ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЕ ТЕЛО, МИКРОКОСМ И ЗОДИАКАЛЬНЫЙ ЧЕЛОВЕК: МЕТАФОРА ТЕЛА В АНГЛИЙСКОМ И ФРАНЦУЗСКОМ РЕЛИГИОЗНО-ФИЛОСОФСКОМ И ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОМ ДИСКУРСЕ XIV–XV ВВ.

Abstract

One of the most popular concepts during the Antiquity and Middle Ages was the metaphor of the body which manifested the ideas of unity and coexistence in harmony of various parts of the whole. It was closely tied up with the mythological imagery of protoplast on one hand and with the conceptualization of social unity on the other, for example, with the concept of Church as the mystical body of Christ. Microcosm was one of the embodiments of this image representing the idea of the indissoluble existence of the individual, his body and the rest of the world — this concept continued to be reproduced in the religious/philosophical texts of XIV–XVth cc. From this doctrine of microcosm also arose the Medieval medical theory of humors, fluids of human body, associated with four elements, at the meantime “zodiac man” was the equivalent of microcosm in Medieval astrology, visual representation of a belief in the impact of celestial bodies on the health and mental qualities of people. Finally, the metaphor of the body politic clearly demonstrated the unity of different estates in a single body of the state, it can be considered one of the first forms of reflection on society and politics in the XIV–XV centuries.