Matthew's Gospel reveals little about the three wealthy visitors said to have presented gifts to the infant Jesus. Yet hundreds of generations of Christians have embellished that image of the Three Kings or Magi for a myriad of social and political as well as spiritual purposes. Here Richard Trexler closely examines how this story has been interpreted and used throughout the centuries. Biblically, the Journey of the Magi presents a positive image of worldly power, depicting the faithful in progress toward their God and conveying the importance of the gift-giving laity as legitimators of their deity. With this in mind, Trexler explains in particular how Western societies have molded the story to describe and augment their own power--before the infant God and among themselves.
The author demonstrates how the magi as a group functioned in Christian society. For example, magi plays, processions, and images taught people how to pray and behave in reverential contexts; they featured monarchs and heads of republics who enacted the roles of the magi to legitimate their rule; and they constrained native Americans to fall in line behind the magi to instill in them loyalty toward the European world order. However, Trexler also shows these philosopher-kings as competitive among each other, as were groups of different ages, races, and genders in society at large. Originally modeled on representations of the Roman triumphs, the magi have reached the present day as street children wearing crowns of cardboard, proving again the universality of the image for constructing, reinforcing, and even challenging a social hierarchy.
Originally published in 1997.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Journey of the Magi (Princeton Legacy Library)

History

Trexler, Richard C.

World

Princeton University Press

The Journey of the Magi: Meanings in History of a Christian Story (Princeton Legacy Library)

Matthew's Gospel reveals little about the three wealthy visitors said to have presented gifts to the infant Jesus. Yet hundreds of generations of Christians have embellished that image of the Three Kings or Magi for a myriad of social and political as well as spiritual purposes. Here Richard Trexler closely examines how this story has been interpreted and used throughout the centuries. Biblically, the Journey of the Magi presents a positive image of worldly power, depicting the faithful in progress toward their God and conveying the importance of the gift-giving laity as legitimators of their deity. With this in mind, Trexler explains in particular how Western societies have molded the story to describe and augment their own power--before the infant God and among themselves.The author demonstrates how the magi as a group functioned in Christian society. For example, magi plays, processions, and images taught people how to pray and behave in reverential contexts; they featured monarchs and heads of republics who enacted the roles of the magi to legitimate their rule; and they constrained native Americans to fall in line behind the magi to instill in them loyalty toward the European world order. However, Trexler also shows these philosopher-kings as competitive among each other, as were groups of different ages, races, and genders in society at large. Originally modeled on representations of the Roman triumphs, the magi have reached the present day as street children wearing crowns of cardboard, proving again the universality of the image for constructing, reinforcing, and even challenging a social hierarchy.Originally published in 1997.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Covering the history of Renaissance Florence from the fourteenth century to the beginnings of the Medici duchy, Richard C. Trexler traces collective ritual behavior in all its forms, from a simple greeting to the most elaborate community festival. He examines three kinds of social relationships: those between individual Florentines, those between Florentines and foreigners, and those between Florentines and God and His saints. He maintains that ritual brought life to the public world and, when necessary, reformed public life.

Public Life in Renaissance Florence

Europe

Cornell University Press

A historical account of the berdache biological men who performed the offices and work of women, including sexual service in Europe and America at the time of the Conquest. Trexler examines the sexual culture of both early modern Iberia and the native American world of that era. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Sex and Conquest: Gendered Violence, Political Order, and the European Conquest of the Americas

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Cornell Univ Pr

"This excellent book focuses on the erotics of power at the time of the initial colonization of the western hemisphere and examines male culture of the period by assessing both Iberian and American attitudes toward transvestism and homosexuality. This highly original work of history, however, never loses sight of the comparative and contemporary implications of its findings. . . . Trexler has mined the documentary record of the period with great caution and sophistication to yield a meticulous exposition of the interpretation the Spaniards and Portuguese placed on the sexual culture they encountered in the new world and the construction of their own sexual behavior and attitudes in this critical early period."―Foreign Affairs

Sex and Conquest : Gendered Violence, Political Order and the European Conquest of the Americas

Americas

Public Life in Renaissance Florence (Cornell Paperbacks)

Christian at Prayer: An Illustrated Prayer Manual Attributed to Peter the Chanter (d.1197) (Volume 44) (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies)

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

ACMRS Press

The Children of Renaissance Florence - Power and Dependence in Renaissance Florence - Volume 1 - by Richard C. Trexler -- This volume brings together four studies of Florentine youth. The first opens the door to the city's great foundling home of the Innocenti, where thousands of children lived and died. The second Studies infanticide in this outwardly brilliand and carefree town. The third examines the changing lives of adolescents during the Renaissance, and the last essay, appearing for the first time in English, looks into the political games and plots of Florence's troublesome young men.

The Children of Renaissance Florence (Power and Dependence in Renaissance Florence, Vol 1)

Mrts

The Women of Renaissance Florence: Power and Dependence in Renaissance Florence

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