The influence of medieval thought on the imagery of Juan Eduardo Cirlot: the “historical” and the mundus imaginalis in relation to alchemy and chivalry.

Abstract

This article demonstrates the relevance that different aspects of the Middle Ages acquire in the thinking of Juan Eduardo Cirlot. Firstly, his critique of historicism, in which he defends both archaeologism and the concept of the "abstract man," can be explained through two concepts that Henry Corbin rescues from medieval tradition: the historical and the mundus imaginalis. Secondly, his claim of progress as divine punishment, associated with William Blake, is linked to the defense of creation as it was conceived in the Middle Ages. This rejects the triumph of quantity in Guenonian terms and is understood as the process of spiritual sublimation of qualitative values. Thirdly, the deep interest in medieval imagery is highlighted in two aspects of his work. On the one hand, in the symbolic language of alchemy, which represents a technique of spiritualization specific to this period. On the other hand, in his fixation on the ideal of chivalry, as seen in the influence exerted on the author by the figure of the knight and the film "The War Lord" (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1965), set in the eleventh century.