative is often the only positive. The history of morals, which strives to depict and exhaustively substantiate all problems of sexual morality, without being embarrassed by petty and cowardly considerations, is, of course, not reading for schoolchildren and schoolgirls, but such qualities are not characteristic of serious scientific research.
Those documents from the rich material at my disposal that are not suitable for the general public or would overload the presentation, while at the same time representing scientific value, I will then publish in a separate volume, which will provide scientists and collectors with the necessary additions.
In conclusion, I should also note the following.
My name in literature is closely connected with the history of caricature. Many of my readers will perhaps imagine that with my new work I am moving into a new area for me. Such an opinion would be wrong. I consider my work on the history of caricature to be far from finished, but even now I am by no means deviating from my path. All mine scientific activity was invariably aimed at the history of culture. With my works I wanted to illuminate historical development society. On this way I came across a caricature. When it became clear to me that it would allow me to understand and clarify events and persons with such clarity as no other document, a desire arose in me to remove the caricatures from silent folders, where they had rested for centuries, unappreciated and therefore ignored. As the results of the accumulated material became richer and as the conviction grew stronger in me that caricature is an important auxiliary means of historical reconstruction, the ambitious idea was born in me to write the history of these unique documents of the spirit of the times.
PREFACE
Book I THE RENAISSANCE AGE
Book II The Gallant Age
Chapter 5 PROSTITUTION
Conclusion
History of morals
If parents allow and help their daughter to flirt, then this has another reason besides the desire to give her the opportunity to enjoy the “innocent joys” of intercourse with a man. Such generosity is also explained by the parents’ efforts to make it easier for their daughter to catch her husband.
E. Fuchs
PREFACE
Moral behavior, moral views and regulations that normalize and sanction the sexual life of each era are the most characteristic and vivid exponents of the spirit of that era. The essence of each historical period, each people and each class is reflected most clearly in them. The entire public and private life of people and nations is saturated and filled with sexual tendencies and interests. They are an eternal and inexhaustible problem and program that are never removed from the queue in the existence of the individual and society.
However, each era - and this is the most important thing - puts these experiences into different forms and constantly revises and directs its institutions. The sex life of people flowed in a thousand different shades, understood either as a barely conscious elemental force, as a purely animal feeling, or, on the contrary, proclaimed as a wondrous mystery of being and the highest point of creative manifestation, or reduced to the level of an endless obscene prank.
That is why the history of sexual morality at various stages of cultural development is at the same time one of the main components of the history of mankind. To be more precise, this means: the history of sexual morality covers the most important aspects of the social existence of people, therefore, the history of legal and unlawful love (marriage, marital fidelity, chastity, adultery, prostitution), the history of extremely diverse forms of mutual courtship for the purposes and interests of sexual needs, customs and mores, in the form of which they crystallized, ideas about beauty, joy, pleasure and ways of expressing feelings (language, philosophy, law, etc.), as well as, of course, the ideological sanctification of sexual life through art.
Since the history of sexual morality represents the most important part of the history of mankind, the wealth of documents testifying to it in every country is inexhaustible. Moreover, in them we have the most majestic and brilliant, the most refined and ugliest, the most absurd and trivial that the human spirit has ever conceived and created.
Despite such a fundamental importance of the history of morals, which specifically treats sexual morality, for a person striving for historical knowledge of the past, despite the wealth of sources at the disposal of the researcher, the history of sexual morality is an area that is still neglected by modern historians. There is not a single history of morals that would examine and substantiate the various modifications that have occurred in the views and norms of sexual morality since the outgoing Middle Ages. We have only collections of materials and several small condensed monographs devoted to individual special issues, countries and eras.
In such a history of sexual morality, as has been said, both the highest and the lowest are concentrated. By necessity, however, it will be, if you like, rather a story of immorality.
This is so understandable, because what is considered “moral” in every era consists primarily in what is not done, that is, in what cannot be depicted, while immorality is revealed in certain actions, i.e. in what can be depicted.
Or, to put it paradoxically, in the history of sexual morality, the negative is often the only positive. The history of morals is, of course, not reading for schoolboys and schoolgirls, but such qualities are not characteristic of serious scientific research.
Eduard Fuchs Berlin-Zehlendorf 1909
Book I THE RENAISSANCE AGE
Chapter 1. THE IDEAL OF PHYSICAL BEAUTY OF THE RENAISSANCE
Since the Renaissance was based on the development of world trade and served as the beginning of the Great Geographical Discoveries, it tore man out of the other world to which he had hitherto belonged, and made him master of himself. As buyer or seller, each became a valuable object of interest to her.
The Renaissance ultimately proclaimed the ideal type of a sensual person, one who, better than anyone else, is able to evoke love in the other sex, moreover, in a strictly animal sense, therefore, a strong sexual feeling.
In this sense, purposeful beauty triumphed, and, moreover, extremely brightly, in the Renaissance, since it was a revolutionary era. After the fall of the ancient world, beauty now celebrated its highest triumphs. A man is considered perfect, that is, beautiful, if he has developed the signs that characterize his sexual activity: strength and energy. A woman is declared beautiful if her body has all the attributes necessary to fulfill her intended motherhood. First of all, breasts, a nourishing source of life. Breasts become more and more important the further the Renaissance develops. In contrast to the Middle Ages, which preferred women with narrow hips and a slender figure, preference was now given to wide hips, a strong waist, and thick buttocks.
Women's fashion. XVI century
They loved curvaceous figures in women, which did not go with cuteness and grace. The woman was supposed to be Juno and Venus in one person. A woman whose corsage foreshadows luxurious flesh is valued above all else. That is why the girl is already flaunting her magnificent breasts. A majestically built woman deserves our deepest admiration. She must be tall and impressive, must have lush, beautiful breasts, wide hips, strong buttocks, full legs and arms “capable of strangling a giant.” These are the women of Rubens, created by him for immortal life in the person of the three Graces. The contemplation of such women brings the highest joy, because their possession promises a man the deepest pleasure.
The most thorough, detailed and numerous descriptions are devoted to female beauty. And this is understandable. Not only because the creative tendency is the result of male activity, designs of female beauty created by a man are more common than ideals of male beauty created by a woman, but mainly because a man is, in principle, aggressive, and a woman is a passive principle. True, a woman also seeks a man’s love, and even in an even more concentrated form than a man seeks a woman’s love, but she never does this clearly and distinctly like a man. A man therefore puts his demands regarding a woman's physical beauty into the clearest and most precise descriptions. Thirty-six virtues - according to other estimates only eighteen, twenty-three or twenty-seven - “a woman must have if she wants to be known as a beauty and to be desired.” These individual beauties are designated either by shape, or color, etc. To give this ideal even more tangible, concrete outlines, they usually pointed to women of certain countries and cities. Natives of Cologne are famous for their beautiful hands, natives of Brabant for their beautiful backs, French women for their beautifully convex bellies, Vienna women for their lush breasts, natives of Swabia for their beautiful buttocks, and Bavarian women for the beauty of the most intimate parts of the female body. The people of the Renaissance did not want to forget anything and were distinguished by greater accuracy, and the rising classes, moreover, are never distinguished by hypocritical modesty. Sometimes they did not limit themselves even to these data, going into an even more intimate description. A woman who wants to be known as a beauty must have not just one of these virtues, but all of them together.
Eduard Fuks
ILLUSTRATED
RENAISSANCE
Publishing house
"Republic"
Translation from German
V. M. Fritsche
Fuks Eduard
F94 Illustrated history of morals: The Renaissance:
Per. with him. - M.: Republic, 1993. - 511 p.: ill.
This book is the first of three volumes of the publication, which reproduces the Russian translation of a unique historical narrative that is still unsurpassed in its wealth of material. eternal theme- about the relationship between a man and a woman. These relationships can be traced over several centuries. Fascinating story about how different countries and at different nations ideas about beauty and pleasure, ways of showing feelings, marriage customs, extramarital affairs, and finally, the place of all this in art were formed. The hundreds of reproductions of paintings and engravings by old masters included in the publication, significantly complementing and reinforcing the interesting information collected in it, make an equally strong impression.
The volume offered to the reader's attention is devoted to the history of morals of the Renaissance with its violent manifestations of sublime and base emotions, love and social entertainment (games, dances, mysteries), sexual pathologies (witchcraft, erotic orgies).
For the widest range of readers.
F--------------
ISBN 5-250-02343-6
BBK 87.7 (c) Publishing house "Respublika", 1993
From the publisher
The German scientist, writer and politician Eduard Fuchs (1870-1940) remained famous largely thanks to his Illustrated History of Morals. The reader's attention will be drawn primarily by the rich factual and illustrative material of the book, collected by the researcher, but some of his approaches and conclusions may seem naive: after all, the author completed his work more than 80 years ago. But even from the height of modern knowledge and ideas, one cannot help but appreciate the titanic efforts of E. Fuchs in “excavations” of historical sources, which provided a truly invaluable set of interesting information about the customs of different times and peoples.
We tried to preserve the features of the language and style of translation, which was carried out in 1912 by a major art and literary critic, the future Russian academician V. M. Fritsche (1870-1929). The most famous names and surnames of the Renaissance are given in modern transcription, but the captions under the illustrations remained in the form in which they were given by E. Fuchs.
In preparing the volume for reprinting, unfortunately, due to technical reasons, it was not possible to reproduce all the illustrations, but most of them, including the most valuable ones, are presented in the book. These are almost three hundred works of famous and unknown painters and graphic artists of the Renaissance.
morality
Origin and basis of monogamy
Variability of sexual morality
Laws of these changes
Conclusion regarding the future
Study plan
Renaissance
The Essence of the Renaissance
Origin of the ideal of beauty
The cult of physical beauty
Attitudes towards nudity
The essence of Renaissance fashion
Basic character of love
Development of individual sexual love
Sensual idea of love
Premarital sexual intercourse
The custom of "trial nights"
Forms of mutual courtship
Marriage and fidelity
Adultery
Free sexual intercourse and moral depravity
Using a chastity belt
Church during the Renaissance
The Economic Basis of the Church's Power
Celibacy
Evils of monasticism
Abuse of Confession
Prostitution as an official means of defense
Dimensions of prostitution
Soldier's wench
Pimps and pimps
Attitudes towards prostitution of certain classes of society
La grande cocotte of the Renaissance Ways
attracting attention, practiced by prostitutes
Prostitute in art
Regulation of prostitution
The fight against prostitution
spinning mill
Life in the baths
Games and dancing
Holidays and celebrations
Maslenitsa games
Mysteries and theater
Wedding celebration and wedding ceremonies
Private entertainment
Historical reasons for belief in witches
Erotic lining of the persecution of witches
