Gender discourse in Johannes Pauli’s Schimpf und Ernst (1522)

Abstract

Our understanding of past conditions, ideals, values, general concepts, or relationships depends very much on the testimonies available to us today. This applies critically to the gender discourse in the early modern age, especially in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, which was a true paradigm shift in many respects, and so also regarding the relationship between men and women. Both historians and art historians, religious scholars, and researchers in the field of Women Studies have already explored the issues pertaining to early modern women, but some of the best opportunities to gain deeper understandings have not yet been utilized. The collection of sermon tales, Schimpf und Ernst (1522), by the Franciscan preacher Johannes Pauli was one of the most successful literary enterprises in the sixteenth century, quickly gaining extraordinary popularity far into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fact that we face a bestseller here invites us to accept this anthology as a central narrative source for many different historical or social topics, including women’s lives. This study opens thereby not only a new chapter in the exploration of the early modern gender discourse, but also a new chapter in Pauli research.